Did you have breakfast? Prima facie, this question is not only stupid but also a brainless one! Yet we all ask it. Breaking the fast is considered an important meal of the day. One must have healthy food for breaking the fast—this is what people say. It is also often quoted:
Heavy breakfast,
Moderate lunch, and
Light dinner.
We also come across:
Breakfast like a king,
Lunch like a prince, and
Dinner like a pauper.
Needless to add, we come across many such statements. It is quite funny to read stupid statements like the above. They are amusing because the sentence conveys one thing, while we mean something else. Pray tell me, how can anyone “have” breakfast? Breaking the fast is called breakfast. Hence, the question “Did you have breakfast?” is a stupid one.
“What breakfast did you have?” This question too is equally erroneous. Breakfast is not an edible commodity like a sandwich or butter toast. The intention of the questioner is to ask what food you have to break your fast. Of course, when read literally, the question conveys a different meaning.
In restaurants and hotels, we often see: “Breakfast is served from 7 AM to 10 AM.” Tell me, how can you serve “breakfast”? Hence, I say English is a funny language.
I think the correct way to ask would be: “Did you break your fast?” A reply could be: “Yes, I broke my fast with buttered toast and coffee.” Modern writers even say, “He breakfasted!” What that sentence means, only the author may know.
It is said have ‘Breakfast like a king’. How does a king break his fast? And how does a pauper eat his dinner? Obviously, the king may not have chicken biryani, pizza, burgers, and eggs for breaking his fast! All he may need is a cup of coffee and some toast. Yet we say, “Have breakfast like a king!” Similarly, the phrase “heavy breakfast”—does it mean we must break the fast with something physically heavy, or are we expected to eat too much?
In the southern part of India, we break our fast with two hot steamed idlis with coconut chutney and a cup of filter coffee. We are then ready and set to face the world. The fast is broken. From the king to prince to pauper—all have the same breakfast; it hardly varies. From another perspective, the statement “Breakfast like a king” may imply that the king eats excessively while the poor pauper has nothing to eat!
I am aware that much has been written about what to eat for breaking the fast and when; how to break the fast, what is healthy and what is not. As for me, I have no fixed time for breaking the fast, lunch, or dinner. I eat only when I am ravishingly hungry. With 2 steamed idlis and a cup of filter coffee my weight and sugar levels continue to be normal!
fessional. What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”. Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
