Lunch at work during my time

by HM Nissanka Warakaulla

Lunch time for working people in Sri Lanka differ in various places and offices. Those bringing lunch from home sit together in the canteen or an alotted lunch room while others lunch at their own desks. Those lunching in office travel to work from far so that they cannot go home for their meal and return within the stipulated hour.

During our schooldays, schools used to start at 8.00 am and go on till 3.00 pm with an hour long lunch interval. The day scholars who travelled from far brought their lunch from home. They used to eat either in the tuck shop or in a separate room allotted for the purpose. Those living close to the school went home for lunch and returned in time for classes. The hostelers would go to the boarding for lunch and return for the afternoon session.

In Colombo decades ago, there was a near foolproof system of sending lunch to offices through tiffin carriers on bicycles with large boxes strapped at the back. The serviette wrapped and labeled lunch plates were stacked in these. The delivery men collected the lunches, served in plates (with a covering plate on top) and wrapped in a large napkin or duster from homes in various parts of the city and suburbs in the forenoon, and congregated at a ‘clearing house’ on a wide, shady city road. There was one such very visible point on Thurstan Road near the Colombo University.

Here they sorted the plates destined to particular office buildings, or those adjacent to each other, so that only one lunch carrier would visit a building or neighbouring area cutting down the work of going to different office building. Later in the afternoon the reverse process was repeated with the empty plates returned to the homes from where the lunch plates originated. That was a super efficient system with very few, if any, mix ups. The man who delivered your lunch wasn’t the person who collected it. Sadly this lunch delivery service is no more.

After passing out of university, I got a teaching appointment in Dambulla in the early 1960s. Dambulla then was not what it is today. There was no electricity to homes and no streetlights so that one had to be careful walking on the road in the dark because there were dangerous serpents. More than anything else, what we missed was a good eating house to have our meals. The four of us who were occupying the teachers’ quarters had to rely on a woman who used to supply meals. She was known as buthamma and we got all three meals from her. We had our lunch after school was over, that is after 1.30 pm.

The second school I taught in was at Ankumbura, off Alawathugoda. Here too, there was no place to have a meal so that I had to have my lunch after returning home late in the afternoon as I had to take three buses to get home. Fortunately, this was only for a short time as I got a transfer to Talatuoya Central College, which was only about four miles from home. Again, lunch was after school but at home. I was there for only two terms as I received an appointment at the Ceylon Transport Board (CTB) as a Graduate Probationer along with 14 others.

There were four others from Kandy who were working in Colombo and ran a chummery in a flat opposite the Regal Cinema. I joined them. We had a young man to do the cooking for us. I was attached to the CTB head office at Narahenpita and I used to travel by bus to the Fort to have lunch in the flat and then get back to office also by bus.

In 1968, I was sent as the Depot Superintendent to Gampola for six months. As my home was in Ampitiya, I could not go home to have lunch nor did I carry my lunch to work. There was a schoolmate of mine, much senior to me, Windy, who had his home close to the depot. I had rented a room in Windy’s house and he provided lunch too on payment at the end of the month.

There were officers in the government departments close to the Fort who used to scoot out of office at about 11.00 o’clock to the various “waterholes”, have drinks, and lunch and get back to office at about 2.00 pm. What were their bosses doing at that time?

After joining the university (I retired as Registrar of the Colombo University), I was able to come home for lunch and get back to office within the stipulated time. When I joined the single University of Ceylon, I lived at Havelock Road and my office in the Senate House was in a building now located within the UN premises. That was just a five- minute walk home for lunch and return to office.

There were many daily wage earners who had to fend for themselves at lunchtime. Most of them used to patronize small boutiques which served chunks of semi-toasted bread (roast paan) washed down with plain tea. Today most of them cannot afford even such a lunch as roast paan is so expensive.

Workmen and women working as road sweepers and others who work on roads must have their lunch seated on the pavement under the shade of a tree. Workmen at construction sites have their lunch on the site itself in a shady place.

I believe even today working people still have their lunch as was done earlier and as indicated above.