Rohit.....

He’s standing in the kitchen with a big fat dollop of butter on his spoon…ready to mouth it, when I scream – “ROHIT, STOP.” He’s suddenly very lost.
“What?”
“You can’t eat butter like that.”
Now he wears an expression of deep hurt and looks well and truly offended.
“But this is olive butter. It’s supposed to be healthy!” He says, pure exasperation on my foolhardiness now evident in his voice.
“Its still butter. You CAN’T eat it like that.”
A few fleeting moments of eye contact and then…..he gobbles what’s on the spoon, and runs…………..with me shrieking after him trying to retrieve the box.

That’s Rohit. My life partner, soulmate, bedrock…

Yeah, So Rohit is a food buff……when we moved to the UK, we were both freshly out of medical college, just starting work. In other words neither of us had a clue as to how to go about setting up home. Plus, as far as food was concerned, we got by mostly on microwave stuff from the supermarket, neither of us having the time or energy left after a busy on call shift, to cook.

I’ve got to say, my other half happens to be extremely talented where public relations is concerned. So, within no time of moving into a new flat, Rohit had gathered all the strategic information.

“The couple across the passage are marwaris”, he said one day, looking positively ecstatic as if their being marwari had just opened the gateways of heaven for us.
“The wife doesn’t work which means she’s got plenty of time.”
“Yeah, so what?” – I still didn’t get it. Anyway, he set about…

Couple of days later, I returned from work, to find bhabhiji teaching Rohit how to cook.
“Rohit’s told me everything,” she said – “how you people haven’t had a proper meal for ages. And you burnt the daal y’day”. She said to me with the utmost sympathy, with a look of pure pity in her eyes.
Now this wasn’t strictly true, but I decided it was best to keep mum. Believe me, it was worth the humiliation of being the object of pity. Because then, the food began to arrive- she’d send me gulab jamuns one day and kachoris the next. Bhabhiji firmy believed she was rescuing two poor souls from near starvation as we were totally incapable of taking care of ourselves. She’d taken us under her wings. Life was sweet.