Once the entire menu was decided, the arrangements for preparing the dinner started. The responsible people for the camp got all the required cooking utensils (although utensil is very tiny word for it) Sack full of onions, ginger/garlic, tomatoes, bucket of Chickpeas (white chanaa) flour, Suji (hulwa) and all other required spices.

As we all know what Onions can do to us, nobody wanted onions for obvious reasons. So our teacher delegated who is to do what. And since I had been always the most favorite student to my teachers she picked me to deal with onions/ginger/garlic with couple of other girls. Boy! The sack with onions smelled like one of those vegetable markets after all vegetables are sold. eeekkss..

 I along with my close friend picked a corner to sit chit chat and started peeling onions.

And I swear to God L I still haven’t forgiven those stupid onions for bringing tears in my eyes. Initially, it irritated and we cribbed but soon we kind of lost it.  Like we were tranquilized or some thing, we couldn't stop laughing. So, we were peeling onions and crying and falling left right laughing on our selves. We were laughing so hard that it added all the more to our tears. And I think I remember that my friend also wet her pants while she had that big crazy laugh ;) (sorry darling J)

While we were in our crazy corner dealing with onions, we could see other lot of girls carrying/ dragging the big wok (Kawa), scoops (used to stir), pitchers etc etc to be washed. In the middle of all this, rest all other students of different colleges played India’s favorite game ‘ANTAAKSHARI’ and whoa!! What there? everybody sang their native songs? And how were those songs fitting into Antaakshari rules???? I have no Idea.

Moving on. The cooking started. My dear friend ‘M’ if you guys remember her from my previous posts. She claimed to be a very typical homely ideal girl experienced in cooking and food etc. (But still wets her pants lol)

So, when the fire was started and woks/utensils were on Fireeeee, she took in charge of cooking and started to guide and instruct every one about, how long to keep it on heat, when to add what and how much blah blah. Also few elder girls/women dealt in preparing batter to be used for making Pooris.

We looked here and there, made fun of other people, bitched about girls and in 40 minutes or so the most ‘In Demand’ famous Punjabi Chanaa dish was ready. After the much tiredness we were hungry, but then the very thought that everyone else was going to eat before us made us so miserable and disappointed.

That is when our teacher reminds us about Hulwa ‘The sweet dish’

What did she have to do? She was only worried about her reputation. 

And the expert ‘M’ jumped ahead to make sweet dish and every one followed.

Now, prior to this incident I had only tasted hulwa which my mom made and also I had an impression that it takes probably an hour or so to be prepared so nice that it tastes like this. Because let’s admit it Ghosh!! It tastes soo good and we all know that how our moms make it such a big deal as if they have been in kitchen for hours just for this one thing.

So, you put suji powder, fry it till light golden grown, add sugar, water and stir till water is gone. THAT IS IT!

Now why would mothers make such a big deal about it? hmm???

And the Stirring and stirring, stirring, stirring and then it’s done L

I with my friend M went to take care of hulwa with the help of one long big scoop, which we kept stirring. She being the expert, left no second without stirring. Being the wok so big and the amount so much and the stirring it required, that process could take 6 girls of our size and all of us at one time :/ she would start and drop it half way where I picked to complete 1 circle. phewww!!!

what more could two tiny girls like me and M could do?

However, we did what we were good at J . We got tranquilized again and went into the laughing zone. And who cares, we might not even get to taste it.

Finally by 8:30 PM all food was ready and sure people were hungry.  And before we could breathe in some oxygen or wipe off sweaty faces. What we saw was a big queue waiting in front with plates in their hands for dinner to be served.

“Yes yes, begin” The teacher said :/

And we started serving chanaa poori and hulwa in their plates. With every new person in line, each girl on our side had an eye talk which meant “not much not much, they will anyways ask for more. What the hell will we eat?”

That evening, we set example of the stingiest people. And guess what????

When the entire crowd tasted food and started to praise, our hearts melted J and we were like awwwww. We felt immensely satisfied and happy.

And next thing you see some junkies coming over for third time to get more food grrrrrrrr. That is when the most prestigious Punjabi girls lost it. We started behaving the real us in us. Suddenly we became so loud. 

There was one little guy in shorts who dared to arrive for 4th time to get Hulwa. and he sure faced the consequences too. Trust me you readers don’t want to know what all we said to him. We came offensive and defensive at the same time.

To our surprise, after hearing us he responded “this is the last time”. And we were like oooooopss!!!! he understood us.

Next on scene was shock of the camp. The guy we remarked above, turned out to be the teacher of a college from Mizoram :/

After any blunder, that is when you get to witness the most charming smiles of Punjabi girls. Ooopppss J

Well, he was too sweet to ignore our mischievousness. Soon we established that everybody had dinner and moved to their respective allocated rooms. And we still had food left for us J

Henceforth, after entire days much hustle bustle, we treated our tummies with treatsome delicious food.

More importantly, we ended our day with a feeling of contentment that we cooked and served people of our country; though of different states but they loved it J

Samriti Abrol wished:  Every new day to arrive with some super experiences, self-realizations, teachings and unforgettable moments J