At the beginning of this week, Nitin our wonderful supporter and well-wisher, ordered a dabba and showed much appreciation for our work. He offered to send out information to all his WhatsApp groups so that we would get more orders for dabbas and could continue our quest towards achieving financial viability.
“Of course,” we said. “Please do!”
The floodgates opened and we were swamped with phone calls and enquiries – from Khargar to Colaba.
Kavita was puzzled. “Atya, kay zalay lokana?” loosely translated as “what’s up with all these people?”
Nandu wondered whether his weekly limbu and mirchi did the trick!
“Do you deliver in our area?” people asked.
“Why not?”
“Ma’am we are a small NGO and we do not have the capacity to deliver so far. We will figure out how. Please give us some time.”
“What’s that? Developmental disabilities?” Another inquired.
We did not have enough manpower to answer phones and for a while became quite disoriented. We were trying hard to accommodate all these wonderful people calling in.
“Yes. Sir. It is North Indian-ish.”
“No, we do not do Jain food.”
“Can you send us your menu?”
“Afraid not! We cook daily and it depends on what is freshly available in our local market (because we are all about supporting our small local vendors).”
“Don’t you want to expand?” “Yes. But planfully.” We responded. “We will not compromise our vision and mission for business opportunities.”
The deluge of inquiries continues and the kind words of support have been incredible!
We have not had the time to find and thank an anonymous donor; nor have we had time to get back with people who ask how they can support our work. We are still answering the phone.
But as our first anniversary rolls around, we celebrate.
We celebrate our small successes: conquering fear to fry onions for a special order; peeling a kilo of garlic because we have to pack the paste today; de-seeding tomatoes even when we have sensory issues with sticky messy stuff. Getting out of our comfort zone to try a new activity. The list is endless.
We again celebrate our employees’ abilities, talents and resilience.
But above all, this week we celebrate Mumbaikars.
Thank you for calling in and letting us know you care.