This was an event organised in our school itself. For this one day, all the students and teachers and staff come together and manage the kitchen, cooking and the serving. The idea is that the support staff would not do anything and we, the students and the teachers would do everything for the support staff on that day. The entire Karma Kitchen team divided into teams where one was decorating the dining area, one was cooking, one was wiping the dishes and the other was cutting vegetables. We also entertained our beloved support staff with music performances and garba. It was a great morning for all.

Learning outcomes achieved:

L2
Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
As for me, I had volunteered for cooking and when I entered the kitchen, I was assigned to wipe off the dishes. I was upset about it because it was a monotonous job, a boring one (compared to cooking) and not something I had signed up for. My team spent 2 and a half hours only wiping dishes; there were 2500 of them. We were about 7 people in the team and as time passed, I realised that I volunteered to help out and make the support staff happy. I realised what my aim was, to make the support staff happy and so that way I found happiness in wiping the dishes as well. It was so good to see the didis and the bhaiyas smiling. So, I was unhappy in the starting and mourned over wiping dishes, however, I re-evaluated my aim to volunteer at karma kitchen and them wiping dishes was no more a challenge for me.

We also had to entertain the support staff and there was no one to sing for the singing performance. The event coordinator asked me if I could help. I had never sung. The last time I was was 4 years ago with a lot of practice and this was on the spot. I was completely not ready for it but I couldn’t say no as it was to make someone happy. I went in the stage with my friend and we sang. It started of well but we soon went off track and it was not pleasing. Even though we went off track, we got a lot of encouragement and cheer from the audience. I was definitely not pleasing however, it was a good experience.

L4
Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
After I was done with wiping the dishes, other members of my team and I didn’t like to just stand and not do anything. To do something productive, I joined the cutting team and we ended up cutting dozens of lemons. After that I also helped in making puris. It was a tough job but I did try and help the cooking team. If I wasn’t committed to this event, I wouldn’t have done anything after my job was done. However, I was committed in helping to make this event a successful one therefore, after I was done, I went and helped out the other teams.

L5
Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
As I mentioned earlier, we were about 7-8 people in the team to wipe the dishes. We had 2500 dishes to wipe! That is a huge number and all of us were overwhelmed by it. But because we were in a team, it gave us a motivation to finish wiping them under the given time. We asked didis who everyday wipe the dishes how long they would take to finish this job. There are about 5 of them who did this and they take at least 3 hours to finish doing this. We were 7 people and managed to finish the job half hour early. This was the advantage. We gave each other motivation and also could also divide the job to make it happen faster.

I was asked to sing as well, if I didn’t have my friend as my co-singer, I would not have sung at all. Because I had a partner to support me, I was able to gather the courage to sing for all the beautiful people out there.

All in all, I think it was a great experience for me and it really made me happy seeing the support staff happy. Wiping the dishes for almost 3 hours was definitely a task but it was all worth it.