Tommy's big dal for paraplegic children
UNB, Savar
It was a big arrangement. Four 80-kg capacity fry pans were on a specially made hand-operated burning oven and over 20 assistants put various ingredients into the pans to prepare the world's biggest spinach and dal soup. It was master chef Tommy Miah who was doing all this for the socially disadvantaged group of people at Centre for Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) at Savar yesterday to set a world record of cooking. CRP organised the charity-cooking lunch party of Tommy Miah for its beneficiaries, including children, aiming at raising funds for the centre. Wearing his white apron with colour combination of Bangladeshi flag, the UK-based restaurateur began the preparation for his nutritious soup at 8:30am and finished it at about 1pm. Tommy constantly guided his team. He put 100 kgs of lentils into prepared spices made with mixture of tomato, carrot and green chilly that ultimately turned into 240 kgs after cooking. To serve the dal, Tommy's another team prepared capathi (bread). "It's likely to be the world's biggest amount of curry as there is no record of cooking for 5000 people in the Guinness Book of World Record," said a beaming Tommy after the cooking. "I'm happy to get the people around me with smiling faces. It's great to see that they are happy with whatever they have but we cannot," said Tommy explaining the reason for cooking for the people having some sort of paralysis. Spinach and dal soup were served among about 2000 people of the centres, including guests, and 3000 more people around the centre, the organisers said. Tommy, who is involved in another 20 charity organisations worldwide, will also throw a dinner at his newly set up restaurant, Heritage, today to raise funds for the centre. It was like a festival for the CRP staff and patients. Children who study at CRP schools also joined the function. CRP, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) with 25 years of service, has now 100 patients and 20 cerebral palsy under treatment. There are facilities for treating people at the outdoor. It provides various modern services for physically handicapped people through its Spinal Cord Injury Special Hospital, OT/PT Therapy and Occupational Therapy. Although CRP depends on donors for carrying 85 percent cost, it also has income-generating activities like nursery, wooden items that are being done by the beneficiaries.
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