Canteen Scene

Lunch time can be a pleasant surprise or a grim revelation with respect to the contents of the tiffin box for students. Much as we want, mothers never forget to pack lunch for the apple of their eyes. But has that ever stopped us from hankering after food available in and around our school? The very idea of buying from school canteens and hawkers is so cool that we don’t really bother about taste and hygiene.

I remember buying candy from hawkers even in Nursery. There was a long candy that came wrapped in a plastic sheet with yellow and transparent stripes. It looked like a little pillar with a ribbon round it. It was nothing but sugar, of course. Then there was the little orange candies shaped like orange segments. I still buy those sweet sour lozenges. And last but not the least, were Phantom cigarettes. These were smooth white sugar sticks, with a little red at the end to suggest a live cigarette. We would feel real cool holding them between our fingers. In retrospect, they tasted icky sweet.

Apart from that, I have already given details about the icelollies, dalmot and masala tamarind of Tura. I have never really experienced a proper school canteen, except the one in KV no.1, Delhi Cantonment. I remember buying alu bonda, samosa, and bread pakoda there. It helped that nobody was there to supervise, since I was staying in boarding. But the most delectable item in that canteen was a gur barfi. Shaped like a perfect dice, this one and a half inch cube was a medley of deep red and orange. I used to eat dozens a day! The canteen guy would keep running out of them so we would place special orders secretly. If another group found out about them, we had to share! So we would smuggle the stuff into our dormitories over the hostel wall. That was sure a lot of fun, and back then we would discuss how nutritious jaggery was for the body.

Let me know your experiences in your school canteen. I am sure you have some stories to share too. I would be happy to hear them!