[Reader-list] Posting No. 5: "Running a Mess, Running into a Mess: Extract from an Interview"

[Bodhisattva Kar]

After his wife's premature death, Satya Ranjan Chakraborty, a professional private tutor with some political past, decided to move out of his large joint family household in 1953 with his eight-year old boy. For the next twenty years a mess-house in central Calcutta (near Santosh Mitra Square) became the permanent address for this little unit, until Satya Ranjan's son, having passed the MA examination from Calcutta University, got a lecturer's job in a government district college. Satya Ranjan, however, continued to stay in the mess-house and left it only in 1986 when his son, Subhash Ranjan, managed to build his own house in the city. Satya Ranjan has passed away in the late eighties. We had a long and very useful conversation with Subhash Ranjan Chakraborty, who now teaches history in Presidency College. As someone who has spent twenty years of his early life in a mess-house, Chakraborty generously shared with us different details of the mess-life. We thought it would be better to
 give a small sample from the interview, focusing mainly on the management of the mess-house. How by the nineteen seventies the problems of running a mess were becoming intense emerge obliquely from the conversation. But it speaks also directly to the concerns of everyday management and organization of the mess-houses.

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Bodhisattva Kar and Subhalakshmi Roy: "And, all of them [the residents] were not necessarily from the same region? I mean, we know that usually people from a particular district would prefer to band together in a particular mess-house
"
Subhash Ranjan Chakraborty: "I think, that is much more applicable to the people coming from East Bengal. As far as I know, this mess-house was built during the [second World] War. It was a large four-storied building. The landlord was R. B. Das who owned a big store of musical instruments. Everybody was leaving Calcutta at that time [for the fear of the Japanese Bomb]. Now there was this homeopathic doctor from Bongaon, who procured the house as a lessee. A permanent seat used to be kept reserved for the doctor and he would come once a week. Most probably he also used to get a monthly commission of 5 or 10 rupees. The total house rent was something like 120 or 130 rupees. And when I left the mess [after twenty years], the rent was raised only to 160 rupees. At that time, the house owners very much wanted to drive away the mess-people [as it became quite unprofitable]. But when the mess was started, they could hardly raise that amount of money from this house in any other way."

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Subhash Ranjan Chakraborty: "When we were in this mess-house, the Aguris [a rich middle caste] used to dominate. They were mainly from some villages of Birbhum, near Bolpur, and Burdwan. But it was not exclusively so. There were people from other areas also. There was a sizeable group from Kalna."
Bodhisattva Kar and Subhalakshmi Roy: "Do you think the caste question affected the everyday running of the mess?"
Subhash Ranjan Chakraborty: "No, no 
 "
Bodhisattva Kar and Subhalakshmi Roy: "In no way?"
Subhash Ranjan Chakraborty: "In no way. The politics was visible in a different way. For example, somebody is getting an extra fish to eat, or somebody is taking his food to his own floor [and probably taking more] thanks to an [informal] arrangement with the cook. Things like these
"
Bodhisattva Kar and Subhalakshmi Roy: "Would everybody usually sit together during the meal?"
Subhash Ranjan Chakraborty: "Yes. Together. There was a dining hall. People would sit together."
Bodhisattva Kar and Subhalakshmi Roy: "Would they sit on the floor?"
Subhash Ranjan Chakraborty: "Yes. Some would start from 8 o'clock in the morning."

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Bodhisattva Kar and Subhalakshmi Roy: "How were the defaulters dealt with?"
Subhash Ranjan Chakraborty: "Oh, there use to be a lot of problems with the defaulters. Some of them would fail to pay for months after months. There were demands that their meals should be stopped. In fact, on this issue the mess-meetings were full of shouting and commotion. Some people would leave the mess without paying their bills. Some would slowly pay. Usual problem, as you would experience in a hostel."
Bodhisattva Kar and Subhalakshmi Roy: "But were they ever thrown out of the mess? How strict was the control?"
Subhash Ranjan Chakraborty: "It is not possible to throw somebody physically. I don't remember any instance where things led up to courts or police stations. But I think that attempts were made to persuade the defaulters. And a policy of 'no food without money' used to be followed. But in that case, it depended greatly on the personal relation between the cook and the defaulter. Nothing could be done if the cook was kind to the man. But officially the food was stopped."

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Bodhisattva Kar and Subhalakshmi Roy: "Would you say the management of the mess-house was democratic? Were the decisions collectively taken in the meetings?"
Subhash Ranjan Chakraborty: "More or less democratic. But what usually happens in these cases, you see, most people don't want to get involved in problems. So those who were enthusiastic would of course be active in its management. I don't know if these people had any monetary interest in it. I was too young to understand it. I was not very involved in this process. But I have seen that mostly members of a particular group would want to, and would become, managers. So a kind of group-rivalry was always there. And in the democratic system, this is (smiles) 
 "
Bodhisattva Kar and Subhalakshmi Roy: "
 everywhere."
Subhash Ranjan Chakraborty: "Everywhere." 
Bodhisattva Kar and Subhalakshmi Roy: "But if we could strain your memory a little more, would you say that regional bonds, or other kinds of bonds, previous acquaintance, for example, were important in forging these groups?"
Subhash Ranjan Chakraborty: "Surely. As far as I remember, it is exactly what used to happen. For instance, there were these two brothers from a family. One had left. And the other was the Works Manager of a firm. He was in a good post, used to go to office by a car, although he stayed in a mess. For family reasons - for good education of his children - he later decided to hire a whole house. Their eldest brother also used to stay in the same mess. He was the General Manager of the same firm. These people had a definite authority in the mess-house. This was strongly resented by the people who joined the community later. And the power of this group afterward began to eclipse, and another group - mainly a group of young people from Birbhum - took over. But it was not solely a regional group."


		
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