SIX DOLLARS A BURRITO !
My love for history makes me feel that its my responsibility to put to words the end of an era. An era when a company called 'Sodexho' muscled its way into the pockets of underpaid hungry graduate students.
Wandering in the commons hungry I expected and hoped that the sight of food would cause the gastric juices to ooze and fill my stomach. I was to be disappointed. After walking around for sometime, I chose to stay hungry. Hunger got the complaining mood to kick in and I began to think whether the promised change ever happened?
Food means a lot to all of us. If its free-food Grad students love it more. Selling a burrito for 6 bucks in a university is not something that you would imagine a smart vendor would do. Forget making profit on that. Unfortunately 'The Commons' does exactly that at my school and still ends up making profit. The secret being 'monopoly'. Long ago the 'policy makers' for a number of unknown illogical reasons got together on a wrong day at a wrong time to make this wrong decision that let 'Sodexo' take away the money that the grad students are so fond of. Ironically, we talk about this over a cup of coffee ("bought from commons") everytime we check our balance online.
Whatever said, I have been dependent on the food that commons offers for the last three and half years. To me carrying food to school dint sound cool. It reminded me of those days in high school where you would be excited to see what appears when your friend opens his 'tiffin-box'. The days when you thought of cool ways to sell your food for theirs as we sat in circles. The days when you were sure the dosas mom packed would be soggy when you see them next. How I wished then to change my fate. Fate changed but I still move around unsatisfied.
Is it burrito that hurts or the fact that I have to shell 6 bucks everytime I need to take a bite? To be honest I dont care about both. I find the fact that I am forced to make this stupid deal hard to digest. Yeah thats true - harder than the food they serve. When I buy food from the commons I think of my brother, who once sold me 25 stamps for 100 bucks (when I was 6) . It still hurts when I think that he was smarter than me on that day (and most other days in my life !). We, (the underpaid graduate students) definitely deserve a better deal.
Whatever, finally after all these years the Sodexo had to go. I do not know what happened but my guess is that some student body raised the issue and there was hope again. They said good people are gonna come instead, with good food. Change is what we expected. Change we did see. The food stalls had new paints and new names. They came with food that cost the same but we felt they digest better. Everyone said so. I said so too - more out of wish than truth. Is the hope here to stay or is it just the feeling you get during the first few weeks after a new government takes over? -hunger made me ponder.
Whatever said, I have been dependent on the food that commons offers for the last three and half years. To me carrying food to school dint sound cool. It reminded me of those days in high school where you would be excited to see what appears when your friend opens his 'tiffin-box'. The days when you thought of cool ways to sell your food for theirs as we sat in circles. The days when you were sure the dosas mom packed would be soggy when you see them next. How I wished then to change my fate. Fate changed but I still move around unsatisfied.
Is it burrito that hurts or the fact that I have to shell 6 bucks everytime I need to take a bite? To be honest I dont care about both. I find the fact that I am forced to make this stupid deal hard to digest. Yeah thats true - harder than the food they serve. When I buy food from the commons I think of my brother, who once sold me 25 stamps for 100 bucks (when I was 6) . It still hurts when I think that he was smarter than me on that day (and most other days in my life !). We, (the underpaid graduate students) definitely deserve a better deal.
Whatever, finally after all these years the Sodexo had to go. I do not know what happened but my guess is that some student body raised the issue and there was hope again. They said good people are gonna come instead, with good food. Change is what we expected. Change we did see. The food stalls had new paints and new names. They came with food that cost the same but we felt they digest better. Everyone said so. I said so too - more out of wish than truth. Is the hope here to stay or is it just the feeling you get during the first few weeks after a new government takes over? -hunger made me ponder.
Taste aside, one thing for sure has not changed although the Sodexho and soggy dosa's are history now. A burrito still costs 6 dollars !
