GC Block Welfare Association has started a community kitchen to help out residents during the lockdown. And it’s killing two birds with one stone, as they have given charge of the kitchen to a cook who lives in a garage in the block. Her family too is making a living now from selling the food.
The facility started in the first week of May. “Our domestic helps come from Duttabad which is a containment zone so we were not allowing any of them in. But the senior citizens were facing a lot of problems,” says the block’s executive committee member Jhumpa Ghosh. “They somehow managed to pull through March and April but when the lockdown got stretched into May they couldn’t take it anymore.”
So as a brainchild of secretary Santanu Das, vice-president Sujoy Saha and others, the kitchen emerged. The committee decided to let out the community hall free of charge to Rabi Mondal’s family. Rabi, who has been living in the garage of GC 38 for more than a decade, paints houses but is also a man Friday of sorts for neighbours, running errands, helping with heavy lifting and assisting the community hall’s security guard.
His wife Malina is a cook at two GD Block homes. Son Deep is a driver and daughter-in-law Rumpa, a homemaker. Rumpa is also six months pregnant. “But we have all been unemployed since the lockdown and were living on charity from block residents,” says Rabi.
But since early this month, Malina and Rumpa are cooking, Rabi packing the food up in tiffin carriers and Deep delivering them to residents on his cycle. A WhatsApp group has been created by the block committee where residents place orders twice a day for lunch and dinner.
“We discuss the menu with family beforehand, depending on availability of vegetables. We ensure one particular dish isn’t repeated before three days,” says Jhumpa. “We fix prices judiciously too. We want Rabi’s family to take home something for their labour but also do not want residents to get fleeced.” So their vegetarian thali comprises rice, dal, bhaja, tarkari, chutney and costs Rs 65. Rohu curry can be bought separately for Rs 50. For dinner, they are offering options like chicken, tadka dal, ghughni and egg curry.
“Most days we are getting orders for 20 to 25 families but then on the day of Amphan this number doubled. We had khichuri, beguni and chutney that day and the ladies had to cook twice over,” says Rabi, who himself cooks at the block’s events once in a while. “In fact that’s how I have some large utensils ready for this home delivery system now.”
Playing a huge supporting role in this initiative is Sumbul Yazdani, the landlady of GC 38. Sumbul, who has moved to Delhi, has allowed Rabi to use her utensils and even refrigerator, which he has ferried to the community hall to store ingredients.
“Malina is a great cook, having been trained by my mother,” says Sumbul. “My mother Shahnaaz Rafique (better known as Naaz in the block) would frequently host gatherings of 50 to 100 people so we have huge utensils. My mother passed away in January but would have been very happy to know her protegee is helping her neighbours in this hour of need.”
While Malina’s sukto, posto, rajma and chicken champ have garnered many fans, Sumbul recommends her biriyani and kebabs on the menu sometime.
The service has been god-sent for residents, especially elderly ones like Prasanta Narayan Dutta. His wife is unwell after suffering a stroke and the math professor himself is occupied all day with online classes and administrative work. “I would have to sit to chop vegetables at 11pm,” he says, recalling the days of exhaustion. “I’m grateful for this food delivery service. The fare is light, tasty and hygienic. It’s saving me time and energy. All I have to do is hand them tiffin boxes and the food comes.”
While the entire township is starved of such a service, Ghosh says they cannot expand under the given situation. “It’s not safe now as there are containment zones all over,” she says.
saltlake@abpmail.com
