Lunch at the Pratham office

Lunch is usually at 1:30 or 2:00 depending on how people feel and on whether one of the office staff, either Bhavnaben or Dakshaben (ben meaning sister in Gujarati and a commonly used addition to first names to show respect), come down to the first floor and say ‘lunch’ and gesture towards the stairs. It is also usually a communal affair; as we make our way up to the third floor we stop at the second and see if everyone there is coming up too. On the top floor there is a medium sized room and a covered terrace, both with enough space for ten or so people to sit in a rough circle on the tiled floor. And this is what we do, sometimes with reed mats covering the floor. Many people bring food from home, either cooked by themselves or by their family’s cook. The office will also order in 30 rupee tiffin, a runner being sent out to collect the metal cylinder with its four compartments filled with rice, dal, folded roti and one or two spicy subji.

The lovely thing about this process is that all the food is placed in the middle of the circle of cross-legged people and everyone just helps themselves. On the whole you eat what you’ve brought, but are also more than welcome to take from others and dig into their container with a spoon. Everyone eats from the wide, flat metal plates with high sides that are common in India while some people will share one plate with their neighbour. I love this sharing and communal attitude. Since we’ve been able to cook at home I have purposefully made extra to share at lunch time, taking apart my small, neat steel tiffin and pushing each section in amongst the others in front of me when I sit down to eat. Amusingly there have been exclamations at mine and Dani’s ability to make rotis.

Eating in this way gives me an opportunity to try lots of different food and styles of cooking. On most days I am given something fragrant and delicious to eat and can then press the ‘owner’ for details on how to go about reproducing it. It also gives me the opportunity to eat without cutlery. A staple is dal and rice, the thin sauce being poured onto the rice and mashed into a sticky mixture that can be easily scooped up using the three or four fingers of the right hand, the thumb being used to lever the food into the mouth. When mixing dal and rice it is important that no white grains be left. Curd (yoghurt) is also often added to the mix and soft roti can be dexterously ripped into small sections with just the right hand and pressed down into the dal and rice, folded and popped into the mouth. Licking your fingers and wiping the sauce from your plate is no social taboo and is done with gusto, at least in my case. I regularly come away from lunch, hobbling slightly from sitting cross-legged for thirty minutes, feeling very full and completely satisfied.