Life as I have Seen It

Author(s): Urmila S Dholakia
Publisher: Urmila S Dholakia

Page 39

=Life - As I've seen it in charge of is closed - locked. And I did not even have a hint?
I ran towards the kitchen and what I saw when I got there shocked me. Where there would be pots of food cooking-daal, bhaat, shaak - was completely empty. The burners were off and no aroma of "vaghar" in the air. The head cook and kitchen staff was nowhere to be found.
Aha! It was the head cook - the culprit behind the crisis. He had called a no-work strike and the staff had joined him. I was stunned. I had no idea of any unmet demands, or concerns at all. How had they decided on such an irresponsible action? I was concerned about 300 girls being fed breakfast. These students would need to pack lunch.
Immediately I called a meeting with food committee students to discuss the crisis and develop some sort of response. During this meeting we discussed how the new action probably cramped the kitchen supervisor's extra income. Most kitchen supervisors negotiate kickbacks from vendors. With our new plan the supervisor had to maintain transparent accounts. This left no room for higher bids and kick back income; so he must have instigated this strike. He used the staff as his weapons in this fight.
I saw the head cook and his staff sitting out in the back yard. They were also without food – no breakfast; not even tea. What to do? My committee and I decided to start taking charge and getting to
37