The last difficulty can be overcome or overlooked. So, then, on the whole, it would be better to cook one's food if the landlady is not clean. Cooking, as perhaps would be feared, is not at all a difficult or troublesome process. No smoke, no wood, no cowdung cakes and no blowing or fanning are associated with the idea of cooking as here advocated. A portable oil stove serves the purpose of the Indian chulas. On that stove one can cook almost everything that may be cooked on the Indian chulas for 5 or 6 persons. Moreover, the cooking does not take much time. Twenty minutes would be found quite sufficient. Ten minutes are required for boiling milk. During the interval, while milk in boiling, many find it convenient to read something, e.g., a newspaper. An enamelled pan, one or two plates, two spoons would be your cooking utensils. The whole would cost not more than 10s. Water-white kerosene oil is very good for cooking. It does not give any nasty smell and burns well. The utensils would be supplied by your landlady too. It is, however, advisable to buy your own pan. Some meals may be prepared by the landlady and some taken outside, e.g., breakfast and supper may be prepared by the landlady and the midday meal taken outside. Some meals may be cooked by yourself and others taken outside. It is not troublesome to prepare one's breakfast and supper which consist of simple things. Under every one of these modes it is possible to live on 9s per week. And every one of the modes has been tried by me as well as many others. The first mode is the cheapest, viz., to cook all your meals; but it would cost more time and may prove inconvenient for a student who may pass his day in his library. However, let us see how under the first mode, 9s would give us sufficient food. As has been said above, the same food that we usually take in India is sufficient in England. Then we may see what would be the cost of the Indian meals. For example, if you stick to the two meals per day, you have for dinner at 10 p.m. chapati, dal, vegetable, bhat and milk. Such a dinner would cost as follows:
oz Wheat meal flour Rice Potatoes Lentils Butter Salt & pepper
