For my last day at the Ayurvedic College, I decided to collect some data from the three hostels there about their food choices, eating, and the health of the hostlers. Even if I don’t end up crunching the numbers on it like I did for KLB, having as much data as possible while I can get it would be beneficial. There were two things I wanted: weight and menus.
First I had the menus translated from Hindi. There was a kitchen each for the boys and girls, and both of them were very well-equipped. If it weren’t for the stone working surfaces and type of equipment used, I would have thought that it was a restaurant-quality kitchen from the U.S. I was very impressed, and have not seen anything like it in India yet. There were huge gas ranges, a gas flat top grill, a large fire pit for cooking in oversized pots, and direct gas lines to all the appliances. Everything was also very clean, even by American standards.
Then there was the food. Sooooooooo much better than KLB’s hostel. Granted, the hostlers pay 2000 rupees per month to stay there, compared to 1600 per month paid by the KBL hostlers, so they can afford more food. The dals were richer, the rice was better quality, there was a better selection of food throughout the week and at each meal, and snacks were provided between meal times. Each kitchen had a permanent staff of either 3 or 4 cooks who were very well trained. Furthermore, the menu was open to changes. Each month, 3-4 students from each hostel would be appointed menu coordinator and they could make changes to the menu for that month. If they were sick of paranthas, they could change it. Also, in the guy’s hostel, a non-veg option, like meat or chicken, was cooked once a week.
The students were much healthier. The weights of the girls that I recorded on my last day were5-10% higher than the girls at KLB. In addition, all of the students were more physically active. This would offset the extra food that they get so that they don’t gain too much more weight. The girls do yoga every morning, walk more, gossip less, and play table tennis or badminton in their free time. The guys, being guys, like to go to the gym and pump iron. I guess that’s the same regardless of your country. The ones who don’t go to the gym often play cricket, football (a.k.a. soccer), go for walks or hikes, and some even go jogging. They’re much more health conscious then I thought they would be. I was asked by several of them how they can get big biceps like mine. Ummm… eat a lot of junk food and travel too much? Now, I don’t have big arms by U.S. standards, but compared to some of the stick figures in India, I’m Schwarzenegger. Or Salmaan Khan, if we’re talking Bollywood. If I’ve said it before, I’ve said it a hundred times: I’ll take my ego-stroking where I can get it.
After I got the menu from the girls and the enough of the weights from both the boys and girls, the girl in charge of the hostel asked me to stay for lunch, which started in an hour. I’ve tried that a few times with the girls at KLB, and it’s always an uncomfortable situation. It usually ends up being me awkwardly eating on one side of the table and 37 others on the other side, with huge grins plastered over their young faces, watching me mechanically put rice and watery dal into my mouth. Not fun, so I politely declined and walked over to the guys’ hostel to get their menu translated. After that was done, I received an invitation from those guys to join me for their lunch. This time I accepted, and I’m really glad I did. It was just like having lunch with my friends back home, except that everybody was talking in a different language and eating with their hands. Yet I felt strangely at home, because for the first time in a long time, I wasn’t the center of attention. For 15 short minutes, I was surrounded by Indians who weren’t staring at me. They were just acting normally, joking around, laughing, eating, and having a good time. Not pestering the white boy with questions, not asking me why I was eating my chapatti in a funny way, not anything. I loved it. I’d forgotten what it’s like to be just one of the guys.
Time to go back to KLB and make some more PBC. Maybe I will be able to take what I’ve learned from the Ayurvedic College and apply it to the hostel in Palampur.
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