It is my first attempt to bridge the generation gap. I had been born in an era, when possessing a radio or a bi-cycle was an indicator of affluence; in fact people had to pay an annual license fee for possessing a radio and bi-cycle. Grew up, opted for Hotel Management as profession. Fortunately, got a chance to enroll myself in the Hotel Management College at Kolkata, then the only college in entire eastern India.
For a boy from a village, it was a big cultural shock. Fellow students were from different backgrounds and communities, majority of them were from urban areas and from English medium schools. For me it was a big problem, as the medium for communication was either English or Hindi, initially I was not adept in both. We were being taught things like “Whitney Reservation System”; “Silver Service”; “Indian and Western Cuisine” and many other topics. I liked Food & Beverage Service most as a subject of study, and House-Keeping, the least. Neglected subjects like Accountancy, Economics, Maintenance and Hygiene. The pedagogy followed the “Swiss School of Thought”, with stress given on operational aspects; not the businesslike approach of the American schools. Not much input were given on the managerial aspects of the subjects. The students were told “what to do” and “how to do”; unfortunately never told “why they need to learn the same”. For example, we were taught that draught beer is served at room temperature (which is not true now), but never told why. Similarly, we were not told why the Irish people and the Americans spell their whisky as “whiskey” (answer to that I discovered six to seven years back). I took great interest in culinary art, often tried my hand at home and more often than not ruining the family lunch or dinner.
After leaving the college, I had joined a 5-star hotel as a captain, worked real hard (12 to 14 hours a day), soon promoted as Senior Captain with additional charge of the kitchen. Unfortunately, during those days professional chefs were hard to come by and we had a “Head Cook” in the hotel, who had least control over his staff. In fact, during those days, only 100 – 120 students used to pass out from four Hotel Management Colleges, established in four regions of India, and there was a big gap in supply and demand in the industry. It is here in the kitchen, I felt how inadequate my knowledge was, particularly in the control areas. I had to undo my previous learning and soak up the new knowledge.
After more than a decade (in between I had a four years stint as a lecturer in a private Hotel Management College and then started my own “Outdoor Catering” business), in 1996, I had joined again a Hotel management college as a senior lecturer. It is where I felt my technological inadequacy. Cyclostyled study materials were a thing of the past, and I had no knowledge of computers. For preparing study materials on “WordStar”, I had to seek help from office assistant (particularly one Somenath Duttagupta), who will start the computer, open the file, from time to time will come to save the file; only thing I did was typing.
Actually, I learnt how to operate a computer only in 2003, when I purchased my own PC. After committing many mistakes and ruining the machine several times, I finally learnt MS Word. In fact, my son taught me a great deal (who was then 5th standard student). It was 2006, I could handle e-mails and in 2010 I had opened my Face Book account. While handling a computer or latest technological gadgets, I had always felt inadequate in presence of both my siblings. Finally, few days back I had taken lessons from my software developer son how to start my own blog. I cannot say I have mastered the handling of a blog, but what I can say is I have just started the journey and hope to learn from my mistakes and errors as I have always done.
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