Never Got Forks by Sara N. '28

I came to MIT forgetting at home my power bank, a charger for my TI-84, my eyeliner, and my shampoo-conditioner set – this last one was remedied expeditiously, trust. What I did remember to pack was: a 96-piece assorted disposable cutlery set, a sizeable stack of disposable bowls & plates of two sizes, and 12 individual packets of Maggi noodles.

love of my life

How do I explain Maggi? I can only say that I can’t remember a time not loving it. It’s the favorite snack of my early childhood that has persisted past. I’ve only ever had it one way – liquid-heavy and cooked with green peas only – and while a cursory Google search reveals that this is not a common way to eat Maggi, I genuinely cannot imagine anything better. Maggi is my go-to for days I need pick-me-ups, and also my go-to for perfect days that deserve a perfect snack, which means it’s actually perfect for all occasions. It’s low effort. It’s bright yellow. What more could a person ask for?

There was this one year, 2015, I think, where I didn’t have Maggi at all, because some branch of FDA in India found “unusually excessive levels of lead” within samples of Maggi’s flavoring powder, and the entire product was banned from Indian shelves, altogether. I’m actually not 100% sure how that was resolved, but I, for one, was thrilled when my beloved noodles were back on shelves & did not ask any further questions.

Eating Maggi at MIT means that I’ve had to resort to making the noodles in a microwave, which is kind of a depressing experience because here I have no frozen peas on hand and the noodles don’t fully soak in the flavor powder and sometimes (many times) I completely over/underestimate cooking time and end up with incredibly soggy or borderline-raw noodles. And yet – I still love it! Any flavor from home is welcome in a place where I find familiarity so rarely.

I say all of this now to set the stage, to make clear how absolutely crucial Maggi is within my day-to-day life. I knew my 12 packets of Maggi would not last me that long, but nothing could have prepared me to run through 10/12 packets in like, the first two weeks. Since I don’t have easy access to any Indian grocery stores here, I had no choice but to start rationing.

This is how I got to where I was last week: half past 1am, dinner nothing but a distant memory, a daunting physics pset left to finish (start), and the knowledge that I had exactly one packet of Maggi left. I had been saving it for the perfect, most desperate moment, and as I disassociated in my chair and stared at a point on my wall for a solid five minutes, I knew the time had come. I made the necessary calls (my mom, to notify her that I was using up my last Maggi) and felt energy and inspiration and excitement genuinely shoot through me at the prospect of getting to eat Maggi noodles. Yes, I would likely have to stay up to see the sun rise, but I was going to be eating Maggi! All was right with the world!

Reader, all was not right with the world. I was out of forks, and more fatally: I was out of bowls. I still had plates – in two (!!!) sizes – but not a single bowl. This unfortunately seemed like the end of my Maggi aspirations for that night, but I was determined to find an alternative. I considered:

(1) A Citadel Bento box my roommates had brought back for me from some study break – I had no idea whether Bento boxes were microwave safe, so I did some research; general Internet consensus pointed towards no.

(2) Some disposable cups I had stacked on my windowsill – these explicitly had NOT MICROWAVE SAFE written all across their packaging, in all caps, which is how I personally reached the conclusion that these cups were, in fact, “not microwave safe.”

(3) An empty takeout box that I had gotten from Maseeh Dining weeks ago – this one was just built wrong in so many ways that I just knew something disastrous would happen.

And so this was it – the real end of the road. And that’s the end of the story.

I’m sorry it’s a bit anticlimactic, and I tried really hard to think of some extended metaphor to connect this to, but there really isn’t anything more to it. I almost shed tears post-Maggi-letdown, but I still had a pset to do, and so I did it. I did eventually go to bed, pre-dawn, and woke up the next morning. Life just goes on.

That singular packet of Maggi is still sitting on my windowsill, because I have yet to acquire any bowls (or forks). Still got hella plates though.