The Khaali Peeli concept

Our cafe is just a weekend cafe. Each weekend we try something new, something different, we improvise and create a dish that is healthy, not too common and of course, tasty. In the twelve days that we have run our cafe till now, we have served falafel hummus and tahini, makke ki roti and baingan bharta, wheat pasta with basil tomato sauce, moong dal cheela, dhokla, mini idlis with sauteyed vegetables, chinese style porridge, vegetable momos, etc etc. Our food is accompanied with herbal tea on most days. On some days we keep jal jeera or chhaas. The unique feature of our cafe is that you can come and eat and drink and talk and hang out and help out, and then, you can pay whatever you wish to, in our hand made money box. It often comes as a surprise to people, with the most common response of ' come on, thats not fair'. Its ironic that when we ask people to decide how much they would like to pay for what they have eaten, they feel its not fair! Its in the same category of irony where when you return from a no electricity, no mobile phone, no money forest festival back to the city, people say 'welcome back to reality'.

how it all began

its difficult to say how and why it all began. In the past few years, I have been getting an 'education' far worthier than the twelve years of school or the five years in college that I received. I have been unlearning various myths about life, learning, a 'suitable' vocation, food, lifestyle, money, an acceptable way of being with people etc. etc. I travelled, to Vanvadi, Shikshantar, the remote villages of Meghalaya, and also to the villages of Rajasthan, on a cycle yatra, without money. I have been meeting Shammi, who has opened up an entire Pandora's box of ideas, concepts and enthusiasm that my mother often finds unacceptable and catagorises as abnormal behaviour. Through Shammi I met someone who makes entire furniture out of paper. I met a woman who cures diabetes, cancer and thyroid problems just with her food. I met a couple who have had their kid at home, without a doctor and who dont send their kids to school. I visited a cafe in Ahmedabad, called Seva Cafe, where people can come and eat and enjoy themselves and then pay whatever they wish to. Nice, intelligent, warm people living lives one only dreams of. Doing things one hesitates doing, no matter how true and correct it all seems.
It is possible to do what you really feel like doing. Thats the thought that rang through my head as I sat with a friend, outside the More store, eating a frankie at a small stall that had recently opened on the pavement outside the store. Its a lovely space, with trees, seating arrangements, wide, traffic free roads and many many people hanging around in the evenings. I wondered aloud how much fun it would be to put up a food cafe right on this pavement and serve fresh, healthy and tasty food to our neighbours, friends, aquaintances and random people. Soon enough, five of my freinds, Aditya, Gunjan, Swathi, Sudarshan and Sunita were as enthusiastic about the idea as I was and Khaali peeli came into existence.