Canteen Chronicle

Enter the most glorious hall of all those in college. The centre of life and living. The haven of that delight called food. That wonderful meeting place for all minds. The hangout for before college hours, after college hours, in between college hours, and of course during college hours(!). The college canteen.

Axe any course or department from the college, and you axe off a few students. Axe the canteen, and you axe the lifeline of the entire college, the thread holding it all together and providing survival to all its denizens. It is truly one of the few (arguably the only) parts of the college, which truly unites the college, having something of use for anyone (except the food of course) no matter what their taste.

The studious nerd can find a quiet corner where he can sit and study his notes, all colour-coded and arranged by subject on his laptop, referencing the internet to solve doubts (thanks to Wifi). The hot model of the college meanwhile, can find an entire hall full of people to admire her new stilettos. The gang of geeks can find good space for the weekly meeting of the local chapter of Hackers United. The ubiquitous gang o’ gals meanwhile can get their own table to sit and discuss the latest gossip and ways to spread it, over lunch.

The college jokers will always arrive there, since they’ll never be lacking an interested audience waiting to be entertained. The college tomboy will always someone to show off her new sneakers to, and someone else to practice her martial skills on. The college faculty have a place to relax and rejuvenate themselves, away from the claustrophobic office spaces allotted to them. The omnipresent truants meanwhile have a place where they can feel welcome and at home, during the usual routine of truancy (which can be quite taxing!).

Truly, the canteen represents unity in diversity. Analogous to college culture, every college also has a typical canteen culture. A college with a canteen and without canteen culture has something seriously wrong with it.

The canteen is where celebrations begin, right from birthday treats all the way upto pre-graduation revelry (in the countdown to the day they leave college) including but not limited to India’s success in the latest cricket or football match. It is where news is passed on and gossip is spread, right from exam dates upto the juicier details of the faculty members’ profiles on Orkut and Facebook. It is where college traditions begin: introduction to freshers and farewell to final year seniors. It’s where students pick up a quick fix breakfast before running off to exams, and where they return for a restoring lunch, groaning after a disastrous paper.

If you want to measure the pulse of a college, you need to know its crowd. And to know that crowd, visit the canteen where that crowd hangs out. You’re sure to get a taste of a slice of the life of the people there. And, a delicious morsel it can prove itself to be.