With a little help from my friends

What, I am often asked, is the most difficult thing about cooking?

- SAMAR HALARNKAR

Not a thing, really. It is the furthest thing from rocket science, it only requires practice, it gladdens the heart, fills the stomach, of course, and warms the soul. You can learn to cook, as I did, by trial and error when you have no money to eat out. You should cook if you prefer to eat food over which you have control, if you want to stay healthier, become somewhat wealthier and wiser about a field fewer people than ever appear to be familiar with.

The real challenge comes after cooking-washing and cleaning up.

Now, I understand that most Indian households have someone to do it for them but I believe that cleaning and washing up is part of the deal. I feel substantially guilty if someone is going to clean up my mess. Help from the wife is usually forth-coming-unless there are, well, extenuating circumstances-and we form a team good enough to cater to and clean up after a maximum of 20 people. We had five less than that the last weekend but we were unusually challenged because of the variety of entrées. The plates and dishes wouldn't stop coming and our 20 minutes of post-dinner effort seemed to stretch endlessly into four shifts of washing.