Life is easy kya karein

Tiffin boxes looked different during my school days. I had a steel rectangular tiffin box with a small rectangular 'dibba' inside. Sometimes the coloured steel boxes were in royal blue, purple, golden yellow and a funny green. Some people had an aluminium or a plastic tiffin box. The tiffin box for the school has become bigger and fancier now, with few shelves or partitions or decks. The food has become less nutritious and is usually packaged. Though we left for school at six am, almost all students carried a fresh meal. Thanks to our Mothers, who cooked meals without any house help nor the kind of support structure and ease of living which we have now. Some people covered their tiffin while eating, with the lid. The lid made a right angle with the base of the tiffin box, so one could not see what they were eating, unless you stared at them chewing. Unlike the Mumbai schools, our school was huge. Kids ran out to eat their meals in the sun in the school grounds. There was so m...

I noticed that I love eating the leftovers from my child's tiffin box. I almost always take a bite when I am putting the box for a wash. Today I realised why. I ate the plain 'Paratha' of last night with pickle and Viola! That is how it exactly tasted when I was a kid. I simply loved it. After having a full meal, I ate that one leftover paratha with the mango pickle with the masala eaten away. It was divine. My taste buds must have changed multiple times in all these years but this 'Paratha' had the right softness and the pickle tasted perfect with it, just like how my Mom and Chachi made it. All along, when I used to taste the leftovers from their tiffin box, I thought I was checking if the food tasted okay when cold or was it spoilt or did the child like it. Have been smiling like a child since I know the real reason behind it. The taste took me down the memory lane. We had no kitchen tissues in those days, we used newspapers to wrap or cover the food. One day, ...