One day I was checking to see if the rice was cooked, like I do on most days. Before I go on, a word about how we Mallus cook rice. Unlike many others, Mallus don’t traditionally pressure cook rice. So we don’t depend on the ‘whistles’ to tell us if it is done.
Rice is usually cooked in pot-shaped aluminium or steel vessels or even those with a flat base, which have lids that fit, and can be opened in between cooking to check whether the rice is cooked to our satisfaction. Some like their rice well cooked and others want the rice to be only cooked just so, and then there are the various degrees in between these two. When the rice is done the way we like, we let the extra water drain off by tilting the vessel with the lid clamped on it. So that’s how a Mallu cooks rice.
Getting back to the day I was talking of, I walked into the kitchen pushed aside the lid, plunged the ladle in, and drew out a sample to check. Whatever individual preferences may be, native wisdom says that the rice should have ‘fluffed out’ to have been cooked the right way. The exact word used is the same as you use for a flower. the rice should have “bloomed” to have been cooked right. I had never really understood what this ‘blooming’ look was all about, and so found my own way of doing it, which was by eating a few grains. But that had its disadvantages and has not always given me the same results. Sometimes, on eating a few grains, I feel the rice is not done. Leaving it on the stove for a few more minutes, I end up with overcooked rice on my hands. It has happened the other way too, where I have ended up with uncooked rice.
Anyway, that particular day when I peeped into the vessel on the stove, the rice looked so white and fluffy! I could see clearly what “native wisdom” meant by rice “blooming”. It must be the new rice that the L & M got this time, I remember thinking to myself, it sure looks so pearly and pretty. The sample I had drawn had the lines on each grain well defined. Looking at it I wondered why I had ever found the checking-by-sight method difficult. Really, what was wrong with me all these years that I could not “see” what was so clearly visible?!
Then the truth hit me, like a truckload of rice-filled sacks. I had been reading and still had my glasses on. That was what gave me a better and clearer picture.
In life too if you have your “glasses” on at all times, everything becomes that much clearer. But sadly, we don’t most times. So we miss things that could otherwise have been easier to identify. We use less optimum ways to reach the same place and end up in disastrously situations. It is always good to wear your “glasses” to “see” things better and I certainly don’t mean the ones the optometrist has prescribed.
Shail's Nest 
Given that I am half Mallu, I absolutely loved how you described the way we cook rice 😀
And loved the fact that you used something like cooking rice with your glasses on to remind us all to wear our ‘glasses’ all the time so that we don’t miss out on the most optimum way to do things in life 😀
Quite a profound thought I must say.
The thought struck me that day that we miss most of what’s right in front of our eyes because we aren’t wearing our ‘glasses’! 🙂
so true about the glasses…. i don’t think its exactly vanity which stope me from wearing mine. i think i’m just plain lazy to find them… but i must agree that its definitely like switching on HD vision!
Personally I find it very bothersome, something extra stuck on the nose, and use it for reading only… because I simply cannot read without them. 😉
The post reminded me of my mother, it was a long time before we realized her glasses made all the difference 😀
Then there was this newly married cousin of mine who had never entered a kitchen to cook before her marriage. The mother dutifully taught her how to cook rice the mallu way, boil and drain (the upside down ‘vaarkkal’ method). A few days later she wanted to have green gram and the mother tells her to cook it the rice way. Curry is not ready even after a couple of hours and when asked she says, “I have kept it for draining,” upside down of course 😀
Rofl. Cooking green gram the rice way. Loved that. 😀
That’s profound…I loved how you drew from a simple example.
BTW: up north, in our homes as well, we cook rice without the cooker. My mom drains the excess water and I let double the water boil the rice completely (the lid on method). And we paharis are quite fond of rice as well 🙂
I have seen so many people use pressure cooker to cook rice that I thought our method was an aberration rather than the norm 🙂
Thanks, Kajal 🙂
Then there are the glasses of Patriarchy – the Patriarchy tinted glasses, that a lot of people see the world, culture, family, marriage, society – almost everything with.
Patriarchy tinted glasses. Now that is a whole different kettle of fish to be tackled another day 🙂
I’ve never learnt how to cook it the pressure cooker way. I like to boil and drain too. Loved the observation about glasses, yes we all need glasses to see things the way they are, not the way we want them to be
Hey! Quite a few of you make rice the way I do 🙂
To see things the way they are, that’s the challenge, isn’t it?
again a simple nd clear mssg. My husb cooks rice this wway and he always gets it right and I mess it up even with clear vision 😉
Lol, good for you that one of you gets it right 🙂
My mom cooks rice the same way, boiling and draining the maar(liquid) from the vessel.. loved the observation and yes it is a challenge to see the things the way they are..
Thank you. We call that water kanji vellam 🙂
Loved cooking the rice with you. Your story reminded me of an English lesson of grade 1: Kutchu, where are my glasses? 😀
The moral of the story is pretty deep and I hope I remember to wear my glasses every time.
Oooh, I remember that lesson as well!! Thanks for the memory. But of course, it is from my children’s lessons that I remember 😛
I can’t cook rice in pressure cooker and I can’t vaarkal with the adichooti ( round wooden plate) on the Kanjikalam (specially shaped vessel just for this purpose) like my mother and MIL does. I cook rice in pot-shaped/flat base aluminium vessel, then clip the lid with binder clips and drain it on another flat bottom vessel.
I have started using glasses recently and have still not got used to wearing it all the time. And yes am realizing glasses are making differences (limited to reading on screens laptop/mobile/TV/bus/train boards etc.. as of now )!
Like you, I too use clips to keep the lid in place 😀
The MIL cooks rice exactly like that…We do eat boiled rice but I am so lazy that I just pressure cook that with extra water and drain it! I am super lazy eh?
And glasses – have them on since class 3..cant imagine life without them 🙂 I was in the contact lens phase during college and just after marriage, but now, my glasses are my life eh?
Glasses re not a necessity for me in day to day activities of life. But reading is another matter. No glasses, no reading 😦