I Saved My Tiffin For Home

Sometimes it's really cute what these little minds are thinking and the way they interpret things around them...

My little daughter Navya, who is all set to be a little lady of 3 next month, is already experiencing the big world on her own, now that she has joined a 'proper' school. 'Proper' meaning not a playgroup or playschool, but a regular school, and since this is the first time she has gone out of the 'nest' that her mommy was making for her, it is a big experience !!!!

Now my daughter is very particular about what she will eat in her tiffin. A proper meal or a proper snack is a strict non-no, as she associates all that only with home and things that she should have with mamma while mamma is around. That she never sits at the same spot for more than 10 seconds and that her mamma has to run around the entire house with her food in hand is a different story altogether.

So, options like sandwich, vegetable cutlet, noodles, parantha, aaloo-sabzi, burger, idli, dosa.....all these are not allowed in her tiffin. If ever I try and send these to school, 9/10 times they come home just the way I sent it.

The only things she is ok to take to school as of now are green peas, corn, fruits, cookies, cornflakes, and sometimes wafers. That is all she will eat in school.

Sometimes it is easy for me to try my hand at making South-Indian food as the pastes are readily available in the shops these days. So today I had made butter dosa for her in breakfast, just the crispy way she likes it.. "Mamma, give me katt katt" she smiles. So I gave her a plate of butter dosa that she thankfully finished without much fuss. And that made me try and stretch my luck further.

I quickly used up the remaining paste to make a few small idlis for her. And later I sauted them with salt and butter and cut them in tiny pieces to send to school. Of course I added the mandatory (by Navya) green peas and 2 cookies too.

And when she returned home in the afternoon I already knew what to expect. There they were, those few pieces of idli, lying morosely in a corner of her lunch box, while the rest of its companions had been duly put in their place, in Navya's tummy that is ;)

I asked her why she didnt eat the idli. She stared back at me with two big innocent eyes, thinking for a moment if her mommy was really so dumb to even ask such a question.... 'Navu and mamma will eat at home, okay?" she asked, pointing to the lunch box and smiling again....

For anyone who wants to know what true beauty and love and innocence is all about...talk to a baby......