Anyone who has been associated with the media or arts in New Delhi cannot have missed a visit or many visits to the South Indian canteen located inside the United News of India (UNI) office at Rafi Marg.
It was and I guess, it still is, a great meeting point where people gathered to have steaming idlis, vadas, dosas and other South Indian dishes at breakfast, lunch or dinner. Actually, from seven in the morning to late night hours, this wonderful canteen kept churning out all kinds of goodies and the stream of visitors never seemed to end.
Calling it just an office canteen will be doing grave injustice to this set up. I joined UNI as a trainee sub-editor and as I became an in-house customer of this amazing canteen, I was truly impressed by the entire system that governed it. The large quantity in which the food was prepared, the quick service, the efficiency, the reasonable prices and the cheerful atmosphere, all these together created an ambience which attracted people from near and far to come and have their meals there.
When I used to reach there for early morning duty, I would find cars and drivers of several MPs who used to come there to get breakfast packed for them. The idlis were really soft and had a texture that I have not seen anywhere else after I left that office. The vessel for sambar was huge and was constantly being refilled with fresh sambar and vegetables. Actually, the canteen worked more like a factory!
A person called Swamy was the boss and he was assisted by waiters-cum-cooks called Selvaraj, Raju, Mani, Das and some others. All of these people dressed in shirts and lungis and were extremely fast and efficient. They had to cater to the staff of UNI as well as the external customers who flocked the canteen at all hours.
They discussed politics, sports, cinema and theatre while eating their favourite dishes, choosing from the large variety of rice (imli rice, curd rice, sambar rice, coconut rice, egg rice and lemon rice), upma, dosa, uthapam and the well-known kesari (made of rawa) halwa dished out by this canteen.The UNI staff usually had their meals while working at their desks. The waiters would keep going around and one could always call them and place the order. How they could remember everything and bring back what each one of us ordered, without getting confused is something I could never understand.
The waiters had their favourite staff members and vice versa. All of us, for years, savoured these South Indian dishes. We thrived on them, especially on the filter coffee, called kaapi by the waiters. As we wrote or edited stories, this invigorating coffee would keep us going for hours. How I miss those days! All those with whom I worked in those years are no longer with that organisation. Many have gone to other media houses. I left UNI 10 years ago but memories of my early years as a
journalist at UNI (it was my very first job) keep coming back to me and the unique canteen is an important part of these memories as one cannot separate that office from that canteen.In fact, sometimes when we used to explain to someone where we worked, they would suddenly say, “Oh! You work where that canteen isIJ” After that, we did not need to say anything more.
The address at 9 Rafi Marg, New Delhi was as much of the canteen as of our news agency. Seniors, juniors, boss — all of us ate from the same aluminium plates, ate the same food, worked in the same big room and never felt that we were in an office. UNI was home for all of us. We were a large, happy family. This canteen was like a joint kitchen of this family where a lot of guests would turn up every day.
A little shop next to the canteen sold coffee powder brought from the south, packets of South Indian agarbattis, tins of palm oil, packets of murukku and ribbon thenkuzhal or pakoras (both of were South Indian namkeens) and some other stuff. These were taken home by us as there was a great demand for them from neighbours and relatives. I have not visited UNI, Delhi for a long time now. Next time I go to Delhi, I will go and have kaapi there!