“Do you always think about eating?”, asked my boss, N. I was 22, it was my first job straight out of a hotshot management school and my boss had just announced that there will be a meeting at 1.30 – which meant that we would have to leave office at 12.45pm and when is there ever time to have lunch before 12.45 in the afternoon when everyone is really super busy in the buzzing ad agency I worked in? But the time was set by the client – conveniently for he would finish his lunch by then and he just has to step into another room for the meeting. So, this was N’s counter question to me when I exclaimed in dismay,”But when will we have lunch?”. It stopped me in my tracks. I realized that day that I really do think about eating a lot. (not eating a lot, but think about eating a lot 
) I accepted the fact that the stomach will get empty from time to time and must be filled at the very moment it requests to be attended to, not three hours later or the following day. There was a valid reason for this kind of mature thinking. There were a couple of days when my boss and the client would fix meetings which would be nothing short of cruel. Annual marketing plans would be all day meetings – one would assume with food thrown in. But here were people who would expect you in their office at 9am after having breakfast presumably, and stop for lunch but order no lunch for you, but go into cubicles to eat from their tiffin boxes leaving you to fend for yourself in the best possible way and finish the meeting at 6.30 – so that all you’ve had the whole day would be a couple of teas or coffees. Actually, you are not even hungry after such a day. You forget to feel anything. And hence, I decided to organize my life around meal times. I would never accept meetings which were bang in the middle of lunch, or so early in the morning that breakfast would be impossible for a hostler and a long commuter.
I was brought up to respect meal times – all meals at the prescribed time on holidays and on school days – all meals at the same time everyday as per school schedule and all meals at home where the whole family was present and would eat together. Always. No exceptions. If nothing else, I have carried with me this legacy as well as a robust digestive system. So when I grew up it was obvious that I would be married into a family of fairly food obsessed individuals, populated by an MIL who finishes making breakfast and lunch by 9am, dinner by 4pm, an FIL who will ask what’s for dinner while having lunch – not because of any desire to eat, but more to get the job over and a better half who will ask what’s for the next 6 meals while having the present one.
And old habits die hard. To this day, all our outings are fixed around meal times, with elaborate plans of where we will eat and when and what if anything will the kids get to eat there. We are so obsessed with food that we have been known sometimes to plan even what we will order at a restaurant or which snacks we will choose when the vendors pass us by during our infrequent train journeys.
Our children are turning out the same. At least our older daughter is. It is easy to improve her mood – just give her something to eat. She has been known to claim, “Ammaaa, I feeling ungry.”, about half an hour after the last meal. She fills a tiffin box full of goodies for any car journeys we undertake – be it a 5 minute journey to a nearby vegetable shop. And starts eating from it, 2 minutes after we start from home.
So it didn’t surprise me much when the other day, the better half said, just after a heavy lunch, ” I’ll leave in 15 minutes and when I get back at 4.30pm, I’ll have my coffee.”
What can I say. We live to eat, no two ways about it.
Oh I so get this. I am actually living this nightmare. Me, the one who eats to live, is saddled with a daughter and a husband who live to eat! First question after breakfast-what’s for lunch. First question when I pick Ananya up from school, ” Mom, what’s for tea?”
On the brighter side, they’ll eat anything, as long as it is edible.
As long as they don’t have to make whatever they are eating, they will be interested to know what’s for the next meal.
In my case, P does pitch in and take care of a few complete meals, specially when I am nearing a breakdown, or he is desperate for a change.
I am just dreaming of some food or the other while running. This is true for running long distances and thought of having hot breakfast/lunch keeps me going.
I had no idea that you dream of food also! Specially in long runs.
This will motivate me to make your favorites specially on run days. 
Nice post. I had not guessed this, by the way, from any of our interactions till date. I mean, I knew you guys have meals at regular hours, but I did not know that it went any deeper than that – especially not the “next 6 meals” bit.
Prakash: I frequently dream of food – and I mean, sleeping dreams, not daydreams. The other day, I dreamt I was gorging on chocolate cake. (In my dream I didn’t have gluten intolerance.)
I am surprised that you didn’t know that we were like this only. Half of the conversation we have everyday in some way or another revolves around food.