Tales from a tiffin box

I opened up the little lunch kit I take to work everyday. There was bagaLabhath - humble thayir saadam (yogurt rice), jazzed up with tempered black mustard, channa dal, curry leaves, and roasted curd-chillies. In a separate ziploc bag were two mini apple strudels. Hurriedly thrown together, but with an eye for taste - the ensemble seemed to say - the apple strudels were an afterthought!

Suddenly the apple strudels transformed into melt-in-the-mouth mysorepak; the thayir saadam came decorated with spicy roasted potatoes - roasted crisp with a coating of chickpea flour and tossed with fresh cilantro....Mmmmm, heavenly - as all imaginary lunches are.

Would be nice if I had my own personal genie ala Aladdin, who would pack delicious lunches for me everyday. Maybe this is why they have packs called "Lunchables" in the US - a ready made tray with sections - meat, bread, vegetables, fruit and such arranged in their own spot. There's probably a spot for dessert too....A working mother's guilt-free but expensive option.

To me the lunchables look neat, but have none of the character of the home-packed lunches. Ditto for the frozen Indian entrees available in the supermarkets. You heat, eat and forget. Fast, but impersonal. The home packed lunch is probably the last bastion in an industrialized world with quick fixes for everything, uniform cookie-cutter solutions, and standardized factory-generated tastes.

*-*-*

If packed lunches could speak, what would they say? Would each tiffin box convey to the viewer, the lunch packer's state of mind, along with the lunch eater's fortunes?

Let's say my lunch had neatly packed sections - rasam rice with vegetables in one; thayir saadam with tender mango pickle in the other; and a side dish of chilled fruit or payasam.... What would that arrangement say?

In my current state, I bet they'd say "Wishful thinking!" :). Either that, or they'd indicate a very patient and loving mother or wife(?!) at home, who shows her love this way.

I smile to myself. My mother is thousands of miles away. As for wife, my gender doesn't usually come with one ;). And rare is the husband who would pack his wife's lunch with such care and concern.

*-*-*

Back in the school days, I remember the group lunches, where a bunch of us would sit cross-legged under a tree, napkins on our lap, our packed lunches in front of us, carefully set down on another napkin. At one point there were eight or nine of us in a group. To start with, tiffin box lids would be passed around. Each person would put a spoonful of their food in the others' tiffin box lids - so we each got our very own sampler platter. Some tiffin boxes were always sought after, that status depending on where I went to school at the time. If this was south India, the chapatis with the masala curry would be much in demand. If north India, the idlis, dosais and sambar rice ruled the roost.

And each tiffin box, no matter where we were, told a story:

Idly/dosai/uppuma/puri - A double-purpose meal. Mom feeds kids breakfast, and packs the same for lunch.

Biriyani rice/tomato rice/variety rice: Mom's a fast cook, but takes care to provide a colorful tasty lunch. Easy to prepare variety rices, with a side of chips, look good. But mom should pack enough water - as these make one thirsty.

Chapati with kurma/masala: Mom's a super and fast cook. But in a hot place like Chennai, chapatis may make one feel hotter and more thirsty. A side of curds wouldn't be a bad idea - looks like north Indian mom missed that.

Bread and jam/thayir saadam: Mom believes in her child not going hungry, but either doesn't have the time or isn't quite imaginative enough. All of us, the bearers of bread-and-jam and thayir saadam - are testimony to that.....Especially if mom packs the same lunch day after day, or "creatively" alternates bread-and-jam with thayir saadam.

*-*-*

So it seems my tempered (as opposed to plain) yogurt rice told the following story: cook agrees that she hasn't got the time, so made thayir saadam. The tempering is for cook to console herself that she at least made an effort. The strudels were a further consolation, so that cook doesn't feel neglected.

A pretty accurate picture - for that day! I change my lunches everyday - and I bet each lunch would be a snapshot of the time, energy and enthusiasm I had on that particular day.

But humble thayir saadam or the exotic biriyani, I miss the group lunches back home, and the warmth that comes with such lunches. The companionship provided a nice break in the day to be human, and share with other humans, before getting back to whatever it was that one left off.

Here I mostly eat at my desk, working as I eat to make time for home and family in the evening. I do take some afternoon lunches with colleagues, and we go out to restaurants - but its not the same. We end up discussing work, then getting back to it. In a line of work where men heavily outnumber women, that's probably the safest way to go, to keep it professional.

Maybe what I need is a genie to pack my lunch, and talk to me when I eat....Tell me exotic stories of faraway lands, peopled with interesting creatures. We'd talk, laugh and share a camaraderie, if only at mealtimes. No danger of unwanted romantic attention - no such messes. A simple human-to-human...er, genie-to-human friendship that'd give me that energy boost during the day, both from the food and from the conversation.

Now all I need to do is take a walk along the beach and discover my magic bottle :-).