BEASTLY TALES

THE TIFFIN WALLAH

In India tiffin is important to office workers.
Who toil and labour, certainly not shirkers.
And so that they can have a wholesome hot lunch.
They employ Tiffin Wallahs, an extraordinary bunch.
The office workers’ family prepares a multi-course hot lunch.
And places it in Tiffin pails, five or six.
Then along comes the Tiffin Wallah to collect them to fix,
Delivery to Bombay, or Mumbai, if you prefer.
So an office manager can lunch, without effort incur.
The amazing thing is, there’s thousands of deliveries such,
And they never mix them up, well, not very much.

The Tiffin Wallahs, riding on train roof tops,
Clutching their tiffin pails, careful, no slops.
And on arrival in downtown Bombay they disembark,
Conscious of each tiffin address on it’s tag mark.
And so each tiffin, in a manner most hasty,
Is successfully delivered, both steaming hot and tasty.

Saranon Gupta was a Tiffin Wallah true.
Tiffan Wallahing was the career to pursue!
One day, sitting atop of a train,
The weather changed, began to rain.
Things became slippery, Tiffin pails sliding away,
Gupta reached out to grab them as the train did sway.
Then, suddenly, he was off in a slide,
Gupta, Tiffin pails, over the side!
He landed with a thud on the grass by the verge
Tiffin pails torn asunder, the contents did surge.
In an aromatic deluge, all over his face,
Curry korma, not too hot, delicious, in this case!
Gupta located the tiffin pail with the rice,
The fragrant sauce poured over, ever so nice.
It looked like the Mumbai office worker would have no lunch.
He’d get takeaway, Gupta thought, as he did munch.