From Tears to Taste: The Cucumber Pachadi I Still Remember
I’ll say it out loud. I don’t like cucumber. I know it’s healthy, refreshing, and everything people say it is, and I truly appreciate it for all of that. But eating it? Not really my thing. Except there’s one version. A version with a little salt, a little chilli, a little oil that somehow turns something I avoid into something I quietly look forward to. And that version takes me back to someone very special. An aunty who lived upstairs in our apartment. She was a teacher, a very good one, and a very strict one. The kind you’re a little scared of, but also listen to without question. She was one of my mom’s closest friends, so at some point it was decided that she would tutor me. She had a son too, and I used to call him anna. I still remember one afternoon when she was teaching me maths. She asked me a question, and I was trying my best to understand it, even though I clearly didn’t. Somewhere in between my confusion and anna adding something more to the question, things went a litt...