Can-teenage Years

We took the world as given.
Cigarettes were twenty-several cents a pack,
And gas as much per gallon.
Sex came wrapped in rubber
And veiled in supernatural scruples---
Call them chivalry...

Psychology was in the mind;
Abstract things grabbed us where we lived;
The only life worth living was the private life,
and---last,
Worst scandal in this characterization---
We did not know we were a generation

---------JOHN UPDIKE

Things were a lot different seven years ago. Buses still ran on diesel, the Delhi metro was a distant dream and more importantly Balan bhaiyya's still ran the canteen……….yeah the little man from the south who always refused to serve us food between classes but would always give in and break into a warm, toothy smile when we begged him for just one dosa…………And dosas were only five rupees each and so was a plate of cholla-kulcha………….. And I remember not being able to contain my happiness when on some mornings instead of my lunch box my mom would press a five rupee coin into my palm and say "aaj canteen mein kuch kharid lena"……. And then there were times when we'd ask the teacher to excuse us for a minute and went and bought some hot freshly prepared vadas from the canteen come back to class and ate them while the unsuspecting teacher continued teaching. As we grew older our days turned into long sessions of critical appreciation of international cuisine e.g. - "was the chowmein too salty? Was it too overcooked? Was it too vinegary?"……. And so on. Of course our days were often punctuated by classes and education but why ruin a perfectly good memory?

And the canteen used to be big…….really really big………. and it was decorated with a mural, with a tree growing through the roof (thats right folks....a real live big-ass tree)………. and people played badminton in it…………… And we grew up in it, fed on a 'healthy' diet of oily dosas, vadas and almost an unlimited flow of 'jemmin' or Jumpin' for the uninitiated……..

……and oh……….

…………..dosas were only 5 rupees each.