New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

by Caitanya Das

College outreach begins again:while arranging the cooking class at University of Pittsburgh last week, I am getting bounced around form bureaucrat to bureaucrat, drowning in a deluge of red tape and rhetoric. Everyone is blowing me off. But then Krishna intervenes and sends me 2 floors down. The facility is beautiful. I hope for the best. Its 5:15 pm-tough luck finding anyone around in university administration. They watch the clock even closer then bored school kids, cut out at 4:59 on the dot. I round the corner…could it be? It is possible? Yes! Today is my lucky day. I’ve found Prema! (The first person I saw, a PhD student working with the department. What are the odds?)

Very kind she is. I explain, we talk, she takes to me to her boss, coordinator of the department. Turns out she had talked about doing some demonstrational cooking classes this semester, but we just missed her. Prema gives me her number and email. Success. I love it when Krishna does stuff like this.

The next day I call her. She is very sweet. We become friends. I tell her about our cooking classes at other colleges, our ideas about taking food relief and welfare work to a higher level; proactive; introducing wasteful Americans to the culinary and lifestyle secrets of “economical and environmental by force” cultures. What can unite across cultural borders more effectively then delectable international cuisine? What able bellied person can resist its charms? She likes it so much she suggests we might consider collaboration. How could I argue with that? Pure genius. They do what they do best, organizing, providing facility, advertising, maybe even sponsoring the food. We do our thing: show up, cook, feed the kids and clean up. Everyone is happy. Krishna is very kind.