Me and my friend Khushboo were sitting in the metro and were
congratulating each other in successfully getting a comfortable seat at the Central
secretariat station. Actually we boarded the train from the menace station of
Rajiv Chowk. It was difficult to get a seat in the overflowing crowd, but we
played it smart and carefully positioned ourselves in front of middle aged
aunties wearing saaris and carrying jute bags. They are different looking women
whom you can relate to the nineties. Mostly government servants, they usually
get down at CS or Udyog Bhawan. As soon
as they left, we conquered. That’s when we started talking about this.
It was about the obsession of dabbas (boxes and containers)
a middle class mother has. She will remember the color, the size and the basic
property of the containers that she allots to the members of the family while
putting lunch in it. The danger is that she’ll check it whenever you come back
from office. The moment you put your tiffin or dabba on the sink she’ll check
it from the corner of her eyes whether her treasure is safe and sound. And once
you lose it, she loses her temper too. For instance, a long time back, I misplaced
a tumbler and till today the word tumbler is the igniting element of her anger.
Recently we got a microwave for our home. As soon as I came
back from office, my mother diverted all her conversation from the microwave to
the free dabbas with it. Once I was confused why she likes to order rather than
going out to eat. I hope you already guessed her dabba fetish makes her do
that. So the order comes in the plastic boxes that can be used for at least a
month. Khushboo told another interesting behavior straight from her home. Her mother
went to her aunt’s place for keertan. When she returned she had a big smile on
her face and that made her wonder really hard. She followed her mom to the
kitchen and there she saw her mom taking out four big dabbas full of prashaad! What
a delight for her sweet mom who thought the idea of the aunt to serve prashaad
in the daba was the best thing she has ever given to her. Wow!
So the train of such moments was right on track and we
sounded much better than the lousy announcements. One jargon literally applies over here that
is, “Mom please think something out of the box!” Well every household has a
different dabba story. We discussed many more on our way to the last station.
The dabbas really served a good laugh to us and pleased the people overhearing
us.
