Dehradun, July 18 -- Culinary Chronicles

I am generally about as kid-friendly as a cactus, and twice as prickly about my personal space. I deeply value my pristine, aggressively childproof home and a sanctuary completely devoid of sticky fingerprints.

But right before I was set to leave Patiala, a tiny, polite voice completely shattered my carefully constructed, child-free equilibrium.

"Aunty, before you leave, can you cook mutton roganjosh for me?"

And just like that, my strict "no-kids" policy dissolved. To be fair, Dakshveer isn't actually a child. He is more like a tiny, highly sophisticated 19th-century British gentleman trapped in the body of a twelve-year-old boy.

He completely won me over by being terrifyingly smart and shock...