In a little apartment in Brickfields, a group of friends have gathered for a meal. At the helm in his tiny kitchen is 70-year-old Mohan Narayanan, who is huddled over a large pan, rapidly stirring the contents. Plating it up, he says – “It is a joy doing all these things.
When I feed people, I feel so happy.” The coterie gathered at the table all nod in approval, as oohs and aahs of pleasure are expressed every time a dish is brought out. For lunch on a random Tuesday afternoon, Mohan has whipped up approximately 10 different vegetarian dishes, including two different kinds of rice! “I can’t wait to eat! Everything that comes out of that kitchen is always sooo good,” says Hemavathi Sivanesan.
Hemavathi is one of the many young people who form part of Mohan’s large fan club; she says she grew up eating Mohan’s food as she is friends with his adult children – daughter Malavika Narayanan and son Madangopal Narayanan and frequently got to indulge in Mohan’s home-cooked fare. Mohan is a retired chartered accountant who originally hails from Coimbatore, India. He moved to Malaysia in his twenties and married his late wife, Shyamala Narayanan, a Malaysian and has lived here ever since.
The ever-smiling, genial Mohan is also a very talented home cook – a passion he inherited from his mother in India, who taught him an arsenal of recipes in a very unconventional way. Mohan learnt to cook from his mother as a child in Coimbatore, India, and her recipes continue to.
