today's lunch

We have a lunch routine. Everyday at 1:30 I turn around in my chair and ask my office-mates if it is time for lunch. Tanvi, a self-proclaimed chatterbox with pretty good English, checks the clock and says 'yes!' I walk downstairs and grab my tifin from the reception desk.

A tifin is a container made of metal used to store food. The trend in India is to either bring your own tiffin from home filled with food made that morning, or to order tifin at work, which gets delivered. I usually do the latter, but today I did both. Everyday my tiffin is the same- the top compartment has once warm chippati, sliced red onions and a green chili pepper, the middle compartment is filled with yellow dal, and the third changes daily, but always has potato. Today was potato and capsicum (green pepper).

So I grab my tiffin, Dan grabs lunch from the messhall (it is a long and uninteresting story of why we both don't get tiffin), and we sit at the table in my office with the four to six others. Tanvi gets half my onions and Anita gets my chili pepper- she hates when any food is thrown away. Everyone makes a little dish with the lid of their tiffin and scoops a bit of whatever they brought onto each person's plate. Its perfect- instead of only eating the (boring) food in my tiffin, I get to try the homemade food of my coworkers- various vegetable dishes, partathas stuffed with aloo (potato), mattar (peas), or spices, and noodle or rice dishes....always something different, and usually something delicious.

Today, like everyday we gathered around the table. Dan wasn't with us today because he went into town to get our laptop fixed (sigh..sorta a mess). The conversation started in English as everyone talked about what they did for the three day weekend. As everyone shared, I grabbed my tiffin container I brought from home filled with steamed, unseasoned, gobi (cauliflower). As I opened it, the conversation about our weekends stopped and they all stared at my steamed, unsalted, unseasoned gobi. There were a lot of questions about what it was and why I brought it. After explaining that I was on rice and chippati overload and needed something bland to eat with my spiced foods, they exchanged words in hindi and stared at my gobi some more. They didn't know what to say - spices are the essence of Indian cooking so the idea of me purposely cooking something bland was a foreign idea to them. My love for gobi- steamed, raw, sauteed, seasoned- is unconditional. The gobi was a great addition to my dal and I am going to do the same tomorrow.

The conversation switched to the bombing in Pune. Though there had been warnings of an attack on Valentine's Day, I am still shocked that it happened. Perhaps it is naive of me, but I really didn't think an attack happen while I am here. Dan and I are fine, our friend in Pune is fine, and we don't know anyone who knows anyone who was in the attack. We then started talking about the Mumbai attack and somehow ended up talking about my sari for tomorrow's wedding.

Then lunch ended. Like everyday, we all reassembled our tiffins, cleaned off the table, and returned to our desks for the afternoon.

Once our laptop is fixed we will be able to post the blogs and pictures from our trips to Agra and Varanasi, last weekend's pilgrimage, and everything else that has been keeping us busy. Crossing our fingers that the only Apple tech in Lucknow can fix it!