Oota Beku...!!!

I do not want copyright issues regarding the title...so; I hereby state that the source of inspiration for the title has been one of the documentaries by Final Year FEP students of Christ University which had been screened one of these days. The title which can roughly be translated as ‘the quest for food’ I thought was so unbelievably apt for us, the inhabitants of the Jonas Hall (Christ University Girls Hostel) that I simply couldn’t resist but pilfer it...!



Living in a place that provides you with everything but anything edible leaves you with not much choice. Either starve and eventually die....or move about, find food...ingest it and be happy...these were the two options that would decide the quality of our survival (or rather the whole question or possibility of our survival...!) in this home away from home. Every single day, each morsel of food that goes down our throat is an after-product of many infinite minutes spent in careful deliberation, thought, arguments as to which place it would be that would feed us for the day and finally the decision. Breakfast has never been a problem simply because it would go skip skip... (which is why the 10 o clock coffee in the Ivy hall is of utmost importance as it involves the question of staying awake in class!!). Then comes lunch...’Freshetaria’ the new funky place in Christ University [;-)] and its Chilly cheese sandwich saves the day...!! Evening comes and with it comes the toughest test of your decision making abilities with the million dollar question (or keeping in mind Mera Bharat Mahaan..., the Million Rupee question...hehe...!) which is; “What do we have for dinner...where do we go for dinner...?!” This one question is so lethal...I mean...its so hard deciding...!! And this one question has given birth to the exploratory abilities in us...we could probably give stiff competition to Columbus the great...!! Like a friend of mine rightly declared, we’ve become the three explorers...!!

This quest for food has taken us to so many gullies and eateries that qualify its suitability with regard to the impact it may have on the big man...’the wallet’...! But we’ve kinda been unlucky with the good places we’ve found! The last year, just when we’d taken this strong liking towards the ‘dum biriyani’ in le cafe...le cafe closes...! ‘Closed for renovation’ said the board on its door. After a certain period of renovation it opens...back with a bang as ‘Kairuchi’ which ‘was’ good too... (the fish curry meals ‘used to’ be really yummy...) Yes...’was’...’used to be’...guess what, that one’s closed down too...!! There’s quite a list of places that have closed down like that, sudden and abrupt...! Some time back...we’d just found this place called ‘Tibetan Taste Corner’...yummy food was not the word...! We were soo excited...lip-smacking steaming momos et al...yay yayiee...we go there after a few days...and the shock we get...a closed building and the board...”Hyderabadi Bawarchi Biriyani coming soon” just where our Tibetan delicacies were supposed to have been...! That very day, the explorers chance upon an Andhra place ‘Abhiruchi’...man...what a find that was...!! tremendous luck for the wallet...see...when you get tonnes of rice, a tiny bowl of chicken biriyani, 2 chapatis, 2 pieces of fried chicken, along with chicken gravy, curd, rasam...and blah...all of this for flat 50 bucks...! This was what we talked about to every person we met on the way and otherwise for the next few days... (Increase publicity is all we could do for them in return...!) AAnd...a few days later...again....the same rude shock...! Abhiruchi is closed! And this time there is no board announcing what happened and what was to come in its place...boyy...were we sad...!! We still miss Abhiruchi...no place we found since then have been able to replace it...!

We now (mostly) rely on eateries in the posh street of ‘Sadduguntapalya’ for the needs of the abdomen...! The roadside vendors and their egg fried rice, egg dosas, kebabs, (which every mother staunchly warns her children against and which a friend of mine very recently announced would give me Intestinal Cancer...scary...!!) but again nobody can arrest you for ‘Unhealthy Eating Practices’ bah..! Our Hot n Cool right at the beginning of the posh street and yep...d world famous...’Ande ka Funda’, kairali, and the new...Tasteland (takes eons to serve food though...but tasty food...true to its name!), Josettan's (Gawd noe's y it is named so and gawd noes if this Mr. Josettan's still alive...umm...dunno!) and then of couse, how could I not talk about my mummy’s place- forum and Mac D, KFC, Transit and its many places and blah blah...it goes on...!!



The quest for food is crazy and it so totally makes me go insane...but again...it’s been fun...the occasional splurge, the occasional non spending diets...read Maggi noodles...et cetera et cetera! The quest is still on...but the question is, for how much longer...!!! College's coming to an end n it will all be over all too soon...and this is one thing i'm gonna really really miss...!!