The canteen for the final 3 years of Architecture School consisted of a few stone and brick parapets that were built in the corner of the campus adjoining a small room that served as the pantry for 'kaka' to make some basic snacks. In the monsoons, the ground was littered with rotting leaves and insects of all kinds. One had to watch out for those large ants (makodas) that would crawl up over legs and reach behind ears and over necks. The smell, that of rotting leaves and fried snacks, of sugar laced tea, was quite intoxicating. Though such breaks were supposed to be small and in between lectures, i can remember times often when one has rested along the exposed brick wall (century old) and dozed off till the sun rose too high for comfort. It was a time of waking up late, attending a few lectures one felt could not be done without doing so and of spending long hours just doing nothing...one could then count the days passing by and realize the seasons changing, assignments completed, wardrobes turned over...college life.