Land of opportunities....?

Darn it! I ran out of tomatoes this morning. I was making rasam, the tur dal was all cooked and ready in the cooker. The puli thanni was boiling with salt. The rasam powder dabba lay open, ready to go into the brownish liquid bubbling away merrily, and that's when I realized I had run out of tomatoes! The search in all compartments of the fridge, including the freezer section was of no use. I just didn't have tomatoes. So what, you may ask. But being raised in a family that was probably the origin of the adage "brahmanah bhojana priya" it was difficult for me to fathom rasam without tomatoes. The molagu jeera rasam, that doesn't require tomatoes was an option, but today was not just the molagu-jeera rasam kind of day. Besides, the thuvaram paruppu was already done, and waiting in the cooker. Should I just run to the nearest HEB, well drive actually, and get some tomatoes. But that's five miles away and there's no gas in the car! And our grocery shopping was not due for another week. I was in dilemma.

The mind reels back, and the location is the kitchen in my home in India. The situation is similar. The pulli thanni is boiling away merrily, and the tur dal is all cooked and ready. And my mom realizes there are no tomatoes. She is in a fix too, but the kind that arises when there are one too many options to choose from. She could either ask me to quickly run to the Chitrakulam market, well ride my scooty actually, and get a 1/2 kilo (not lbs) of tomatoes. And the friendly anna might even thrown in a bit of kothamalli and karuveppilai, at no extra charge. Or she could ask me to run to Nalini aunty's flat opposite ours and "borrow" a tomato. And if Nalini aunty was short of tomatoes too, I could just run downstairs to Kachu aunty's flat and she would solve both Nalini aunty's and my tomato problems!

And they call the US a land of opportunities!