Tea it was

Teaching journalism in half a dozen Mumbai colleges has changed my views. In south Mumbai’s most well-known and established college there is no offer of tea or coffee for the visiting faculty teaching the Bachelor of Mass Media (BMM) course though the college has an excellent canteen. In one of the colleges located in the labour areas of Mumbai, I used to receive a cup of coffee. But that gesture of courtesy stopped last year. These days I manage a 150 minute ordeal without wetting my throat.

Fortunately, there are still institutions which acknowledge that a visiting journalist needs a cup of coffee or tea to feel at home. A small, special faculty room located next to the canteen in a well-known women’s college on Warden Road offers the visiting faculty a hot beverage. One has to pay for the snacks, which is perfectly okay. At a Chembur college, the faculty peon instantly brings a small thermos flask which contains two cups of tea. And at a Churchgate college the ever-hospitable course co-ordinater readily orders coffee, the quality of which leaves much to be desired. But that is another matter. An electric kettle, milk powder and tea bags at a Bandra college help to relieve the strain of a three-hour academic session.

These colleges would not lose much with the simple gesture of offering limited hospitality once or twice a week to senior professionals who handle teaching assignments. Or perhaps I expect too much. The Matunga college may have saved Rs 40 a month by abandoning its hospitality, for instance. I hope the amount will be utilised for some noble academic purpose.

Meanwhile, I have decided to carry my thermos with me.