Scene 1
As the clock strikes 8.30 in the morning, groups of students with unkempt hair, drowsy looks and a hurriedly packed bag slung over their shoulders, run in the direction of the college mess or dining hall. Running late for their 8.40am class, they wash down butter toast or jam toast and egg or chana with a glass of milk or coffee. Others, who have fortunately made it a little earlier to this hall that has at least twelve of the longest benches as seats, can be seen sipping spoonfuls of porridge or cornflakes. As the bhaiyyas in the mess begin to pile back the plates at 8.42, some first years, a few second and third years, and our college girls' basketball team pour in with the most poised of attitudes, confidently ignoring the bhaiyyas' complaints of their sense of time and achieving victory by quietly taking the plates back from their piles and serving themselves. This is how a normal day begins for the students and the mess bhaiyyas - in a mortal combat for breakfast that includes all the aforementioned items, along with tea, different recipes of egg and chhola bhatura.

Scene 2
Possibly the least episodic of the three daily meals, the lunch is mostly never given much thought. The lunch crowd varies from those who do not have a class at 12.20 pm to those who do, and the former tend to linger on a while more, asking for separate bowls to enjoy their raita, or spicing up the day's vegetable and dal with pickle. On Tuesdays, jugs of nimbu paani get over in a jiffy and on Wednesdays, one has to fish for the chhole inside a big bowl of the curry so that the thick puris' taste can be enhanced. A lot of people are seen with lack luster expressions owing to the complete absence of non-vegetarian fare from the lunch menu. All this is squeezed in between at least two society meetings that are invariably held between 1.15 and 1.45, and of