L-6:

Assignment By Neha Dey

Language Variations Among Various Canteens of Delhi

University:
This was a pretty different and interesting assignment were knowingly I observed the day-to-day
speaking that goes around me. Before this I always use to hear people speaking, but never actually
noticed the differences and variations in it. While working on the assignment, I noticed and observed
the following findings in the speaking habits of people in the canteens around the vicinity of our Arts
faculty campus:

1. Spic Macay & Arts Faculty Library Canteen:

Our very own two canteens were people gather in huge number from our Arts Faculty and speak the
national language, Hindi. This place was an exception because this was the only place where I heard
no one speaking in English. Besides, I heard many speaking in their mother tongue also. Every table
used the common language but ofcourse the dialect variations were there.

2. Arts Faculty Canteen:

Here there was a mix usage of both Hindi and English language. Very unique but even the Hindi
speakers were speaking with a style and class, with a different done and accent and ofcourse hearing
both the canteen crowd speak together, now I can surly make out, which student belongs to which
group.

3. Arts Faculty’s outside Maggie Store and Juice Corner:

This is not a specific canteen, but yes, the crowd here made me stop by to analyze their language.
This place one would find exactly in-between the Arts Faculty and the Law Faculty, and so is a centre
for both the faculties’ students, as I found all my classmates here. A very weird observation, but here
the crowd varied according to the stalls. The Maggie wale bhaiya had a normal crowd, speaking
again a mix of Hindi and English, while the juice corner only had a decent crowd preferably talking
only in English and that too sounding low, speaking less. Even the crowd here was less compared to
the Maggie stall.

4. D-School Canteen:

Needless to say, here maximum of the crowd was speaking in English, even if they didn’t know the
language, or was not that fluent, but they were on with it. The man who was the canteen in-charge
was also very sophisticated (not rough like the Maggie wale bahiya) and when I ordered a plate of
Idlis, he said it a tone, though it was also Hindi that he was speaking, which seemed to have
developed from its daily students’ accent he listen to.

5. Hindu College Canteen:

What I heard the crowd speaking here was Hindlish: a complete modernized fusion of Hindi and
English with a style and class. The crowd seemed entirely different, their attire sense, their body
movements, liked they used more body postures, and their entire vocabulary seemed to be
different. This variation was obvious however and gave an air of superiority in the way they talked,
almost similar to the Ramjas college canteen’s crowd.

6. Nirulas:

Just few minutes from our college, there is Nirulas, a brand, although with no branded people
around. I didn’t find anybody speaking in English here, though the atmosphere was good, the
ambience was good, was yet the crowd was normal and the people around were also speaking in a
normal Hindi vernacular.

7. Hans Raj’s Canteen:

Voted as the best Delhi University’s Canteen, 2010 by Hindustan Times, this canteen was the biggest
of all the canteens that I have visited. The food was also “fresh and clean”, and the crowd gathering
was the most here. Here again was a mix of both Hindi and English languages.

8. Shri Ram College of Commerce:

Well again a decent canteen with mostly students speaking in English, very funny but I even noticed
people placing their orders in English. Here the hustle-bustle was quite less as compared to other
canteens, I don’t know the reason but yes the crowd was good at eye.

9. Miranda House:

Again, what you can expect from girls, the entire matter of topics they were talking about changed,I
just loved visiting this place, atleast for listening to them. No two ways, the crowd was flaunting in
English, their accent was entirely different again, fake indeed, and their face expressions and jaw
movements were highlights of the observations.

10. St Stephen’s Canteen:

How could I miss on this: the canteen at St Stephen’s is not called a ‘canteen’. It’s referred to as a
‘café’. The omelettes and cutlets are served with knives and forks on china crockery, a rare
phenomenon in DU. The “fresh fruit juices” are the most favourite items among students here, and
from the menu and likings you can already make a guess what language they might be speaking, it
has to be proper, correct and enriched English. Actually menu plays an important role in deciding
languages one speaks, English speaking group always prefer juices and omelettes rather than
preferring paos or chole kulche.

Eating joints are always very close to our hearts, we sit there, we chat there and we eat our favourite
dish there. And therefore, every canteen carries a crowd which comes from its own college mainly,
but this is not it, and at times we go to other places in search of our favourite menu or for some
change. So at times it’s very difficult to say, that when I visited canteens, the crowd present there
was only from its college premises, as often this is not the case. But yes, mostly, it’s in Human
Psychology, we tend to behave and speak in a way the surrounding demands of us and give our best
to suit the environment.