MISSED RECALLS! ( PART-3)

The news that the first two students have finished their viva spreads rapidly like a wild fire and all the ‘WALLtures’ finally enter the college and head straight towards the Canteen.

DIGRESSION 2.0

THE COLLEGE CANTEEN.

It is the place where every engineering student spends more time on journal (or ASSIGNMENT or FILE) completion than on pleasing his appetite. There is some esoteric & unusual joy in this LAST MINUTE (read GOOTE JAAM) journal submission.

Our Canteen was never a STATE-OF-THE-ART establishment. Most of the colleges don’t sport a nice canteen. Our Canteen was good enough for A-CHAI-A-DAY. Every year, the college had a different canteen contractor.

“Lot of politics is involved in it”, said the SELF ADULATORY current contractor to my HIGHLY INQUISITIVE MIND. Only saving grace to the canteen was the subsidized THALI. And that too, if ordered at the SCHOOL canteen situated next to the work shop. The THALI, that was available at the school as well as college canteen, would be prepared at a common place. And some part of it went to the college canteen. But, devouring upon it in the school canteen was always preferred. Some regular privileged exponents of it were JAI, MHATRE, VILAS and many others including myself. I always finished my Tiffin box prior to the lunch time. And then of course, the THALI in the lunch time. Enough sources of drowsiness required for the PRACTICALS to follow thereafter.

The college canteen resembled a BRICK BHATTI (furnace)and a place smaller than Sreesanth’s left nostril. A place where there was always an ear-shattering noise of the CHINESE kadhai. And a lot of coughing due to the pungent tadka pampered by the lack of enough exhausts fans. I won’t go into much detail regarding the CHINESE served. I remember how a student had been a recipient of a lot of flak for his heinous act of praising the CHINESE served at the canteen in a local tabloid. The seating arrangement consisted of a few NILKAMAL white chairs and tables, lighter than a piece of feather.


Despite its shortcomings, it was a place where not many professors frequented. Except for APPA and his buddy CUCKOO. These two weren’t busy enough to order food upstairs. The fans were in place. A table big enough to keep an incomplete full-imperial sheet on it. A table big enough for at least 8 students to indulge in a highly profitable business that was the ‘MASS COPYING’. A yellow stain of oil on a sheet or an assignment was a frequent case. Fortunately for us, the professors never decoded the cause of the oil stain. No risk involved as in the case of the drawing hall. You dare bunk a class to complete a drawing sheet, and the DON will make sure you tear the sheet apart yourself.

A Student (at the drawing hall bunking a class to complete a sheet): AN EARTHWORM.
The Don (the ever vigilante pays a surprise visit to the drawing hall): THE SALT.
The Student (told to tear apart his OWN-NOW-FULLY-COMPLETE-WITH-AN-EVEN-MORE-COMPLETE-STENCIL-ENHANCED-NAME-PLATE-ON-IT-SHEET): SALT ON EARTHWORM.

DIGRESSION 2.0 ENDS. (For Goodness’ sake, the readers say; I assume.)

I sit in the canteen awaiting my turn, though not eagerly, but hoping that my VIVA gets over early and I go back to the PAVILION (Garden) and enjoy some BOX cricket with CHINU Sandwichwala and his family. I sit there indulged in a reverie in which I see myself enjoying a cheese cube immediately after the VIVA shot. It feels like HEAVEN. TOTALLY. (Not many know this. I kept it as a secret and of course, not any more now. Safe-guarding myself and the cheese cube from the obvious predators)






(To Be Continued…)