Lessons from the kitchen

Generally, women are better in multitasking. They manage spouse,in-laws,kids and the maid all at the same time, yet with six sigma performance!

An example would be:

Wife would be giving instruction to her hubby, chanting slokas and cooking, check upon kids work, give coffee to mother in law and correct hubby where he went wrong in the task assigned! Within minutes, she'll back to the next line in the sloka and telling the maid not to forget to wipe the balcony!

Men are dumbfounded as to how this happens, especially with his woman. He is on cloud nine if his daughter does such magic but completely in awe of his woman, though would never reveal it to her!

Well, thanks to our culture. Our habits have made these possible. We can recollect our moms doing the same. One side, she would be making idli, grinding for sambar and chutney and the other side, lunch boxes would be prepared. How was this possible? Have we wondered? 

Those days, sending to music classes was the norm in all households. My Guru always used to say that music and cooking are similar that we need to multitask. We need to maintain the Shruti, remember the lyrics and sing, at the same time, thala or laya should not be missed!

Now, for me those 1-2hrs in the mornings are very crucial. Nothing could go wrong in that time. First task is milk, decoction, kolam and coffee, then breakfast and snack box for kids, then breakfast for hubby, lunch for all, lunch box for hubby, water to be boiled separately for kids, daughter's hairdo, get them ready for school,drop them and continue cooking the three course meal. A cup of tea would be needed to energise me!! Kamalhassan in avvai shanmugi would come in front of my eyes!!

Festival days, menu is bigger and kids demands are more. Vada, applam n payasam add on to the list with one or more veggies or kootu or pachadi. 

If we observed our Patis, they would have first planned how to go about this. They would put a list the previous week for all the wanted things. Thats the task assigned to thatha to get the items required and to avoid any wrong rubbings! Then they organize what's to be made first and what's next. They would economise the gas, the vessels usage and also the oil usage. Same oil, in goes the applam and then the vada. Finally, they ensure that the place is clean as they keep wiping the slab from time to time.

So learning from the above:

First, requirements gathering (list preparation) 

The manager or the mami does this to perfection!

Second, planning(menu finalization)

Mama may give his inputs, actually his wishes and fancies without mami realising where he tasted that dish without her notice.

Third, Implementation(the actual cooking)

She plans the previous day as to when to wake up, start from where and how to go about it before her favorite tv program commences(meeting deadline)!

Fourth, Testing(stake holders aka the family members test the output) mostly to a zero defect

Fifth, maintenance

Almost, the same quality is maintained by the mamis, for all occasions!

  The mamis also prepare the podis, oorgai, thogayal, snacks like muruku,sweets from time to time and ensures her products are the best in the neighborhood thereby making SDLC, samayal development life cycle almost similar to the software development life cycle.

--Vishnupriya