Replacing mommy in the kitchen

There was a time when mommy and food was inseparable. You could not have thought of food without thinking of mommy. Taste, warmth, ma ka hath –gastronomic juices blended with emotional outpourings used to create a heady cocktail of sense and sensibilities. Ads were full of grinning mommies and salivating eaters going gaga over food.But of late what has happened to the traditional mommy? Today why bachhe and Baap try to leave house moment mommy announces her menu- of karela & lauki as in the recent Cadbury ad.

Is there any truth in the picture painted by Cadbury ad about traditional mom? Or is it another expression of advertising license?The new Cadbury commercial is a 30 second capsule of a three decades of change in mommy’s kitchen. Traditional mommy has always negotiated with children with her concept of health food and so called junk food. Karela , lauki , palak , dudh all were mommy’s staple and she was a master strategist in formulating different ploys to force them down children’s food pipe . Palak khaoge pilot banoge , milk will add fairness , have your karela ,lauki and you will be allowed to have your burgers and colas. If she is an avowed practitioner of health food she is also the canny house wife making the best uses of her cooking resources including leftovers. Her skill in recycling the baasi(leftovers) sits comfortably with her obsession with wholesome food.

Today both these contradictory skills have lost their charms. Her lauki is a recipe of disaster and her best effort to make her own recipe palatable (-lauki sunke bhagna mot aag kuchh special hain- don’t run away hearing about gourd curry ...today’s’ preparation is special) have few takers. Only poor dad got caught; but then he has always been her proverbial guinea pig. When did the traditional mommy become such a big loser on her own traditional turf and how?

Well, a lot has happened or rather made to happen in her world in the last three decades by brands and marketers and in their coup they had a faithful co- conspirator who is none other than the new age bahu. Cadbury commercial mirrors this untold story. Thirty years back Saash was all powerful and kitchen was her kalakshetra ; tradition was her store house of recipes and years of practice and application in kitchen contributed to her stardom in the fairy tales of food. The aroma of maa ka hat ka khana used to bring truant children cart wheeling inside the kitchen. The newlywed wife used to find it difficult to win her man’ heart through stomach; because mommy ruled his taste bud. As a desperate attempt she had to ask her mom in law for her recipe of Change chhoole .By replicating her mom in law’s skill she would make her man discovered mother provider in his wife.

An intelligent strategy to win her man from his mom but time and again such experiments would back fire. How could she remember 24 items in change chole recipe and therefore the final preparation more often than not would have ended in disaster. Masala brands came to her rescue- na bhule aap kuchh na bhule hum. Remember the popular ad where Mandira Bedi pretended as if she were cooking as per her mom in law’s instruction but in reality was dancing to the tunes of her favorite music. The brand was almost conspiring with her; you do not openly defy tradition; asks your mom in law about the recipe, pretend that you are cooking as per her direction, make enough noise in the kitchen to show the world you are really slogging. Leave the final touch to us Everest masala . Sash khoosh, and pati moos mon ami .

That was the beginning. Young bahu had no plans to toil in kitchen day in and out. She had too many things on her plate- her career, her gym, her classes and beauty parlor, her new born child and hundred other agenda .The more she found herself hard pressed for time more the brands and gadgets came to her rescue and started changing her from inside. She started believing in brand communication that brands could increase height, tone up muscles and give more mental power. She is no longer worried if her children find roti and milk boring and old fashioned. One bowl of Kellogg is equal to two roties or a glass of milk. Cadbury is not a condiment; it actually is a meal.
Over the years brands have changed recipes and have added new wholesome variants. Atta, Dal , rice are popular variants in noodles ; soups and noodle combination offering great small meal options and make neo mother a fun mummy playing her khao pio game . Some brands like Horlicks and Kellogg’s went one more step ahead and started targeting mommies as end consumers not just as providers. They convinced her about the hemo-cal nutrient of women’s Horlicks. She, according to her children, has taken up the Kellogg’s challenge to make herself shape into Katrinawali dress. Children are happy and so is young mummy; tummy khus , trim mummy bhi khush.
If there is anybody who has lost out in this game is the good old mummy and mom- in- law. Considering that her loss of power and hold on children as makers of mouthwatering meals are being showcased by a chocolate maker is the most ironical of all communication. I remember an old toothpaste ad where the mommy barged into son’s room and snatched away all his chocolate bars because in those days chocolates were the painted villains courtesy toothpaste brands . Poor mummy never realized that this villain of a condiment would one day imperceptivity upgrade itself from junk food to a loved and respected dessert course of our daily meals and in the process would settle an age old score with mommy .
A sweet revenge indeed!