Sushi and Bento

We moved to Miri in 1987, at the end of the year. It was a bad period of my life, with so many heart breaks, so many disturbances in many ways. Life was a struggle and nothing seemed to be right. Life was not smooth at all especially when there was no one there to help you.

My children were sent to 4 different schools and the school runs were unbelieveable. It was a miracle I did not have a mental breakdown.

It was good and a relief to know that some people were helpful.

Slowly we learned to cope in spite of all the obstances. We had to see the positive side of life.

Living with packed food was a special feature of our lives.

My children enjoyed having their food in boxes. And we discovered the beauty of bento.

But we also realized that badly packed food in a bento container could also go stale within a few hours.

My young son discovered one day his food in the bento was completely stale.

It was such a tragic moment for him.

He had no lunch that day.

As a mother it still breaks my heart thinking about this from time to time.


So whenever I go window shopping one of the favourite sections I would visit is the bento or containers section. And I would reminisce and start feeling the pain all over.

After all these years I still think of the sadness we lived with, when kids went without their lunch, or when kids were forgotten at school when one parent forgot his duty to fetch them, or when the angry school bus driver just could not wait three minutes more for the child who was held back by the angry teacher.