Illustration/Ravi Jadhav

Picture this: At 1.30 pm, a colleague spots you heading out of office for a lunch break. Instead of greeting 'Good afternoon', s/he shouts, 'Mealtime!' Wonder why you need someone to remind you it's mealtime? It is because of this interesting ritual - in the corridors of Berlin's offices, it's common for co-workers to greet each other with a 'mahlzeit' (pronounced mal-zee-ite) during lunchtime or even when they spot someone enjoying a snack. Derived from the original 'gesegnete mahlzeit', meaning 'blessed mealtime', the salutation is similar to 'bon appetit'.