From page to pan: Meenakshi Ammal’s cookbook ‘Samaithu Paar’ is an enduring classic

I was in my early 20s when I bade a tearful goodbye to my parents in Hyderabad and took the long train journey to Lucknow. Straight out of college, I did not have the wherewithal to walk into ‘my man’s heart through his stomach,’ particularly when I found my ‘man’ swearing by his mother’s cooking! My mother-in-law’s cooking prowess was known to twitch many a nose and tingle many a palate. She could have patented her brand of rasam. Being thrust into the role of her assistant, I was like one of those headless chickens running from grating board to grinding unit. At the end of any meal, I felt I had been wrung dry in the washing machine. To make matters worse, our home always had hungry souls traipsing in, as my mother-in-law was ever ready to feed anyone and everyone who came by.