A Dough Story
I do not know if you have ever tried your hand at kneading dough, however, if you haven’t, I suggest you give it a try.
It’s one of the weirdest experiences ever. Of course, now some machines are replacing this mind-opening sacred practice just as they are everything.
Seriously though, knead dough.
Getting my hands in there helped me and some of the insights I gained are entailed here.
Firstly, Ugghghgh. I have felt Ewww every single time I have kneaded the dough. This happens at the start of kneading dough as the water and flour mix and then they stick to your fingers, it’s very yucky. So gross. ( Okay, so this gross part might just be my inexperience or lack of technique plus knowledge talking but it is what it is ) It’s just Ewww. But while feeling Ewww, I have also managed to learn something from it. We start with this pile of loose grain and after adding water, mixing with all sorts of movements, it becomes something that can be cooked. Something that can be edible. Something that can give us energy. Of course while sometimes due to excessive water content, it can come out as soggy and sticky. Other times due to the lack of water content, it can come out as something as hard as a rock. Still, all of it can be rectified. We only need to add more flour and water and voila. If we go on rectifying it like that, we will see it become something big someday.
We are also like this. Loose and all over the place but also one and the same. We are all different but we can also become one.
Many of us like to eat and get eaten. Eating brings us not only energy for sustenance but also pleasure, satisfaction and fulfilment. And what is life without pleasure?
So basically, what I am trying to say is that we are the grain and the dough getting thrashed and kneaded by the hands of life. ( Or Fate, God, The Universe, whatever floats your boat )
I would like to say, just as we believe that hopefully, we will cook something consumable. Something palatable that will not test our taste buds to the limits. Something digestible that will keep us from clutching our stomachs and running to the bathroom. Something that will not only not be burnt but also not bring the kitchen down with it. Something that will satisfy us not because it’s as tasty as a dish cooked by a 5-star Masterchef but because it’s something cooked by us ourselves.
And even if we don’t believe that we’ll cook something consumable, we are at least cooking. The process matters.
However, just in case ( happens a lot with me ) the food being cooked was burnt down all the while bringing the kitchen down with it, what do we do?
Sure, we cry and ponder but ultimately, do we not get up? Do we not clean the mess? Do we not learn and change? Do we not renovate? Do we not move if the uncontrolled heat did a lot of damage? Do we not start again or try something different? Do we not ask for help? Be it from Mother google, friends, family, househelp, strangers on the internet, etcetera.
If we do, then why don’t we do the same with life? These are questions that came to me in the process of kneading the dough. Thus being called a sacred practice. On a side note, people can also perform martial arts like movements with the dough which looks very cool. They go *whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh*.
Anyway, coming back to our dough at hand, we can change the type of grain, the amount of it, the quantity of water, our process, the dish, the vessels, the heat, the ingredients, the kitchen, change whatever that can be changed and leave the rest.
There’s just so very much to learn from kneading dough. So do it already.
We can make our own pizza base. We are our own pizza base. And we choose the sauces, the seasonings, the cheeses, the toppings and the type of pizza we become. Or not become a pizza at all. The dough can be changed to anything too.
Whether it’s a cookie pizza, a pineapple pizza, chapati/ roti, etcetera. We choose it. And we can choose many times. So the choice is really ours I think. What do you think?
