My younger daughter is an aspiring chef. She loves baking cakes, pies and other goodies. We as parents of Indian origin, though not too happy with her choice, have encouraged her to do what she wants to do and follow her passion. As she stepped into her High school, she was excited to be in her culinary class.

Just after a few weeks into the program, she started losing interest in her passion. I was shocked! Every time I would ask her- so what did you cook today? Her answer was - Nothing! It happened a couple of times and then I realized something was wrong. I sat down with her and asked her what the matter was. She explained to me that her teacher does not teach anything. She gives them worksheets on behavior to do or makes them watch some TV shows. Well, my antennas stood up! That's not what a culinary teacher should do. I sent the teacher an email asking for details. She did not respond.

I few weeks passed by. I was still getting the same answer from my daughter- What did you cook today? Daughter - Nothing!

I was pissed off. I sat down and wrote an email to the school Principal demanding an explanation. Could he find out what was going on the classroom?? He said he will have the teacher call me. I waited for a few days for her calls and finally the much awaited call came at 9:10 PM. I was not too thrilled by the time selection but I took the call anyways. We talked, she tried to explain… it made no sense and we said good byes at 9:35 PM. She sounded nervous… I let it go.

Next day, in the evening news at 5 PM, I found out that the same teacher was arrested buying drugs the previous night at 10:15 PM in a parking lot. She had a history of drug abuse and after talking to me last night, she decided to get high because our conversation caused her a lot of stress. Thus ended my daughters conflict to be a chef or not because they got a new teacher right away. My friends teased me how I had caused the poor woman so much stress! Oh well! Good riddance.