How do you decide what was famous among all those variety. I can think of a few reasonable ways, like Queue, Rush , general sentiment, Bragging and number of Seconds/Doubles ( “Double Marna” was a thing of pride) which might have made me believe something was more famous.
Ever & Ever Best Poha
It was not a food but was a religion to us. We believed there is only two religion i.e. either POHA lovers or POHA haters.
Almost everyone who used to love POHA tries hard to have a plate full of POHA. Quality of POHA was maintained nicely throughout my 7 years of stay at Navodaya. They used to serve POHA along with delicious curry and either Jalebi or SEV Bhujia.
Some of the students including me never misses any chance to receive the second serving of POHA. And believe me getting POHA for the second time wasn’t that easy. Once mess people announce “we have some POHA left”, everyone rushes to get it. If you are fortunate enough you’ll definitely end up with a plate full of POHA.
There are other foods which were famous at our Navodaya but POHA was the most famous.
Seconds:
Mess workers were instructed strictly not to let anyone have seconds for most food items. We had an expert non bribe-able Khayali bhaiya famous for catching Doublers (Double marne wale) .
But that never stopped anyone from trying, we are talking about Navodaya here.
Challenge makes it more fun. We take pride in doing the “Unpossible”.
So after a heavy breakfast or heavier meal when people retire to their classroom or dorm you get to hear people bragging like, I took 3 doubles, or I got pass Khayali bhaiya and he didn’t even suspect anything.
And that is how we know what People like -the Bragging, the thing people bragged most about was definitely poori. others include Non-veg , evening Snacks, sweet.
Special Tea
and yeah Special Tea made for teachers. it was like rare Tricky little forbidden thing everyone wanted a sip of, The trick was very simple, to sit near teachers table and wait for them to be out of sight and then toot paro. taste was worth all the trouble. not to mention bragging rights you get off of this.
Queue/Rush:
Sometimes the Production speed was less then consumption, and it used to happen mostly for famous items on the list specially on special occasions, this was further factored by people taking doubles. most of us would generally rush and wait only for Poori or nonveg . ( this was the only thing I stood in line for after I was promoted from Half Pant to Full Pant category in 8th std)
General Sentiments :
Almost everyone seemed to like Poori, Poha, Fried rice, Nonveg, most evening snacks ( including Parle-G, was it just in my JNV’s menu? )
What is so Special About Poori:
After everyone is beaten up by hard physical work like Gardening(juniors) or micromanaging(seniors) on a Freaking Sunday morning, the mob is hungry and no one should ask them to wait,
Everyone had a bad Saturday dinner already and they are eagerly waiting for this rounded little oily thing, you are asking them to wait, not fair but they will stand on the queue sometime for hours.
and after all the waiting and fighting in queue when you get your hands on those hot Poori with Aloo sabji, and you eat with a mob of hungry friends sitting around you. what is not to love.
My Point of View I think this could be the reason for Poori being the most famous food.
Thank you for reading.
