Recipes for learning

But what makes it a must-have is what goes on behind the scenes. The book, the baby of the 20 women who make up the PMLC 53, has helped to make the lives of the 300 children of the Babubhai School, Laxmi Road, just a little easier. They now have a bathroom block, clean drinking water, painted classrooms, lights and ceiling fans 8211; amenities that were all unheard a year ago. 8220;Their drinking water and toilets were in the same area,8221; says a horrified Savita Upponi, Chairperson, PMLC 53. She explains, 8220;The Ladies Circle India is the ladies wing of the Round Table India. Our mission is to provide education for underprivileged children. We went to the then municipal commissioner Rajeev Agarwal and asked him about the most needy schools in Pune. He told us that Zilla Parishad schools were in poor shape and pointed this one out. It consisted of four dilapidated rooms in a chawl. So we adopted it.8221;

Upponi explains that the Zilla Parishad has only enough funds to pay salaries to the teachers. And therefore, the PMLC 53 decided to raise funds. Says Upponi, 8220;It was a novel idea to raise money through a cookery book. We wanted to do something with which we were comfortable. The idea first started out as an in-house magazine where we would swap recipes. But it grew to making and selling a book to friends and family. We thought we could raise money through the book. Nobody else will really buy the book. I mean, we8217;re selling a cause. If someone wanted to buy a cookery book, they8217;d buy Tarla Dalal or Karen Anand, not this one. But these are down-to-earth, basic recipes. We thought, if it serves a cause, why not?8221; Corporate sponsorship for the book raised Rs. 80,000 which went into renovating the school.

A year of work stands behind this book. 8220;We8217;re thoroughly pleased with ourselves!8221; says Upponi. They had a core group that worked on the book. Alka Kapoor, Vijay Buland, Myrna Poonawala, Vishakha Hukmani and Upponi took care of selecting the recipes, testing the recipes, keying in the data, selecting paper, printing, editing and proof-reading. She says, 8220;Everyone has pooled in their resources. People who couldn8217;t help with the book itself followed up with sponsorships.8221; But she confesses, 8220;We8217;d work late into the night with proof-reading. It was a nightmare when we8217;d keep finding mistakes!8221;

She feels that this experience has been great for them. 8220;It has taught us a lot. It has made us a tight-knit team. This will help us for bigger projects,8221; she says. And they have big plans. They have already sold 150 books and plan to sell their 1,000 copy stock by the end of the year. As to the proceeds, she says, 8220;We8217;ve already identified a school in Hadapsar, which is where the children of ragpickers go. Everyday, there are new faces because their parents feel that they should be out on the street earning money. We plan to give each child a kilo of wheat every month. It is an incentive for them to keep coming back. If we get enough money, we plan to build a school building for them. A lot needs to be done. But we have to start somewhere8230;8221;.

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