As kids you really don’t understand the value of herbs, spices and tastemakers that add that special touch to your favourite dishes. Growing up, Didi and I disliked the look of jeera. We would spend many meal times picking jeera out of our buttermilk thinking what flavour could this little brown seed possibly could give much. Anything she explained to us about the taste it adds to our favourite food fell on deaf ears. Until, one day, she decided to teach us a lesson by not adding jeera to the buttermilk that she used to so lovingly used to make at home. She went a step further just to make her point and made us buttermilk with no additives, not even the usual salt and pepper. One gulp and we knew what had happened. It suffices to say that we *never* plucked out jeera from our food again and guzzled jeera buttermilk at once when Ma made it because we knew what life without it looked like. The answer is bland, very bland.