Thank you, Sarita
Amid the hustle-bustle of the city, we often tend to overlook the kindness around us. We don’t acknowledge the selfless acts of people who toil hard to make lives easier for others. Let’s make sure their kindness doesn’t go unnoticed. Cadbury Dairy Milk would like to say a heartfelt thanks to Sarita Kashyap for her noble gesture of feeding the poor.
When the city is sound asleep, Sarita Kashyap begins her day at 4 am to prepare Rajma Chawal and Raita for around 100 people without fail. Kids from the local slums look forward to having delicious lunch at ‘Aunty’s stall’ everyday as much as Sarita loves to bring a smile on their faces through her food.
Her makeshift food stall – Apna Pann Rajma Chawal – is a popular joint in Peera Garhi, West Delhi, where she can be spotted feeding scores of hungry street children, ragpickers, and homeless people every day. As she sets up her stall, kids from the local slums line up at one side to feast on aunty’s delicious rajma chawal. At around 11:30 am, she sets out on her scooter towards Peera Garhi Bus Depot from her home in Meera Bagh. The stall runs for around 3-4 hours, till the last box of Rajma-Chawal is handed over to a hungry customer or a homeless child. Kashyap manages the operations single-handedly.
Sarita quit her job after 17 years to do something that drives her to work harder and support others. On the first day of her stall, she spotted a few children roaming around her stall, little did she know she was going to find her life’s purpose that day. Those kids were hungry but didn’t have money to buy food. Sarita offered them rajma chawal and they have been eating at her stall ever since, along with more and more of their friends. Every day, about 50-60 kids are able to get tasty homemade food which was not possible for them before. She also invites ragpickers, beggars and the homeless to have food at her stall daily.
Kashyap earns her livelihood from the stall. She invests a major portion of her income in providing the free food. She plans to empower women by providing them with an opportunity to set up their own food stalls. Sarita is working on the idea to supply her homemade food to unemployed women who would then set up their stalls which will function on the same lines as hers. It will give a sense of fulfilment to her to see more and more women feeding the hungry while being able to earn.
For the thoughtful gesture that Sarita displayed, Cadbury Dairy Milk thanks her.