Sleepy eyes, gurgling tummy, tired smile. Two periods through, two more to go. Since zero hour until break hour, one thing remains common. The anticipation of the period in which everyone opens their hot, fresh lunch boxes. 40 tiffin boxes click open at the same time and the entire room is filled with the smell of home food. Amongst all the chatter, laughter and the strategical trade of food, there is one thing that is common to all. The shiny silver foils each one’s food comes wrapped in. Yes, the familiar old FreshWrapp foil.

FreshWrapp foil is one thing that has been constant in our lives. The blue logo with a bright yellow smiley on it is something each one of us has grown up seeing. Even looking at photographs now brings feelings of nostalgia. From times we don’t even remember using it for the first time until today, if its about packing food, its about FreshWrapp.

Not a lot of things can match the feeling of home cooked comfort food after a long and hard day. And one realizes this the most only when one leaves their home and thus their comfort food, home, space and a lot more. A similar such thing had happened with me when I had left my home to pursue higher studies. Extremely excited about moving to a new city, a new house, a new college I never realized the importance of proper meals until it became so dire that I actually started falling sick because of it. Since I lived in a paying guest house, I didn’t have access to a personal kitchen. I generally left in a hurry and always skipped my breakfast and mostly my lunch too. All this accumulated to a point where I started losing weight and lost all my strength and stamina.

I realized that I had to do something about this. I changed my schedule, paid more attention to my lifestyle and didn’t skip a meal no matter the situation. Slowly, life came back to track and just when situations seemed to be improving, something I never expected happened. I got a certain skin disease which put me off gluten for months. Gluten is an element which is present in almost every dish we Indians eat. I had to become extremely cautious and selective about food and had to stop eating from the common canteen.

This is when packing lunch for myself changed my life. I had no other way but to pack my food every single day. The task of cutting the foil and packing my food which I used to find so mundane during my school time became a norm in my life again. But this time it was different. The five minutes that I took every single day turned out to be an integral part of my daily schedule. They were those five minutes of the beginning of every day when I started the day with myself. I didn’t worry about assignments or projects. Those five minutes were my own that I spent over self care.

As months passed by, I got better and started eating gluten again but something about packing food stuck with me. Those few months were some of the most challenging months of my life but they also taught me the importance of small things in life. The things we take for granted. Packing a tiffin might seem like a very small thing but in retrospect I realize how much it made me better both physically and mentally.

Even today when I write this and open my lunch again, I realize that what I eat might have changed, my box might have changed but one thing remains. The FreshWrapp foil I pack my food with. It’s this little thing that has come with me through my entire journey while seeming insignificant. Its these little, seemingly insignificant things that collate bits and pieces of life together to form a complete picture. Without them, the picture would be incomplete.

prapti jain

LITTLE THINGS || IIM RANCHI || PRAPTI JAIN