What's cooking in the Dak Bangla?

Mid-day, Mumbai, Updated: November 09, 2012 15:26 IST

Dak Bungalow (or Bangla) cuisine, sadly, is a near-forgotten culinary treasure that survives among a few remaining khansama families and Anglo Indian households. Rajika Bhandari's The Raj on the Move retraces some of these flavours from sooty kitchens served for the 'Sahib' and the 'Mem'

One was a dish called 'Country Captain'. It is also a dish that has travelled the globe and has thus taken on many different forms: some globetrotters report consuming a dish called General Chicken at a Chinese restaurant, only to discover that it was indeed an unmistakable close cousin of the Indian Country Captain curry. In its very basic form, it is a curry or stew of chicken, enhanced with turmeric and chillies and bread, if any was available. Butter was not easily available, and in its place the cook was quite likely to offer the unsuspecting guests some red-currant jelly in a little bottle that has formerly contained pomade for the hair.

Caramel custard, or 'custel brun' as it was known among Indian servants, was to become another staple of the dak bungalow dining table because of the easy availability of eggs and milk. Like 'sudden death', it too acquired a nickname -- '365' -- because it was served almost everyday of the year, or so it appeared. Some English travellers banned the dessert at home because they were forced to have more than their fill of it while staying at dak bungalows and eating at railway stations.

But some inspired cooks went above and beyond, experimenting with known techniques and inventing a repertoire of dishes unique to the menu a traveller could expect at these bungalows. Famed khansamas such as Bernard of the Bilaspur Circuit House and Peter of the Krishnaghur Dak Bungalow, who learnt to prepare a hybrid Anglo-Indian cuisine, offered up memorable dishes that could almost border on sublime. One such dish and a star of Anglo-Indian cuisine was the delectable chicken cutlet that survives to this day and has taken on many variations, ranging from vegetarian to mutton and paneer cutlets.

When Lady D'Urban, the wife of Sir Benjamin, the former governor of Cape Colony, became gravely ill during her stay at the Cape of Good Hope in 1840 and was unable to consume the average meat dish, an ingenious Bengali cook from India accompanying the group came up with a 'delicate little chicken cutlet' that was at once easily digestible and delicious, so much so that the Lady consumed nothing else for the next several days.

Country Captain
Cold meats and curries are sometimes converted into this dish, the condiments for which are as follows: Two chittacks or four ounces of ghee, half a teaspoonful of ground chillies,one teaspoonful of salt, a quarter of a teaspoonful of ground turmeric, and twenty onions, cut up lengthways into fine slices.

Cut up in the usual way an ordinary curry chicken. Warm the ghee and fry the sliced onions, which when brown set aside; fry the ground turmeric and chillies, then throw in the chicken and salt, and continue to fry, stirring the whole until the chicken is tender. Serve it up, strewing over it the fried onions.
Source: The Indian Cookery Book, 1948

Dak Bungalow Murgh Roast
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 whole 3 1/2 lb chicken, cleaned (do not remove the skin)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Juice of one lemon
2-inch piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and chopped
2 cloves of garlic, smashed, peeled and chopped
2 green chillies, seeded and chopped
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 tablespoons yoghurt
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
3 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter)

Method:
Prick the chicken all over then rub with the salt and lemon juice well into the skin. Set it in a bowl and let it marinate for an hour.
Place the ginger, garlic, chillies, turmeric, yoghurt and garam masala in a food processor and process to a puree.
Pour this puree into a plastic bag and place the chicken in the bag as well. Fasten the bag securely and shake it until the chicken is well covered with the marinade. Refrigerate it for 4-5 hours, or even overnight.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C, gas mark 5).
Using either a wok or a saucepan large enough to take a whole chicken, melt the ghee over high heat.
Drain the chicken from its marinade, reserving any left over, and brown the bird on all sides in the wok. Use a pair of wooden spoons or tongs to turn it.
Do not pierce it with a fork. Now place the chicken in a baking pan and pour the ghee remaining in the wok over it.
Let it bake in the oven for 30 minutes, loosely covered with a piece of foil.
Half-way through the baking time, spoon any remaining marinade over the chicken, and then baste it with the juices and ghee in the bottom of the pan.
Serve hot or cold.

Baked Rose Custard: An Update of the Classic Caramel Custard
Serves 5

Ingredients:
1 pint milk
4 tablespoons sugar
3 whole, beaten eggs, plus 2 beaten yolks
1/2 teaspoon rose water
1 tablespoon flaked almonds
A few rose petals
A pinch of salt

Method:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C, gas mark 2).
Blend the milk, sugar and salt together.
Beat in the eggs and egg yolks.
Add the rose water and mix well.
Pour into an oven-proof dish and bake for 1 hour.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle the top with almonds.
Decorate with a few rose petals.

Source: Jennifer Brennan, Curries and Bugles:
A Cookbook of the British Raj, 1990 

They paid for kachauri, abuse came for free

Dr. Kavita Arya

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human interest

The archaic gate of Banaras Hindu University looks down somewhat unconcerned over the stretch in front. This old gate symbolises the great divide between the two worlds; the intellectuals inside the high boundary walls and the commoners present in the daily din of Banaras outside.

Some so-called malls have sprouted sporadically from the haphazard conglomeration of small shops and eateries that mark every road and lane of this ancient city, which many think is the cultural hub of Hindu India. On both sides of the road, western burgers and eastern Pakauri-jalebi live side by side.

You may call it the peaceful co-existence of cultures. And the same is true of BHU, settled calmly and uncomplainingly amid the squalor and filth of the Varanasi lanes snaking round the great centre of wisdom and knowledge, established by Mahamana Madan Mohan Malviya. The image of BHU surrounded by Varanasi is somewhat reminiscent of the ruling deity of the city, Lord Shiva and the snakes round his neck. Shiva with his eyes half closed lives on in an eternal trance and so is his city. But despite its state of trance and choking traffic, numerous activities go on side by side and the road from the Lanka gate leads, willy-nilly, directly to Sankat Mochan, the famous abode of Lord Hanuman, made more famous by the terrorist attack a few years ago. Nestled on the famous Sankat Mochan campus, there is a small roadside eatery, popularly known as Chachi’s ‘kachauri’ shop.

If you are looking for any signboard, then you cannot discover Chachi’s shop. Just ask anybody. It is known to almost every Banarasi, male or female. Chances are he/she would volunteer immediately to escort you there. “Mouth publicity” as the most ancient means of advertisement, has spread the reputation of Chachi far and wide. Human generations change in a span of 20 to 25 years but when it comes to a campus, it takes only two to three years. The anecdotes about Chachi and her kachauris have formed a nostalgic chapter in the memories of BHU alumni for the past 50 years or so. But there is something peculiarly ‘Banarasi’ about her reputation.

Whenever the shop was open — and it was almost always open — the slim old lady of medium height and fair complexion could be seen doing some chores, serving kachauris, abusing customers with all seriousness or instructing her assistants who were mostly her own children or their offspring. Every product is known by its producer.

Chachi was known for the kachauris she sold but she was known, more primarily, for the classy and typical Banarasi abuses that she distributed free of cost with the kachauris. People enjoyed the kachauris but they enjoyed the abuses even more as these came from Chachi. Full of slang, slanderous, vitriolic, vituperative and enriched with the local Banarasi tongue, chachi’s tone was never afraid of anybody. But there never was a real anger behind those words that might have caused a war had someone else spoken like that.

BHU students, scholars and teachers used to visit Chachi’s shop as if to get some relief from boring artificialities of the sophisticated behaviour they were expected to put up inside the intellectual walls of the university. Sometimes, Chachi was silent and serious but her customers would not have it. They would intentionally do something to irritate her. She often understood their mala fide intention to provoke her. She would try not to break or budge but a typical Banarasi knew how to play the game and ultimately, Chachi would lose her patience and her tongue as well.

A silent Chachi would suddenly blast at a simple request for serving kachauri fast. She would blast the heckling customer who, with a naughty smile, would then heave a sigh of great satisfaction. He would hear her vitriolic reaction with great pleasure. Perhaps she was the single shop-owner in the civilised world who could afford to treat her customers with such a stream of blunt abuses and still they would flock around. You can get kachauris anywhere in Banaras but where else would you get that prolific flow of ‘desi gaali’?

‘Gaali’ (abuse or swear words) is an essential part of the typical Banarasi culture. A Banarasi feels indigestion if it is already a day and he has not given vent to a few original abuses and slangs. gaaliAn exchange of gaali is a must and sure sign of closeness between friends and relatives There have been many who could show their ingenuity and originality in the art of coining new ‘gaalis’ but none could excel Chachi. So she was most lovable in her own way.

Banarasi kachauris are prepared with spices mixed with urad dal and served with curry in a leaf-made dona. You may add jalebi, if you want. There was no space inside or outside the shop to sit. You have to eat the things standing by the street. Whoever you are, you have to stand there like a commoner and wait for your turn to come. In this, Chachi was a great leveller.

Many celebrities from different walks of life used to visit her shop to enjoy her original Banarasi gaali. Rajan and Sajan Mishra, the famous music maestros, regularly haunt Chachi’s shop and Manoj Tiwary, in one of his hit songs, promises his heroine a treat at Chachi’s if she accepts his invitation to visit Banaras. Chachi was never awed by any personality whoever he or she is. When someone introduced a celebrity to her, her response would be something like, ‘B…..wale hain to hain badkaa. Achha ta hum kaa Karin? Khaae ke baa ta khaa na ta jayen saar bhaad me.’ (Let him be whatever he is. How does it concern me? If he wants to eat something, let him eat and get lost.) Her outbursts which usually started with ………but leave it aside.

Once Smriti Iraani of Saas Bahu fame came to the shop. Chachi served her kachauris but did not say anything; did not abuse her. Smriti asked Chachi to give her some ‘gaali’, Chachi smiled back with affection and said – ‘You are my daughter. I will not abuse you.’

One may think that she was either mad or it was her style. In fact, neither Chachi was one of those rare samples among humans who are never fake and who never bother to feign suavity to please anyone. She could see through the facade of the so-called civilised manners. She bothered for none and was not impressed ever with appearances and positions. She was bluntly honest in her behaviour to everybody — and affectionate.

She never perhaps knew that she was an important and undeletable image in the nostalgia of BHU alumni. Her memories are cherished by many in India or abroad, for many of them had seen her benevolence, hidden behind the mask of her vituperation. She, perhaps, was a living revolt against the general cult of suavity.

Now Chachi is no more. On February 3 last, she passed away, leaving a resounding silence behind. Kachauris are still being sold in her shop with the same spices but the spice of life is lost.

(The writer is Assistant Professor, Department of English, Arya Mahila PG College, Varanasi. Her email is: aryakvt@gmail.com)

Keywords: Banaras Hindu University, college life

LIP -SMACKING MENU FOR MID-DAY MEAL IN TAMIL NADU-

-

Noon meal gets spicy

Special Correspondent

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India Tamil Nadu
government civil and public service
people children

Thirteen varieties of rice and four types of egg ‘masala’ will soon enrich the plates of students benefiting under the nutritious noon-meal scheme of the State government, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa 

 

told the Assembly on Friday.

Making a suo motu statement, she said the purpose was to break the monotony in the menu under the scheme introduced by former Chief Minister M.G. Ramchandran 30 years ago and to make them palatable.

The government consulted well-known chefs and nutrition experts on this issue and ‘channa biriyanai’ and pepper egg were served on an experimental basis in a school in Saidapet and the Andhanallur panchayat union school in Chief Minister’s Srirangam constituency.

The students liked it and the chefs demonstrated 13 varieties of rice and four types of egg ‘masala.’

The Chief Minister said the new scheme would be introduced in one taluk in every district and depending on the feedback, this would be extended to other areas gradually.

There would be one set of menu for the first and third weeks of a month and another set for the second and fourth week.

The students would be served vegetable ‘biriyani’ 

 

and pepper powder egg

 

  on first and third Mondays; ‘channa-pulav’ 

 

and tomato ‘masala’ on Tuesdays; tomato rice and pepper egg on Wednesdays; rice, sambar and boiled egg on Thursdays and curry leaf rice or green (keerai) rice, egg masala and roasted potato on Fridays.

The menu of second and fourth Mondays would be ‘sambar’ rice, 

 

onion and tomato egg ‘masala’;

 

 mealmaker and vegetable mixed rice 

 

and pepper egg  

 

on Tuesdays; tamarind rice 

 

 and tomato egg ‘masala’

 

 on Wednesdays; lemon rice,

 

 tomato egg ‘masala’

 

 and ‘sundal’ 

 

on Thursdays and

 rice

 

 , sambar,

 

 boiled egg 

 

 and roasted potato

 

  on Fridays.

The Chief Minister said the government would also provide a variety of dishes to the children attached to ‘anganwadis’ in the State. 

Special attention would be made to the children, considering their requirements and digestive capacity.

The children would get tomato rice

 

 and boiled egg

 

  on Mondays; 

mixed rice 

 

 and ‘sundal

 

’ on Tuesdays;

 vegetable ‘pulav’ 

 

 and boiled egg 

 

 on Wednesdays;

  lemon rice 

 

and boiled egg 

 

 on Thursdays; ‘dhal’ rice 

 

 and boiled potato 

 

 on Fridays and mixed rice 

 

 on Saturdays and Sundays.

Ms. Jayalalithaa said the new menu would increase the number of students attending school and improve their nutritional requirement.

Keywords: noon-meal scheme, Jayalalithaa, noon meal menu, child nutrition

Just one junk food meal can up heart attack risk

Last Updated: Wednesday, October 31, 2012,09:45

   

 

 73

Tags: Junk food meal,  Heart attack,  Cardiovascular disease

 

London: Eating even a single junk food meal can be enough to raise the risk of suffering a heart attack, cardiovascular disease or stroke in later life, new study led by an Indian-origin researcher has warned.

Experts at the EPIC Centre of Canada’s Montreal Heart Institute, affiliated to the University of Montreal, say the key to staving off heart disease and other illnesses caused by clogged arteries is to switch to a Mediterranean-style diet, based on healthy foods like oily fish, fresh vegetables and olive oil, the Daily Express reported.


Dr Anil Nigam, director of research at EPIC and associate professor at the university’s Faculty of Medicine compared the effects of junk food and a typical Mediterranean meal on the ability of arteries to dilate after a temporary five-minute blockage.

The research looked at 28 nonsmoking men, who ate a Mediterranean-type meal first and then a junk food-type meal one week later.

After the Mediterrean-style meal the men’s arteries were found to dilate normally and maintain good blood flow.

But after eating the junk food the arteries of the study participants dilated 24 per cent less than they did when in a fasting state.

The findings were presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress.

CHOCOLATE Food of the Gods

CHOCOLATE

Food of the Gods

Introduction

Chocolate has been described as being more than a food, less than a drug. This description points to the singular position this wildly popular confection plays in our lives. Popular to the tune of $74 billion annually, chocolate begins as a tiny blossom on a small tropical tree. Only three out of a thousand of these will produce the cacao pods that after a labor intensive and lengthy journey, with several chemically and technically complex steps along the way, will end up in your hand as a candy bar.
The products of this tropical tree have played many roles through the centuries. In 1753, Linnaeus designated the tree Theobroma cacao, which translates to “cacao, food of the gods.” Several hundred years later, chocolate lovers would agree with this appellation although for the Maya, who honored a cacao god, the term had a more literal and spiritual meaning. The Aztecs used cacao beans as currency and as food and drink for the privileged. Spaniards introduced the drinking of chocolate to Europe where, in the medical system of the time, those who could afford it used chocolate as a tonic and remedy. The purported health benefits of chocolate are once again creating a buzz as industry sponsored research suggests that dark chocolate might possibly lower blood pressure and provide antioxidant benefits.
Five hundred years after its adoption in liquid form by the Spanish court and nearly two hundred years after a Dutch chemist’s invention paved the way for its creamy solid form, chocolate continues to expand its role. A recent market for premium chocolate has created connoisseurs who seek out rarified confections in the form of single origin bars with a 72% cacao content infused with such back-to-the-future flavors as the aboriginal Mexican combination of ground chilies and vanilla. Today’s consumers of chocolate can have an effect on how it is grown and harvested by buying a bar with a “Fair Trade” label, insuring that the growers and workers that produced it earn a living wage under humane conditions. Those aware of the loss of biodiversity in tropical forests caused by cacao plantations can buy organically grown chocolate, which supports the more time consuming practices of ecological agriculture.
And remember, the food of the gods might, just might, be good for you.

How the Aztecs Prepared Chocolate

Although the earliest use of cacao has been traced to the Maya and Aztecs, the recipes for its preparation have come from Spanish colonizers.
One of the earliest descriptions of the native grinding and drinking of cacao comes from writings published in 1556 by a man known to scholars as the Anonymous Conquerer, apparently an adventurer connected to Hernando Cortés.

These seeds which are called… cacao are ground and made into powder, and other small seeds are ground, and this powder is put into certain basins… and then they put water on it and mix it with a spoon. And after having mixed it very well, they change it from one basin to another, so that a foam is raised which they put in a vessel made for the purpose. And when they wish to drink it, they mix it with certain small spoons of gold or silver or wood, and drink it, and drinking it one must open one’s mouth, because being foam one must give it room to subside, and go down bit by bit.

This drink is the healthiest thing, and the greatest sustenance of anything you could drink in the world, because he who drinks a cup of this liquid, no matter how far he walks, can go a whole day without eating anything else.

Cacahuatl to Chocolate

Initially, the Spanish were far more interested in cacao’s use as currency rather than its culinary use. As the Spanish colonists settled in, taking native women as wives or concubines, a kind of hybridization, or creolization, between the two cultures began to take place. This resulted in the addition of cane sugar to the unsweetened drink of the Aztecs and the replacement of indigenous seasonings such as chili and various dried flowers with spices familiar to Europeans: cinnamon, anise and black pepper.
Cultural hybridization not only changed the drink, it changed the name of the drink. By the 1570’s, the Spanish were using chocolatl, a combination of a Mayan (chocol=hot) and an Aztec (atl=water) word. One theory put forth for the name change is that the first two syllables of cacahuatl, the Aztec word for cacao, are a vulgar term for feces in most Romance languages.

Health Food of Barouque Era

Wealthy 16th and 17th century Europeans drank hot chocolate for reasons of health. When the Spanish introduced chocolate to Europe, the native Mesoamerican “food of the gods” became a drug, a treatment prescribed in the humoral medical system of the day.
In this facsimile from a 1640 English translation of an earlier work, a Spanish physician lists the many health-related effects of chocolate.

Drink of the Elite

Just as chocolate was the drink of the copper-skinned, bejeweled and feather-clad Mesoamerican elite, so it was with the white-skinned, bewigged and overdressed ruling class of Europe. Chocolate entered Europe as an expensive drug in the medical system of the day. Its soothing nature and mild stimulatory kick soon turned it into what might be loosely termed a recreational drug.
And it was a drug taken in liquid form. Until the invention of a specialized hydraulic press in 1828 paved the way for the solid chocolate we know and love, chocolate was always a drink. It was commonly mixed with water or milk, with flavorings such as vanilla, cinnamon, ground cloves, allspice and chilies.

Coenraad Van Houten

Anyone who loves chocolate owes a huge debt of gratitude to this Dutch chemist. He invented a process that created an easily prepared powdered hot chocolate, which, in turn, led to the production of creamy, solid chocolate as we know it.
The modern era of chocolate making began in 1828 when Van Houten patented his method for removing most of the cocoa butter from processed cacao, leaving a powdered chocolate. Untreated cocoa mass, or “liquor,” the end result of grinding cacao beans, contains about 53% cocoa butter. Van Houten invented a hydraulic press which reduced the amount to about 27%, leaving a cake that could be pulverized into a fine powder, which we know as cocoa. To improve this powder’s ability to mix with liquid, Van Houten treated it with alkaline salts, which came to be known as “Dutching.”
With the cocoa butter separated from the mass, chocolate makers now had a new and intriguing substance. Adding it to chocolate creates a creamier and more malleable product, making it supple enough to be molded into bars and more eleaborate filled confections.

More Than a Drink

Maya cacao god

Although no one knows exactly when the first person experimented with turning the beans from a cacao pod into an invigorating drink, there is linguistic evidence that the ancient Olmecs of Mexico prepared chocolate. By the 8th century AD, the Maya were carving images of a cacao god on ceremonial bowls. The Aztecs, later the dominant culture of Mexico, considered cacao a gift from the gods.
From archeological evidence, it is clear that the natives used cacao in a wide array of drinks, gruels, porridges, powders and probably solid substances. Ground cornmeal was often added. Flavorings such as vanilla, chili peppers, honey, annatto and allspice were often added as well as the dried flowers of various Mesoamerican trees.
Several varieties of cacao are used in making chocolate. All are believed to have originated in the Amazon and upper Orinoco River basins.

Aphrodisiac?,
Health Food??,
Addictive???

Chocolate lovers feel passionate about chocolate, but does chocolate create passion? The question of whether it is an aphrodisiac is an old one, beginning with Spanish observations that Montezuma drank copious amounts of it before a visit to his harem. Casanova preferred chocolate to champagne.
Chocolate does contain small amounts of several psychoactive substances that act as stimulants and mood elevators. There is also the pleasurable sensation caused by the fact that this luscious substance melts at mouth temperature. And isn’t a heart-shaped box of chocolates the quintessentially romantic Valentine’s gift?
All that researchers can tell us is that although eating chocolate is undeniably gratifying, there is no scientific proof that it is either an aphrodisiac or addictive. And as for the recently touted health benefits of chocolate? There have been some intriguing discoveries regarding high blood pressure and chocolate’s antioxidant properties but no doctor or nutritionist is prescribing candy bars as health food.

• Introduction
• History
• Theobroma Cacao: Food of the Gods
• More Than a Drink
• How the Aztecs Prepared Chocolate
• When Money Grew on Trees
• Cacahuatl to Chocolate
• Health Food of the Baroque Era
• Drink of the Elite
• Coenraad Van Houten
• From Blossom to Bar
• Chocolate Lands
• Pollination, and Pods
• Harvest, and Fermentation
• Drying, and Manufacturing
• Chocolate for Eating
• Cocoa Powder, Dark, Milk, and White Chocolate
• Shade Grown Cacao
• Fair Trade-Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
• Aphrodisiac? Health Food?? Addictive???

© 2007 Albert R. Mann Library, C

The magnificence of the multi-tiered tiffin-box

Santosh Desai
28 October 2012, 06:21 PM IST

2

If the thali is a bungalow, sprawling in its abundant magnificence, the triple-decker tiffin-box is its apartment version. Not the boxy kind, constructed under some government scheme, but an Antilla of sorts, with the entire building being dedicated towards the gastronomic needs of a single individual. Lunchtime at an office is a time when many grand unveilings take place as these imposing towers of food get extracted from the bags in which they lie sheathed, and reverentially unclasped. Each storey of food is laid out, and the process of gradual discovery begins to unfold. The lighter stuff  floats on the surface, bits of salad, a little katori of dahi, a piece of lime, slivers of pickle. As we move downwards, the food quotient of the box gets dialled up, and the vegetables, dals, rice and chapattis make their appearance. Once in a while, there are little postscripts of thoughtfulness that are thrown in, a laddoo here, a piece of barfi there, depending on the age and the perceived proneness to diabetes of the receiver.

The tiffin-box beams with metallic pride, three storeys of home that one carries to one's place of work. The design of the tiffin-box recognises that lunch is a serious affair, consisting of several layers of hunger, each of which need a box to itself. The three or four boxes are clasped together firmly with a reassuring click one is packed off to one's destination, secure in the knowledge that whatever might be the uncertainties in the world outside, food would not be one of them. The fulsomeness of the tiffin-box has little to do with the receiver's hierarchy- a full stomach is everyone's right, a fullness that cannot be satisfied by quantity alone but needs the decorum of completeness. The modern idea of a quick business lunch is in reality an act of making do, another one of those official affectations, like drinking black coffee, that one pretends to be comfortable with. A furtive sandwich or a slice or two of pizza eaten carefully is not lunch but a gastronomic mannerism aimed at quietening the body. The western idea of a quick working lunch sandwiches food between layers of office hours, compressing hunger into a task on a job list. The romance created around the relentlessness of work, and the sexiness of being busy is in direct contrast to the rotund and placid recognition of the centrality of food as evidenced as the tiffin-box. The tiffin-box  is a plop of resistance; a squatter's act of fat denial of the idea that work must inundate us with its pressing impatience.

Food lies in the details, and civilisation begins with the smell of pickle. The completeness of the meal is what distinguishes food from nutritional intake; It is what rescues culture from biology. By its very nature, a meal eaten out of a tiffin-box cannot be got over with in a hurry, nor can it be accompanied by power point presentations. It needs to be pondered over, chewed upon and burped after. The idea of eating lunch together takes on meaning only when people bring their tiffin-boxes, for that is when cultures collide with satisfied sounds. Your dhansak gets my gunpowder, and my bhindi is startled by your version, immersed in kadi.

Strangely, tiffin-boxes that are carried to school tend to be more circumspect creatures, restrained in plastic parsimony. Elaborate tiffin-boxes are looked down upon, even if they are freely shared from, and the feeling of being a bit of a wimp accompanies those with tiffin-boxes that are too fussy. At this stage in life, the invisible presence of the mother that hovers around the Indian child, food in hand, is one where the child is eager to escape and school gives just that opportunity. Besides, having to lug around quintals of school books in the bags they are laden with, makes the idea of heavy lunch-boxes unattractive. The school tiffin is valued most when it is an exotic affair, rather than an elaborate one. Through college of course, it is unthinkable to carry tiffins; how else could one hang around the canteen all day?  Things change when one starts working, and the pull of domesticity as well the recognition that great home cooked food has its advantages begins to sink in. The urge to experiment gradually gives way to a robust acceptance of the familiar, as we become creatures of habit and regulation, 'settling down' in life with more contented waists. The dabba becomes a part of this ritual of domestication, an acceptance of where the centre of gravity in our lives is really located.

Perhaps the most dramatic recognition of the need for this centrepiece of domesticity is the industry that has sprung up around the lunch dabba. The Bombay dabba, the world famous face of this industry, is a product of efficiency,  converting the artisanal distinctiveness of each individual tiffin into a standardised template. It compresses intent into effect, losing some flourish, but retaining the essence. It caters to ritual with its own arcane counterpart, using a mysterious set of symbols to connect familiar food with the body of a loved one. Getting a dabba delivered from home gives us the sense that we have not left at all, and that there is an invisible thread that does not snap when we defect to another world 5 days a week morning to evening.

The magnificence of the multi-tiered dabba lies in its refusal to heed the call of time or fashion. It sits with portly equanimity in the midst of any context, and claims priority over all else. Food comes first, all of it, down to the salaad, the small piece of papad, the lone barfi and a nibble at the green chilly pickle. The world may be large and it may be round but as long as it revolves around a tall, magnificent tiffin-box, it can never be entirely incomprehensible.