The milieu at Shantivan, a garden in Mumbai’s tony Malabar Hill area, on February 17 was like a hangover from Valentine’s Day. Placards displaying messages like ‘Love is all we need’ were tied to tree branches and hearts were chalked with bounty throughout the green sprawl. Except that it wasn’t an ode to Cupid. The occasion was the second monthly lunch hosted by Seva Café.
Omnipresent at the venue was a bespectacled man in khadi kurta-pyjama. He, along with other volunteers, was welcoming the guests and explaining the concept of the café—here, patrons aren’t charged for the food they’re served, instead they are free to pay whatever they want. Or, they can walk out without shelling out a single penny.
Meet Siddharth Sthalekar, who was orchestrating this “generosity enterprise” with ease. About three years ago, he was the co-head of the derivatives trading desk and the head of algorithmic trading at Edelweiss Capital. A typical day for this financier then would begin when the gong woke up Dalal Street at 9 am. That was when he would appear on CNBC, dressed in a crisp, formal shirt and tie, and share his expertise on accumulating stocks.
On one such morning in 2010, even as he was offering investors advice on what stocks to buy and sell, Sthelekar had the hint of a smile on his face. So much so that the cameraman asked him what’s brewing. Little could he explain to him then that the decision that he had taken—to throw it all away—had lit up his poker face that morning.
For some time, the 31-year-old Mumbaikar had been contemplating quitting his cushy job to explore if there is an alternative to the premise of accumulation that seemed to drive individuals in the corporate world. When he finally took the plunge, he set out to travel across India with his wife Lahar, a freelancing interior designer who graduated from the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) in Ahmedabad. Over the next six months, as they visited several non-profit organisations, they woke up to the concept of gift economy where goods and services are extended without any formal quid pro quo. This motto formed the cornerstone of Moved by Love, an incubator at Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, which carries out various projects.
One such project, Seva Café, was in hibernation. Sthalekar, an IIM Ahmedabad graduate, and his wife became its core volunteers and helped reopen it in September 2011. Seva Café practises giving, the antithesis to accumulation. At the café, volunteers cook and serve meals every week from Thursday to Sunday for free.
What is Sthalekar’s takeaway from the experiment? The proof that customers have kept the café running by paying up even when they could have got away without it. That there are enough people not governed by greed—something he had set out to test in the first place.
However, Sthalekar admits that the transition in his mind from market to trust economy did not occur overnight. “Initially, I used to put price tags on customers as they walked into the café,” he says. That’s in tune with the rationale of profit maximisation that business schools teach and the corporate world practises. So, Sthalekar often spent more time at the table of a potential Mr 3,000 compared to the table of a tea-stall owner, who was in his perception Mr 100. Then, his “noble friends”, including his wife and other volunteers, stepped in and pointed out the flaw in his approach, prompting a course correction.
However, running the café till eternity is not the objective of this entrepreneur. In fact, it’s quite on the contrary. Sthalekar says the ultimate aim of this gift-economy project is to shut it down. “If the aim was to keep the café open forever, we would have gone with a presentation to the Bill Gates Foundation and asked for a corpus.”
The idea, he says, is to trust the assumption that every individual, irrespective of his economic standing, can be generous. Seva Café provides a space for people to practice generosity by recognising the selfless giving of the volunteers. But, in the long term, Sthalekar hopes that people will develop the habit of being generous even outside the café—in all environments and circumstances. When this would happen, Sthalekar would lock the doors of Seva Café and put the sign ‘Mission Accomplished’ on it. “When there will be enough generosity in the world, there would be no need for the café,” he says.
Although Sthalekar doesn’t know when this will happen, he says he is optimistic as he is coming in touch with more and more people who are generous. The other situation in which the café would close, he says, is if it does not receive enough support from volunteers and/or customers. This has not happened for seven years, even from before he joined the project.
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(This story appears in the 19 April, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Amazing thoughts.. So deep yet so simple.. Stories like these inspire.. Thank You for sharing, Forbes India :) Have come across many people whose journey in experimenting with kindness and generosity started from Seva Cafe and then we realize how much this experiment has impacted so many of our lives in little ways beyond any measure!! Feeling grateful to the space.. :)
on Dec 23, 2013Lovely concept. Great courage by siddharth sthalekar for taking up the initiative of starting the gift economy project. These type of people who go by there gut feeling than the rut in which life of most of the people move in routine. wish him success.
on Apr 22, 2013Such imaginative philanthropy!
on Apr 18, 2013@Anjali, @Amith: Karma Kitchen and Seva Cafe were founded by the same people. :) And many such similar models of the trust economy existed before either of them started. The most important thing is that they continue to exist even after you and I don\'t. @Siddharth: thank you for your faith in humanity, and for stepping in to spread love. I\'ve been very inspired all Moved By Love projects: http://www.movedbylove.org
on Apr 13, 2013Glad that the Karma Kitchen concept from the US is moving to India. India can become a super power when it learns to stop being selfish among the creamy layer. http://www.karmakitchen.org/
on Apr 12, 2013Actually, the idea of Karma Kitchen came from Seva Cafe. Seva Cafe has been around for a long time.
on Apr 12, 2013I am in Seattle here one of my friend working in Microsoft his name YHS Narauyan ,he is just 37 quitting his job and leaving to Chennai this month, finally pure middle class settling without monthly income, like few in India, thanks to Forbes India and Sri Sthehalkar and family ,"wife is helping " I like this word . Thanking to all with love - Raja T
on Apr 11, 2013Love sets us free. We need love to love to live in the land of the brave and free. That\'s the message that God gives us. God demonstrated this when even though facing death on a cross He didn\'t stop loving.
on Apr 11, 2013