Fights for Rights

“How much I have to pay for one month?” I asked.

Pandey Jee replied with a smile “Rs 600 in advance for 60 meals, 4 rotis, dal,sabji,rice, pickle, Sunday one time off, if not coming then need to inform in one day advance, no refund.”. . .

“Pandey Jee” that’s how we address him; hardly anyone knows his first name, running a mess in our neighborhood. I was in first semester of Engineering, like everyone, I was in search of good food junction. I heard of the “Pandey Mess”. One hall approx 400 sq.ft., 4-5 wooden tables with surrounded chairs. A fan rotating with a speed that all 3 blades are visible. One tube light in the middle of a sidewall. Few glasses and jugs placed here and there on the tables with some water spilling on every table. In middle of every table one small bowl proudly standing which contains salt. And one can guess today’s menu by scrutinizing few stains of food on one or two tables. This is how the best, I can picture the “Pandey Jee ka mess”.

I was on my dinner table waiting for plate to come. After a long 5 minutes Pandey Jee himself appeared with plate. As usual rotis were not looking those brownish to declare them prepared and edible. Looking at rotis, I could not figure out any imaginary images which some people declared as god or some holy signs. Instead I concentrated on a whitish lump, a small roti can be prepared from that, I easily guessed. That whitish lump came in front of my eyes like a football made up of flour and I felt drowning myself into a long tunnel deep in the memory. Some blurred but recognizable faces appeared in eyes.

“Tum logon ko yedi rotiyan kachchi lagti hain to mujhe kyun nahi bolte. You should come to us rather than screaming at the counter or getting in fight with the mess staff.” scolded Singh sir. He stared at our faces in anger and then turned to Nandu bhaiya with some relief and said “Nandu, Kal se in logo ko andar mat aane dena aur in rotiyon par dhayan do aur wo Ramprakash se kah do achchhe se pakayega…” . Students are happy, convinced enough; they would get good rotis from tomorrow.

In Navodaya, such scenes are very normal and were actually part of our live. Food is not good, water supply; electricity is not in order etc, etc. We being in class 11^th was responsible for keeping an eye on all these and report to concerned staff or house masters. I do remember we used to calculate the cost of those under-baked rotis, highly quantified calculations and it came out to be around Rs. 6 approx for one time food, large strength of around 500 people taking in account. We were like always looking for problems so that we can throw out our anger showing the problems in ‘system’.

Sitting on the dinner table in Pandey mess my cerebellum continues its journey and reached to dining hall– The breakfast time.

“today’s breakfast is Chhole !!” yelled the boys standing front in the queue near the counter and gazed behind making that worldwide announcement of the day. Decibels of whispering sound increases and reached its maximum level. We were not happy with ‘chhole’ in breakfast. Chhole made from sprouted grams. Grams were not being soaked properly, is the reason why still hard to chew and not good in taste. Our adrenaline level started risen and some even said to go on hunger strike. Then some of our seniors – 12^th class students got huge respect amongst us – suggested us to complain first to Mess In-charge sir and give another chance. Meanwhile, nuisances already started and one could see ‘chhole’ dancing on the tables on the high beats of plates and spoons. If closely seen, few names are scattered written by those somewhat brownish-yellow balls so-called ‘chhole’. One of my mates scolded at those students and warned them to keep quiet and stop that nonsense. And we headed towards Mess In-charge room to request them either to serve better or remove the chhole from the breakfast menu.

“Khaana, achchha nahi hai kya?  Kahan so gaye?”  my friend pat on back, wakens me up almost making me fall on plate.

I told him picking up one piece of lump from roti that we should complain to Pandey Jee for quality of food. He replied to leave this off as it can’t be improved and we have to live with this. I said, no dear if I can fight for chhole and rotis which served free then Why not for this food and when in fact we are paying for this. Someway convinced after a quick debate, we complained to Pandey Jee and defeated him also in that debate. We, Navodayans are better in these kinds of debates also. At the end Pandey Jee, agreed to provide better quality food and atleast we got some privilege.

In both the cases, I fought for my right; right to get good food. And this is not the only incidence when I recalled, our fights of Navodaya against system. In college, in bus stops, library and now in company too, I always take a stand and raise my voice for our rights, thinking if I could do in School then why not here.

Moral of the Story: Fight for Rights and Right, both.