'Maa ki Rasoi' - BHU students’ humane initiative launched in Varanasi

Students from all over the country come to Varanasi for pursuing their studies and they often miss the homely lunch and dinners. They have to depend on hotels and restaurants or professional messes. But they often long for the food cooked by their mothers.

For such students here is the ‘Maa ki Rasoi’ that will provide them homely meals and this will be an emotional meal rather than the professional meal.

The credit of this innovative idea goes to Dr Rajiv Shrivastava, a social scientist and President of Vishal Bharat Sansthan at Varanasi. On his initiative, a group of five students of the BHU talked to some women and decided to launch ‘Maa ki Rasoi’ project.

To begin with the BHU students will now get the tasty, home cooked food with a touch of motherly affection. ‘Maa ki Rasoi’ will not only provide good, tasty food to the students but also provide jobs to the women who find it difficult to bring up their children for want of money.

‘Maa ki Rasoi’ will use the material like flour, spices, rice, vegetable etc. from home grown gardens and mills. The food cooked here will compete in every aspect with the homely food. It will provide the tasty food to the students and also create job opportunities for the women engaged in this task.

Inaugurating this unique initiative senior RSS functionary Indresh Kumar said ‘Maa ki Rasoi’ is the big step forward in making women self-reliant and at the same time providing homely food to the students. This is a journey of a mother from ‘roti’ to ‘roji’, that will make her self-reliant and independent.

Indresh Kumar after reaching the venue at Vishal Bharat Sansthan premises offered floral tributes to the portrait of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and lit the traditional lamp to mark the launching of ‘Maa ki Rasoi’. He also released a poster of the event.

He called upon the students to give respect to them women here as their mothers as ‘Maa ki Rasoi’ is the centre of mother’s love and affection to her children. They will provide food to the students with same love and affection. This is a unique example of skill development, he said. The students coming from remote areas will not miss their mothers and their affection, Indresh Kumar said.

Mother Annapurna is the presiding deity of Kashi and no one will remain hungry here. This project will encourage social harmony also, he said.

President of Vishal Bharat Sansthan Dr Rajiv Shrivastava said that in addition to provide homely meals to the students each mother will be entrusted with 12 children. She will take care of them as a mother so that these students will be free of psychological pressure and tension and will not take extreme steps like suicide. This is a new experiment of social science which will prove beneficial and helpful for students staying away from their homes.

BHU students Prince Upadhyay, Ashok Yadav, Avadhesh Kumar, Dhananjay Yadav have taken this initiatve and Rekha Devi is leading the team of mothers at the ‘Maa ki Rasoi’. Anaj Bank team is helping the ‘Maa ki Rasoi’, said Archana Bhartvamshi, Managing Director of Anaj Bank. Patalpiuri Math Peethadhishwar Mahant Balak Das presided over the function.

Najma Parveen, Madarsa Board Member Najneen Ansari, Manoj Shah, Ajit Prakash Shrivastava, Mohd. Azarudin, Majid Ansari, Dr Mrudala Jayaswal, Khushi Raman, Atma Prakash Bharatvamshi, and others were present on the occasion.