When you go to the supermarket to buy tomatoes, you find that some are lying loose while some are comfortably packed. You reach out for the loose ones, start inspecting them one by one, even like some of them, and just as you are going to pick up the polyethene for the ones you like, your hand stops as you notice that on the side shelf, the packed ones look equally good, and some appear even better.
And suddenly, you think 'Oh! They look so shiny and bright red on the outside, and are not very soft as well! So they will last a few days or even weeks', and although they are slightly expensive than the loose ones, you go for them. In fact you pick up two packets which makes a dozen and then happily go to the counter to pay for them, without observing them as keenly as you did to the loose lot.
You reach home, all excited to cook your favorite meal. You hurriedly open one packet of tomatoes and are pretty satisfied with all the contents. So you cook, eat and sleep.
Two days later
It is time for you to use the tomatoes in the other packet. And when you open it, to your surprise, you find that one out of the six is totally rotten, with its one half white and the other half smashed, and to an extent that you can clearly see it has affected the other five as well. Some are on the verge of becoming too soft, while some have black holes in them, so they as well are not fit to be consumed. You think to yourself- 'I kept them in the refrigerator in the as packed condition, did not open them, even the expiry date is two weeks later and the other ones were just fine.'
It is time for you to use the tomatoes in the other packet. And when you open it, to your surprise, you find that one out of the six is totally rotten, with its one half white and the other half smashed, and to an extent that you can clearly see it has affected the other five as well. Some are on the verge of becoming too soft, while some have black holes in them, so they as well are not fit to be consumed. You think to yourself- 'I kept them in the refrigerator in the as packed condition, did not open them, even the expiry date is two weeks later and the other ones were just fine.'
Well, it eventually becomes clearer to you then that red tomatoes are not green bananas. They won't ripen as days pass. They will remain red tomatoes.
So you have learnt a lesson now that when you go to a store, you pick tomatoes carefully, because when you are about to make your favorite dish and find a rotten tomato, you won't feel pity for it or the other way round, you won't be sad about the money it cost you at the store, neither will the tomato feel guilty and apologize to you or its fellows, but you will only regret not getting to prepare and relish your favorite meal when you had been waiting for it the whole day, to enjoy the flavor of your chosen tomatoes in it.
Instead, you miss the feeling of becoming lost in the aroma that surrounds you when the tomato bits splash inside the pan, start doubting your choices, and the next time you plan to cook that dish again, possibly you may get haunted by just the thought of that one rotten tomato that ruined your appetite for that delicious meal you deserved.
-Disha
