The summer was blazing hot. Dry and withered appeared even the thick foliage of the ancient, age old trees on the campus. But worse than that hottest summer were the simmering temperatures in the mess. And, yes, yours truly had to suffer the misfortune of being the mess secretary yet again.
Well, the occasion was the Akshay Tritiya, and it happened to be a gazetted holiday as well. As per the unstated conventions of the mess, the non-veg members could go for the non-veg dishes. So far, so good.
Suddenly, however, members of two minority communities from the southern most state decided that they wanted to eat beef on campus, in the mess, and the majority community, mostly from up north and Nepal, found it an insult to their sensibilities, especially given the day which according to the other group hardly mattered as it was not exactly a major festival.
It was abundantly apparent that the vociferous members from both the groups had their own axes to grind, had individual scores to settle. The warden chose to remain non-committal. Actually, everybody was watching the fun from afar.
Obviously, as the mess secretary, I would be supposed to take care that the issue does not blow up in to a full blown controversy. Actually, all the research scholars present on campus, hardly thirty, given the summer vacation, knew each other rather well. But neither party was ready to back down.
After individual and group meetings, there was a possible solution. The most unwelcome beef, God alone knows why they could not go to some hotel to eat it, would be cooked separately, and, in return, on Sunday, pork must be served. Clearly, it was a conscious attempt at rubbing each other the wrong way.
Given this adamant stand, the other group thought they would find an escape route as there must be at least seven members who want pork. The three musketeers from that oppositional group had to give their names as they were the ones who demanded beef in the first place. The two leaders from the other group cheered on the show by adding their names to the list though they refused to pay. Still two were needed. Well, yours truly had to rise to the occasion. I added up two entries against my name.
Actually, I am a pure veg so much so that I have not even touched an egg nor eaten an omlet. But at least a major controversy, consciously constructed, was thus averted. The only advantage was that the mess workers were exceptionally cooperative thereafter as they got to eat four dishes of pork absolutely free of cost! In brief, a few poor animals and yours truly had to pay the price for the wonky taste buds of a few weirdos!
Pratima@If food is the bone of contention, how to stop the warring groups from fighting on!?!
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