The only canteen owner I have ever known as “Sweetman” was in my school–Convent of Jesus and Mary, Dehradun. From the day I joined the school as a little girl, I came to know about this wonderful, gentle, fatherly figure called Sweetman by all the students. None of them knew his name or bothered to find it out.
There was no need to do that. He was “Sweetman” for all the teachers, the nuns, the office staff-all called him that. He was sweet in his behaviour and sold many sweet things to the girls including pastries, stickjaws, chutney sweets (which were sweet and sour), sweet buns, coconut cookies and chocolates.
The moment it was break time, his little one room canteen became crowded with hungry girls looking for the yummy bun-samosas (which I think have been an invention of Dehradun), cakes and patties. The chorus was-“Sweetman! Sweetman! Sweetman!” This was all one could hear for half an hour. The noise kept increasing by the minute and the cries became louder and more shrill. But Sweetman never lost his patience or became irritated. He kept his calm in this storm of demands and kept placing the goodies in each clamouring hand.
I think this was the most exciting part of the day for all of us. I have yet to hear from any other person that in their school too, there was a person called Sweetman. I proudly believe that this was a USP of our CJM, Dehradun. Imagining this school without its Sweetman is difficult. He is there forever, etched in the memories of all the girls who passed out of the portals of this 115 year old school of the Doon valley.
After consuming the food given to us by our mothers in our tiffin boxes, we headed for Sweetman’s canteen to add a little bit of colour and excitement to our break time. A visit to that little room was mandatory even if we bought just a couple of chutney sweets. These sweets had an exquisite punch to them which resulted from a lovely mix of imli and sugar alongwith some spices.I have not come across those sweets for a long , long time now.
Sweetman, with his kind and benign appearance, seemed like some messenger from heaven bringing manna for us everyday. The way in which his assistant cut the stomachs of the buns and filled samosas in them was something we all loved to observe again and again.
When we tried to do this at home, it was never such a fine job. He sure had a lot of practice! The bun-samosas which we bought were thus half buns with half samosas filled in them. They sure tasted amazing as the buns were a little sweet(with red and green currants embedded in them) and the samosas were a bit spicy.The two tastes mingled beautifully to give us a treat every day.
For all the years that I was at CJM, Sweetman’s room was a favourite place. We loved the noise, the little quarrels in the queue and snatching the eatables from Sweetman’s hands. What would school have been without all this half-an-hour action. Sometimes our teachers asked us to go and bring them something from the canteen. That made us feel so special and grown up!
I am sure Sweetman is no longer around. And if he is, he must be really very old. Sadly, I do not know his name. And I am sure that in our school, the Sweetman tradition has faded away too. If there is a canteen, girls must be calling the owner and assistant “Bhaiya”.
One of these days, I will go back to school to find out.Or should I not try doing that and keep my memories of that little room and its “Master of Ceremonies” intactIJ It has been many, many years since I last saw Sweetman but the vision has stayed, fresh as ever, with me. I can clearly hear the girls chanting his name like a “mantra”. He never spoke. We hardly ever heard his voice. He just kept giving us the food and taking money from our hands.He used to smile gently, once in a while, in the middle of all that din.
Dear Sweetman, thank you very much for giving us such sweet moments and goodies for all those wonder years of school! They were precious ! And still are.