Dansal Drive

Sharing has always been at the core of Vesak irrespective of religion, race or any other criteria that divides us from being together under humanity. The dansal queues that fill up the town at night during this season would depict this picture of unity the best way that it could be done. Here, we Rotaractors surpassed geographical boundaries as well by joining hands with the Rotaract clubs of Colombo Uptown, Delhi Vibrance India, Kantipur Dental College Nepal, and Kathmandu Medical College Nepal to initiate project Dansal Drive which was all about giving.

When the burning sun was heating up the heads of people, the Rotaract Club of Delhi Vibrance India cooled their throats with a sweeting drink – Chabeel on the 15th of May 2022 at Bangla Sahib Guruwara from 11.00 a.m. onwards bringing the first step of Dansal Drive into action with the support of their dedicated members. The sweetness of the drink was indeed felt through the faces of the people and for sure sweetened up the project with the satisfaction of doing so.

Bringing good news to the Kos lovers RACUOCFMF with the other clubs aboard set the pot on fire to cook the yummy native dish of Kos and Coconut Sambal to be given out on the 16th of May 2022 from 4.30 p.m. onwards in front of the Main Library of University of Colombo. Even before the sun began its duty for the day, members of the clubs joined to start cooking at Ashokaramaya Buddhist Temple despite not knowing how to help. We always trust the skills and abilities of our club members but we must say that we were too hesitant to trust their cooking skills as we hired 2 cooks to cook the meals

It would be at fault if we forget to state that the traditional mindset of boys not knowing how to cook was totally proven wrong, for the best cooks were seen in them. Starting from climbing up Kos trees, cleaning the fruits, scraping coconut, setting fire (here we talk about wood stove), and to finally tasting this native dish was not as easy as these words are being spilt nor was it just cooking but also included loads of fun, memories, effort, dedication, hard work, smiles, cooking lessons, and what not!. You think when it comes to dansal we serve only humans? Well RACUOCFMF changed the norm. The first creature to enjoy our dansala was a cow who got fed up of the jack fruit leftovers that we served and sat down not being able to bear the full belly.

After a fabulous cook, the hot Kos was all ready with coconut sambal to be served in the all time best presentation material Kanda leaves that none could deny when approached with. Our fellow part takers left the temple at around 3.00 p.m. to change and get ready for the good cause. Meanwhile, one of the project chairs, Rtr.Danuddara didn’t think that the dansala would finish within 20 minutes so he took his own time in having a wash, that when he came to the place the dansala was already over. Members turned out to be little ants running to the road with their hands filled with this yummy dish to serve them to the people who were passing by and back to the spot of distribution once they were done with the serving. A loud written applause to that bunch of ants for not missing a single car, van, bike, bus, three wheeler, bicycle and all others transport modes that crossed our sight. Though some missed to pause the ride thinking it was a protest, the smiles and blessings from others who did stop was indeed moments of bliss to each and everyone of us. In this way, the Kos pot ran empty in no time yet having the coconut sambal still remaining. Don’t worry! We got the best bunch of people in tactics and critical thinking over here! The Kos and coconut samabal dansal turned into bread and coconut sambal dansal in no time and with that the sambal just vanished.

The overwhelming happiness in the hearts of everyone who took part could be felt through the vibe that was making the venue all happening. Truly, it was a cooling time for many to chill away from the busy schedules they have been for a while. The day proved that giving and sharing never goes out of trend in healing hearts and concluded with the wish of continuing such worthy cause in the future too for we youngsters are the future!