Food first.

My grandmother has an intensely ingrained contempt for Fast-Food and cringes at its very sight or mention.
She can talk for hours about how people today have given up what is wholesome for a quick fix, even as I sit in front of her fantasizing about deep dish pizzas.
While she disagrees with my unhealthy and often unexciting culinary taste, her beginnings in the cooking world were quite stirring.

Being the oldest of the house and attending to work outside home, she had received little knowledge about cooking from her mother. This was before she got married at 13.
In her new home, she was never required to lift a ladle or keep the kettle. Her mother-in-law took care of all the cooking. Her brothers-in-law and her husband in particular ignored most of this cooking and choose to eat out instead.
Astonished at this and armed with a purpose, my she set out to reverse the trend.

Close to the house of a friend that she often visited, was Ram Krishna Asharam. she was well acquainted with the cook there who offered her something to eat whenever she visited. she traded these meals for cooking lessons from the expert.
That's where she started her learning. After perfecting her skill in the ashram's kitchen, she began displaying her new acquired culinary skills at home. Surely enough her husband gave up going to hotels.
" I won his heart with my cooking" she still proudly proclaims with a glint in her eye.

Wedding bells.

sharada at a tender teenage age to Govinda Rao, in 1945. He was a railways employee and a family friend. She consented to the proposal that was kept before her, based solely on a promise made by the groom. No no, not jewelery or real estate but the chance to pursue her studies. She still recounts her thoughts from back then when she had no clue what marriage was and yet got into it willingly only because her husband to be, offered to support her further studies. Such was her dedication towards studies. At a time when SSLC meant 'Stop studying learn cooking' for her friends, she had her mind set on getting a good education and continuing her pursuit of knowledge. Her friends would kindle a joke or two in mirth about being married and yet going to school, but that never stopped her from continuing her studies.

It was in the first year of her marriage that she completed her Class 9. As a young bride, she was very concerned not to let her studies jeopardize her duties at home. She would finish all her homework and studies at college itself, lest her in-laws complain that she was escaping form household duties.

Treading the road less taken.