Monday, December 9, 2013

Encounter with Tomatoes.


In boarding school you'll be always monitored by someone. Been a Convent School it was nuns for us. We had two in-house matrons but other nuns also used to come down from the convent for minding us for each section like study time, recreation, dinner and all. We were suppose to maintain pin drop silence during dinner time and even a giggle from one could get scoldings to the whole girls and a complaint will be reached to our matrons which will cost our Sunday movie. And wasting food was never an option. If anything is served on your plate you have to eat them all. Crying and whining just makes the situation bad. But we girls will somehow sneak them to the dustbin... (that's another post) :D

I was never fussy about foods. Even the little dislikes I had regarding the veggies was sorted out when I landed in boarding school. But nothing could make me eat tomatoes. I like their flavor but as raw or cooked its "yuck" for me. So even from pizzas or sandwiches you could see me getting that one tiny piece of tomato out.

Now there was a nun who might be in her twenties then, beautiful yet very strict and we nicknamed her "Kaduva" (malayalam) which means "Tiger". Whenever she comes we could say "Kaduva varune odiko"... (Tiger is coming. Run). And this particular day she was in charge. Our food were actually good. We never had much complaints regarding that area. There'll be a veg and a non veg dish everyday. And this day for dinner the veg was tomato curry. I can't eat this thing and can't even dump it of course Kaduva will tear me up and my friend who shares the table with me doesn't like veggies at all. You should have seen my face at that moment.

Anyways I finished my dinner except for the curry and didn't know what to do. With all the courage I went up to the nun and showed my plate. She gave me one look and said,  "Finish off that curry or else you're gonna sit here the whole night". I was back in my table. And was looking down at those slimy veggies who was making my life a hell at the moment. I was a boarder from 5th and this was in my 9th grade. All these years I had a tag of "Girl who never cried" and here I'm on the verge of tears all cos of tomatoes in my senior year.

By now the mess hall was half empty except for the small ones. And the nun decided to come and sit next to me to make sure I don't waste food. I took a spoon of curry along with a glass of water and gulped down. It took me almost 4-5 glasses of water to finish that single tomato curry. And when she saw I was done she gave a smile and gave me permission to leave. How I hated her and tomatoes that day!

Uff! That was my encounter with tomatoes and a tiger. :D




I am taking part in Second Festival of Words by Write Tribe 8th-14th December 2013. The theme for the day is Food. 

20 comments :

  1. Interesting post. So the fear of tiger made you eat tomato curry! Do you still hate tomatoes?

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  2. That's quite an interesting combination - tomatoes and a tiger and those are two words that I never imagined I would read in the same sentence :D Nice post and nice cute take on today's prompt

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  3. oh really? u hate tomatoes? i love them..in fact when there's nothing else to snack on..i slice a tomato , sprinkle a generous helping of sugar on it and gobble it all up!!!

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  4. Oh! Why do kids hate tomatoes! I have seen kids taking out strands of tomatoes painstakingly from the curry or dry vegetable before eating! Hope you do relish them now!

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  5. Tiger and tomato curry. hhmmmmmm.
    I love tomatoes in all forms and shapes. raw tomato juice, tomato rasam, soup, in sandwiches etc.

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  6. Awww... I love tomatoes.. Raw cooked all of them. More than eating tomatoes eating in silence is such a pain. I mean aren't the best conversations over lunch or dinner?

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  7. You stayed strong though and didn't cry!

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  8. Don't mind tomatoes :) esp tomato juice. Yummm!

    I do mind tigers though! :D Never met one. Don't want to meet one either (in any form!)

    Hilarious encounter! Good there was water around, eh?

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  9. LOL!!
    I too don't like cooked tomatoes.. but don't mind it in rasam!! :D
    poor you!
    My mum used to say - "If you don't like the vegetable being served today, eat and finish it first"!!!!

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  10. haha...I am sorry you had to go through this but I ampretty sure you must be making the most superb tomato curry now :)

    loved your post!

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  11. Oh that mean woman making you eat something you didn't like!! Oooo! I love tomatoes but I sure got the sentiment loud and clear. Loved reading your story. It made me smile and be outraged in your behalf. ♥

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  12. Substitute nun for Mom and I've sat for two hours after lunch finishing what I served myself and didn't like! ;)

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  13. Sooo sorry for you. I would have shoved my tomato curry plate on her face and faced the punishment. She won't do that to you the next time.

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  14. You were brave enough to finish it though. For me it's sweet pickle - it just makes me ill. Also because of my school lunches. I was in a day school but we had the arrangement of school lunch at the bombay gymkhana and once a week we had curry rice. loved that but right on top was this absolutely revolting looking pickle. Dislike sweet pickle ever since then.

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  15. Fight with the tomatoes... Awesome... :)

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  16. Oh Sheethal - Do you still hate tomatoes? They are awesome. Come to Bangalore some day, I'll whip up an amazing "tomato" based dish for you. I know, I'm bragging. But then again, I've been told it's good. Great post!

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  17. This sounded so much like my sister, who herself is always forever hating tomatoes. She also picks them out :D

    Richa

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  18. Tomato! I love them but I hate it when accidentally I get the peel. Sheethal now you are making me remember nitty gritties of my hostel time.

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  19. Now this hatred is a novelty .... rolling my eyes at u!

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  20. :D we share a Tomato hatred then :P I like the flavour too.. but raw/cooked tomato.. I try to avoid as much as I can.. But then, staying away from home, you really can't complain.. so sometimes the worst does happen.. :-/ Lucky for me, no kaduvas here.. ;)

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