- Aakriti ThapaAs a part of the International School Award (ISA) action plan under British council
Nepal our school had planned WORLD ON A PLATE for grade ten, which for
me was very enticing. Being a foodie myself, the journey of discovering food was
always welcomed for me, especially during the pandemic period that caused havoc
everywhere and messed up our schedule, the way we lived and our outlook on life.
I could manage to have food time with my family with the knowledge I gained
through school project.
The pandemic period was definitely one I wouldnt wish to relive however the
project we did during that period was definitely a sort of solace for me.
It all started with our whole grade getting divided into different groups all set to
find out more about a food, preferably a traditional one and prepare a PPT on it.
With over 120 ethnic castes, the food and flavor of Nepal is really diverse which
made the task of deciding on a food for the PPT really difficult. But it was
nonetheless effective because we did after all achieve our objective even before we
began.
What made this project worth it and interesting was how every group with 10-11
student members were all enthusiastic about knowing more about food and bonded
due to this reason all in their own way.
The food my group took up for the project was one we had never heard of,
Chataamari; also popular as the Nepali pizza. We were all assigned to do an in-
depth-research, though difficult to find the resources, we did manage to dig up a lot
on it. The food is hailed as a snack which was so full of flavor regardless of the
little time it took to cook. This crepe is so famous as a street snack that it has even
westernized itself.
The making of Power Point Presentation after secondary research on the food was
just the start of a fascinating and engaging journey. After the presentation of over
250 students allocated in about 24 groups with foods so diverse that you barely
heard the name of were completed, we then moved to the next leg of the journey.
We made yet another group of 4 enthusiastic students who were to participate in an
interactive session with our partner school for the project, the Army Public School
and Collage Cherat of Pakistan and exchange our traditional foods to each other.
Luckily, I got to take part in this project and thus we began to make a PPT about
our foods which again led us to a journey that made us research and allowed us to
know so much about them. At times, it felt like what we knew about them earlier
was just like a drop in an ocean!
Even more wonderful was how much we learnt about the Pakistani foods in such a
short time and found their influence even in Nepal. As they say, ‘Food is the ingredient that binds us together and this moment was when I could actually relate to this statement. The one hour event led us to know people from completely different walks of life, ones we wouldnt ever meet if not for this project and bond with them.All in all the project has given me so much that I could barely put it into words. Putting aside the gain of knowledge it helped me evolve as a person, open up, express my ideas and hone my research skills. This project served as a much needed distraction during the chaotic time for me and I am really grateful for being part of the ISA 2019-2020. And like they say food truly is a common ground for humans that has so much that allows us to bond.
