On Lunch boxes - specifically, post-marriage-lunch boxes

My classmate in college said his office was moving to the same building as my office and we were discussing about catching up after such a long time (well, let's ignore the fact that he was just a few buildings away for many months now and the "catching up" has never bothered to happen even then!!) Aah.. so while on the topic he joked(I hope it was!) that I could bring him packed lunches from home, now that we were in the same building.

And when I typed in the honest reply that neither me nor hubby dear takes lunch from home and so if he needed a dabba, I would have to cook lunch exclusively for him, he replied with a "thats not nice.. these days husbands.. " and trailed off.


Right... these days all husbands have lunch boxes. A husband without a lunch box is like a woman undergoing domestic violence at her home, a violation of human rights!

I dug deeper and here goes my analysis.

1. Symbol of Marriage
   Today, young girls (traditionally N.Indian, but these days, just about anyone!), soon after their wedding are observed to metamorphose into an Unidentifiable-Talking-Object (UTO). The change is dominant on the first day of joining back to work. A I-love-rugged-jeans type will be seen in the demure-est salwar-kameez, full with the bright red sindoor, chunky mangal sutra and red bangles covering both arms. And needless to say, the change will wear off after some time when they find their lost rugged-jeans again. So the men folks felt left out and decided to announce their weddings in their unique styles - lunch boxes - colored ones, tupper-ware ones, good ol' stain steel ones, triple deckers, you name it, they have it!
   


2. My-Wife-is-the-Best syndrome
   To bring your lunch box indicates your wife wakes up early in the morning, takes her bath at 5, makes you b-fast, makes yummy lunches, packs your lunch box and is there to see you off to office, everyday. What more does he want! :)At work, I know your heart fills up with pride when you stand in that queue for using the microwave while others wait for their poison-for-the-day (read as : cafeteria lunches)
   


3. Sizes don't matter
   Probably you fall on the wrong sides of the BMI and you are one of those who ate two full-
   meals for lunch, apart from the orange shake and fruit bowl, before you got married. But post-wedding, when the lunch boxes come into picture, it really doesn't matter how much you eat; what matters is what you eat. So its perfectly fine to bring a lunch box half the size of your snacks-box in school; for you don't want your 'lunch kit' (to be described soon) to be bigger than your laptop case!


4. The 'lunch kit'
   Lunch boxes are not be hidden inside your back-packs. They should be proudly displayed in an ergonomically designed bags called 'lunch kits' or 'lunch bags'. Some lunch boxes come with a 'built-in' bag with features including keeping your "lovingly made" food warm. If your lunch box is not as lucky as these you can use eco-friendly bags made of recycled-paper or jute. Whatever the case, take care to sling it on your shoulders and walk with your heads held high.

Closing for now, as it is time for my lunch :) No, nobody packs me lunches. If at all, I would have to do it. And fortunately, hubby dear doesn't mind me not packing him one :)

PS1 : There are frauds here as well. Most people who bring lunch boxes don't qualify for point #2 if their wife follows only the first half of the "lovingly cook" phrase and they have appointed a cook to do the second half.

PS2 : Btw, no offense intended at anybody! Am just plain jealous of people who bring their lunch boxes :-p

PS3 : Pic courtesy : As always : Flickr Creative Commons! I simply loved it!

Chumma oru Story...

There goes another Chocolate Fantasy..
and the last spoon of ice cream melted to take the shape of the plate.. like it had done for the last 55 weeks. This week is no different.

She saw his gaze fall on her and their gazes met for a brief second, before she looked at her watch again, for the 50th time in the last 45 minutes.
He took her hand in his. She dared not look up to meet his gaze... she hadn't dared to, in the last 55 weeks.

She knew what was coming. Another 15 minutes would pass by and they would pay the bill and walk away.

Only to repeat this again next week.

Wouldn't he ever tell her? Or even ask?

She gazed at her watch once more.

Then thinks of playing the will-i-get-lucky game today, to spend the 15 minutes!
So she decides; if he calls my name before the seconds hand on my watch reaches 12 again, he loves me.
Else, he loves me not.

With baited breath, she waits, hopes, prays, that he utters her name just once..
Past 50 seconds, and nothing has happened. She looks at his fingers stroking her wrist.
5 more seconds. She can't wait anymore.

"John.. "
and he replies "Shhhh..".

Defeated and disappointed, she looks down, tears welling up in her eyes.
She has lost the game.

Through the film of tears, she looks at the second hand of her watch take the last 3 seconds.

But wait.. Oh my God.. its stopped... its not moving!!!

John smiled to himself as he hoped Annie wouldn't have noticed how he had pulled at the tiny knob in her wrist watch.. he wanted the time to stand still when she was with him..

Open Letter to the Auto Driver.

Dear auto-driver,

I decided to write this as an open letter on my blog after I got terrified at the thought of you writing about the incident on yours!!

This is the same girl who you had dropped from the Tech Park to HAL bus stop for Rs 40 at 9:00 on 8th April. Aah... I can read from your face that you remember me! How can you not! I know you are laughing now! Never mind!

Now I think I should have taken the first auto rikshaw that was parked at the entrance. The guy had demanded 50 bucks and as always I looked up at the sky and reminded God that I had made a request about slapping at least one auto-wala.. when was He granting me that wish?

God looked down and asked me to count back from ten and relax this time. After some attempt at negotiation, I thought he would be ok for 40, but that guy called out to all the other guys parked there .. "aaaaeeyyy... 40 rs..HAL.." and immediately you had sprung on your feet and called "banni madam..banni..".

My head was cloudy after the really really tiring day and I sunk into the back seat and remember saying "HAL bus stop" and then noticed that the memory card had slid out of my N73. There were some warnings on the screen about it getting corrupted and the theme got reset to the default Stave one. I tried to push it back but it just wouldn't get latched in position. I lost all patience! I pulled it out and dropped it in my purse.

Your auto roared past HAL school almost brushing another auto. The signal was red when we reached and I decided I would alight there and cross the road than go over the other side. I extended the 100 rupees note to you and you replied "no change madam".

Bugged, I searched my purse. A 100 rupee, a 10 rupee and and a 20 rupee was all that I had. And yeah, a sodexho booklet too.

Me : Aapke pass 50 rupees hai?

You slowly brought out the fat bunch of folded notes from your pocket. A 50 rupee note was the last one wrapped. Beneath that was a 10 rupee note and then some more. In a rather clumsy manner, as if not able to make out what I had in my mind, you gave me the 50 rupee note (but didn't give the 10 rupee note! why??? Coz I didn't ask, I know!! :( )

Wearily, I took the 50 rupee note from you, and gave you the 100 rupee note. Then on second thoughts, took another 10 rupee note from my purse and gave you that also! And boy, you are a good actor! And the little amount of surprise you showed when you looked at the 50 rupee and 10 rupee note was not visible to me in the dark! Having double-checked that my smart calculation was right, I walked out.

At the bus stop, just when I was about to sit down and wait, realization stuck me like lightning that I had given you 60 bucks instead of 40!!!! And being from the insincere Bangalore auto tribe, I can't expect you to return that extra 20 then!

Listen, (most) mistakes do happen to people (like me), especially ones involving math. I am hoping you would read this and return my 20 rupees. Please :)

Yours,
mathematically poor,
Me.

Me-Me-Its-all-me-tag from Ammu..

Got tagged by Ammu.

Kept pushing it off because I had this feeling that I would stop it at 10, max 11 :) And
worse still, my readers would stop it at 2!

But then, I get this feeling that I shouldn't post anything else when I have a "tag-debt".

So here we go, 25 stuffs about me..
(Zzzzz??? Hey there, wake up!)

I ..

1. Discovered that I can be extremely-patient or extremely impatient. Extremely-patient with myself, extremely-impatient with everybody else, that is! There is nothing in between called just "patience".
2. Love moisturisers so much that I get panicky when my bottle is empty.
3. Love doing up my home. Wouldn't mind emptying my purse for that!
4. Am a Die-hard retail therapy devotee. The '%' symbol followed by 'OFF' or the word "Free" can drive my logic out of the window!
5. Suck at eating vegetables, more so, if they come as salads!
6. Have this habit of right-clicking on desktop and clicking on 'refresh' repeatedly when I am on phone.
7. Frequently get hurt when moving around the house ... either dashing against the door, hurting my toes moving furniture, banging my head somewhere... Sand calls it "common" these days and doesn't bother!
8. Fantasize what I read in books.
9. Am easily fascinated by good photographers.
10. Love chatting - face 2 face, internet, anywhere!
11. Have had really insane crushes in early teens, but dropped to nil during late teens. That, in fact, got me worried!
12. Don't give alms to the beggars on street.
13. Can't still believe the way Sand walked into my life!
14. Am not a gadget-freak, but love Red Coloured Sony Vaio :)
15. Read all fortunes and week-ahead columns in newspapers and mags.
16. Hate guys who do their hair long, wear ear-rings, jazzy clothes, rings, tattoo and xtra-low-waist jeans barely clinging on to their hips and showing their Calvin Klein underwear!
17. Love it when Sand cooks me his special pasta :)
18. Respect working mothers and feel they need to be appreciated more.
19. Cry easily watching movies! Tears of joy as well as sadness!
20. Am very choosy about movies... I usually end up not liking a particular movie rated great by friends.
21. Have worn braces for almost 3 years and when the dentist had no intention of removing it, I lied to him that I would be getting married in a month, and so I want them to be removed immediately!
22. Love my school days more than my college days.
23. Get dizzy looking down from tall buildings.
24. Am scared of frogs and cockroaches.
25. Managed to finish this tag!!! Hurray! Are you still with me? :)

Am not tagging anybody in particular... if you like it, take it :)