A canteen that served the Prime Minister

Welcoming All

Variety in food and a space to enjoy that variety, brings students from surrounding colleges to the canteen of Delhi School of Economics (DSE) or D School, as it is fondly called. Not only students, but faculty and other staff members also frequent this canteen which has a long list of dishes, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian.

DSchool, located adjacent to Hindu College, St Stephen’s College in front and Faculty of Management Studies and Kirori Mal College on the backside has had the likes of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen as its clients when they were lecturers at DSE.

It has also seen illustrious students like Prabhu Chawla and Prannoy Roy enjoy their snacks and chai here. Students of the university refer to DSchool’s food as ‘something to die for’ and that too at very reasonable prices.

Egg rice, Deep-fried Mutton Cutlet, Rajma-chawal, Veg and non-veg Thali, Veg Chowmein and Mutton Dosa are some of the most popular dishes served in the canteen that can accommodate around 150 students at a time.

But most turn up here for its Chai and quick bites. Even though colleges remain closed on weekends, the canteen is alive with visitors - frequented by hostellers.

Avinash Yetukuri of Hindu, who visits D School’s canteen very often for lunch, says, “I don’t like my own college’s canteen as it has nothing good to offer other than kachori. St Stephen’s doesn’t offer lunch anymore.

So it is the closest canteen to our college that has good food to offer. Here we get egg rice for Rs 25, the crowd is very good and it has lots of space also.”

“It is a dull period these days because of holidays but otherwise DSchool is always very crowded. Not only economical but the food served here is also very hygienic, something which we miss at our own canteen. That is what pulls the crowd,” says Amit Maheshwari, a final year student of Statistics (Hons) at Hindu.

Rajma-chawal, Thali and Mutton Dosa sell the most. Until eight years ago, the canteen offered mainly South Indian food, Thali an Chowmein. It brought about a major change on popular student demand.

“New generations of kids keep coming in and the demand changes according to that. Earlier we used to have a very simple menu but now we have introduced new items such as gulab jamun, fruit jelly, four types of omelettes etc,” says owner of the canteen Amardas Gupta, who was working in Indian Coffee House before.

Amardas boasts off having served celebrated names. “Manmohan Singh and Amartya Senji would come even after they were not teaching here as a regular faculty. They would come for seminars,” says Amardas, who has been running the canteen for more than 20 years. The college also has a small canteen which offers snacks and beverages such as iced tea, banta, mathi, hot chocolate muffins, creamrolls, iced tea.

However, its the canteen’s complete meals that attract a lot of its clientele today.

Gurpeer Kaur, who works at Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies in Vivek Vihar, visits D School’s twice every week. “The food is average but if you consider the charges, it is very good. I do come for lunch here at least twice a week. They charge too less,” she says.

So, when you feel hungry in between the admission process, do drop in here. DSchool is more a landmark today in DU than a mere
canteen.