Leaving home and coming to the big city was a huge cultural shock for me in a lot of ways. Most of all, the change in food habits, timings and none availability of certain vegetables and food items that were taken for granted at home.
The truth is, we people from Nagaland and Manipur and most of the Northeastern States have what people out here like to call, exotic food habits and a weird diet. It was also a terrible feeling to be judged for what you eat and what you drink. I know of friends and acquaintances being thrown out of their rented flats because they cooked non-vegetarian items.
Of course, some of the items of our staple diet definitely calls for a sense of adventure and a love for our fermented food items like Bamboo shoot, Axone (fermented soya beans) and Nari (fermented dried fish) are acquired tastes at best. These three items invariably get us in trouble because they all have distinctly pungent aromas when being cooked. But hey! we grew up eating them and enjoy them and crave for them like people out here love their lassi and golgappas and the myriad other dishes they crave for.
Househunting is a huge frustrating adventure, especially for us from the Northeast as Landlords would always ask of our food habits and warn us not to cook "non-veg". Lucky for me, I have always had great and sporting landlords who were openminded and accommodating. But my friends and cousins have not been so lucky.
I had this cousin who kept inviting me to come over to her tiny rented flat and cook her something special. She had a tiny kitchen and strict instructions not to cook anything "Non-vegetarian" or in other words any "Strong aromatic dishes typical of the Northeasterners". Most days I would cook something from my place and take it over to hers but on one particular occasion, she was unwell and I had been nursing her. She had been craving for some Naga style food and she begged me to cook something special. I would have gone off to my place, cooked and brought it over but there was no way I could leave her alone in her weak state. And she looked so sad that I had to take the risk of whipping up some pungent Naga dishes to cheer her up.
I decided to cook her some pork with bamboo shoot with hot chutney made from green chillies and dried fish. I went out to get some fresh meat. The other ingredients were safely stowed in her kitchen's tuck box.
I decided to cook her some pork with bamboo shoot with hot chutney made from green chillies and dried fish. I went out to get some fresh meat. The other ingredients were safely stowed in her kitchen's tuck box.
Now, the risk of being caught was great. There was no way we could mask the strong scent the items we would be cooking. We knew that the moment the bamboo shoot got boiling, it would fill up the house with its strong smell which would undoubtedly assail the Landlady's nostrils and she would rush to our floor banging the doors demanding an explanation and worst case scenario, my cousin might have to vacate her flat. But she convinced me to go ahead.
You see, cooking all these dishes with strong aromas does have a negative side. My fridge gets filled with the pungent aroma, and my curtains hold remnants of the scent that becomes pretty strong for me too sometimes. I have tried to combat it with potpourri but the combination often became quite the opposite of soothing. Room fresheners and sprays didn't help much and there just wasn't enough fresh air inspite of running the fans full on after a cooking session.
After buying the meat, I stopped at a store to grab a room freshener all the same as I didn't have much of a choice. The salesman talked me into buying an Ambipur room spray that I hadn't tried before. He said it would turn my day around as it totally worked on the strongests of odours. I was in a rush to get back and so I hurriedly paid for it and got to my cooking. It was then that I remembered that I had an Ambipur Set Refresh sample somewhere in my bag which I had recently received by signing up for a free sample on Indiblogger.in for an ongoing competition. I fished it out and place it the living room. Mmmm!Tthe room was instantly filled with the scent of Vanilla and Lavender. My favourite scents.
Halfway through my cooking session, I also took the precautionary measure of thoroughly spraying the living room, hallway and bathroom with the new Ambipur spray. It smelled of spring and happy days of childhood. It was called Blossom and Breeze. The kitchen was fast filling up with the aroma of bamboo shoot and I was slightly alarmed. But my cousin was asking if I had started cooking as she couldn't smell anything except for some floral waves from her bed. That was something!
After some more cooking, I had to let out some steam by getting the exhaust working. Wrong move. The aroma had escaped from our kitchen to the landlady's floor. I could hear the lady ask from two floors above where the stench was coming from. I was alarmed. I sprayed quite a bit of the new spray in the kitchen area and five minutes later, coolly went to answer the door. The bell had started ringing. After all, we were the obvious culprits.
The landlady and her daughter stood at the landing. The lady was quite red in the face, fuming and demanding to know what we were cooking and why there was a funny smell coming from our flat.
She had a look of triumph on her face as she spelt out that she had warned us not to cook non-vegetarian stuff and now that she had caught us redhanded, we would have to get out of her place minus the security money. I got a bit worried for my cousin but decided to hold my tongue.
I put on my most nonchalant face and said I had no idea what she was talking about. What smell?
She demanded to be let in and I ushered her in. She suspiciously walked from room to room and to the kitchen and back but there was no hint of the offending smell here. Rather, the flat smelled like a garden. "Mamma, it's not from here" her daughter finally said and they went off sulkily.
As soon as I had the door closed, I couldn't help letting out a whoop of joy and a prayer of thanks to Ambipur. It had totally saved us by transforming the flat from smelly to fresh and happy and thus averting a disaster.
What a happy day! My cousin wanted to know how I had pulled it off. I was more than happy to share with her my Ambipur Hero of the hour story. Now my cousin can cook whatever she want and spray her flat up right after. Post lunch, I went out to the store again and bought an entire range of room sprays and fresheners, half for my cousin and the rest for me. When I said thanks to the sales boy, he could only beam and say, I told you so.
As for me and my cousin, we have decided to make Axone with pork accompanied by Naga King chilli at her place this weekend and we have our Ambipur room fresheners handy. Always. And they are supposed to last and last. They do linger on lovingly, instantly refreshing you and your home.
This is a true story recounted for "The Smelly to Smiley" contest.
