The way to a man's heart is through his stomach...

... just remember to STAB upwards! (Courtesy Stephen Colbert)

Now I know what some of you must be thinking. 'This guy really lives up to his name!'
But believe you me, the surest way to kill someone slowly is to keep feeding him something a desi masters student (male) has 'cooked'! Why would I say that? First hand experience. The overwhelming majority of guys of around my age who are away from the comfort of their mama's cooking for the first time in their lives would never have any meaningful cooking experience.

As someone who never ventured into the kitchen with even the idea of making a meal for myself or anyone else for the best part of twenty three years, having lit the stove only to boil water for steaming the nasal congestion out, I, like countless peers and many before me had taken cooking for granted.

So imagine my horror when it was my turn to 'cook' for my roomies and myself (more importantly the latter!), during the first week of my new grad student life! Without second thought I dug my mum's hastily written recipe book out of my yet-to-be-unpacked luggage. For some of the first few days that it was my turn in the kitchen, I would religiously stick to the instructions in this book and that saved me from some embarrassment in front of my new roomies as well as put food in my mouth. (note the 'd' in the word, food and not a 't'). I had for the first time in my life found my gospel!

But then as time wore on, I started getting comfortable with the kitchen environs. My gospel was relegated to the book shelf and I started to experiment with some of my mum's recipes making Guinea pigs out of my unsuspecting roomies (who knows? I must have been an unsuspecting Guinea pig myself when it came to their cooking!).

Anyways, the point is it dawned on me that cooking wasn't as intimidating as it once used to be and I'm sure all of you feel likewise. With more online recipes read and tried out and bungled, the more that is learnt. The recipes of Manjula Jain and her ilk (no there ain't no spelling mistake there!) manifesting themselves as trashcan fodder thanks to our inability to stick to instructions only add to our knowledge (or at least perceived knowledge).

So if you haven't yet gotten off the beaten track, if you haven't yet abandoned your mum's recipe book for your own inventions, if you haven't yet started experimenting with your ratios and if you haven't yet made Guinea pigs out of your roomies/friends, then I strongly recommend you start with tonight's dinner. It'll be fun!

If you do, by some stroke of good fortune, hit upon something savoury, do share your recipe with the rest of us bungling fools. Your efforts will be much appreciated. Don't worry if our implementation of your recipe doesn't live up to your prescribed standards and ends up hurting someone gastronomically. We won't blame you. You have culinary immunity!