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.