8. Mess Hall Is Not Messy

Eighth chapter in In Search of Swami series

Among all things which worked in precision, mess hall was the perfect place to be. Given anytime, there were around one hundred and fifty hungry stomachs to feed. The head cook was Mani and he had few associates, whose shelf life in the job was six to eight months. Due to his military like orders no one stayed there for long time. Mani had a big mustache and was feared by small kids from Vivekananda hall.

All through my stay in the hostel the taste of the food was uniform. Mani must have been accurate in his measurements and the ingredients. The food was (pure) vegetarian, can’t expect non-vegetarian food, when saffron cloth clad people were trustees.

The taste of tomato rice with sompu (Fennel seeds) still lingers in my tongue (This was written to show my creative prowess). For dosai, Mani used to make mashed potato gravy in lemon-yellow color. This was a unique combination. Even while walking near the mess, our taste buds will get a tickle.

All three halls (Vivekananda, Ramakrishna & Shradha) had mess team. The team was responsible for serving the food. It was a volunteer effort and I was part of my hall mess team. Daily every team will take turns to serve. Before we start serving Mani and his associates will keep the food in separate vessels. Once the prayer is done, the battalion will be served. 

Chapatti was a sort after food. Aravind, being a north Indian disliked our Tamil Nadu chapatti. Due to chapatti my other friends Balaji, Selva, Vinu & Ravi (this is another Ravi) will radiate excessive enthusiasm on Friday evenings. Four chapatti’s will be served per person, but an extra will be served to our friends when they ask for, this will be done without the knowledge of the staffs. The hard part is when we serve to Shradha hall big boys. They’ll push us to serve more, but we’ll be moving as a busy “server” as if we didn’t hear them. 

Another much sort after item is mango pickle. A big bowl of mango pickle will get over while only serving to 30 plates. They’ll eat mango pickle like poriyal. Equally hated will be lemon pickle. I took pity of lemon pickle and started liking it. 

For evening snack, sometimes, they used to give bhajji, but this will be biscuit bhajji. Yes, a Marie biscuit will be dipped in the flour batter and will be deep fried as a normal vazakkai bhajji. It’ll be sweet inside the biscuit and outside the batter will be crispy and salty.

With all these good work done by Mani and his team, there were some bad patches too. Yes, we had a food revolt once.

Previous Chapter - 7. Warden      Next Chapter 9. Food Revolt

Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

** Above image by the blogger