Breakfast Serial: The Most Important Meal Undergoes Menu Change

This is a series of articles written by Silver Talkies members, following their participation in a writing workshop conducted by Silver Talkies Magazine editor Priyanka Borpujari.

To me, breakfast is the most important part of the day. Without breakfast, I would go crazy; I get so irritating and confused. I don't remember if I have ever skipped my breakfast: may be my mother never let us step out without gulping it while hurriedly going for school or office. Most of the time, my breakfasts when I was growing up, were plain or stuffed parantha loaded with veggies. Since I have spent whole my life in Delhi, life was always on a running track.

Marriage brought about a big shift in my life. Breakfast was not given to me, but that I had to prepare it for the family: parantha for my husband, porridge or bread-omelette for my children, and lastly, for myself whatever I could like bread upma, a sandwich or a cheela, but I never skipped it, that too on time around 8am.

While so many areas of our lives are undergoing a sea change, the breakfast palate stays more or less uniform from this time to now in most Indians' households. Very rarely are these time-consuming, lovingly-prepared delicacies being replaced by bowls full of cornflakes and milk, oats or muesli.

Breakfast technology has evolved from paranthas and sandwiches to different highly-sophisticated ready-to-eat millets mixed with milk, fruits, dry fruits, seeds, berries etc. Just as our lifestyles have changed, so have our breakfast ingredients.

Life has changed entirely since the Covid-19 pandemic: I worked from home for sometime. But now, I enjoy being a homemaker. I have a choice always on how I shape my day.

My day starts with a meditation around 4am, yoga around 6am, and morning walk around 7am. I then adhere to a routine of drinking "golden water:, which is a mixture of raw turmeric juice with a dash of lemon and honey, which I was introduced to by Baba Ramdev. I follow this with tea, and makhanas and seeds. Around 9am, my husband and I enjoy a bowl of oats, loaded with chopped apple or banana, and with a few almonds, walnuts, dates, and seeds etc. It is much easier to prepare and the healthier than the parantha of my earlier years, and I love it.