SUJI: A life that was MNR

The Messy Mess

‘Rajma, kofta, kadhi’ – royal dishes at your service. Seven different dishes on the seven different days of the week be it breakfast, lunch or dinner time – might sound just fantastic for the mouth to salivate if you had the heart to eat all that stuff. It would be absolutely no problem for a guy from the north or the west of India to digest all that. Obviously, I had problems digesting the very thought that I would have to put these vegetarian food (the so called certified balanced diet) into my body. Since I was  a pure, complete and dedicated non-vegetarian all the eighteen years of my life so far. The result was expected – lost five kilos in the first 40 days followed by a subsequent loss of half a kilo each over the next 4 months!!

That was not all. Sometimes, one would end up with an awkward menu formed out of a combination of items like chokha, baisan ka bharta, urad ki dal etc.only to give you a different taste. If you really wanted to draw a conclusion of how horrible the mess food could be, then the  right place for you is to visit the Tagore hostel mess. The control of the mess in the first semester is in the hands of the seniors who would spare no effort in ragging you with the diet. Come, the second semester would be much of an adjustment in the hope that may be in future, when you reach the senior hostel, things would change for the better. But you really need a hopeful heart rather than a brave one as you would have to hope and hope, and keep hoping for the rest of the semesters.

It is a universal fact that wherever there is a mess, there has to be mess. On Saturdays, you would be provided with oily spicy food – aaloo fry, matar paneer – that’s the MNREC special – and the whole place would end up in chaos. You would find everyone booking their seats 5 to 10 minutes in advance, you will be less privileged if you miss to see the cows and dogs (you might find it a common scenario) And yes, not to mention the amount of food – approximately 15 to 20 percent – that goes waste everyday.

I apologize if you have started getting a feeling that nothing’s right with the mess. Since MNREC has one of the biggest mess in Asia. The corruption of the mess secretaries and coordinators is kept to the minimum. But then there are always cats, some big and some small, some black and some white. A lot of people have stated that at least you eat decently at MNR.

The problems don’t end there. Sometimes, you wake up in the morning and find the mess workers on strike. That’s happened quite a number of times in recent years.

I have often wondered that if MNR was truly regional, then why did it have problems in catering to the regional needs! Think of a South Indian who would have a drastic change in his diet from idlis and dosas to rotis and samosas. Sambhar (twice a week) would only then be a breath taker??