The reason I swallow my food faster than it can be served

 

I am often accused of gobbling my food too quickly. As they say, the actions of our present are dictated by some trauma from our past. So I decided to explore my own psyche to understand what trauma it was that triggers my present day gluttony.

It was a long time ago, probably in the late 1990s. I took my mother to a doctor’s appointment. My niece and nephew decided to accompany us, as they had already crossed into double digits and were 11 or 12 years old. While waiting at the doctor’s office that evening, it was quite a busy day and it was taking quite a while for my mother’s turn to come up and the niece and nephew were getting fidgettty and I was getting hungry. So I told my mother that I would take them to a nearby restaurant to grab a quick bite. Now they were famous on surviving on air and never eating anything at all, so i was sure that they wouldn’t eat much.

At the restaurant, I asked them what they wanted and they said a gobi manchurian and spring rolls. So I ordered a plate of each, with the earnest hope that they would eat a little and leave the rest to me as I was quite hungry. A few minutes later the food arrived and they lunged at it like a lion would attack a deer in the wild. Soon the plates were licked clean and I continued to be hungry. So that is why it is to this day that I cannot help but gobble my food before serving is complete.