Jun 26 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)
JNU's iconic eatery also a cultural institution
Avijit Ghosh
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New Delhi
TNN
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Shutting Down Ganga Dhaba Akin To Killing Part Of JNU's Glorious Heritage Ganga dhaba was synonymous with JNU's nightlife, its cultural ecology. It was a place where the political types decided on the text and tenor of the next pamphlet. Ask anyone to name one place in JNU; a majority would say Ganga dhaba. Why kill your best-known imprint?
In the life of any institution, some places become cultural markers. In collective memory and popular perception, they gradually attain the sanctity of a heritage site. For JNU, that's what Ganga dhaba perhaps is.To equate it with any other eatery in the campus and initiate moves to shut it down not only means the university's lack of appreciation of its own tradition but also an inability to see the importance and strength of its own most instantly-recognizable brand.
Ask anyone to name one place in JNU; a majority would say Ganga dhaba. Why kill your best-known imprint?
Till the mid-1980s, the Nilgiri dhaba, poised between Periyar and Godavari hostels, was a hotter nightspot than Ganga. But within a few years, the latter overshadowed the former by a mile. Even a suicide committed by one of the dhaba owners did nothing to dimin ish its popularity .
Those days when most eateries--and there were hardly any in the campus--shut down early , Ganga dhaba's nimboo-paani and bunomlettes served as late as 1.30pm were lifesavers for hundreds who had missed their dinner for one reason or the other.
But more importantly, Ganga dhaba was synonymous with JNU's nightlife, its cultural ecology . It was a place where the political types--and there were so many--decided on the text and tenor of the next pamphlet and mapped the strategies of the forthcoming campus agitation. Late night, the civil services types would also emerge from their rooms and fill in their thermos flask with over-sweetened tea which helped them get through the night.
At the dhaba, only a handful indulged in deep and mea ningful conversation on Marxism. This is one of the most enduring mythologies of JNU which many of us are guilty of having perpetuated.
Most boys and girls chatted deep into the night over anything and everything under the stars because it just felt so good to do so. The place was a comfort pillow. It was also an addiction.
And yet depending on the quality of the students involved, there was often something meaningful in those avante-garde conversations. One never realized it back then but those were takeaways that enabled you to negotiate life.
To be fair, the importance of Ganga dhaba is certainly not the same today as it was back in the 1980s and 1990s. Nowadays, eateries abound in the campus and home delivery of dinner to hostels is common.
But to look at Ganga dhaba as just another cheap open-air eatery would be erroneous. It gives the university a sense of history and adds to its character. It is a signpost of what the institution once was. If there are issues related to hygiene or anything else with regard to its running, they need to be sorted out rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Any campus is always a work in progress. The university authority is entitled to ring in positive changes. But the intelligent changemaker always preserves the best of the past. Ganga dhaba links JNU's past to its present. To shut it down would mean the end of JNU as we prefer to remember it. It would be both a mistake and a tragedy .
Ask anyone to name one place in JNU; a majority would say Ganga dhaba. Why kill your best-known imprint?
Till the mid-1980s, the Nilgiri dhaba, poised between Periyar and Godavari hostels, was a hotter nightspot than Ganga. But within a few years, the latter overshadowed the former by a mile. Even a suicide committed by one of the dhaba owners did nothing to dimin ish its popularity .
Those days when most eateries--and there were hardly any in the campus--shut down early , Ganga dhaba's nimboo-paani and bunomlettes served as late as 1.30pm were lifesavers for hundreds who had missed their dinner for one reason or the other.
But more importantly, Ganga dhaba was synonymous with JNU's nightlife, its cultural ecology . It was a place where the political types--and there were so many--decided on the text and tenor of the next pamphlet and mapped the strategies of the forthcoming campus agitation. Late night, the civil services types would also emerge from their rooms and fill in their thermos flask with over-sweetened tea which helped them get through the night.
At the dhaba, only a handful indulged in deep and mea ningful conversation on Marxism. This is one of the most enduring mythologies of JNU which many of us are guilty of having perpetuated.
Most boys and girls chatted deep into the night over anything and everything under the stars because it just felt so good to do so. The place was a comfort pillow. It was also an addiction.
And yet depending on the quality of the students involved, there was often something meaningful in those avante-garde conversations. One never realized it back then but those were takeaways that enabled you to negotiate life.
To be fair, the importance of Ganga dhaba is certainly not the same today as it was back in the 1980s and 1990s. Nowadays, eateries abound in the campus and home delivery of dinner to hostels is common.
But to look at Ganga dhaba as just another cheap open-air eatery would be erroneous. It gives the university a sense of history and adds to its character. It is a signpost of what the institution once was. If there are issues related to hygiene or anything else with regard to its running, they need to be sorted out rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Any campus is always a work in progress. The university authority is entitled to ring in positive changes. But the intelligent changemaker always preserves the best of the past. Ganga dhaba links JNU's past to its present. To shut it down would mean the end of JNU as we prefer to remember it. It would be both a mistake and a tragedy .
