TU Delft, our great university, which bears such illustrious scientists and engineers, who could if they wanted to order the sun to run their cars, or command the wind to power their homes, or hoodwink dead silicon into acting intelligently, is also home to..
.. Irony of ironies, this great university of ours is also home to the enigmatically sad fact that it can’t feed its deserving dependents deliciously and delightfully.
A very good Dutch friend and colleague, upon hearing my grumbling, said chidingly, “Well, you know the goal of TU Delft is to broaden our intellects, not our waists!” Hmm…point taken, but I riposte: Where would the intellect be without the tummy?
The morsels that we get to eat in the various faculty lunch halls are best left unmentioned. Bread, cheese and vegetable rolls, and an occasional serving of fish. The Aula is supposed to be the place where at least you can get some variety. Unfortunately, much of what’s on offer there also tastes bland and the variety is also pretty much non-existent. Last but not the least comes the Sports Center. Interestingly, I have met senior PhDs who didn’t know that the Sports Center served food. To be honest, it would have done them little good had they known. Admittedly, the quality of the food there is superior to Aula, but it comes with a big catch. You come, you order and then you…forget about it! Yes, the slowness of the service reminds me of the trains back home in Pakistan, which belie the famous saying: “You can’t be neutral on a moving train.” What’s more, the vending machines that used to provide some relief to the hunger stricken academics have now been replaced with new ones that seldom work. (Anyone looking for political expression in art should come and look at the artistic expression of rage as imprinted by the kicks of an apparently frustrated spirit on the rear end of the vending machine on the first floor of the EWI building).
I’ve had new people from all over the place – the UK, Italy, Indonesia, Colombia, Iran, Pakistan, India and even nearby Switzerland – complain sadly about the state of meals here. People from many different countries with wildly different culinary skills and tastes all have one thing in common: they’re dissatisfied by what is dished out to eat at TU Delft. So what’s to be done? Who knows, but on behalf of all international students, I earnestly request the relevant authorities to — show us the food! After all, a happy tummy is a happy intellect.
Rameez Rahman, from Pakistan, is a second-year PhD researcher in computer science.
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