 The Mess Interview
 Triplicane's messes have been famous for the past 100 years and more. Small messes like the Sydoji Mess, Hanumantha Rao Mess, Venkatrangam Pillai Street Mess and Mami Mess serve their meals from 8.30 to 11.00 in the morning and 7.00 to 9.00 in the night. Each mess can seat only about 20 persons and so customers eat in batches. The
"vathal kuzhambu" served in these places is very popular. Those eating in these messes are mostly regular customers.
 Before a marriage is arranged, a great deal of verification is made and references checked about the groom and girl. In the same way, a mess owner will ask anyone seeking regular messing a lot of questions. As a final test, the owner will agree to serve the applicant food for three days. This is to check out on the applicant's eating habits, like how he eats, whether he wastes food or just stuffs himself, whether he irritates other diners with untidy eating habits like spilling food everywhere or belching loudly. Only those who pass the test are acceptable.
Considering the numbers who use these messes, the calm and discipline found at mealtimes there must be termed truly unique. Today a lot of flashy commercial restaurants have come up and the popularity of these messes seems to be on the wane. Probably, because such strict disciplinarians are hard to find these days.
Let us scan Chennai again…
Ashokamitran
(Translated by Sujatha Pradeep)
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