From helping churn out sambar-rice and chapati-dal-subzi for 50 students of IIM Bangalore in 1977 to dishing up woks of noodles and degchis of biryani, along with the usual dal-roti, for 1,000 students on the B-school’s Bannerghatta Road campus, Krishna Munilakappa, Head Cook, IIMB Students’ Hostel, can also serve up a feast of delicious stories about wielding the ladle at IIMB.
Krishna M will be felicitated on completing 40 years of service at IIMB on the B-school’s Foundation Day on October 28th, 2019.
“Just as how there is no limit to learning management principles, there is no limit to learning new recipes,” he declares, adding that his guiding philosophy has been that the students in his care should never miss home food. “They may miss their families, but my team tries hard to ensure they do not miss home food.”
Krishna began as Mess Helper and now leads two teams of 30 people each, on two shifts, cooking breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner every single day. “Festivals bring in special requests – sometimes, I do it myself, at other times, I take the help of specialist cooks to recreate the magic that students seek,” he laughs. On his watch, the hostel kitchen is always efficient, clean, cheerful and bustling with life.
Mr. M. Krishna.
Krishna, who will turn sixty next year, recalls that his first salary was Rs. 25 a month. He worked in IIMB’s C Hostel in Jayanagar 8th Block and then moved to the Bannerghatta campus, where he was promoted in 1996 as Head Cook. “In a way, we are also the founders of this B-school,” he smiles, remarking that he can still recall all the names of his students from 1977. “There were just 50 students then, while now we cook for 1,000 students and each meal is like cooking for a wedding!” Talking of weddings, Krishna is touched that many students remember him and send him invitations to their wedding, where they insist that they serve him for a change!
“I am very happy to be here at IIMB. I was able to look after and educate my children – a son and a daughter. My daughter is a civil engineer with the state government.”
Toying with the idea of launching a catering service after his retirement, Krishna says he would also want to take over responsibility, full-time, from his wife, who has been looking after their disabled son for 31 years now. “Cooking and caring for young people seems to come naturally to us,” he says.
Counter Point
K. Ramakrishnan (57), hails from a village called Kulkallur which is in Pallakad district in Kerala. As a young man, he arrived in Bangalore in 1979, when his uncle Nair, the then head cook at the IIMB Hostel, summoned him to the city. Ramakrishnan started off as Mess Helper in 1979 in IIMB’s Hostel C in Jayanagar 8th Block. He remembers frequenting Banashankari market for fresh vegetables and fruits at the crack of dawn.
He moved to the Bannerghatta Road campus in 1984-’85, and was promoted as Junior Office Assistant over 10 years ago. He has been manning the counters in the students’ mess, interfacing with students and kitchen staff. He is proud of the fact that the staff at the counters are unfailing polite, clean and cheerful. He also pitches in when need be, rolling out chapatis and chopping veggies in the kitchen. “We work as team and there are no egos,” he adds.
Mr. K. Ramakrishnan.
At peak hours (during lunch), Ramakrishnan opens more counters and ensures students always eat in time for afternoon class. The batches of 1980, ’81, ’82 and ’84 make it a point to seek him out and chat with him when they visit campus. “A couple of them are now teaching here and they chat whenever we run into one another on campus,” he smiles.
He now lives in the Madiwala area with wife Pankajam. Daughter Priya, a graduate, is married to Suji who works with Emcore. The Ramakrishnans have a granddaughter, Arya (2), who loves visiting her grandpa’s campus on holidays.
Snacks and steam
In the mid-eighties, cycling from Bannerghatta Road to Koshy’s on MG Road for fresh bread was a daily ritual for K. Pandian, stores in-charge at the IIMB Students’ Mess. “Cycling was a pleasure in those days,” he smiles. Sixty-one-year-old K. Pandian, who hails from a village called Perayoor in Madhurai district of Tamil Nadu, has plenty to share – not just bread and butter tales, but stories about the evolution of the kitchen on campus.
“In the early eighties, we sourced firewood from a depot in Jayanagar; it was in 1985 that we built steam kitchens and modernized facilities here on Bannerghatta Road,” he explains.
Mr. K. Pandian.
Pandian who came to Bangalore in 1975 began working with IIMB in 1979, first at the Boys Hostel in Cox Town near Shivajinagar, where he helped out in the kitchen and ferried lunch to students at IIMB’s Double Road campus, for two years.
In 1983, when hostels were set up at the Bannerghatta Road campus, he moved here and continued to work in the stores section of the mess. “This locality was like a forest. We had to go to Jayanagar 9th block for vegetables and condiments, including tomato sauce!”
Pandian attended cooking classes in an institute near Vidhana Soudha. His specialties are evening snacks like vada-sambar, goli bajje, onion and bread pakodas, masala vadas, samosas, and of course, ginger chicken which legions of students remember him for! “I have a soft corner for senior students – from the batches of 1979 and 1980. They always stop to share a handshake when they visit campus,” he says.
The IIMB Mess Team.
Pandian became Head Cook in 1997 when his seniors opted for VRS. He and Krishna M began heading two shifts. After over 40 years of service, he retired in August this year and stays in Bilakehalli with his family – wife Selva Rani, a home maker, and three boys – Suresh Kumar, who runs his own auto garage, Manikandan who operates an animation studio, and Karthik Raja who is studying Computer Engineering in Chennai. Pandian is thinking of setting up a coffee shop that stocks his trademark vadas and bajjis along with filter coffee.
By Kavitha Kumar
