Learning to Mend
Untitled Kitchen at Rafooghar
Rafooghar recently had the pleasure of hosting Untitled Kitchen- an experimental moving collective kitchen, for two unforgettable evenings around the theme of ‘Learning to Mend’. While the Untitled Kitchen team came to learn stitching with members of the Rafooghar community, as always, the mending spilled far beyond fabric...through khana peena, gaana bajana, kisse aur kahaniyan (feasting and frolicking).
The minute they landed, they were surrounded by curious kids from Yellow streets who had just finished their afternoon class and were ready for mauj-masti (fun, fun, fun) with bhaiyas and didis who had come from a town far far away to pitch their thambu (travelling tent) at Rafooghar.
When they learnt about Untitled Kitchen’s cycling adventure and how they had travelled over 300 km from Ahmedabad to Vadodara, with kitchen vessels, musical instruments, art supplies, a large thambu and their own belongings being lugged around their cart and bicycles, they got more curious and bombarded the Untitled gang with dher saare sawal jawab (too many Q & As).
They tried the many musical instruments that came with the team, wrote poetry about cycles and journeys they take us on and made the sweetest drawings to art-ify their poems.
Not just the kids but the grown-ups were excited too! Over the two days, we stitched, cooked, sang, danced, and spoke about our work, discovering so many similarities in the ways we build communities and solidarities.
Untitled Kitchen uses food as an ice-breaker to initiate conversations and mend communities, by inviting strangers to cook and eat together. The project is inspired by social reformer Sahodaran Ayappan’s ‘misrabhojanam’ or inter-caste community feast that was organised in Kerala’s Cherai in 1917.
At Rafooghar, mending happens through sitting and stitching together and bonding over shared struggles. Over time, food too became another way of bridging divides. We do regular potluck gatherings at Rafooghar along with our annual Iftaar and Holi celebration. But even beyond these planned affairs, every guest's visit becomes an occasion for our women to cook a special dish or revisit a forgotten family recipe. Over smiling stomachs and loud burps, hearts are won and friendships are forged.
On the first evening with Vipin, Thumbi, Rithun, Aparna, Aravind, Sathya and Priyanka, we gathered under the moonlight on the Rafooghar terrace to enjoy a finger-licking meal prepared by Sania and Ruma. A very hot day magically turned into a cool cool night, allowing all of us to enjoy the outdoors.
The following night, Untitled Kitchen with a little help from Nahid ji cooked for all of us…a meal that took them over five hours to prepare but disappeared in barely five minutes. It was so delicious, generous, and unlike anything the community had ever eaten.
The space was overflowing with children, women from the community, members of the Meethi Baradari gang, and curious guests. The Rafoo-Chakaar grew bigger and bigger with people of all ages , shapes and sizes patching themselves in to leave their marks on Untitled Kitchen’s traveling thambu.
The children kept experimenting with the musical instruments and filled the room with curious, noisy sounds that somehow turned melodious when everyone began to jam together.
Vipin and Rithun brought a huge canvas for a live drawing session. It was fun to watch Rithun capturing the day on the canvas with our chotu Anjali standing next to him, art-directing the painting. We don’t know if Rithun accommodated or avoided Anjali’s demands but we were extremely pleased with the final results and even more thrilled when we learnt that he would gift this painting to us. :)
Portraits of the kids by Rithun
There were makeup and mehandi sessions followed by endless posing for selfies, exchange of gifts and of course a dance party in the pouring rain!
Until we meet again, our hearts are full, our stomachs fuller!
As always… grateful to Vidya Shivadas and the FICA team for making these beautiful connections and helping us expand our circle of informal alliances and forever friends.