Community Seva

My first interaction with Community Seva was when I was the volunteer coordinator at Apple for the Apple India Association in 2018.? As part of a fund-raising effort for another charity, I enrolled eight volunteers to both cook in their kitchen and to feed the homeless in the adjacent shelter. ? For me, it was an enriching experience both in terms of learning how to cook as a community and to see the joy in the eyes of those that we fed that day. ? We all need a kindle to fire up our motivation and for me that day made me better understand what it meant to be “giving back to the community”.? Seva signifies selfless service performed with no expectation of any return.

Since that day, I organized a few more Community Seva volunteer events at Apple and in every case each volunteer felt energized and happy to be a part of the experience.? What is it that lights up our hearts in giving our time and energy to those whom we don’t even know or will never interact with? After leaving Apple at the end of 2021,? I have continued to volunteer with Community Seva on a regular basis mainly with their Sunday cooking for the homeless in Oakland shelters.

I intrinsically feel that we all harbor good thoughts and kindness in our hearts and want to make the world a better place.? What is difficult however is to translate that into action. ? And in this regard, one must give amazing kudos to Nathan Ganeshan in building this organization from ground-up over the past 11 years.? You can read more about his journey here - https://communityseva.org/history-founder. ? He is making such a difference in the lives of not only those who receive the food and other distributed items but also in the lives of the volunteers enlisted in this cause. ? Community Seva also distributes outdoor essentials like blankets, backpacks with winter essentials, hygiene kits, feminine kits, shower & laundry facilities, shoes and socks and recently started providing temporary hotel stay for vulnerable people with children.

Let me give you some sense of my Sunday cooking experiences.? Waking up at 5:15 am to be at the kitchen before 6 am is anathema to my sleeping habits but I somehow am able to spring out of bed in time.? In most of my stints, I end up having to taking care of cracking ~200 eggs and making scrambled eggs.? What is the best way to crack an egg? ? I started out cracking it against the edge of the sink or the bowl. ? Then someone told me that Google said the best way was to crack against a flat surface.? And then a fellow volunteer told me the best way was to use one egg to crack another egg. ? I did a Chat-GPT4o query on this and it told me the most efficient way was to use two-handed cracking to speed up the process - not exactly sure how to do that unless one is ambidextrous.? I am thinking whether we can build a robotic arm to do this more efficiently.? But eggs are only one component of the experience - there is such joy and camaraderie with the other cooks in creating the complete breakfast of oatmeal, sausages, hash browns and other savories. ? Cooking as a community does serve up its own enjoyable pleasures of interesting conversation and social engagement.

I have been reading this book called “Infectious Generosity” by Chris Anderson that is inspiring and motivational. ? Here is a quote from the book that spurred me to write my past few articles - “Every single generous thing I’ve ever done has been a result of the good fortune I’ve had at almost every stage of my life. So there’s nothing to boast about. I’m simply passing them on, hopeful that they can encourage others. In a similar spirit, I urge you to be willing to share things you do that have brought you and others joy. It’s all part of changing the narrative”.? One of his key observations is that we should be spreading kindness and good deeds and not disinformation and hate speech in our social media interactions.?

What I found most intriguing was his thoughts on charitable contributions. “I invite you therefore to consider doing something brave and potentially life-changing.? Make it your life goal to be able to commit annually the higher of 10 percent of your income or 2.5 percent of your net worth”.? ? I know it’s not an easy goal especially for those trying to make ends meet in their day-to-day lives but it’s aspirational for those of us who can try to reach that goal. ? One way to lower the income inequality that has exacerbated across the world these past few decades.

So unabashedly let me ask you to reach out and contribute in some way to Community Seva - https://www.communityseva.org .? Be it through volunteering at their kitchen, serving dinner to the homeless, being involved in the distribution of essentials, or just making a charitable contribution. ?You will feel warmth and joy in your heart.? You can also learn more about them at https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/communityseva/

Let me end with a snippet from the poet?Emily Dickinson

“If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain.”