For all moms with school-going kids, packing the school lunch box is a daily task. When Sunshine started school, I was quite excited because I was dying to pack different kinds of food in her school lunch box.
After all, I know how to bake cakes and cup-cakes. To add to my repertoire I have breads, buns, footlongs, mini-pizzas...you name it...I can make it!
For some time, her school lunches kept me happily busy. It was fun planning what she would take for the whole week. As time went by, I found that she wanted me to help her get ready instead of be busy in the kitchen. So, I used to instruct our part-time cook to make her school lunch. When the cook would play truant, Daddy darling would step in to make the school lunch.
After a few months of this set-up, Sunshine started throwing a tantrum that she wants Maggi or Yipee noodles for her lunch everyday. No amount of cajoling or explaining did the trick. On the days we tried parantha/roti, sandwiches, pancakes, besan cheela...she would get the uneaten lunch back home.
It was Maggi or nothing!
Thankfully, soon enough her school sent a notice that instant noodles (Maggi), chips, and chocolates should not be sent as tiffin. We heaved a sigh of relief! Now that her class teacher had explained how these kinds of food items are unhealthy, she was easily convinced. After all, Ma'am is always right! The silly parents don't know anything.
So for the next phase, we were good. All the types of food that we sent was eaten without any fuss. The only no-no was not to send cut fruits in her lunch because the fruits got wilted by the time she ate them. Since, Sunshine is a fruit-lover so it didn't bother us much.
Last week, we found that she was eating only half her lunch. When I asked her why, she simply burst into tears. Her best friend in class R (who is not a Bengali) gets rotis and different sabzis everyday. "So why are you crying", I asked.
"Because, you don't know how to make normal food. You can bake cakes and breads. Her mom can make rotis and paranthas with soooooo many sabzis. You don't know anything!!" she wailed.
What!!!!!!!
My jaw was ready to hit the floor. My daughter is crying for "normal food" whereas I have been researching on lunchbox recipes!
Makes me wonder how my own blessed mom used to pack so many different things in my lunch. Thanks to my orthodox family, she was not allowed to give anything non-veg or rice based in my tiffin. Yet everyday she has packed a different lunch. Bread pulao, poha, utthapam, pancakes, stuffed parathas would appear in my lunch box like magic. And to think that our kitchen was on the ground floor whereas we used to live on the first-floor. So she used to pack my lunch, come upstairs and silently put it in my bag. Then take me to the bus stop and put me on the bus.
Everyday. For several years. With a smile!
Maa tujhe salaam.
After all, I know how to bake cakes and cup-cakes. To add to my repertoire I have breads, buns, footlongs, mini-pizzas...you name it...I can make it!
For some time, her school lunches kept me happily busy. It was fun planning what she would take for the whole week. As time went by, I found that she wanted me to help her get ready instead of be busy in the kitchen. So, I used to instruct our part-time cook to make her school lunch. When the cook would play truant, Daddy darling would step in to make the school lunch.
After a few months of this set-up, Sunshine started throwing a tantrum that she wants Maggi or Yipee noodles for her lunch everyday. No amount of cajoling or explaining did the trick. On the days we tried parantha/roti, sandwiches, pancakes, besan cheela...she would get the uneaten lunch back home.
It was Maggi or nothing!
Thankfully, soon enough her school sent a notice that instant noodles (Maggi), chips, and chocolates should not be sent as tiffin. We heaved a sigh of relief! Now that her class teacher had explained how these kinds of food items are unhealthy, she was easily convinced. After all, Ma'am is always right! The silly parents don't know anything.
So for the next phase, we were good. All the types of food that we sent was eaten without any fuss. The only no-no was not to send cut fruits in her lunch because the fruits got wilted by the time she ate them. Since, Sunshine is a fruit-lover so it didn't bother us much.
Last week, we found that she was eating only half her lunch. When I asked her why, she simply burst into tears. Her best friend in class R (who is not a Bengali) gets rotis and different sabzis everyday. "So why are you crying", I asked.
"Because, you don't know how to make normal food. You can bake cakes and breads. Her mom can make rotis and paranthas with soooooo many sabzis. You don't know anything!!" she wailed.
What!!!!!!!
My jaw was ready to hit the floor. My daughter is crying for "normal food" whereas I have been researching on lunchbox recipes!
Makes me wonder how my own blessed mom used to pack so many different things in my lunch. Thanks to my orthodox family, she was not allowed to give anything non-veg or rice based in my tiffin. Yet everyday she has packed a different lunch. Bread pulao, poha, utthapam, pancakes, stuffed parathas would appear in my lunch box like magic. And to think that our kitchen was on the ground floor whereas we used to live on the first-floor. So she used to pack my lunch, come upstairs and silently put it in my bag. Then take me to the bus stop and put me on the bus.
Everyday. For several years. With a smile!
Maa tujhe salaam.
Beautiful post about moms and motherhood !
ReplyDelete