Sitol Maas (Knife Fish/Feather Fish Steaks)

Sitol Maas (Knife Fish/Feather Fish Steaks)

Malati missed her parents, her sister and her grandmother a lot. However, she knew that when a girl gets married, this was bound to happen. She got married a month ago. Ramen was a nice guy. He was trying to become a good husband. All the same, theirs was a joint family. So, Ramen had to ensure that he did his part when it came to all the responsibilities of the house, along with Malati. Hence, there were times, when, despite wishing to give time to Malati, he couldn’t. He had to run errands, go to work and after coming back from work, there were other responsibilities like, sometimes grocery shopping, sometimes feeding the cows, sometimes taking the nephews and nieces to the tuition classes and so on and so forth. Ramen’s family loved organic food. Hence, they had a kitchen garden for fresh veggies and they reared cows for fresh milk. Malati knew that life would never be the same after marriage. She was aware that she was going to stay in a joint family. Ramen had a stable government job with a decent salary and his siblings were also doing well in life. Financially, there was nothing to worry about, hence Malati’s family was happy with the alliance. Malati was 24 but she looked 19. With a height of 5 feet 3 inches, round face, peach and cream complexion, tiny nose, brown eyes and jet black silky hair, she looked no less than an adorable doll. Ramen on the other hand had a sturdy structure with a height of 6 feet, dusky complexion and wavy hair. For Ramen, Malati was love at first sight. When he had seen her in that pink Mekhala Chadar for the first time, he was head over heels in love with her. Not just that, Malati was very soft spoken. She barely talked, and when she talked, she talked so softly that anyone would melt with affection. Coy to the core, Malati was the dream wife Ramen wanted. He was very happy with her.

Malati had one trait because of which she missed her parents a lot. She was a big time foodie. She loved to eat delicious food, specifically fish. Back at her maternal abode, her favourite delicacy would be fish fry and steamed rice with mustard oil, salt and chilly. She was never satiated with one piece of fish. She would always need two to three pieces. Her favourite fish included Hilsa and Sitol, also known and knife fish or feather fish. Knife fish was her all time favourite. It was a bony fish and eating that fish called for skills. Since the steaks of this fish were huge, Malati could eat only two steaks at once, but no matter what she would need two steaks or else she would feel worse. Malati was adept in cooking as well. Since she loved eating, she loved cooking too. This new household of hers was also good when it came to food but the biggest hindrance here was, there were already a lot of family members in the house and Malati’s mother in law, Subhadra, loved inviting guests over. Guests as in, the close relatives, which included her daughters, sons in law, grand children, so on and so forth. Usually on sundays, in this household, there would be at least 24 people who would be there for lunch.

Today as well, there were supposed to be 20 people for lunch. Ramen and his elder brother got two huge knifefish from the fish market. Malati drooled at the very sight of the luscious steaks. The steaks were filled with fish oil and there were some fish eggs as well. Ramen loved the twinkle at Malati’s eyes when he saw her beaming at the sight of the delectable fresh fish. Malati’s mother in law was somewhat calculative when it came to the quantity of food to be cooked. She always used to worry about wastage. Malati could not take as many fish steaks as she wanted to cook. She had to wait for her mother in law to give her the number of steaks she could cook. Subhadra came to the kitchen and started counting as to how many pieces of fish would suffice for lunch. She then told Malati to cook 22 pieces. Malati was heart broken. She was expecting she would get to eat two large steaks, but with 22 pieces, she would get only one piece to eat. Nevertheless, she had to listen. She then carefully, fried the fish, made the mustard paste, made the gravy and lo and behold, the bestest fish curry under the sun was ready. Malati was a gem of a cook. Everyone loved her cooking skills. Along with fish curry, she made some lentil soup, spinach salad,cauliflower and peas mixed vegetable dry fry, mutton curry and some pudding, not to forget steamed rice and mint chutney. The househelp and two sisters in law helped Malati with the preparation.

Lunchtime was here. Subhadra invited everyone to the dining table. As per the rules of the family, first children were served lunch, followed by men and then the women. The women always ate after everyone else finished lunch. Malati could not stop thinking about the mustard knifefish steak. She knew she would get only one piece because as per her mother in law, everyone will eat only one piece because one steak itself is so filling.

After the children finished eating, the men of the household sat to eat. All of them went ga ga over the fish curry. Malati kept on looking at the vessel of fish curry. Some of the men had two steaks each. In some time the entire vessel of fish curry was empty. Subhadra was overjoyed. She patted Malati and said, ‘ See, everyone loved the fish curry so much. It’s all over. Not a single piece left. Hahahah. You know my younger son in law and elder son in law, had two to three pieces each. Seemssome kids also had two pieces each. Lovely cooking darling.’ Saying that, she kissed Malati’s forehead. Malati smiled back at her mother in law. This would have never happened at her parents’ home. She would have got her share of fish. She put her head down and walked back to the kitchen and took out the leftover food for the women of the house. Lentil soup, some left over pieces of mutton, few strands of spinach and rice, Malati arranged all of these in the dining table. There was enough rice, but the curries were too less for everyone. Without complaining, the women divided the food items amongst everyone and then took some pickle and salt to get the right taste because of minimal quantity of curry. Malati served herself some rice but she couldn’t eat. Subhadra asked, ‘My dear, why are you eating so less. Take some more rice.’ Malati said, ‘Maa, I will have it later. Somehow I don’t have an appetite now.’ Saying so, with a sad heart Malati got up from the table, covered her plate of rice and put the plate in the kitchen and got back to cleaning the kitchen. Everyone finished having lunch and went to their respective rooms for afternoon nap. Ramen had to go for an emergency meeting. Malati was all alone in her room. She felt her stomach rumbling with hunger. She came to the kitchen. Her plate of rice stood there intact covered perfectly. She then heated up the rice in the microwave. Then she went to the last shelf in the kitchen. She moved the huge box of wheat flour and took out a medium sized vessel covered properly with a plate. She heated up the vessel. Malati then poured the food from the vessel on her plate of rice and devoured every bit of it relishing every bite. Well, she loved knife fish steaks. Her grandmother had told her, ‘Take care of yourself because no one else will.’ Hence she had fried two extra pieces of knife fish steaks for herself and she had saved a nice quantity of that ambrosial fish curry for herself in that vessel. Malati finished her lunch, drank water and went back to her afternoon siesta. Well, what if her mother in law found out? Malati told herself, ‘ When she finds out, I will then eat right in front of her. hee hee.’