Culinary lessons

My first culinary lessons were given by Baba. He dictated the recipes of plain rice, dal and fried potatoes. I, on my part, copied the recipes at the back of my small checked arithmatic home work copy with great enthusiasm. The exercise book is long lost, but the memory is still very fresh in my mind. Baba too always boasted that his early coaching made me a fine cook.
Whenever Baba was home, we had a gala time. The moment Thamma and Ma left home for some shopping or to visit any relative, the kitchen was at our disposal. Baba would make chocolates, while we looked on. The chocolate recipe was pretty easy. Anybody can make it.
Boil some milk in a wide pan, than add lots of sugar. When the sugar melts add lots of whole wheat flour and stir constantly till brown chocolate is made.
The chocolate Baba made tasted to us as good as the Cadburys. We ate up the delicious stuff fast.
The chocolate was washed down by some 'instant tea'. That was easy to make too. Boil a kettle of water and pour it into a large tumbler, though a tea strainer containing 2-3 tablespoons of tea. Add milk and sugar and enough tea is ready for a batallion.
We quickly poured the tea in cups, mugs, glasses or whatever we could lay our hands on and drank it relishingly with lots of 'oohs' and 'ahas'.
Kaku was too much of a gentleman to take part in the bizarre chocolate industry, but was a part of our 'instant tea' producing company.
After the feast, we washed all utensils as fast we could, and sadly threw away the remaining tea (we were not brave enough to keep some tea for Ma to taste).
The pan in which we cooked the delicious chocolate was difficult to clean, though we did put in our best effort.
Ma would be hopping mad on entering the kitchen unsuspectingly, and finding the floor flooded with water and a burnt pan (we did try our best, didn't we?) waiting for her.
Thamma said the Baba was engaged in the chocolate making since childhood, and it was nothing new. The recruits were only changed from his siblings to his children. Had he not been so engrossed in his profession of law, we surely could have made a living out of our cottage industry.