9 A Sumptuous Lunch

Tania knew he was trying to sweet talk her to start liking him. One cannot be forced to like or dislike someone.

"Thank you all for your concern," Tania replied. "I would like to get to know your countries as well as the rest of my relatives and would most certainly like to visit your homes in the imminent future."

"It is lunchtime, Lunch is ready, if you would follow me, we will proceed to the dining hall which is just across the library." she added.

"There is a washroom adjacent to the dinning room if you would want to wash your hands as I have made a few Indian and a few Russian dishes. You all may want to eat with your hands."

Tania had not given her relatives a direct answer as to where she wanted to settle down, India or Ukraine? For her, staying in Moscow was equally good.

"At present, I do not think it is wise to go to the village in Ukraine. This uncle of mine is no good." These thoughts crossed her mind and she started to frown.

"He has designs on my parents' house and everything they have left to me after their demise. He wants this house, he wants to take over my bank accounts too. By the look of his crafty face, he is planning something sinister." The frown on her face deepened.

"Maybe I should visit my grandmother and my cousins much later after ascertaining from her that uncle is on tour or a vacation," She thought all this and then about what would be the appropriate reply to give everyone?

"I will give a diplomatic reply, I think that should make everyone happy."

" I will say that I want to get to know all my relatives from both the countries and something about the countryside etc. I would most certainly like to visit the homes of my cousins and friends of my parents shortly." This would suffice but I need to wait till after lunch to give this diplomatic reply.

Hence, to change the subject she talked about lunch and the attention of the elders got diverted. They wanted to know how they would get served.

"Please follow me," Tania then guided everyone out of the library towards the dining hall which was just across the library. The washroom is adjacent to the dining room, in case you all would like to wash your hands."

"By the way! I would like to inform all of you that I have made a few Indian dishes as well as a few Russian dishes that I learned from my mother." Tania added with a smile.

"You all can eat with your hands if you wish," This was a bonus for everyone. It is not every day that in the western culture or Russian culture that you can eat with the hands.

Tania's thoughts drifted as to why people in many countries ate their meals using their hands instead of the knives, forks and spoons? It had something to do with using all your senses to eat ( sight, touch, smell, taste and hear also. It was like the sound made when the food was being mixed with the gravy or lentils).

Soon everyone got to the long dining table and took their seats. Thereafter, they started to serve themselves from the great display of well-cooked dishes.

"You cook well," said Mira after putting a morsel in her mouth and biting on it.

"Did your father teach you these Indian dishes?" she asked.

"Nothing of that sorts Dadi Ji, I learned cooking after watching mom cook all the dishes. So everything is in my mind. When I start to cook, my hands automatically know what to do," she replied after a few seconds.

Not to be left behind her Uncle also started to comment on her cooking. He had not taken any Indian dishes but had stuck to his Ukraine/Russian cooking.

"You cook very well. Did you attend any cookery classes?" he asked.

"No," she replied. "I used to watch my mother cook the Indian dishes she learned from Dad and the Russian dishes she had learned from Nani Ji," Tania replied.

As soon as everyone had finished their lunch, she got up to get the desert. After dessert, the men went to the library and both her grandmothers stayed back to help her clear the table and put the dishes for washing.

The dishes would be washed when her maid landed up in the afternoon.

"Do uncle Egor and Dada Ji like to drink coffee or tea after lunch?" she inquired from her grandmothers.

"I think we will all have coffee. We are yet to get acclimatized, it will be better to drink hot coffee for a few days till our system adjusts." Mira responded.

Tania asked her grandmothers to move to the library, and she would be bringing coffee for everyone.

She made the coffee and kept the coffee mugs on the tray along with sugar and then headed for the library.

As she entered the Library, she saw that the seating arrangements had changed. Both her grandmothers were sitting next to each other as if to exchange notes.

Her grandfather and her uncle were examining the different types of stones kept as decoration pieces on her father's bookshelf. The stone collection had been kept in such a way as to differentiate the medical books from other books.

She served them coffee and then went to stand with her grandfather.

"What are you examining?" she asked politely.

"Your father's stone collection," her grandfather replied.

"He had this stone collection hobby from his childhood. As he went on to college and then to study medicine in Russia, his stones were left behind kept in boxes at home. All boxes are properly labelled. He used to trade some of these stones with others especially when he found that some people were ready to exchange their stones with his stones."

"Yes, it seems he continued his hobby here and built his collection from scratch. He used to check all his stones practically once a week."Tania replied. They are all pieces of rugged stones that have a streak of some metal or precious/semi-precious stone in them. The clear ones are small polished pieces, like the malachite, which is a green stone with lines on it."

"Dad had segregated the rock pieces with streaks in them from the ones from which you could extract the colored portion only."

The same is the case with Amethyst, the purple colored stone. Once the purple color gets removed, it shines.

Dad had kept separate boxes for the rock pieces from the cut pieces. The real big pieces he would use as paperweights.

Soon all finished their coffee. The grandmothers were practically falling asleep. Seems they were tired from the flight and needed proper rest.

Keeping their health in mind, she suggested that they re-assemble in the evening around 5 p.m. for tea and snacks. At present, they should proceed to their rooms for a siesta.