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I was sent a Facebook post early this morning.
Penned by the Principal of my alma mater, St. Stephen’s College, Rev Valson Thampu, it is titled – ‘Alumni and Samosa Worship’. Here is an excerpt:
“How come a samosa-wallah is so important,” a venerable friend of mine asked me on phone this morning after reading the newspaper reports on memorial panegyrics lavished on the late Rohtas. Being a man of some understanding he went on to ask, “Did he supply something more than samosas?” I could hear him laugh under his breath....
I felt deeply embarrassed. For a few old boys and a faculty member stomach seems to be all that matters. And that is the condemnation. There is laughter all over the city.
I am sure all of you have bought and even consumed samosas from various dhabas. Have you felt, ever, the urge to worship the dhabawallas, having paid for the samosas?”
I read through it in disbelief (the entire post is here). It seemed incongruous and inconceivable to me that a principal, already at the centre of so many controversies – things like curfew, a student magazine, a contended suspension – would possibly, could possibly mess with the memory of a deceased person. Surely he is capable of understanding that mocking a ceremony of mourning is in extremely bad taste.
Rohtas ji (owner of the iconic Rohtas Dhaba of St. Stephen’s College) passed away on 2 February, succumbing to pneumonia. He was in his late sixties.
On 6 February, a condolence meeting was arranged for him in college. A hundred-member strong group showed up for the event – which included noted alumni such as historian Ramachandra Guha and Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramaniam. The group was, however, denied entry into the campus as no prior permission had been sought.
Ramachandra Guha went on to lambast Thampu, calling him a ‘fascist’ who was “worried about the posthumous popularity of Rohtas.”
The comment was returned in kind by Thampu in his FB post, where he claims “Guha is sulking”.
For St Stephen’s alumni, it is impossible to dissociate Rohtas and his Dhaba from their college memories.
My memories of the dhaba too are that of Rohtas ji, a wisened old man, with a shock of dirty white hair, plying hungry students with tall glasses of nimbu paani and piping hot gulab jamuns. I remember many a 1.40 pm class that went on too late for us to make it too lunch at the college café. We’d then make a beeline for Rohtas ji’s, who would smilingly furnish hot samosas and g-jams (as they’ve always been called) – usually leaving tabs open for we’d have no money.
We were clearly in illustrious company:
Benjamin Gilani, a student of the college in the late 60s – and now an eminent television and theatre personality – has a poem called Stephania (A Poem), which also makes reference to the dhaba, except that in his time it was run by Rohtas’ father Sukhiya.
The poem can be found among the archives of the college’s official website:
...sometimes stephania was
the passage of leftists
rightists,
ists,
and other labels-
always it was sukhia
and the minces and scrambled eggs
just an order away...
Old and new(er) Stephanians remember him as the man who made sure no student went hungry.
Rohtas, and his father Sukhiya were permanent fixtures in the college. They form annals of nostalgia for thousands of Stephanians scattered over the world.
In an already rife battle between the alumni and Rev. Thampu, was it really wise to bring a century-old college memory into the mix?
(With inputs from PTI)
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