Biography 213: Lunch group

 One of our colleagues found a small restaurant, "Capital," just beside our office. It had good food and a good seating arrangement with AC, which is very important in Bangladesh because of its hot and humid weather. I found online that it has become a bigger restaurant.

Then, about 6/8 people started going there every day. It's good for us that we don't have to carry our food every day; this way, a small, good group develops. We had connections even when we started working in different offices. We used to help each other, visit each other, and get together and celebrate for any reason. The names that were more frequently joined us were Tuheen, Romel, Karim Ali, Moshiur, Ershad, Rajib and Tania. Others also joined but not regularly.

Later, for different reasons, distances were created between each person. But I must say we all have good souls. Now, we live on different continents. I wish them all the best.

Biography 212: Taking lunch in the office.

  I don't take help from others as long as I can. When I started working, I couldn't make time to prepare my lunch—I never did before. I didn't ask my mom (I was living with my parents) to do so. I decided to eat outside. I like outdoor food. But now I know very well that no matter which country you live in, try to eat homemade food as much as possible.

So, I started enjoying my discoveries. Each day, I went to a new restaurant, food store, or convenience store and tried something new. Those were not healthy foods, but I had sound health to absorb them all.

Some of my colleagues used to bring food from home. At lunchtime, they used to sit together and take their lunch. I started buying from outside and then joined them. But some of them didn't like this unhealthy procedure. They insisted that I should bring food from home. But I didn't want to put effort into it and not put extra work on my mother.

One day, one of my colleagues, Jahangir Alam, became very angry with me. On that day, I ordered a bun stuffed with meat. It was pretty oily, and I wanted to discover how it tasted. But Jahangir shouted at me. What are you doing? Do you want to kill yourself? I won't let you eat these. He didn't let me eat! I was kind of scared of his anger.

Now, please don't take it wrong. He had his girlfriend in those days, and he is happily married to her now, has kids, and lives in the UK. In those days, he used to share his love stories with us, such as how it started, what happened in Nandan amusement park, a story about ordering food, some problems that he faced during marriage, his sister taking care of him like his mother, etc. He came a little late on my birthday with a bunch of yellow roses. He said he wanted to give me yellow flowers as a sign of friendship. But he couldn't find it in the flower store. Finally, he had to run after a man selling flowers and got all for me. He used to say this whenever he saw me, "Shahana aar korona banana. (it's in Bangla)" I still don't know what bahana (Excuse) I made ever.

We, all colleagues, became friends (at least, I thought so) and always try to stay connected. We are in a FB group; previously, we were in a Yahoo group.

Because of him, that night, I went to my mother's. I was expecting my mom to say no because she was busy and wouldn't be able to prepare my lunch in the morning. So, I would be able to tell them, no, I can't, let me eat from outside. But my mom agreed within a second. She said I prepare lunch for your father every morning; I can prepare one more lunch box for you, too. It's easy.

Trust me, I didn't like that. I wanted to try different foods from outside.

My mom started giving me lunch in a hot pot. It was a full meal: rice, curry, salad, etc. The Food was delicious. I stopped eating at restaurants. Maybe Jahangir just helped me not to ruin my health, which I did later.

Biography 74: No lunch

 Our school was very near to our home. If there were no high-rise building, we could have seen it from our window. But we could hear the bell. It only took a couple of minutes to go there.

In school, we had one break. It was 30 minutes break. Students were allowed to go out. This was the best time for street foods. Many food vans uses to come to the school door during this time. The price was low and food quantity was also very small. But the taste was great. You might be guessing I have enjoyed that food, right? NO.

My mom never gave me pocket money to buy anything in school. She even didn't give me a lunch box. She said, our house is very near to the school. So, you can come and eat from home, if you feel hungry. One day I have decided to go home. A couple of my friends also join me, they thought my mom must have made something special that's why I'm going home. My mom wasn't ready for this. She fried an egg and with some Porotas. I have eaten that and one or two friends join me. Others didn't like it. Who likes eggs? Later my mom said, you suppose to come alone.

Anyway, I never went home again during the lunch break. I just enjoyed my break by playing. And watching others eating delicious foods. Like pickles, ice cream, fruits prepared with salt and other masalas, chatpoti, fuchka etc.

One day I don't remember why I have got some money for lunch. The amount was very low, in the lunch break, I went outside and I found with that amount I can buy a "Kotbel" (Elephant apple or sourwood apple). The seller made a hole at the top and put some salt and dry chilli powder in it and then mixed it with a bamboo stick and give it to me.  I was flying in heaven.

In our class, there was an unwritten rule. Whoever buys any Kotbel others uses to taste it from them. My amount was small so I bought a small one. Still, I was very happy to share it with others. I don't get much chance to do it. Some of them said, hey, let her eat it, it is small, if we take too much there won't be much for her.

lunch at efes

every month we all from office go out and take lunch together. here, every one pays their own bill. u can say this is our monthly get together. well, in the pic u can only see me. this picture had been taken yesterday (this month's get together). we were at efes in gulshan1.