My tiffin

When packing some fruit to take to work the other day, I suddenly remembered the word “tiffin” Back in school I remember taking my tiffin along in a very nondescript tiffin box. However, some of the tiffin boxes of other pupils varied in size, shape and design and obviously cost as well. There were the ordinary plastic ones of different colours, the plain metal ones, those made of steel, ones that had pictures on them, the double decker ones, some with separators, many with side clasps and the like. While I carried just one, I remember some boys bringing two and three in addition to water bottles. So, one was used for the short tea break at around eleven am while the other two were for lunch at around one pm. Some pupils did not carry their lunch, but it was brought to school by a servant as they were known back in the day. They were the richer boys, so they had freshly made hot food! Some of those servants came by cycle, others by a motorised two-wheeler – a few came by car along with a driver. Some mothers who obviously had very little to do at home came along in the car with the lunch as well! Hence some of the lunches were rather elaborate affairs – a mat or two was laid out in a shady area, then there was a flask with cold water , a glass to drink from , cutlery ,two or three tiffin boxes with steaming hot food , fruit and whatever else caught the child’s fancy . I have also seen mothers fanning the child while he ate! Many of these kids were rather pampered (not all I must add ) and so rather than play with their friends during the break, they sat and talked to mummy , revised their work , showed mummy how much they had scored in the test and probably put on weight . Other charged off to play as soon as they had managed to gulp down their lunch leaving poor mum or servant to pack up and leave. As they say, “Some mother DO ‘Ave ‘Em. But let me not digress from my original thought. My mother ensured that she packed a tasty treat for me on almost all days, me being the fussy kid that I was! So, it was a mix and match combination of omelettes, cutlets, mince fry, kababs, parathas, purees, macaroni and cheese, noodles, mixed fried rice , etc on different days of the week (my mouth is watering as I key this in as my mum cooked well). The funny part is that I hardly ever ate the food I took. Two or three of us would have lunch together while seated on the large protruding roots of an old neem tree - I would end up eating their food and they mine and all three of us swore that the others’ food was tastier! I also remember that one of my friends was a vegetarian or rather that is what he claimed to be, but he tucked into my tiffin with gusto. The eating of the tiffin took about ten minutes, then we drunk water from the school tap and were off to play. Fast forward to when my daughters went to school about 20 years ago and things hadn’t changed very much – almost the same scenario was played out in all schools. I do recollect one funny incident where one of the girls came home and when her tiffin was opened it contained some food which she had not taken to school – that’s when we realized that even they never ate the food they took! Not too sure of how things stand today but what I do know is that many mothers still wake up very early in the morning to prepare the tiffin. Whether their wards eat it or not is what you need to find out!