TANSTAAFL CAFÉ

TANSTAAFL is a 24 hour open air café with a menu that is contemporary and elective enough to include ‘maggi noodles, to samosa, to pakodas, to dosas, to sandwiches, to pizzas! Juices, soft drinks, ice creams and chocolates make up the other part of the offering. Both vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian offerings are available to fuel the high energy needs of the legendary student appetites! Takeaways and delivery across the campus is also offered.

Launched from 1 June 2004, Café TANSTAAFL has an interesting story about how it got such a funky name:

In Robert Heinlein's science fiction novel, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress [1966], the Moon turns into a colony of the Earth. Loonies, as the people on the Moon used to call themselves, are exploited by the people on the Earth. Manuel, a computer engineer and protagonist of the story, tells fellow Loonies that unless they sacrifice something they cannot achieve freedom. In this context, he says his famous line, “There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (TANSTAAFL)."

Later, Nobel laureate and economist, Milton Friedman, wrote a book [1975] by the same name, “There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch”

Evocative of IIMA’s ability to create learning at every opportunity, inspired Prof. Deodhar to christen the café TANSTAAFL: the caution built into the name, a clear warning to students that spending too much leisurely time at the 24-hour café may come at the cost of poor grades in classes.

FOOD KING

Situated in the new campus across the class room complex, Food King is the venture started by IIMA PGP student, Mr. Sharat Babu. The budding entrepreneur left his corporate job offer to indulge his passion and fulfill the mission of feeding the hungry.

It serves Indian and Chinese food, both vegetarian and non vegetarian.

Timings 10.00 AM to 2.00 AM

COFFEE EXPRESS

A Coffee Express outlet serving selection of coffee, tea and other beverages, shakes, sodas, etc. functions on the campus. The outlet is directly run by Café Coffee Day, a leading coffee chain in India. Limited snack options like sandwiches, burgers, cookies, cakes etc are also available.