Tiffin Box
Last week, I received a beautiful tiffin box in the mail. It is a solid stainless steel, bento style lunch box with comfortably sized compartments, making me think of all the fun meals that could fit into these shiny rectangles. The lid of this tiffin box alone can send me into raptures because it is designed to keep the contents of each compartment from spilling over into the others. I consider myself a bit of a connoisseur in tiffin boxes along with perhaps every other person who grew up in India, which is famous for its tiffin wallahs whose sole job is to collect hot lunches from people's homes and deliver it to school children and office workers. I recommend watching
the 2013 romantic Indian film "The Lunch Box". If you liked the very
romantic 1945 English film called "Brief Encounter", you are sure to
enjoy this one.
This tiffin box brings back some cherished childhood memories. When I was in first grade, my Mother brought me my lunch in a tiffin box. She had a sort of round picnic basket in which there was a tiffin carrier with three compartments and a spoon, a small towel, and water in a reused glass bottle. She would leave home with three other other Mothers in the neighborhood who also had children attending the local Convent School.
At noon, the school would open its hugely ornate and somewhat forbidding gates. The tiffin walis, Mums, Grandpas, and other family members would be allowed to enter. Kids would go find their tiffin wali to pick up their tiffin boxes or wait patiently for their lunch if their tiffin wallah may have been delayed. After all, this is India. Not everyone is on time.
Back to my Mother and her friends. She usually came with three maamis (aunties) all of them wearing soft cotton saris in pretty shades, hair neatly braided, chatting amiably as they set out our food. They were often deep in conversation stopping to remind us to chew properly and to not spill our food. Mothers would invariably check to see if we ate everything they packed for us. My Mum brought lunch for me and my cousin who was in Kindergarten.
After that first year, lunch was brought to us by my Uncle and Aunt's live-in cook, a very sweet man who smiled a lot. One day, however, he was crying all through the lunch hour, big fat tears flowing down his face, his head bent. He had had a bitter quarrel with his wife who worked as a live-in cook at my Aunt's Mother's house, which was 20km away. Behind his sweet smile he must have led a lonely life, away from his wife and kids. I remember my cousin and I feeling helpless about not being able to cheer him up.
By the time I went to middle school, my Mum had hired a regular tiffin wali. An attractive Mother of five boys and the wife of a carpenter, brought hot lunch to me, my friends, and my older sister who was then in her final year of high school. She had to walk a mile one way with all the tiffin carriers arranged in a huge basket that she placed on her head. This woman would become a huge part of our family life for the next several decades until she passed away suddenly last year of a heart attack. We are still in shock and think about her often.
My college was literally around the corner from my home and so I never needed a packed lunch for five years. But these were some of my sweetest lunch memories. My Mum would prepare lunch and wait for me to show up. Some years, there were cousins attending the same college who also came home for lunch, which was fun. I had lunch with my Mum almost everyday during my college years. I didn't realize then, just how very blessed I was.
This tiffin box brings back some cherished childhood memories. When I was in first grade, my Mother brought me my lunch in a tiffin box. She had a sort of round picnic basket in which there was a tiffin carrier with three compartments and a spoon, a small towel, and water in a reused glass bottle. She would leave home with three other other Mothers in the neighborhood who also had children attending the local Convent School.
At noon, the school would open its hugely ornate and somewhat forbidding gates. The tiffin walis, Mums, Grandpas, and other family members would be allowed to enter. Kids would go find their tiffin wali to pick up their tiffin boxes or wait patiently for their lunch if their tiffin wallah may have been delayed. After all, this is India. Not everyone is on time.
Back to my Mother and her friends. She usually came with three maamis (aunties) all of them wearing soft cotton saris in pretty shades, hair neatly braided, chatting amiably as they set out our food. They were often deep in conversation stopping to remind us to chew properly and to not spill our food. Mothers would invariably check to see if we ate everything they packed for us. My Mum brought lunch for me and my cousin who was in Kindergarten.
After that first year, lunch was brought to us by my Uncle and Aunt's live-in cook, a very sweet man who smiled a lot. One day, however, he was crying all through the lunch hour, big fat tears flowing down his face, his head bent. He had had a bitter quarrel with his wife who worked as a live-in cook at my Aunt's Mother's house, which was 20km away. Behind his sweet smile he must have led a lonely life, away from his wife and kids. I remember my cousin and I feeling helpless about not being able to cheer him up.
By the time I went to middle school, my Mum had hired a regular tiffin wali. An attractive Mother of five boys and the wife of a carpenter, brought hot lunch to me, my friends, and my older sister who was then in her final year of high school. She had to walk a mile one way with all the tiffin carriers arranged in a huge basket that she placed on her head. This woman would become a huge part of our family life for the next several decades until she passed away suddenly last year of a heart attack. We are still in shock and think about her often.
My college was literally around the corner from my home and so I never needed a packed lunch for five years. But these were some of my sweetest lunch memories. My Mum would prepare lunch and wait for me to show up. Some years, there were cousins attending the same college who also came home for lunch, which was fun. I had lunch with my Mum almost everyday during my college years. I didn't realize then, just how very blessed I was.
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