Wednesdays at LC
The
bell would ring for lunch and we would queue noisily in the wooden corridor
waiting to get into the large airy refectory. The added anticipation every
Wednesday was that we got handed our weekly pocket money - the princely sum of
Rs 2.00 - ours to do as we pleased. The majority of mine lasted precisely eight
hours and was spent with exact accurate precision week after week. 20p of it
was spent straight after lunch pushing through the crowds on the way to the
playground in getting a portion of "jhal chips".
For the uninitiated, these thick crispy
chips coated in vitriolic red powder and salt - enough to set your mouth on
fire – were sold from large tin containers, measured out with an empty aluminum
can the size of a baked bean tin and depending on how rich or poor you were,
you got handed a certain amount - so 30p got you a full can and 5p got you a
few chips.. On the other hand if you got a generous soul like Urshila as shop
keeper I got special privileges and quite a lot more than my fair share. The
chips got eaten quickly but the salt and spices were hoarded and used as a
seasoning for slices of guavas.
The next bit of excitement came on
Wednesday evening. As a seven year old whose hormones had not yet awakened to
the pleasures of the opposite sex, us babies were more interested in getting to
our weekly movie screening at Edmunds and spending Rs.1.50 on what to me still
are the best burgers in the universe. However the fever pitched delirium in the
senior dormitories was usually quite palpable and the main activity of the
afternoon there usually involved taking skirt hems a few centimetres up without
catching Matron's all seeing eye.
During the movie screening the Edmunds
boys were placed on one side of the hall with the LC seniors on the opposite
side on benches. The middle had us juniors acting as the LOC although quite a
few notes did get passed across surreptitiously by the innocent babes. The rest
of the week for me passed at its usual humdrum level, with Sunday afternoons
peaking again through Scarlett Pimpernel stories told on the steps in front of
the hall with the last remaining few paise of my pocket money being spent on
boiled sweets and some more jhal chips that the ever generous Urshie would tip
into my apron pocket.
More than 30 years later, a packet of
jhal chips or a scarlet Pimpernel story has the ability to transport me across
time and over 6000 miles away to quite another world!
Editor's Note: Here is a photograph from Dhiraj Kumar Barman in response to Mandira's story.
Dhiraj writes, 'The attached photograph
(taken some time around 1960s) is of the Legislative Assembly Building
at Police Point, Police Bazar, Shillong, when it was the Capital of
Assam. This landmark building was completely gutted a few years back.
I would like to share the photograph with members of #IndianChaiStories who spent their childhood around this place.'
I would like to share the photograph with members of #IndianChaiStories who spent their childhood around this place.'
Thank you, Dhiraj!
Do you have a chai story of your own to share?
Send it to me here, please : indianchaistories@gmail.com.
My name is Gowri Mohanakrishnan and I'm a tea planter's wife. I started this blog because one of the things that I wouldn't want us to lose in a fast changing world is the tea story - a story always told with great seriousness, no matter how funny - always true (always), maybe a tall tale, long, or short, impossible, scary, funny or exciting but never dull.
Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea!
Meet the writer: Mandira Moitra Sarkar
Here are links to more stories by Mandira on this blog : https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/search/label/Mandira%20Moitra%20Sarkar
12 comments:
I wonder if boarding schools are still as refreshingly innocent? The "Babes" always had great fun as haddis in the proverbial kebabs! A refreshing glimpse into our days at school.
This brings back so many memories mandira. I remember vividly the stories you would spin in the junior dorm..loved listening to them. They transported me into a different place altogether. Your story telling talents are great. Thanks for thos.
I still remember LC girls in their school uniform walk in Double profile with Matrons guarding them to PB and to Modern Book Depot.
On the same day Edmund's boys also in their school uniform walk in double profile mingle at Police Bazar Point and both LC girls & Edmunds boys disappear in Modern Book Depot.
True, Mandira. It's anazing how friendships started in those innocent years carry on till this day, thanks to social media. Nuances are so important as we understand every bit of emotion and anticipation. :)
This is our story... Loreto days. Innocent n irreplaceable. So beautifully written and I too am a boarder once more. Generous Urshi n sometimes, Tiny n the thick tapioca spicy chips we craved with a passion. The burger rightly so, it indeed was the best in the world. Thank you for taking me back to some of the happiest days in my life.
Thanks for reviving memories of Wednesdays in Loreto.I must have been years senior to you .
Loved the write up. Took me right back to my school days... Hot chips, Generous Urshi, yummiest burgers n hot dogs in the world, surreptitious love notes inside the tuck we bought at Edmunds n of course Mrs. D'Abrews stories of Scarlet Pimpernel.
Glad it struck a chord folks. Sitting on those steps in front of the hall, eating chips and listening to those Scarlett Pimpernel stories will remain with us forever I guess .. xx
🙄🙄
Oh yes I remember Tiny on duty too!!! Remember she had a cuckoo clock in her house - the first I had ever seen sgrd 7!
Wheneverv i eat those chips I am transported back to my school days.
What are the jhal chips made of?
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