Despite the inclination towards staying out of hostel every moment possible, I took up mess prefect-ship this November of 2012, partly due to my mother tongue, partly because I desperately want to be organized.
Ever since Nilam hit the east coast yesterday it's raining like malarial fever. Yet I woke up without any alarm at 5 am.
Since it's the first day, all of us – suhas, uday, manjunath and me were at the adigemane by 6.30
And the grinder stone is stuck because the rope tying it has fastened its hold. Cut it out like a surgeon does to the intestine, and fix it again.
Thakkali bath.
And then we understood why items like bisi bele bath, even though despised by everyone to the same utmost extent, continue to be in the menu. The main cook has taken a leave for 3 days and among all others left, nobody knows how to cook anything better than tomato bath.
And breakfast was ready 20 minutes late.
Preparation of lunch started immediately. As decided, till the cheque is sanctioned, vegetables whatever is in stock will have to squeeze through till tomorrow.
Luckily or not, today happens to be a holiday owing to the anniversary of the creation of the state. "National" holiday like some of them say. But the infamous gas trouble has no holiday. Gas as in cooking gas. While the whole nation is curbing the number of cylinders one can have, our consumption keeps on increasing. So does the amount we have to pay for each cylinder. And our personal ATM accounts went plummeting down.
Sandwich sweet from Bombay tiffins and thus the lunch.
Dinner payasa was cancelled because there were worms in the raw material.
And some eggs had to be thrown out because of bad quality. So we were giving out them very miserly. But guess what happened, in the end there were a lot of excess and nobody wanted to eat at all.
Then, after witnessing previous prefects fighting with a worker about whether or not she was given one installment of her salary, I proceeded to making my favourite night tea. The old security who used to make it taught the new security how to make it and I watched over the process reassuring that if something goes wrong there are people around to help – the reassurance that makes a team of two better than two individuals.
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