New Delhi, Nov. 29 -- It occurred to me recently that I have been cooking regularly for 25 years now. We will not include the teen and tween years which included the feverish making of rasmalai and gulab jamun and cakes. That, as my friend Mridula has remarked after closely observing her three children, seems to be an evolutionary adaptation of preparing to leave the nest. (It is amusing and completely plausible that in humans the hormones prepare you to feed yourself but malfunction and embrace carbohydrate chaos instead.) I am marking my 25 years from the time I figured that if I want curd rice at 9pm, I'd have to make it myself. This passage of time has surprised me because I am used to thinking of myself as little more than a novice. ...