The delicious Russian meal

Sri Chinmoy: Sometimes Americans and Russians don’t get along, but anything is possible in God’s creation. There was once an American who had a good friend who happened to be a Russian. One night, instead of eating dinner at home, the Russian went to visit his American friend. When he arrived it was around ten o'clock. Ten o'clock was quite late in those days; now we say it is only evening. The American friend had finished his supper and his children had gone to bed — not like you people. Nowadays children don’t go to bed; they watch TV But in those days there was no TV and they were able to go to bed by ten o'clock. Only the cook was still awake.

The American said to his Russian friend, “How I wish I could give you a Russian meal! But my cook does not know how to cook Russian food, and the Russian restaurants are all closed. The next time you come, I hope I will be able to give you a Russian meal.”

The cook said, “No, no, no! I will be able to make a Russian meal. I will be able to give your friend a most delicious meal.”

The American didn’t believe him, but the cook said, “Please give me an hour.”

The Russian friend said, “Why just an hour? Take as long as you want I will be very happy to have a Russian meal.”

The American was very proud of his cook and had a lot of confidence in him. He said, “Take an hour.”

The cook had never cooked a Russian meal, but in an hour he came with a most delicious Russian meal. The Russian friend was so pleased, and the American friend couldn’t believe it. How did he do it?

N: He found a Russian cookbook.

J: He could have gone to the Russian friend’s house.

Sri Chinmoy: Very good! The cook went to the Russian friend’s house. The Russian had not eaten at home that night because he went to visit his American friend. So the cook went to the Russian friend’s house and begged the man’s wife to give him the food that she had cooked for her husband. The cook brought the food from the Russian friend’s wife. That is why the food was so delicious.

J is the cleverest! How many adults would have thought of that?

From:Sri Chinmoy,Big pot, little pot, Agni Press, 1981
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/bpl