Soup for the Soul.

This is a story of The Soup. A story that most of my friends know. A story that has been exaggerated each time it’s been told. So exaggerated that even I don’t remember what really happened that day. The day I made solid soup.

It was my final practical exam in Homescience.  And practicals in Homescience meant cooking. The exam had three parts. First part, the theoretical part where you get a question and you write down the appropriate menu, ingredients needed and the procedure. And it was open book. Yeah, open book. We could look at the recipes that we’d written throughout the year. But it wasn’t that easy. If you didn’t write an ingredient, you actually wouldn’t get the ingredient during the exam. People had made flour-less cakes and milk-less kheer.  Well, I’d written Sweet Corn Soup as part of the menu. I thought, “This has got to be easy”. Look at the recipe and copy. A cake walk. The second part was cooking the menu. I’d started off pretty well. I started making the soup last. I knew the recipe really well and I thought, “I just have to stick to the recipe and I’m done”. I did stick to the recipe. Well, sort of. I don’t really know how I did it but The Soup I made was..erm..solid. And I realised that it had this characteristic smell. My friend came over to my bench. She probably noticed the disgusted expression on my face. Before I knew it, she smelt the soup and fainted. I remember her cursing me for a whole week. Well, so I kept the soup covered with a plate. Didn't want anyone else to faint, you see.

The third part was viva. The first thing the teacher told me to do was to lift the plate. "Ugh”, I thought. She gave me the cold eye. So I lifted the plate. And BAM! The aroma of soup filled the kitchen (or lab as we were supposed to call it). I had already gotten accustomed to the smell.  The next thing she did was pick up a spoon. She asked me what it was. I said, "Erm, Sweet corn soup. You'll have to eat it. It's solid." My pathetic attempt at humour. It's 'solid'. Eh eh, geddit? I sighed and passed her the bowl of The Soup. To understand what she went through in the next couple of moments, I'll have to describe how The Soup looked like. Brown (too much soya sauce), peppercorns stuck in the jelly-like soup (I'd forgotten to crush the peppercorns), salty and well, jelly-solid (Too much egg. Egg, yeah, you heard it right). Oh oh, and no corn. Too much smartness I showed. So she put one whole spoonful of The Soup in her mouth. And...well..just walked away.

That was the end my viva.