The love language of food

Harini Arunugam

She remembers feeling a spike of jealousy whenever she watched her classmates unwrap Oreos or rip open boxes of Ritz crackers. I just have fruit, she thought to herself. 

But fast forward to years later, and senior Harini Arunugam is now grateful for her mother’s fruit, grateful for her mother’s meticulous care with cooking for her family every day. She remembers the bowl of fresh raspberries that had rested on her desk just the other morning, a recipe for alleviating stress that she didn’t even ask for. Her mother just knew. 

Arunugam’s mother expresses her love for her family through cooking — every morning, she wakes up early to prepare the day’s meals, and Arunugam has learned to be grateful for her mother’s priority of healthy food and fresh ingredients, her hard work and, of course, her constant love and care. 

Her mother doesn’t need her to explicitly ask Arunugam the meals she wants. Her mother just knows. 

One day, Arunugam mentioned to her mother in passing that she was craving pizza, and the next morning, she woke up to the wafting aroma of pizza dough rising — her mother had woken up earlier than usual, making sure the dough would have sufficient time to fully rise. 

Over quarantine, Arunugam’s mother has started teaching her how to cook too — Arunugam says that learning to make Indian food in a country that’s across the world from India feels special. And bonding with her mother in the process is even more so.

“My mom makes Indian food most of the time because it’s the food that she grew up eating,” Arunugam said. “She received love from her own mom and she’s kind of passing that down to her kids. She goes out of her way to look for authentic Indian spices, fresh vegetables. I love all of it. It’s something I’ll definitely miss in college.”