Monsoon Musings was a school event wherein people are welcome to share and express their feelings and ideas in any literary form. I participated in Seva Cafe, an event which was held alongside the Monsoon Musings event, where we had to make delicious food and serve it to the people who come to our stalls, or also to those who are as an audience in the monsoon musings. The audience can pay any amount of money they want as all of it would then be deposited into the charity. We were divided into 4 groups so that we can make a variety of food items so that the audience can never get bored coming to our stalls. 

I demonstrated:

LO2 : Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

My group faced a major challenge while assuming the measurements as we did not expect a lot of people to come, so in order to prevent any kind of wastage of food, we decided to bring a smaller amount. When a lot of people started to come in and when we were running short of food, we decided to bring some extra food from nearby stores and see what we can make to satisfy the remaining audience. This taught me an important lesson to always look for a solution rather than crib about the problem. If we wouldn’t think quickly, the audience would be disappointed by not seeing any food on the food stalls and this could have hampered the reputation of this great event.

LO5 : Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

Although working in a group is generally difficult for me, I think if it weren’t for the groups in this event, it would be a total failure. I think I found it much easier working in groups in this event as there was a lot of work and a single person wouldn’t have reached out to so many places. I personally was assigned to make the pizza khakhra and serve it to people, but in addition to that, I also helped group members of other groups in their work, and also lent a hand in the decorations. Together, as a group we were able to make this event a success. Everyone was easy to work with and there was no problem inside the group. We all completed our delegated roles very well and were able to satisfy our customers.

LO7 : Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

Although the customers could have paid as much money as they would want as it would be going to the charity, there were some rare cases where customers paid extremely low amounts just to get the food. Although this did not affect us directly, because these cases were really rare, it did feel a little disappointing to receive extremely small amounts after all our hard work and good purpose.

Through this CAS experience, I developed open-mindedness and caring, as I would listen to the ideas of my group members and accept all inputs, which would contribute to a better performance. I was also caring for the customers as I would make the food with love and would serve them with a smile. I was happy with the donations the customers were making and would serve them food as a sign of gratitude. After that, I started to respect others more, and felt more compassion towards others. I found this particular idea of Seva Cafe really interesting and helpful as it is a true act of serving society. By serving people good food, giving them an opportunity to donate money to a charity, and helping so many people by donating all the collections to a charity. If I were to do this CAS activity again, I would increase the amount of food ingredients so that I can cater to more people with what we had initially planned to give. This activity gave me a lot of happiness and satisfaction within, and in the future, I would love to be a part of Karma Kitchen which happens on every last Sunday of the month.