28 July 2013

My tiffin box!!

Found this while rummaging thru my mom’s kitchen!! This was my “tiffin box” (my daughters call these “lunch box”es) – in fact my only tiffin box in my entire life. My dad bought me this in 1972 when I was kindergarten. I used it till 1983 (tenth grade)!!!
The original bright blue color is all but faded off. Amazingly, the “Ranjit” sticker is still there – well, some part of it is.
This was my best friend from 10:35 to 11:00 am every school day. Lunch was invariably a boiled egg, bread and a banana. And on special days, a sweet.
Atish, if you are reading this post, you probably remember how often we used to exchange my boiled egg for your “lobongolatika” !!!
On some days, during after school hours, this tiffin box also doubled up as a cricket bat !!! A tree for a wicket, tiffin box for a bat and a “cambis” ball… and we would keep ourselves endlessly occupied till our pickup bus would come. The tiffin box still has pockmarks from some of those wicked shots!!!
That one really pulled me a few decades back… and I am amazed at our parents value system of not considering anything to be too old to be used!!!

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Posted July 28, 2013 by Rajib Roy in category "Vacations

20 COMMENTS :

  1. By Anushree Mukhopadhyay on

    Amar tao same chilo shudhu colour ta pink. Ekdin chutir por jokhon bus er jonye wait korchi toder modhye kon ekta badmaish ota kere niye chole gelo. Tui noi. Tobe naam ta mone porche na. Tarpor cricket khela holo. Aami chechate thaklam. Labh holo na. Ja holo ta hochhe ekta lock bhenge gelo. Oi ekti tiffin box amar o whole life. Ma r kachhe boka khelam. Ar tarpor theke oi rubber band lagiye use korte holo.

    Reply
  2. By Hiren Desai on

    Reminds me of an Aluminium School Bag (container if you will) that had my full name inscribed in Gujarati – I had a heart squeeze when I discovered it still preserved even though my parents did move around quite a bit. After middle school when its size could not serve the school load it was coverted to Shoe-Polish (still is in my baroda home) container by my dad.

    Reply
  3. By Sri Ganesh on

    I studied in Rajghat School, Banares. I still have a stainless steel glass with my name in Hindi on it. It is with me since 1957. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
  4. By Kuntal Sengupta on

    And why do I have to change lunch boxes every 3 months for my kids? Quality and Reliability of made in China products in the USA??

    Reply
  5. By Sumana Rao on

    love the principle of preservation! I’ve grown to appreciate that over the years and have now imbibed it myself. My mom is the same way – she has all the toys that I grew up with and recently handed some of them down to her grandkids.

    Reply
  6. By Subbu Subramanian on

    In a lighter vein, I am rephrasing what Rama Bijarpurkar had mentioned in “We Indians are like that only”. A British expat CEO of a company was exasperated by the strong tendency of Indians to use things for ever and also repairing things as much and as long as possible. During one of several interaction Rama had with him, he said,” The last thing Indians threw out was the British.” I notice Sri Ganesh has come pretty close to it.

    Reply
  7. By Jasmine Ganguly on

    Memories!! Ronit have used same lunch container from Kindergarten till his fifth grade. I will probably be using new one for his middle school…

    Reply
  8. Pingback: The school kid is ready to report to class!! – Rajib Roy

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