“I can take care of myself!” Sujay said, but no one paid any attention to him. There was a flurry of phone calls, and then he was told, “Tarang will stay here while we are away.”
Tarang was Sujay’s oldest cousin, famous for being good at everything. Sujay hoped he wouldn’t ask questions about school or share inspiring quotes. Tarang didn’t. He hardly said anything till he walked into the kitchen. “What an amazing kitchen!” he said. “And this oven! Aren’t you tempted to try out recipes?” Sujay was horrified. “No!” he said. “There’s plenty of food in the fridge, so we don’t have to cook at all.”
The first day passed peacefully, and Sujay decided that he liked Tarang. But, when Tarang shook him awake a little later, Sujay wasn’t sure if he still liked him. “There’s something in the kitchen,” Tarang said. Sujay was instantly alert.
Setting a trap
It was a mouse. “Oh no,” Sujay groaned. “We’ll have to set the trap.” In the morning, he fetched the trap and they looked at it. “What about bait?” Tarang asked.
“Bread?”
“Needs to be tempting,” Tarang said. “Let’s make alu parathas and…”
Sujay was horrified. “For the mouse?”
“No,” Tarang laughed. “For us. And a piece for the trap!”
The alu parathas were so delicious that they almost forgot to save a piece for the mouse. Sujay went to bed happy. He had been furious when Tarang had made him help in the kitchen, but he forgave his cousin. He hoped the mouse enjoyed the paratha too.
But the paratha in the trap was uneaten. “Something sweet,” Tarang said. I’ll bake a cake!” Of course, Sujay had to help. But the cake was delicious. Funny, Sujay thought, he had never looked at the oven and thought it was a place that created wonderful things. He fell asleep thinking of this and woke up to loud noises.
“The mouse?” he gasped, running into the kitchen. The mouse hadn’t eaten the cake. “Might be vegetarian,” Tarang guessed. “Let’s make apple pie!”
“Wait for me,” Sujay said. The pie was the best Sujay had ever eaten, but the mouse didn’t eat it.
“What now?” Sujay asked.
“Cookies? Or brownies?”
Easy solution
They were still debating when Amma and Baba returned. They listened to the tale of the picky mouse. “You baked it a cake?” Baba asked admiringly.
“And a pie,” Sujay added. “Alu paratha too!”
“Sujay helped,” Tarang said. “He was going to make the cookies!”
“What about roti?” Amma demanded.
“Roti?” Tarang repeated.
“Roti?” Sujay wondered.
“Always works,” Amma said. She baited the trap with roti, and the next morning, they saw that it still worked.
“You didn’t need to cook and bake,” Baba said.
“Good practice for me,” Tarang smiled. “And a good introduction to the wonders of his kitchen for Sujay. Right, Sujay?”
Sujay looked at him, suddenly suspicious. Had Tarang… Then he thought of all the wonderful things they had created. “Right!” he said.
Published - November 25, 2024 08:58 pm IST
