Cheeni Kum

On By MeghaIn Know me

Cheeni Kum literally means Sugar is less. It’s a phrase used to represent lack of taste in the (sweet) dish or something less than perfect. This post is about my relation with sugar over the years.

  • Sugar holds a very important place in my life. As a child I was a sugar-o-holic. Loved sweets like ants and my love saw itself transforming to my passion for baking for I loved to have a generous serving of cakes.
  • The problems were never chocolates for though I loved them, but ate them in moderate amounts. The problem area was the amount of sugar I used to add to a cup of tea, milk or any sweets that I made.
  • I have inherited my inclination for sugar from my mum who used to add 2.5 teaspoons of sugar in her cup of tea and loved snacking on sugary delights.
  • Life moved on and I stepped in my teens. Slowly, slyly the desire to stay in shape and to cut down calories crept in and my love for sugar saw an epic decline to the extent that someone who always ate yogurt with sugar now started eating plain yogurt (no sugar or any other additive). I even indulged in sugarless tea for a while (around two years).
  • My love for sugar changed to liking when my best friend in college who was also my room-mate walked in my life. She had a strong inclination for savory foods and never ate sweets except occasional ice creams. she would never give me company in eating sweets, hence my interest in them slowly declined.
  • The last nail in the coffin of my love for sugar came the day my ex-husband stepped in my life. He was an extension of my best friend’s love for savory foods for he not only didn’t eat sweets but wouldn’t let me eat them either. Over the course of years, my liking for sweets and sugar came to a point that I find it hard to be tempted by the best of chocolates even when they are sitting in big boxes in my fridge.
  • But, this wasn’t the end of my relation with sugar. The big boxes of Swiss chocolates I had brought for my mum still lay untouched in our fridge, for sometime last year my mum was diagnosed with Diabetes. She had scary blood sugar levels. Almost four times above the normal range and was asked to not even think about sweets let alone taste them. No one across the length and breadth of our family has ever had diabetes, so her alarming sugar levels came as a big shock to everyone.
  • As time has passed, after many episodes of my mum crying like a baby just to be allowed to eat a few chocolates or have an extra-large serving of the cakes I bake, she seems to have learnt to stay away from sweets. But all these emotional turmoils only strengthened my dislike for sugar. I know it isn’t the fault of the sweets, but seeing the misery they send my mum’s way I can’t control my growing dislike for them. The other reason behind my dislike is the number of times I have been badly scolded by my mum just cause I refused to let her have those Swiss chocolates or to bake her favorite cakes.
  • This is one of the major reasons I rarely bake cakes these days, except for birthdays. For I myself eat hardly a slice and I spend the next few hours/ days till the cake is over, worrying if mum would have sneaked out a big slice of it. So frosting are a strict no-no in my kitchen.
  • If all this while you are wondering why haven’t we just finished off the chocolates or given them away. Well, my dad too isn’t very particularly fond of chocolates and since he has had a few very painful root canals done in his teeth he dreads them all the more. So the guests to our place have been very happily enjoying the chocolaty treats to my mum’s utter dislike.
  • The onus of finishing the chocolates now rests on Pari who simply adores anything that’s savory but runs away from sweets. Though chocolates are a rare exception besides cakes, but that too she likes in very limited portions. Never more than three-four bites. It’s something rare but happens in my house all the time. Even now the chiller trays of both our fridges are overflowing with chocolates and no one even wants to eat them. I don’t mind eating a piece or two once in a while when Pari asks for it, else I think I will have to find a way of slowly gifting them without letting my mum find out.
  • This post has been sitting incomplete in my drafts from over four months. If you are wondering that the nearing festival season gave me the needed push to complete it, let me share another secret about sugar in my life. Yesterday I saw the movie Cheeni Kum. It is among my all time favorite films. Having laughed to my heart’s content while watching it, I decided to let this post see the light of the day and be posted with a beautiful song from this must-watch movie.

The song on my mind: Jaane do na ~ Cheeni Kum

46 thoughts on “Cheeni Kum”

  2. I have a huge sweet tooth. Diabetes is scary to imagine in loved ones. Your mom will be all good 🙂 This is also one of my favourite movies. Love the song 🙂

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    1. Mum’s sugar levels are very much in control with medications but achieving this control took a mammoth effort 😦
      I honesty don’t miss eating sweets at all, though I do love baking cakes 😀

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  3. Ha ha ha ha ha…lovely take and reasons behind this post!

    I looooooveee to have my coffee with huge amount of sugar first thing in the morning. After that I am fine with even a sugarless cup during the day. I love sweets & chocolates too but sadly very recently I have been diagnosed with allergy to cocoa and emulsifiers. So all those nice looking colourful things full of preservatives are a big NO for me. Your post is so tempting… I do wanna have a chocolate NOW!!

    😦

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    1. Ouch! allergy with cocoa and emulsifiers is bad 😦 I can imagine how much unnecessary pain that might have been causing you.
      Tights hugs dear and go get a chocolate 🙂

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  5. I’m a die-hard fan of all things sweet! By all i mean ALL. It’s such a bad taste to acquire because it stays with you on your tummy! Just yesterday I thought of giving up sugar. Since morning I’ve had raisins in my oats and a chocolate biscuit filled with butterscotch! I need to unlearn how to love sweets!

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    1. It’s very tough to unlearn loving sweets, but yes, you can surely reduce the intake 🙂
      Chocolate biscuit filled with butterscotch sounds yummy…you are tempting me to bake 😀 😀

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  7. My mom made modaks for Ganesh chaturthi festival but they lay there in the fridge as my family doesn’t have sweet tooth.

    It is good to cut down sweets. My father is diabetic and drinks bitter green tea

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    1. It’s the same story at our place. I am happy to make sweets but we find it tough to finish them up 😦
      I know how difficult life gets for diabetics. I agree cutting down sugar is a great lifestyle change 🙂

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  10. I have come long way with sugar too.. basically I don’t have a sweet tooth but still I tried many experiments like coffee/tea without sugar et all.. now I have come to a point where I stopped coffee/tea and having milk in the night without sugar.. my intention is to reduce the daily intake of sugar which is still happening indirectly via the health drink bournvita.. 🙂

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    1. I still drink tea and coffee occasionally (earlier too it was limited to a cup a day or two cups max). I too drink milk with bournvita but earlier i used to add sugar to that as well. Staying away from sugar is a great way of staying healthy 🙂

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  11. Wow! who would’ve thought- a post on sugar- thats not entirely related to food! Great post. I only wish I could surround myself with people who dont have a sweet tooth! What abt Pari? Does she lean towards sweet or savoury??

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  12. Loved reading about your love-hate relationship with sugar, ME. I am a big-time sugar lover, too, and love sugary treats, but of late, I have learnt of the hazards of too much sugar in my diet. I have grown cautious of the amount of sugar I consume every day. I do indulge myself once in a while, but yes, I am far more cautious than before. I am glad I grew to be that way. As they say, too much of sugar is a slow killer.

    I love this particular song from Cheeni Kum, and the movie too. 🙂

    Can I come over to your place to polish off the rest of the Swiss chocolates, please?! Chocolates are one thing I indulge myself in, whenever I want something sweet. Absolutely love them. And Swiss chocolates? Ah, the bliss!

    PS: Best wishes on winning the Blog Adda contest. 🙂 I am yet to read that post of yours, though. Will do so soon.

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    1. You are very welcome TGND , anytime 🙂
      Being cautious about all that you eat is really important for our lifestyle and eating habits affect our life and health greatly.
      Thank you dear 🙂

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  13. Oh no! I was thinking of sending you a box of Mysorepa from Krishna Sweets for Diwali. Now I have to think something else.

    On a serious note, your can make sweets for your mom using sugar substitutes. I don’t know about India. But here in USA, there is a brand called Splenda. It is the best sugar substitute. Tastes just like sugar but it is a substitute. I don’t know if it is available in India. The only drawback in this is you cannot make syrup.

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    1. Thank you for the sweet thought SG 🙂
      My mum uses sugar substitute for her tea and coffee, but as making sweets out of it. I strongly discourage her for her blood sugar levels were at alarming levels for a long time. Besides sugar diabetes demands control over intake of all forms of lipids and carbohydrates too, so I am after her all the time stopping her from eating anything belonging to those food groups beyond a couple of bites.

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  14. Dil On The Rocks

    I loved sweets too. Murali doesn’t like them much, so after wedding I kind of stopped eating them. Now that mum and dad are here we are having a sweet time tasting sweets. 🙂 May pari like them as much as you do. And hope your mum feels better. 🙂

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  15. I love sweets, in all forms and types. Can’t live without them. And your post makes me want to run and get some sweet to eat right now. Not fair!

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  16. I remember you telling that you having a cheeni story 🙂
    Now your first encounter with cheeni sounds uncannily similar. My brother is a die-hard sugar fan. It scares us sometimes 😦
    Sad that the chocolates are lying unused..chalo, chalo, think of some recipe to finish them off 😉 psst..coffee+chocolate 🙄

    I was always on the middle ground when it came to sugar. Never too much. Just right. The in-laws ‘were’ on 1 on the scale of 1-10 for the sugar fondness. Now they blame me for the level to have risen to 5 :mrgreen:

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    1. This story had been sitting neglected for a very long time 😦
      I got many chocolate recipes Visha but the trouble is who will eat those sweets ❓ 😥
      Yayy! that’s the way ….you rock my sweet Visha 😀 😀 😀

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  17. I can relate to this post so much. Both my parents are diabetic, and I worry each time there is some dessert lying around at home. They are getting more cautious by the day though.

    Having said that, sugar is the culprit for most of us. It is called ‘sweet poison’. Even cancer primarily feeds on sugar. So cutting back would be a good idea for all of us, I would think. I still love my desserts, and especially chocolates. I really hope I learn to stay in my limits. 😀

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    1. I agree Pepper, the worry of my mum eating on the cakes and pies I bake scares me to the limit that I many times try to hide the cake behind the vegetables in the fridge so that she isn’t tempted to indulge in them 😦
      You are very right about sugar being a sweet poison 🙂

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    1. Do watch the movie Chatty, I am sure you’ll enjoy it 🙂
      Oh yes, I learnt to control my urge to eat sweets after years of trying and failing at indulging in sweets.

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  19. I LOVE this movie! My relationship with sugar is probably the most unfaithful one 😛 There rae days when I crave for an entire jar of boost if I don’t find anything sweet and then there are days when I want sugarless everything. But tea has to be sweet and milky 🙂
    I love that song you have shared! That song was made quite a while back in Tamizh and Kannada and I have loved it since then! 🙂
    This was a very sweet post (literally and figuratively!) 🙂

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    1. Come on Kismi you have no choice but to be sweet (yourself and also a sweet lover) afterall you are a toffee dear 😉 😉
      Same pinch…me too love the movie 😀
      Thank you dear

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  20. Oh My! I can’t imagine my life without sweets! I may not have the tomatoes or the ginger or the chilies but a box of sweet has a permanent place in my fridge. Have to have a bite of sweet after every lunch and dinner! And it runs in the family!! 😀

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  22. Wow, you bake so many delicious cakes and still can control yourself…i am impressed.
    My dad too has got diabetes, and normally my mom has to watch what he eats….

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    1. My Era

      Thank you dear 🙂
      Though it has been quite a painful journey from a sugar-o-holic to my current state. But it gives me an edge in my attempts at loosing the extra pounds 😀 😀

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