SYDOJI MESS

If you are a reader of Hindu newspaper, you may know about V. Gangadhar (Slice of life - a column on Sunday magazine). He was a specialist in writing about various types of food he enjoyed. As he was from Palghat and lived most of his childhood in Chennai, he had the privilege of enjoying Kerala as well as Tamilnadu food varieties. Some people may not like articles on food, but food is the most essential thing for a good life. In our daily life food occupies the most important place.

Children, even if they protest, also like to eat. Only catch is that they may not like the main food, but snacks are preferred. In Tamil culture, the first thing we ask on seeing our friends is "sappitachaa?"(have you eaten?). When we visit people we remember to take some eatables along. As a child when guests visited our home, I first looked out for the eatables brought by them. Wherever we go, we first enquire about the food available in that place. Going to the theater, picnic or any other outing will only be complete with good food. Whenever we head to the Marina beach, we go there to not enjoy the sea breeze alone, but to also enjoy the pattani sundal, mango slices, and Maami's special milagai bajji . In temples also we enjoy the Prasadams more. In wedding parties, we eat all the items without caring about our doctor’s advice. South Indians like to eat tandoori, Naan, parathas, while North Indians like idly & dosas. We have even developed a lot of combinations with food. One of my cousin prefers idly with chutney and dosas with chilli powder. During my childhood we used to have rice for all the three meals. Tiffin will be there only on festival days. So naturally I got a liking for Tiffin in my earlier days. I have now, however,switched over to meals again.

Let me now come to the main topic. When I joined my job in Chennai, the first thing I asked was about a good hotel. Triplicane was the place where one can find a number of messes, as mentioned in my earlier post about Mani. I was introduced to a "Sydoji mess" there by my cousin. He had been living in Triplicane for a while because he had opted to study to be a Charted accountant. Sidetracking a bit, I want to point out that If you wanted to be a CA, you need seven lives. In America lots of jokes about Ph.D. students are there; Similarly in India there are plenty about CA students. In fact near the CA institute in Chennai, a church is there on whose wall it was written Jesus never fails. To this somebody added these lines: "Because he never attempted CA!." So this cousin of mine, who has been toiling away with CA, told me about the mess.

The man managing the mess was very strict and we needed to be in his good books to get monthly food token. Luckily because of my cousin I was directly recruited as a regular member. In Sydoji mess you had to stand in line to get your food. Standing in line for your food is not preferred by many, but in Sydoji you had no choice. There were 3 rooms of 12, 19 & 8 people capacity. When the halls become vacant, it will be cleaned and the ones standing in the line were allowed. In other hotels, you simply had to pick a table, put your token on it and eagerly wait for the occupant to clear. In Sydoji, however you were only allowed when everything was ready, so that the man who was already taking his food will not be embarrassed. You should not drink water from the glasses by sipping; you should not make noises while eating and must be quick enough to finish the meals within a allotted time. If you were indifferent to the rules you will be denied your food. The food was very homely with less oil, and more importantly less harmful. As a bachelor you always wanted home-like food, so Sydoji was good, It's another matter that married people or ones living at home prefer hotel food the most! The food at Sydoji on most days was the usual rice, sambar, rasam, along with some vegetable and two papads. Even before the rice was served, you could hear the noises of papad being consumed. During Sundays the menu would be onion Sambar and potato curry which was a delight on those days. Our friends used to say that the food lacked strength and nutrition. But those of us accustomed with it never changed our loyalty to other messes. Another myth was that if you were a customer at Sydoji mess, you will never get married ;)

I have more to say on Sydoji mess, but my wife who has been watching me type this, is not liking all the praise about Sydoji. Also, its time for me to eat the food prepared by her and appreciate it a bit. So I will get back to this story another day.