With the onset of December 2020, began the
preparations for Christmas. Yes! We would be observing protocols during the
Covid 19 Pandemic and having an elaborate and delicious Christmas fare amongst
the five of us since we didn’t prefer mingling with the crowd and putting our
lives at risk, but at the same time, Christmas isn’t really Christmas unless you
share your goodies with others.
So we got down to procuring ingredients and other
necessary items for preparing cakes, Marzipans, Kul-Kuls, milk cream sweets,
choco-walnut rocks, Karanjees and the works. This time, I took the initiative
of baking cakes by myself, with none of my family pitching in. Well, I had been
preparing quite a few treats like biriyani, Thai curry, cocktails, Kulfis,
cookies, throughout my ‘WFH’ period (The pandemic and lock-down period grows on
you eventually and you decide to discover your latent talents, and hone them as
well) and since they turned out to be finger-licking good, my family had no
objection to me dabbling in the art of cake-making.
There was a doting mother, an eager father, a thrilled
wife and a dubious sister eagerly awaiting the results of my efforts. It was a
basic vanilla-chocolate, marble sponge cake at first. Well! That is if you
would call it ‘Sponge’ in the first place!! Ohh! I must tell you this- The air
was heady and rich with the aroma of chocolate wafting around, but, oh dear!
Once the cake was cooled at room temperature, and taken out of its mould, we
all peered at it, like it was something from out of space. It looked
mesmerizing with the layers and streams of chocolate and vanilla intermingling
in swirls, twirls and dizzy patterns, like lava, solidifying immediately after
oozing out of the Earth’s recesses. We were immensely impressed with my
handiwork!! “Excellent job, Vicky!” The family cheered but when it was time for
us to cut it into neat slices and display it attractively, the thing wouldn’t
cut with the sharpest knife in the house! Something from out of space indeed!
Every member of my family offered their valuable input
to me,” Do this! Don’t do that!”, with dad asking the simplest question, “Don’t
you think a sponge cake is supposed to be soft?” That did it! I was hell bent
on perfecting my skills. Dad was quite famous for his perfect masala tea, and
believe me when I tell you this, he couldn’t cook to save his life! Dad had
sampled the tastiest of cuisines prepared by the women-folk of his family,
beginning with his mother, so it was but obvious that he wasn’t keen on
sampling this volcanic rock!
I wasn’t daunted by this defeat. I rolled up my
sleeves yet again, donned my chef’s hat, figuratively, and worked my way to
baking a rum and raisin cake next. Ohh! It was fabulous in taste but it
crumbled into bits like a fragile sand castle. You didn’t need a knife to cut
it! It just yielded itself happily into bits, to anyone who merely casted a
glance in its direction!! Once again, I was bombarded with advice but the only
advice that made its way into my auditory orifice was dad’s simple statement,
“You should’ve waited for it to cool down and then upturned it. Next time, don’t
be hasty, son.”
AAhhh!! There it was! Those two words! NEXT TIME!
These two words, gleaned out of the entire sentence, meant to me, that dad wanted
me to make yet another effort and not give up until I achieved progress in the
right direction. This time I decided to bake a mawa cake and I hit bulls-eye
with this attempt. Dad literally closed his eyes in sheer ecstasy while he
munched on a big morsel and spoke between bites, declaring, “Fantastic! This is
how a cake is supposed to be! If I was any younger, I would suggest that we
make a business out of baking.”
I mused, “You think so? I would love to fulfill your
wish, Dad, so what if you aren’t young enough to run this business. I’ll run it
in your name.”
“My name?!” spoke dad with a glimmer in his eyes, “How
do you mean? I’ve had a go at business in my heydays and I’ve had many
bitter-sweet moments where my business would either surge or ebb, so I gave it
all up to get into service to provide for our family. Business is like a
far-fetched dream for me, son”
“Bitter-sweet moments ehh?” I pitched in, “That’s it!
I’m going to name our business, ‘Pitter Treats’. What do you say? Deal? Happy?”
Dad’s shoulders broadened, rising to his full height,
he declared, “So be it, son! Don’t ever let anyone’s negative feedback or
criticism dampen your spirit. You follow your dreams, whatever they may be,
irrespective of what others say. Your dream is unique because it’s yours. Yes!
Let’s do this. I’ll assist you in whatever way I can and I’m sure, so will the
rest of us. All the best, my son!”
From December 2020, through January 2021, till the end
of March, cakes were baked and distributed, all varieties, mind you! Compliments
kept pouring in and new and unusual varieties of cakes were baked with gusto.
In the midst of all this, before the business could materialize, unfortunately,
all five of us were affected by this dreadful disease, with dad succumbing to
Covid 19, unexpectedly, after battling it with fortitude, to his last breath.
Our little world was shattered to the core. No amount
of consoling by family and friends could lessen the grief of this immeasurable
loss. After coming to terms with this unfortunate reality, grappling with
circumstances, and regaining health, I recollected dad’s words. He didn’t want
to die because he had a zest for living life. Never the one to give up easily,
by his practice, he set an example for me to look at the world through his
eyes.
I’ve, since then, decided to forge ahead and accomplish
what we had planned at that point in time. This venture is dedicated to my dad.
Dad didn’t expect to die. I won’t let him!
A short video on our logo designing story...
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