Mess glossary
The words people use to run a mess in Bangladesh, defined in plain English, with the Bangla word beside each. Most of them have no exact English equivalent, which is why English-language apps never quite fit how a mess actually works.
Mess (মেস)
A shared home, usually for students or working bachelors, where the members split the rent and run a kitchen together. Food is bought jointly and its cost is shared by how many meals each person ate. Different from a hostel, where a landlord sells seats and the food, and from a sublet, where one tenant rents part of a flat to another.
Meal (মিল)
One person eating one meal from the mess kitchen. The unit everything in a mess is counted in. Many messes count lunch and dinner as one meal each; some count breakfast as half a meal.
Meal rate (মিল রেট)
The cost of one meal for the month: the month's total bazar spending divided by the total number of meals everyone ate. If a mess spent ৳11,856 on bazar and ate 190 meals, the meal rate is ৳62.40. Each member's food cost is the meal rate times their own meals.
Bazar (বাজার)
The grocery shopping for the mess kitchen, and the money spent on it. Only bazar goes into the meal rate; rent and bills do not.
Bazar duty or rota (বাজারের পালা)
The turn each member takes doing the bazar, usually for a day or a few days at a time, in a fixed order.
Bazar list (বাজারের লিস্ট)
The list of what has run out in the kitchen, which whoever is on bazar duty takes to the market.
Khata, or mess khata (মেস খাতা)
The notebook a mess keeps its accounts in: meals on one page, bazar on another, deposits on a third. Mess Ledger's Bangla name is মেস খাতা because it replaces that notebook.
Mess manager (মেস ম্যানেজার)
The member who keeps the khata for the month: records the meals and the bazar, collects deposits, pays the bills and works out who owes what at month end. In many messes the job rotates monthly.
Meal off (মিল অফ)
Telling the mess you will not eat a meal, so it is not cooked for you or counted against you. Most messes set a cutoff time, such as 10 pm the night before, after which a meal can no longer be turned off.
Guest meal (গেস্ট মিল)
A meal eaten by a visitor, counted against the member who invited them.
Feast (ফিস্ট)
A special meal the whole mess eats together, often on a holiday or at month end, usually with its own bazar that is split equally rather than by meals.
Deposit (জমা)
Money a member pays into the mess fund, in cash or by bKash, Nagad or Rocket. At month end each member's deposits are set against their meal cost and their share of rent and bills.
Own-cash bazar (নিজের টাকায় বাজার)
Bazar a member paid for from their own pocket rather than from the mess fund. It is owed back to them and counts like a deposit once the manager approves it.
Fixed costs, or rent and bills (ভাড়া-বিল)
Everything that does not change with how much people eat: rent, the electricity bill (often called current bill), gas, water, wifi and the cook's salary. Split per head, by room share or by a fixed amount, never by meals.
Buah or khala (বুয়া, খালা)
The cook a mess employs, paid a monthly salary that the members share as a fixed cost.
Seat rent (সিট ভাড়া)
The rent for one bed in a shared room. A single room usually carries more of the rent than a seat in a double, which is why rent is split by room share rather than equally.
Service charge (সার্ভিস চার্জ)
A fixed monthly amount on top of seat rent in many messes, covering the cook, cleaning or utilities. Mess listings usually show it separately.
Sublet (সাবলেট)
A room or part of a flat rented from the main tenant rather than from the owner. Common in Dhaka for families and working people who do not want a full flat.
Month-end settlement (মাস শেষের হিসাব)
Working out, at the end of the month, what each member's meals and share of costs came to, what they paid in, and the difference: who owes the mess money and whom the mess owes.
Pawna and dena (পাওনা, দেনা)
Pawna is money owed to you; dena is money you owe. After the settlement each member has one or the other.
Closed month
A month that has been settled and locked, so no entry dated inside it can be changed afterwards. Closing a month is what stops a settled account being argued about again.
Hall dining (হলের ডাইনিং)
The dining system in a university residential hall, run by students on the same meal-and-bazar principle as a mess.