Goodbye… Chicken…

Hostel life was tough in the first year; No AC to fight the ‘Chennai heat’ and the mosquitoes seemed to love me; I did not know how to use an Asian closet and going to toilet became a herculean task; Above all I missed home…. And KFC.

Our college hostel , The SRM college hostel was rightly called the Sambar- Rasam- Moru Hostel. Be it lunch or dinner, you could relish in an unlimited supply of these three. The two days they serve chicken for dinner was well awaited by me. Those days I start feeling hungry from 5pm. Though it tasted sad and had more bones than meat in tons of gravy, I still enjoyed it till I started hearing ‘rumours’ that every time we were served chicken, a stray dog in the neighborhood went missing, Then, my only hope was on the weekend trip to city with friends….they for shopping and I to eat chicken.

By now you must have got an idea what an ardent lover of chicken I am, and was even nick-named 'chikku' by friends. But my sister on the other hand can eat literally any crap, be of any colour, size, shape and taste. Ofcourse she is very particular that the thing she eats shouldn’t be alive and I respect that. As for my husband, he claims that he has eaten a good fleshy piece of snake, Thanks to his ex-roommate, a Filipino guy. For record sake: If I had known this before we got married, I would have had second and third thoughts on our marriage.

Now when I think back I feel sorry for my mom, almost! From childhood I was so fussy about food. I wanted chicken for every meal, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner and if not I wouldn’t grumble… nor frown…just that my hunger would disappear! And my poor mom makes it a point to get me chicken in some form or the other just to make sure I eat. One yummy item she made us often when we were kids were beef cutlets. I used to love it thinking it was a chicken snack by the name ‘beef’. The day I had the revelation that beef is not a snack, but the meat of cow, I stopped it and decided never to eat mammals. This decision was made after proper research that chicken was not a mammal but laid eggs…yeyeye! Smart me!

I had my baby after an unexpected delay which scared me. During the time I was undergoing the treatment I promised myself to quit something that means a lot to me when I have my baby or rather if I have a baby. What to give up, I had a few choices before me that was quite dear to me. They were My Dad, My Mom, My Sister, My Hubby and My Chicken. It was a difficult decision to make and after a great deal of thinking, I decided to give up my beloved chicken and keep the others! My family was very upset by my decision, mainly because they feared if I would die of starvation.

It has been more than six months since I had chicken and it is not very difficult not to have it but it is an ultimate test when someone hogs it in front of me. WARNING: if you decide to gulp down a piece of chicken before me, please be prepared for tummy aches and very loose motion!

And considering my daughter is indeed a darling, it doesn’t feel like a big deal now… though my appetite has reduced considerably. As for my daughter, I have warned her that if she ever thinks of eloping with any moron, that day I would order myself a huge plate of chicken tikka and munch on it to my hearts content!!