Lockdown: Hotels closed, cooks busy at community kitchens

The country has gone under complete lockdown in order to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Just like schools and colleges, hotels are also being shut. A man in Kolkata who use to cook in a hotel is now extending his helping hands in preparing meals at a community kitchen for hundreds of essential service workers and beggars.

Kolkata:Rajesh Shah used to cook food at a hotel in Kankurgachi area of the city for years but now lockdown in force and his employer downing shutter he is preparing a meal at a community kitchen for hundreds of essential service workers and street beggars.

Like Shah, there are several other cooks of closed hotels like him, scattered all over the city, who are now feeding hundreds of mouths every day during the lockdown period.

Shah, a native of Gaya district in Bihar could not return to this native place as the lockdown started and his hotel downed the shutters on March 23. It was then that he was approached by a local club for cooking lunch for the 100-odd policemen, civic volunteers, group D staff of a nearby state hospital and private nursing home and he readily agreed refusing to take any money for the service.

"Staying here for so many years I can cook all Bengali delicacies from 'lau-chingri', 'soyabeen torkari', 'dim curry', to 'murgir jhol' and 'khichuri' aided by two assistants arranged by the club," he said.

"The club members discuss menus, to be cooked, with me after buying groceries, vegetables, egg and even occasionally fish or chicken. I cook accordingly. My sole aim is to make my food tasty to everyone. And that is my biggest satisfaction," the 40-year-old said.

Club member Ranjit Dey said, "We started the initiative from March 27, four days after the lockdown. And we are happy the way he has extended his help. He has even refused to accept even a token amount of money."

Dey said local businessmen and people of the locality have extended help to the initiative which is completely apolitical.

Like Sharma, several other cooks like Shibu of Basanta Hotel in BBD Bagh area, Santosh Rana who worked in a roadside hotel in Khidderpore, Bachha, the cook in a hotel in Sodepur - are busy in community kitchens run by different clubs and NGOs in the respective areas.

Shibu, who is cooking vegetarian dishes for the homeless and daily wage earners at a community kitchen run by a club in Burrabazar area for past 11 days, said "this has been a new experience for me. My hotel had been closed since March 22 and this kitchen opened after four days."

"I had very little to eat initially and all my savings got exhausted. But when I was approached by the club from Burrabazar area I agreed immediately. I am cooking mostly rice, daal, one or two vegetable curries for the 50 labourers in the nearby dharmasala. And they are happy," Shibu, the boy from Midnapore, said.

A spokesman from Prantik, an organisation from Sodepur, said Bachha was popular among the auto drivers, hawkers at the roadside hotel in traffic more for his chicken and fish curries.

"As the hotel is closed we have recruited his service for our community kitchen for 100 people near Peerless Housing. And he is doing a great job while taking all precautions," the NGO spokesman said.

In another initiative to feed the poor during the lockdown, a student of Presidency University has given her homecooked food to the poor pavement dwellers in the city.

"I have asked many of my friends to participate in the initiative launched by a fellow citizen on Facebook. Responding to his call, I had given homecooked food to some people living on pavements in the Park Street area two days back. I will do this again tomorrow. We must all chip in," the student Anisha Paul said.

PTI Report