As I sat down to write, I had this inexplicable desire to cook. Mother was not in the kitchen and that would be the perfect time to help myself to some ingredients which otherwise remain out of my bounds on mother’s watch. I sneaked like a cat into my own kitchen and started looking for vegetables to chop. I had some crazy ideas to serve on my platter and I felt happy to take charge of the kitchen. People would say that my behaviour is very much like a girl who is into cooking and housemaking stuff, people hardly realize that it’s the chemistry of the cooking that indulges me into this arena. The spices and the condiments that dwell in the perfect ratio in order to bring the water to the tip of the tongue..yes it is all chemistry. The one that you want to run away from during school days, the one that you want to go to now,strange as it is, chemistry can sometimes be unnerving. Follow the easy steps and it all boils down to the simple formula. I looked at the dead fish in the refrigerator. Fish have a memory of fifteen seconds. Can this be true? Fish live in water, a complex environment according to me and if you don’t remember things more than fifteen seconds, how are you supposed to remember where you keep things? I guess fish don’t require that memory at all. Some people say that dish are robots! Seriously?! Only because fishes don’t have facial features to express their emotions, you cannot outcast them to the section of non-feeling robots. Fishes however, are extremely adjustable creatures. I remember I brought home a fish in a water filled polythene bag and then transferred it to a fish bowl. The bowl was perhaps too small for the fish and it had leaped out and fell on the floor. I had to pick it up with a spoon. Oh how much i cried thinking that it was dead, but it survived and i was relieved! 
I wondered what is it about me that i love fish so much. The answer was geographically determined maybe. Living in a coastal region, I have grown up eating fish every day and I have developed a fondness to my cultural inclination towards fish. Fish is a part of every festival in Bengal, rohu is included in every auspicious ceremony. We even have ghosts named “Mecho bhoot” in our bedtime stories. It’s now a part and parcel of our culture. Sociology and social psychology says that habits become tradition and tradition becomes culture which further governs the behaviour of society as a whole. So Maithils and Bengalis started eating fish for something inevitable and gradually it became a culture of a society as a whole.
Fish is tasty. No wonder I’m such a foodie. Mother calls it a Pomfret. I knew what to do. I brought the cold fish out from the refrigerator and allowed it to come down to room temperature. I marinated the sleek smooth fish in ginger, garlic, oil, turmeric, chilli powder and lemon juice for thirty minutes. Then tossed it in mustard oil in the frying pan. Who could resist the smell? I garnished it with tomato and coriander leaves. I fried potato fingers and my fish and chips was ready to be eaten. Having decked it up, I thought to myself, Fish is good for the eyes and brain. Did you know it is rich in proteins and bla bla bla? O come on, who am I fooling over here? It was totally irresistable and I would call myself a bad child, cause I couldn’t wait for my mother to return and helped myself to the adorned delicacy.
The myths of a fish eating person
