Students seem to complain a little more now
about food than I think we did. And they go out
more often to restaurants, of which there are many
more now at Connaught. This penchant
for eating out may merely be a reflection of society at large.
Here's a picture of the RBM mess kitchen. We saw major improvements. Gone are the wood stoves, the ash and the miserable heat. Instead we found gas-fired stoves, mechanized potato-peelers, dosa-mix grinders and, at long last, exhaust chimneys.
The mess bill is unbelievably cheap: it's about Rs. 1000
per month now, up from about Rs. 300 in our time.
A guest meal costs Rs. 25 on Sunday, Rs. 20 on other days.
Not bad at all, considering general inflation and the
prices you see in commercial establishments.
Sridhar tracked down every one of his old mess servants still working, some of whom had been scattered to other messes. Here's a picture of them behind the mess, in front of Malviya.
Shame on me, I only remembered two mess servants,
Giridhari and Rameshwar, in VKB. I can't for the life
of me remember anyone in KB mess even though I spent
three years there. Of the two at VKB, only Giridhari
survives; Rameshwar died of a heart attack a few years ago.
I remember both fondly, Giridhari for his repartee
and Rameshwar for his unstinting politeness.
Although the institute has
done a lot for students and for the kitchens, and
even created a few contigency funds (to cover
major medical expenses)
for mess servants, their living conditions are as pitiful
as before. Towards the end of this travelogue, we
describe ways to contribute that'll make
a big difference in their lives.
The room below sleeps three or four mess servants. Giridhari proudly showed me his mini-mandir that he's been building over the years. Through him and others, we learned about the present student culture that I wrote about earlier.
