A post by Riya Arora

In a lot of houses there was one person awake before everybody else.

Not for any reason worth announcing. Only so that the tiffin was standing ready near the door by the time the rest of the house came out of their rooms.

Three steel containers. The sabzi that travels well at the bottom. Rotis wrapped in a cloth so they are still soft at one o'clock. The clasp pressed down and checked twice.

Nobody at the lunch table ever thought about the hour it was packed in. That was rather the point. Care, done well, does not look like anything at all.

Whose early mornings in your house were spent entirely on somebody else's day?