Summer is here but where are the Mangoes?

The Advent of Summer

Summer is back. And with a bang. It has been very difficult attending the afternoon classes of late. With temperatures soaring to 40 degrees and the point of maxima not in sight, the question that is crossing everybody’s mind is: where are the mangoes?

When will the Mess catch up?

The Mess is late to catch up (as usual. What is new in that?). (Tomato/whatever) soup that was being dished out in the winter was replaced with oranges last week! Imagine, oranges in summer! Yuk, it sucked big time. Mess food won’t change. You do what you want – change the administration, mess committee members or hike the funds, but mess food will always be vegetables floating in a pool of oil. I guess expecting mangoes in mess is expecting a little too much.

Apart from being a delicious fruit (what is an orange when compared to a mango. After all, it is the king of fruits!), it has a high nutritional value as well. Mangoes are an excellent source of vitamin C and vitamin A, both important antioxidant nutrients. That gives us one more reason to have mangoes at Mess. (Mess committee members – make a note of that.)

Go Green Go Mango

As a young boy, I have fond memories of eating mangoes (lots and lots of them) so that I could plant mango trees as part of my summer vacation project work (That’s tree plantation for you.) I loved mango juice more than any other form of juice and mango flavoured ice-cream has been my all time favourite.

My Favourites

Gud-Aam chutney (mango in jaggery), a speciality of Bengal I believe can be an amazing dish to finish off one’s lunch with. Not to mention the dozen other pickles and jams that are mango flavoured. Add mango to a dish and you have a sumptuous dish from an otherwise bland dish. This tropical fruit can do wonders.

With the hope that I’ll have lots of delicious mangoes this summer, I sign off this post. Do check out my new Mango Django Jazzonomics template. And yeah, if you haven’t subscribed to Jazzonomics already, you can subscribe by clicking here and continue receiving regular updates this summer.

Winds of Change: CCD in Kgp

Just in case you didn't know, Kharagpur has a brand new Cafe Coffee Day. Not that it is something to be really proud of or boast of. But I am just stating the facts.

The Pre-Kgp Days

The fact that Kharagpur didn't have a state of art eating joint had surprised me in the first place. Whenever I thought about IIT in my Pre-Kgp days, images of CCDs filled with geeky people in specs sitting on tables involved in some esoteric conversation would come to my mind.

One imagines a lot of things before going to places. Unfortunately, things aren't always as you imagine them to be.

As a "Faccha"

So when I finally landed up in Kgp, I was in for a shock. Even I (who has an amazing capability to do with any kind of comestibles and rarely make a fuss about it) found the Mess food Yuck!

So on Saturdays when the Mess would be officially closed, I would go have dinner at some eating joint - Sahara to start with, Billoos, Veggies/Eggies or some Canteen or the other. But rarely could I find the kind of food that I was looking for. Or for that matter, that ambience to sit down and Bhaat.

A lot can happen over Tea Coffee

One golden rule which I learnt at my first visit to CCD was - More isn't merry. If you dish out the bucks aka $$$$, you wouldn't necessarily get what you seek.

As I sat down on the table wondering how the fellow who passed by me could dish out 2147 rupees (yeah, I remember the figure) to have coffee - I knew it wouldn't be long before I got my answer.

The stuff that I ordered (Chicken Pizza and Garam Masala Tea) arrived 20 minutes after I ordered.

The Tea was a bowl of hot water into which I had to dip the teabags and put the milk, sugar ... blah blah blah. Although I knew this was the latest fad --- I never knew I would have to pay 20 rupees for preparing a cup of tea.

The pizza although yummy just went on to show how ignorant those people were about Mathematics. For one, their cuts didn't go through the center. On top of that, the cuts didn't go through and through. So I really couldn't apply the Pizza Theorem. As a result, my poor friend to be satisfied with whatever he had ordered (which was just about palatable).

But those people are here for a reason

They know how to do their business. As we finished our plates, we found something written on the plate.

Would You Like to Have Some Coffee?

That was written on his plate. Inscribed on my plate were the words "Want Some More?" in funky fonts.

My roommate says that Bengali blood runs in me. Even though I have lived out of Bengal all my life, my nature is the same. So as I sat back to enjoy the ambience, my friend ordered some more and hmm... had it not been for me... I really wonder how much he would ended up spending.

Our bill ended up at 200 bucks and I really marvel that we could have so much after all for just about 1/10th that the other guy ended up paying.

The final verdict

If you are looking to grab some coffee during the upcoming fest, you might be have to wait. I really doubt if there would be any space in their for Kgpians, let along non-Kgpians (Have your coffee before or after the fest!). It is the hottest thing in campus presently and its going to take some time before things begin to settle down.

And if you are looking for some good Water Tea, I would advise you to head off to Tikkas which is hardly a 10 minutes walk from CCD.

Ciao!