MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS

The  Zero bill resturant

Imagine going to a restaurant, ordering from a ‘no prices’ menu, and when you are done with your meal, your bill reads zero. Sounds impossible? Not really. At Seva Cafe you never pay for your meal, because the person who had come before you had already paid for you.

A concept that aims to instill a sense of generosity, the cafe, which began its journey in Ahmedabad seven years back, is run chiefly by volunteers. In today’s age when money is the chief mode of transaction, it attempts to defy the laws of economics, and continue daily transaction on peer-to-peer generosity.

So at Seva, in order to continue this cycle of giving, you are expected to contribute an amount — any amount that you wish — towards the next customer’s meal. So instead of a bill, what a customer gets is a small note, saying that the meal was a gift from someone who came before him or her.

 “Our model is counter intuitive to big models of transaction. The aim is to foster peer-to-peer generosity without looking at the other person as someone who is needy, or who needs help. We believe that within communities people can sustain each other,” says Siddharth Sthalekar, a long time volunteer of this concept.

In Ahmedabad, the story of Seva cafe began when a small group of volunteers decided to start something like this on a dedicated space contributed by an individual. They were helped by ServiceSpace, a completely volunteer-run organisation in the US, which was already doing such experiments on “acts of kindness” with great success.

“The cafe in Ahmedabad runs from 7-10 pm, Thursday-Sunday, every week, until 50 guests are served. Volunteers, who come from a diverse background, cook the meal, serve it to guests, and also do the cleaning. Guests are told that the meal is a gift by the person who had come before them, and if they wish they can continue the cycle,” Sthalekar says.

Care is taken that anyone who steps into the cafe is treated as a guest, and not a customer. So you will be greeted at the door with a hug and smile, maybe some kumkum too, after which the volunteer will show you to the table with a smile.

Encouraged by the success, a larger group of volunteers got together under one umbrella, called Moved By Love, a year back to further spread the magic of Seva to other cities, like Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune. Here, restaurants “convert” themselves into the Seva cafe model at regular intervals — maybe once a month — and are taken over by the volunteer force.

The conversion, usually for a day, happens on a pre-announced date, and volunteers pool in their resources to make the Seva cafe happen. Because of this reason, the menu is usually kept simple, so that “the focus is more on the act of giving, rather than on the food”.

In Bangalore, for instance, the Vriksh restaurant usually opens its doors on a Sunday afternoon to get itself transformed into a Seva cafe. “The restaurant provides the resources like space and electricity. A volunteer may say that she will make laddoos for this many people, a photographer may say that he will make a collage of pictures of the event. There are no demands, and no one is asked about their contribution. It’s all about unlocking synergies,” Sthalekar said. “I remember in the Mumbai Seva cafe a person came all the way from Pune, lugging 10 kilos of flour, as his contribution. Touching moments like these fuel this cycle on,” he added.

Bangalore-based Saumya Pillai, who works in the IT sector, is a big supporter of this concept. “I heard about the Seva cafe from a friend who, ironically, stays in the US. Intrigued, I decided to try it out with my friends. It was amazing,” she said. “When you see people sweating it out in the kitchen so happily, without any motive, and serve you with the words, ‘this meal is a gift’, it touches a chord somewhere. Nothing inspires you more than a selfless deed,” Pillai added.

But what about sustainability? Surprisingly, Sthalekar says that the model is very much self sustainable, and runs on the basis of guests’ contribution. Having said that, in the Ahmedabad Seva cafe, there are three regular staff members who act like the anchor, while the rest are volunteers. “There is no external intervention, like support from NGOs, or the government; there are no fund raisers. If a project is not sustainable, maybe it was just not worth it”.

In Bangalore, Anupreet Dhody and Susheel Nair, owner of Vriksh, where the cafe is organised, say that the event has been a major crowd puller, surpassing their expectation. In January this year, for instance, much against their expectation of 30 volunteers and 70 guests, they got 135 guests. A few other restaurants are also keen to let their space be used as a Seva cafe once a month.

The concept of gift economy is catching on across the world. The Karma Kitchen (a baby of ServiceSpace) for instance, works on a similar pay-it-forward as-you-wish model. It was started in Berkeley, back in 2007. Similar concept-based cafes and restaurants are catching on in other countries too, like in Germany, Indonesia and Australia.

“Now our effort is to standardise the cafe model. For instance, decide on things like how frequently should the cafe be organised in different cities, if the cafe should be run in association with anchors, or only by volunteers, and the likes,” Sthalekar said.

Undoubtedly, such a concept has a strong foundation of belief on the basic goodness of a human being.

Azera Parveen Rahman