Rasoi - Where it all begins

I've never been a fan of Indian restaurants outside of India. They commercialize and dilute the taste of real Indian food. This is what makes me appreciate the food made in my mom's Rasoi (kitchen)  made by the hands of my friends and family. I'm in Tanda (Uttar Pradesh), my Dad's very small hometown, to catch up with family and attend my cousin's wedding (summary shown in picture 1). Tanda is about 180 km East of Lucknow and by "very small", I mean by Indian standards - a population exceeding 150,000. I've had the pleasure of experiencing many family traditions - a lot of which involve eating and preparing delicious and traditional recipes that no 5-star restaurant can replicate.

Indian weddings consist of many functions and ceremonies, all of which are incomplete without a grand feast. Unlike bigger cities, Tanda prefers to follow traditional processes of preparing meals for these ceremonies - e.g. where all of the older women in the family spend hours (waking up early) to prepare the ingredients before cooking the meal in large pots over open fires which will serve hundreds of people (picture 2 shows the gulgules made at 4am). The men also get involved in the process too. They are the ones who collect the bulk ingredients from various markets and sellers before cooking and serving some of the meals themselves (picture 3). 

After the beautiful wedding (Nikkah) ceremony, when my new bhabhi (sister-in-law) a.k.a. the new bahu (daughter-in-law) entered our house, there is a small game that is played where the younger Devar's (brother-in-laws) have to try to eat mithai from their bhabhis' moving hand 7 times. This meant that in 5 minutes I had 7 pieces of mithai (picture 4)

The traditions above are just some of the rituals I got to see. Its tough to truly explain and convey the emotions that go into Indian weddings; whether its the stress of having to cater for such a large group and make a good impression, the joy of having the extended family together, the adrenaline from the monkey attack on the house and even the sight of seeing your dad walk around in a lungi while speaking the local Urdu/Hindi dialect of Tanda. It all just seemed to make the food taste better.

This experience has confirmed my belief that some recipes are better left in the rasoi and away from those who wish to commercialize and dilute the emotions that go into each meal.