Messes at NIT Calicut

There were five messes operating at REC-NIT Calicut of our times. They were the five messes attatched to the five hostels namely A; B ; C; D and E.; Today I think there are many more hostels at NIT Calicut.

Something briefly about the various hostels at the institute. Basically during our time the rooms in the hostels were insufficient to handle and accomodate the entire student populace comfortably. The A and B hostels were three seater hostels but upto seven freshmen ware accommodated during the admission season thereby operating at more than 200 percent load. Though the fact of the matter was so I had found life in such settings amusing considering that there are lot of people in the room to interact and converse with. There was problem with water especially in the second floor as water from the taps were a rare sight to be seen only in the very early mornings. I think the situation must have largely improved now with other stand-by arrangements in place. Note that the D and E hostels were single seaters and the C hostel was a three seater and some times used as a two seater. My favoutite hostel at NIT Calicut is the C hostel and especially the top floor where I experienced a rare calm and some times at mid night looking at the ever desolate main road from this hostel through the window panes was a rare delight. The street lights reflected merrily by the gleaming tar of the road accompanied by silence barring the whirling sound of rotating fans to me seemed like an infant yelling and crying all day suddenly dozing into a slumber- a much awaited peace and tranquility.

NIT Calicut has a very unique water supply system. We have an in-house water purification plant near the hostels. Water is pumped from the river which is around four kilometers from the campus to the treatment plant and then possibly pumped to overhead reservoirs for supply to the various outlets. This formed in modern language a "supply Chain" which must have had its own hiccups considering the nature of the system and the time elapsed. I had visited this water treatment system once and has a technologically complex apparatus found working round the clock. The person who designed and conceived this system deserves praise as on one extreme it looks far-fetched and on the other unique. But still considering the water requirement at the campus and its forecasts some supportive systems for water also must have been envisaged- especially considering the large pool of engineering knowledge available and the readiness with which it could be applied. I think some ten bore wells pumping water into few over head tanks with sufficient head could have acted as an alternative and support to the existing system. Even digging a bore-well for individual hostels with contingency planning would have sufficed in large measure to supply clean water on a 24/7 basis some form of which must have been implemented by now. Water is a very essential input and considering that in places like Kerala where un-polluted ground water is available few feet into the ground , a blessing which must be made use of.

Barring the C hostel mess all other messes served non-vegetarian dishes. Students could choose any mess of their choice. I have been largely associated with the C and D hostel messes and remotely with B and E hostel messes. The messes were largely clean and well maintained. Each of the messes had six tables with three chairs on either sides and the chairs were wooden ones and of a special design and resembled a mini-wooden throne. I enjoyed dining fom these chairs and the general comfort it provided.

Breakfast , Lunch, Tea and Dinner was the routine at the messes. Break-fast largely revolved around bread with jam and butter and for an extra charge an omlette made from two eggs of a fowl. This omlette used to be special and it provided extra energy to be withered during the morning in activities both purposeful and remorse. The lunch was a typical Kerala one with boiled rice and accompanying kerala curry. The evenings had tea with biscuits or sometimes boiled banana or the like and the same menu of lunch to be served for dinner. Dinner sometimes had chappatis and poories. The food at the messes were really good though we used to complain about it then, but now having seen the larger world have no words of complaint but only contentment.

We could be out of the messes which means any student choosing not to dine at the messes where-in the papachchan hotel or the canteen were used for dining. Many a times students joined the messes mid-way after such a routine finding the chore of walking to these destinations exasperating and appreciating the comfort of the messes at their door-step. Note that there was a guest system where a diner could invite a guest to dine with him in case some visitor happenned to visit the institute.