Tiffin box specials
Written by Dr.Laxmi Iyer

The Grove family had just shifted to Brazil. It was part of their business expansion plans. The Groves had two kids - twins - 6 year old Penelope and Perpetual, two four year old dogs - Flash and Rover and two three year old cats - Frisky and Freaky. Both attractive and vivacious brown eyed,

A few months after her stay, Juliana soon discovered that she did not belong there. Besides the language barrier which drew a deep rift, her unorthodox views on bringing up kids and her working woman's lifestyle had quietly and deftly carved out a forbidding barrier between herself and the women of her neighbourhood.

Here, in this little town in Brazil where watching TV and gossiping was a full time occupation for many of the women in the community, for Juliet small pangs of fast growing guilt were threatening to loom into huge, grief filled clouds of self induced torment.

For one, none of the women in this town worked. They all stayed at home, cooked and cleaned and laughed and talked - luxuriating in the salubrious gossip that only idle minds, pots full of time and steamy, hot summer afternoons can bake.

Two, the women felt proud of being full time mothers and they loved to indulge their children in the pleasures of the modern, good life - sweets, candy, cake, ice-cream, biscuits and wafers.

Among this set, Juliana felt like a cruel, mother who was depriving her kids. She, an American woman was more fond of natural, wholesome village food than they! What a strange contrast!

Wasn't it weird? She said to herself. Sometimes she wondered to herself. What on earth were they doing here? in this remote little place...so far away from home.

Each day, when she picked up the kids from the community school, she had felt it from the looks people gave her, the sniggers, the whispers... the distinct feeling of being an unaccepted outsider. If she spoke about it to Ralph, he would as always brush it off as her imagination.

Everybody in the Grove family ate healthy food. Juliana was very particular about that. The cats and the dogs too got to eat only their vet approved dog and cat food respectively. How did her pets feel about that?

Well! they hated it. How did she tell? She almost felt like she could read their minds.

Her pets would look at one another - unhappily stare at the food bowl and then slowly dig into their food. She had seen the gloom in their eyes - she could almost feel them telling one another that they had no choice. This was as good as it gets.

With 2 cats, 2 dogs and 2 kids, she knew a food strike was going to happen soon if she didn't do something about it.

Juliana was beginning to feel the warning signs of it. Sometimes she felt like her pet dog - Rover did when she got these distinct signals.

She almost felt like a home radar the way she could foresee things long before they actually happened.

A rebellion was going to get underway in the Grove household if action was not taken quickly.

She had to do something about it. Otherwise, she, Juliana Grove would go down in history as one of those cruel mothers who never gave her kids and pets biscuits, sweets, chocolates and ice-creams to eat. She felt tormented and burdened by guilt as only a supremely conscientious, guilt ridden, working mother could feel.

She felt like a mother who had metamorphosed into a mean, monster kind of witch - the kind that one sees in cartoons - constantly shutting off the TV sets, scolding them with their homework and generally on a round of reprimands whenever her eyes caught them doing anything she disapproved of.

What she disapproved of was what the kids were most fond of. She felt that her mind had got set into a stern and imposing cement and concrete mould of severity.

She had seen Penelope and Perpetual drooling at the ice-cream and chocolate cake advertisements that beeped every 10 minutes when they watched all their favourite TV programmes.

Why! She had even caught Ralph drooling at the food advertisements - while all the time affirming his commitment to wholesome, nutritious, heart and liver friendly food. Poor Ralph never complained about his food. He ate everything that she cooked without a protest. And most days of the week, food for both of them was salt free...Why! because it was supposed to be healthier and more natural and Juliana loved salt free food. So, Ralph endured it...because it was Ahem! good for health.

They didn't use sugar anymore. It was always molasses.

This week, Juliana decided to make amends. She had taken special trouble to order some interesting looking tiffin boxes from an advertisement that she had seen in a newspaper some time back.

The tiffin boxes were really special. They were musical tiffin boxes - which could be opened just with a flick of the fingers. She had shown the kids how to set different tunes and use them.

What Juliana liked most about the tiffin boxes was the extra space that they had. She felt bad about sending the kids just enough food for them with nothing extra to share with the other kids.

The new tiffin boxes were so simple and easy to use, so child friendly, even Frisky had been able to playfully use his paw to snap it open.

Juliana decided to give everyone in the family a big surprise. One sunny Wednesday, she took time off to indulge in a fantasy. She was going to bake chocolate cakes.

Juliana was delighted with her cake baking adventures. With the kids out playing and both the cats and the dogs out sunning themselves on the terrace, she had been left at peace to get on with her baking fantasy.

What a dream - the chocolate cakes had turned out to be. Rich, creamy...and every possible adjective that you could give for an out of this world chocolate cake. Scrumptious! said Juliana to herself. Yes!
Scrumptious! that was the word for this mouth watering marvel before her eyes.

She knew how the twins felt about what she packed in their tiffin boxes. They were too frightened of her to protest. She knew they were scared of her. She shook her head wistfully - unhappy at the thought that she had actually succeeded in frightening her kids...something she would have laughed at - if somebody had suggested this to her a few years ago.

In her anxiety to bring them up right, she had made the big switch from mild and gentle to harsh and intimidating. Sometimes when they were out shopping, she had seen the kids look wistfully and longingly at all the forbidden food.

She was a very methodical and systematic person. Juliana had consulted the nutritionist and had taken great trouble to develop a balanced menu. In fact, for every day of the week, she had a menu chart ready. Every body in the home knew what was going to be cooked on Mondays, Tuesdays...in fact, every single meal, every day of the week.

It was always the same kind of food. Wholesome, whole grain, brown bread sandwiches, sometimes pizza and sometimes pita bread or sometimes it was spaghetti or noodles - all packed with veggies and spices. She always added some fruits and nuts for the evening tea time snacks in her kid's tiffin boxes.

Meanwhile, on the terrace of the Grove household, another milestone meeting had taken place. Frisky, Freaky, Flash and Rover had hatched a plot. A real coup if you please.

It was a mastermind of a plot and they were just raring to put it in action.

The next day, early in the morning the Grove household was bustling with activity.

As she passed the corridor, she was happy to see that both Flash and Rover were jumping all over her affectionately and so were Frisky and Freaky mewing and purring so contentedly. Why! They had even finished up all their food so quickly. She saw a special glint in their eyes. They are really happy today, she told herself.

She was certainly not going to give them any of the stuff that was baked. It was bad for their teeth anyways.

On second thoughts she told herself, may be she could give each of them a small slice, but that was all.

Juliana carefully placed six chocolate cakes in each of the twin's new tiffin boxes ready on the dining table half an hour early.

She told them, " Today, I am sending you something special. I want you to follow exactly what I tell you to do. Close your eyes before you open the tiffin box and then pass it on to all your friends and ask them to guess the name of the food - with their eyes closed ".

Juliana smiled to herself...thinking that every time she told them, I want you to follow exactly what I tell you to do...they always did the reverse. Probably they, would polish off the cakes much earlier.

That day evening, when Juliana went to pick up the kids, she saw them both crying. " Mom, we followed exactly what you told us to do. But why did you send us dog and cat food today? We ate some of it anyways but none of the others did. Mom, Georgina said, she's going to tell Miss and everyone in the class ".