Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/89



To begin with, the first thing in the morning, an average passenger would have a cup or two of tea and a few biscuits. At 8.30 a.m. the breakfast bell would bring down the passengers to the dining room. They were punctual to the minute, at their meals, at any rate. The breakfast menu generally contained oatmeal porridge, some fish, chop, curry, jam, bread and butter, tea or coffee, etc., everything ad libitum.

I have often seen passengers take porridge, fish and curry, bread and butter, and wash down with two or three cups of tea.

Hardly had we time to digest the breakfast, when, bang,-it was the dinner bell at 1.30 p.m. The dinner was as good as breakfast: plenty of mutton and vegetables, rice and curry, pastry, and what not. Two days of the week, all the second-saloon passengers were served with fruit and nuts in addition to the ordinary dinner. But this, too, was not sufficient. The dinner fare was so easily digestible that we wanted a "refreshing" cup of tea and biscuits at 4 p.m. Well, but the evening breezes seemed so soon to take away all the effect of "that little" cup of tea that we were served a "high tea" at 6.30 p.m.: bread and butter, jam or marmalade, or both, salad, chops, tea, coffee, etc. The sea-air seemed to be so very salubrious that the passengers could not retire to bed before taking a few, a very few--only eight or ten, fifteen at the most -- biscuits, a little cheese and some wine or beer. In the light of the above, are not the following lines too true:


 * Your belly is your God, your stomach is your temple, your paunch is your altar, your cook is your priest... It is in the cooking-pots that your love is inflamed, it is in the kitchen that your faith grows fervid, it is in the flesh-dishes that all hope lies hid... Who is held in so much esteem with you as the frequent giver of dinners, as the sumptuous entertainer, as the practised toaster of health?

The second saloon was pretty full of passengers of all sorts. There were soldiers, clergymen, barbers, sailors, students, officials and, maybe, adventurers. There were three or four ladies. We beguiled our time chiefly in eating and drinking. The rest of the time was either dozed away or passed in chatting, at times in discussing, in playing games, etc. But after two or three days, the time between the meals seemed to hang heavy in spite of discussions and cards and scandals.

Some of us really warmed to the work and got up concerts, tugs of war, and running races for prizes. One evening was devoted to concerts and speeches.