Karma Kitchen opened its doors to the public for the very first time last Saturday, March 31st. An accidentally auspicious choice as it turned out – for that day, we learned later from our guests, was celebrated as ‘Mahavir Jayanti’ in the Jain tradition, it was a full moon eve, and of course, it was also the day before April Fools :)

But this wasn’t in the order of an April Fools day prank, and no one knew that better than the fifteen or so kindred spirits – including Buddhist monk Rev. Heng Sure, “CharityFocus Mom and Dad”, and Canadian guitar-maker Fabrizio, who gathered around a table at Namaste for an opening ceremony of stories, songs, silence and a sincere dedication of merit. Karma Kitchen couldn’t have asked for a better beginning. Rajen Thapa, the generous restaurant owner who made so much possible, had just one response to every thank-you: "I'm just happy. I'm just happy."

We were all happy. Trushna, Roshni and Liz had decorated the place with beautiful candles, hand painted baskets, and handmade paper flowers. Thoughtful activities were placed on each table, and along the window, vibrant sarees, poetically draped, added an ethnic touch. Sonesh had printed out a huge hard-to-miss sign in red lettering: "Karma Kitchen: Growing in Generosity", and a little activity table in one corner held a cheerful bowl of smile stones and a stack of ever ready smile cards. Goodness was in the air—along with the light instrumental strain of Nepali music --and the delicious aroma of samosas. Four of us would be fasting that evening (including steadfast brother-in-service Ashish, all the way in New Jersey).

Pavi and Viral -- coordinators in chief, by popular demand! -- brought out their yellow-notepads for the volunteer orientation. "What do we do about seconds?" someone asked. "Tell 'em it's on the house," someone retorted. :) None of us had ever run a regular restaurant before – let alone a pay-it-forward style one. Questions about how to explain the "gift-economy" idea to newbies began to surface – would people “get” it? We had no idea -- and yet, like Rajen, all of us were "just happy".

The menu was vegetarian-ized and simplified with a full-out meal that included generous helpings of Vegetable Korma, Aloo Kauli, Naan, Rice and Dal; alcoholic drinks were replaced with Mango Lassi, Chai and sparkling lemonade; Scott's coconut-tamarind-glazed vegan carrot cake, Liz's lemon blueberry tarts, and Harshida's kheer were the highly anticipated desserts. Throughout the night, compliments piled one upon the other; "these are the best samosas I've had outside of India," "what a delicious meal!", "no way, you made the carrot cake!"

Intentionally, we hadn’t sent out an email blast about the opening. The thought was to give ourselves a little time to learn the ropes before putting the word out in a big way. But even so, friends, family and well wishers along with unsuspecting strangers, poured in to support this experiment. We had to put some of them on a wait list during our peak period. So much for a quiet night spent “learning the ropes” J. Over 60 meals were served that night, with love and much laughter.

For of course, the evening was full of unique experiences. Laughter in the kitchen as some of our volunteers practiced their Hindi with Rajen’s helpful staff, while valiantly attempting to hand-wash dishes fast enough for the incoming demand (only a couple of casualties!), deeper reflection as we caught ourselves struggling to explain the real power of “the gift-economy” model, joy as we handed out our sign-up form to a dozen or so guests moved to offer their time – (including one person inspired to start Karma Kitchen at MIT!) And then of course there were the guests who wanted meat, or who had particular table preferences … So many stories!

Perhaps the story of all stories is the one with Wanda. When we decided on the name Karma Kitchen, there was only one drawback -- we didn't have the domain name. But we went with it anyways – because it “felt” right. Wanda was on our email list, but couldn't make any of the meetings; when we announced our new name, she enthusiastically responded, "Two years ago, I was running a similar operation out of my house. I still own the domain name, karmakitchen.org, if you want to use it." Simply unbelievable. What are the odds of that happening?!? Domain-name karma, I suppose. :)

And so it went. A magical evening of serving more than 60 people with an experience of generosity while deepening in that generosity ourselves.

Everyone is always curious about the costs when you run such an operation. "So how did it go?" "It was really special." "No, I mean, did you guys break even?" "Oh, I think so." :) We huddled at Roshni's pad, past midnight, counting all the twenties, tens, five and ones. Though not unexpected, it was still neat to find that Karma Kitchen had more than covered costs ... and we're definitely on for the next week. :)

As a young couple was leaving, I asked them, "So how would you describe this evening to a friend?" Spontaneously, Josh responded, "It was an experience in receiving. You know, in our culture, we don't know how to receive and that's probably the reason why we don't give enough. When you have an authentic experience in receiving, you naturally have gratitude and you will inevitably pay-it-forward."

There you have it.

Next Saturday, same place, same time. See you there!

Posted by Nipun Mehta | comments (8) | permalink | more 'KarmaKitchen' |