Uncle Azad’s Cake

Uncle Azad’s Cake

Uncle Azad held a high-ranking government position and was known for his confidence and decisiveness in office. But at home, he was just like any other man, curious and sometimes a little impulsive. One Sunday morning, he woke up unusually early. His wife was still asleep, and the children were buried in their dreams. Something struck him suddenly—he had a strong craving for cake. He realized that all the shops were still closed, and his wife, who usually handled all the cooking, was resting. A bold idea popped into his mind: why not make the cake himself?

Without giving it much thought, Uncle Azad jumped out of bed and hurried toward the kitchen. He glanced around, unsure of where to begin, and then picked up a cookbook. Flipping through the pages, he found the recipe for cake and carefully started reading the list of ingredients.

The first item was flour. But, due to his weak eyesight, Uncle Azad mistook flour for gram flour (besan) and placed it into the mixing bowl. Next on the list was an egg. He grabbed one egg and was about to crack it when it slipped from his hands and fell to the floor. Frustrated, he stomped his foot, picked up a second egg, and managed to put it into the bowl.

Now he looked for sugar and cocoa powder. He found the sugar without any problem, but cocoa powder was nowhere to be found. Annoyed, he abandoned the search for it. He picked up the sugar packet and started pouring it into the bowl—but his attention wandered back to the cookbook, and before he realized it, more than half of the sugar spilled onto the floor. He didn’t bother cleaning it up.

Next, Uncle Azad searched for baking powder. Not finding it, he mistakenly poured rosewater into the bowl, thinking it was some type of powder. Then he suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to add oil. He rushed toward the bottle, picked it up, and while opening it, the packet burst, spilling half of the oil onto the floor. The rest he poured into the bowl.

After mixing all the ingredients as best as he could, he lifted the bowl and headed toward the oven. But at that moment, his foot slipped on the spilled eggs and oil. He fell hard, and the entire bowl went tumbling to the ground, splattering its messy contents everywhere.

The commotion woke his wife, who, alarmed by his loud cries, hurried toward the kitchen. As she stepped inside, her eyes widened in shock. The kitchen was no longer recognizable; it looked like a disaster zone rather than a place to cook. Fragments of broken eggs, spilled oil, scattered sugar, and an unidentifiable mixture covered the counters and floor.

“What… what have you done?” she exclaimed. “You will clean this mess yourself, or there will be no food today!” Her voice was sharp with anger, and her warning left no room for argument. Uncle Azad, startled by her tone, immediately tried to get up. But as he looked around at the chaotic mess he had created, he felt dizzy. He realized that if his wife discovered exactly what he had put into the mixing bowl in his attempt to bake a cake, she would probably declare that what he had made wasn’t a cake at all. It was so unrecognizable that it might have been better suited to be thrown away than eaten.

Uncle Azad’s confidence in his culinary skills had taken a humorous but disastrous turn. His early morning craving for cake had led to a comical catastrophe in the kitchen—a mixture of spilled ingredients, broken eggs, oil on the floor, and rosewater instead of baking powder. Though his heart had been in the right place, his lack of preparation, attention, and experience had turned a simple baking task into a memorable domestic disaster.

That day, Uncle Azad learned a valuable lesson about patience, precision, and perhaps the wisdom of leaving baking to those more practiced. Despite his eagerness, some tasks require care and attention, and not all cravings can be satisfied with impulsive action. The kitchen might have survived the disaster, but Uncle Azad’s dream of an early morning homemade cake did not.