Lot’s cooking for ex-Chief Architect

Mona

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 29

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path,” Maitreyi C Gupta, former Chief Architect, Haryana, quotes Buddha to pull similarities between the current lockdown and war. “With Covid, we are in the war zone and must not take our responsibility in this challenge any less,” says Maitreyi, who hasn’t stepped out of her residence in Sector 27, Chandigarh, for over a month.

Superannuated on February 29, the architect with Kurukshetra Museum, Mata Mansa Devi Complex and Rakhigarhi Interpretation Centre, Hisar, to her credit, has kept her early morning routine on. “I begin my day with walk in my backyard followed by yoga and meditation. My morning tea is special as my son and his family join me for a video chat,” she said.

“I am so glad that I have got time to clean my house properly, which is not possible during working days. I have taken out old recipe books to get back to baking. Experimenting all over again in kitchen has led to some amazing banana cake, ‘dosa’, ‘dal makhani’ and ‘naans’.” While her husband Parveen Chander Gupta decides the menu, together they cook. Also, cooking lessons are being doled out to their younger son who calls London home. While keeping positive, she said, “No one had ever expected a pandemic, only our collective efforts can break this chain. My husband is an entrepreneur, but we are sitting quietly at home. It’s time to look at the larger picture and not at personal gain or loss.”

In the absence of a gardener, Maitreyi takes out seasonal vegetables herself. “Every single day, I pluck a tomato or two and some brinjal. It’s so satisfying.”

“I remember the 1971 war, I was a little kid then. Nobody ventured out and glasses were blackened. No one spoke of schools then, but today, we can rely on technology to keep the learning going,” she added.