The best chef of Ranikhet is married to her. They have a tall, smart teenager son who is on the journey to find his calling. Members of her large extended family periodically descend on her, when anyone needs surgery, schooling, a wedding trousseau, or just some Ranikhet air…
Some of the various aspects of the life of Meena Dosaad.
Married at a young age, before she could complete her schooling..Meena and her husband moved to Ranikhet from their family village, so that he could train and work as a chef. With the experience of 2 decades of training and cooking, he is the head cook at Windsor Lodge, the premier hotel of our town. It’s the one dining spot where I am assured of excellent food, consistent taste and flavour, and grateful compliments from guests and visitors for having recommended the place.
Meena spent her childhood days in the city and its hospitals. Rheumatic Heart Disease affected her during childhood, and many a week was spent in the OPDs of AIIMS and other medical colleges, for managing her condition. RHD leaves patients with a weak heart. Bearing children is not easy. Surgeries and dental extractions can be fatal. Any minor infection can cause havoc in the heart, so patients like Meena, are sentenced to a painful Penicillin injection, every month.
Perhaps its all those tough childhood experiences of tests, waiting rooms, injections and drug regimes which have shaped her into this woman of strength, easy laughter, eye for perfection, and the willingness to learn and grow.
All through her adult years, Meena has been bringing up their son, taking care of all village visitors, and being a dutiful wife. She has also been learning how to read knitting charts, become a perfectionist, and doing fine, flawless stitching of labels and buttons. Many of the individual orders, personalised for size and design, have been knitted by Meena. I prefer to give her these projects, cos she never thinks twice of coming home and taking directions when the knitting gets tough..So many compliments and customers can be traced to her knitting!
But life has changed after she entered Needlestosaymore…for the better, Meena feels! She has dispensed with many a blind belief which smacked of patriarchy/caste/superstition, but stands up for the traditions which she holds dear! She has a group of supportive and loyal friends with whom she can share her life, laugh and banter, giggle and tease, and have a wonderful Wednesday to balance out the rest of the week.
Her best bits of advice to me have been about…
- “How-to-remove-leeches-from-legs-after-walking-in the-forest” ( smear salt on a comb, comb your legs down, see the leeches fall like mustard seeds)..
- “How-to-escape-from-a bear-chase” ( you run downhill, so that the bear’s vision is blocked by his own hair flopping on his eyes).
Earlier dreams of a comfortable home have been fulfilled…she has saved and planned meticulously to get household things, from a fridge to a large bed, and everything else in between. Her love for smart, bright outfits has been satisfied..The desire to be appreciated and applauded for her skills has been appeased. She now has dreams for her talented son…I do hope he realises, sometime in the future, that he can be an admirable designer if he works at it!
As for me, I cannot visualise this venture without Meena and her skilled fingers, her bright happy face, her queries and doubts, her desire to knit everything just perfect.She understands, breathes, and feels for me and my quest for exquisite, exclusive knitwear..and I am grateful.