From Paris to Mumbai - A Tale of Two Lunchtimes

I find it tricky to compare my experiences and lifestyles from two different continents. I don’t know if my readers will understand me. Moreover, my recent journey is unusual as most Indians travel east to west, while I moved from west to east.

During my stay in Paris for the last three and a half years, most of my lunches at work were at a shared corporate cafeteria between three companies. I appreciated the price and quality of the food there, particularly the desserts and varieties of yogurts available. Maybe I now understand why French cuisine is considered the world’s most refined. Unfortunately, I am not a food critic, so I can’t pen down those exotic tastes to make your mouth water. But as I think about them, I roll my tongue.

In general, breakfast in France is a small affair consisting of croissants and bread rolls with some butter and jam to spread, usually accompanied by milky coffee, hot chocolate, or café noir. Since there is no set time for breakfast in France, it makes them a bit hungry by noon :). Le déjeuner (lunch) was once a two-hour mid-day meal but has recently seen a trend toward the one-hour lunch break.

It is common in the corporate world to be given lunch vouchers as part of employee benefits. These can be used in most restaurants, supermarkets, and traiteurs; however, people having lunch this way typically do not eat all three dishes of a traditional lunch due to price and time considerations. A sandwich followed by a dessert is quite common and can be found ready-made at bakeries, supermarkets, cafes, bistros, or restaurants. Even many restaurants offer a lower-priced prix fixe menu at lunch, which is not available in the evening.

It is common in France for someone to wish you “Bon Appétit” if they realize you are going to have food as you take the exit from the office door or lift at noon, while in India, we hardly say anything before starting our meal. Rather, I believe there is no exact translation even in Anglo-Saxon culture for “Bon Appétit,” but it does exist in Latin cultures in some form or another, like in Spanish or Italian lingo.

I have been a silent participant most of the time as I used to feel shy about communicating with my limited French linguistic skills. These three pictures are the only ones I have from all those lunch times I had with my colleagues. They were taken at the very end of our stay with Pamela’s new phone camera. I always felt I was going to miss those lunch hours if I moved out of Paris; now I write about them before they become a distant memory.

At my current location in Bombay, we do not have an in-house cafeteria at our office (a small office compared to Paris). There are plenty of restaurants around to choose from, or I can order lunch at my desk. With the latter, you can work as you take a bite. I am sure any health freak will tell you that it is not good for the soul and body. Food is supposed to be taken properly, so you chew and eat in peace. A meal in France is not simply a moment dedicated to the nourishment of the body; it is indeed a time for social and even spiritual replenishment.

In modern India, where average work hours are getting longer and people are slogging more at work, this may cause very disturbing social and physiological changes. It might have an adverse effect as the dynamic working population grows older.