Recently, I was having a conversation with a colleague about what I want to cook in the evening. As the discussion continued, I mentioned that I was going out for dinner and will not be able to make my tiffin for the next day. She appeared confused and asked me what a tiffin box was. That got me thinking, where did the word tiffin come from? Growing up in India I remember taking tiffin boxes to school but I never knew why it was called ‘tiffin’.
Tiffin as a word meaning for a type of meal. When the English were occupying India they had a custom of having tea late in the afternoon. On the contrary, the Indians liked to have a light meal or snacks at that hour. It appears the English started liking to have a snack as well and they coined the term ‘tiffin’ to describe that meal. The word ‘tiffin’ actually is derived from the colloquial or slag English word ‘tiffing’ which means to take a little drink. The word tiffin became part of anglo-indian customs since 1867.
Today in south India and Nepal, tiffin refers to a snack between meals, while in other parts of India tiffin refers to packed lunches.
In Mumbai, tiffin boxes are usually delivered by the famous dabbawalas (a topic into itself for later). In Odisha, when I was growing up taking tiffin boxes to School and sharing with friends was a memory I still fondly cherish.
Let me know if you too have heard about tiffin so I can add more to this topic! :)
Tiffin as a word meaning for a type of meal. When the English were occupying India they had a custom of having tea late in the afternoon. On the contrary, the Indians liked to have a light meal or snacks at that hour. It appears the English started liking to have a snack as well and they coined the term ‘tiffin’ to describe that meal. The word ‘tiffin’ actually is derived from the colloquial or slag English word ‘tiffing’ which means to take a little drink. The word tiffin became part of anglo-indian customs since 1867.
Today in south India and Nepal, tiffin refers to a snack between meals, while in other parts of India tiffin refers to packed lunches.
In Mumbai, tiffin boxes are usually delivered by the famous dabbawalas (a topic into itself for later). In Odisha, when I was growing up taking tiffin boxes to School and sharing with friends was a memory I still fondly cherish.
Let me know if you too have heard about tiffin so I can add more to this topic! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment