The Seva Cafe experience

What a beautiful afternoon it was at the seva cafe. Wow what an experience of enjoying the food, serving it and welcoming the guests to enjoy the food.

Seva cafe is a concept where one enjoys the food and pays bill with his/her wish for the next person who’s going to eat. Its a true experience of serving someone else and being in gratitude towards being served. I thank Sheetal bahiya for letting me be a part of serving everyone with an open heart.

The Seva Cafe this time was a part of Pune Urban Village UnConference (PUVU). PUVU is a wonderful space to connect with fellow “gaonwallas”. A space where one can bring their work, art, craft, ideas, games, music, organic produce, books, gifts, khana dabbas, recipes, healthy food, organization information, recycled art/craft/produce, songs, dances, conversations. All are welcome, all are included, be it a month baby, or a 80 year granny.

The guests at Seva cafe were welcome with a tika and a flower which brought smile on the faces of everyone who entered the cafe. They were then asked to enjoy food which was waiting to be recieved with love and gratitude. Once the food was done a few took care of taking away the plates and cleaning them. A true seva was at work!
Everyone really enjoyed the great food cooked by the catering staff. The best thing about the seva cafe was that everyone played an equal part in serving and receiving.

Before we started to serve we had circled around the heart of the cafe and had made a pact that everyone in the team would serve for others and the serving won’t be to please our self but to please the receiver.

Still towards the end, when vijayalaxmi a staff member said, “This is the best day of my life, never before have I enjoyed food like this” I was happy.
It was overall a very different and an amazing experience where everyone shared their love and gratitude towards everyone present in the cafe.