EnGusto Series

There is an old saying in my vernacular which says "Don't preach to a hungry man." I guess this holds good for teaching as well. So to break the monotony of classroom learning and experience something practical, the English department at Ghaazee School in Hulhumale` in the Maldives conducted a cooking competition for students of grades 8 - 12 on Saturday, the 6th March,2010. This drew a little over 100 students to actively participate in the competition.

The sun rays encouraged the students to be up early in the morning and arrive in huge numbers with all their own cooking paraphernalia to Ghaazee school where they were invited by the English department teachers, only waiting for their arrivals with their already ready and charged cameras. It started on the dot at 8.15 a.m., as scheduled and the students were divided into 9 groups with group names created by themselves. They had come up with traditional names like Gulaab Jaamun, Badhige, Huththu,Maalafaiy and the adventurous names like Fantasy Cooks,Pirates of the kitchen , Gastronomic miracle , Royal Chefs and the Elevens. (Don't know where they must got these names from!)

The soft music set the mood to stimulate the group to keep them going. The groups divided themselves into cooking team, creative team who did the drawing and writing, the ones who did the table arrangement besides the ones who gave the powerpoint presentation.

The judges started arriving one by one. The first to arrive was Ms. Mariyam Saeeda from Male`. Ms. Christina Percy, an experienced teacher from Majeediyya School, Male`. Mrs and Mr. Nadhir/Kaheshkhan from Male` arrived a little later. The Mookai Chefs from Male` arrived(despite their busy schedule) on the dot for judging the displayed items and swung into action without wasting time (real professionals!)

After one hour or so, different smells kept wafting through the main hall of Ghaazee school. I would say that everyone was involved doing some work or the other. The group that impressed me was the Maalafaiy girls, yea the girls, it was all in all , a girls group. These girls were truly active and so high was the team work that they completed their work and even gave a helping hand for the others as well. Good hearted people huh! On the other side, we could see students from groups smearing the spices on the chicken pieces or struggling to take out or scrape out their, should you say semi cooked, semi baked things. There were students, co operating to complete their task to the core by neatly arranging things and their tables. When it was time, the chefs and the other judges did their rounds going about asking questions and getting answers from the budding chefs who explained in their best way they knew; some confidently, others with a hidden giggle on their faces. Later, the judges observed their presentation.

The teachers calculated the marks and with one last word from the judges the organisers declared 'Maalafaiy 'as winners follwed by 'Badhige' and 'Royal Chefs'. The organisers themselves did their own research and found that the hospitality towards the judges was not up to the mark. Some were of the opinion the time given for the presentation was not enough while some expressed doubts why should the English department ever conduct a cooking competition and how they linked between the two. The organisers felt to keep their cool ,only to pity such critics that any language learning is so far and wide and as such no boundaries can be drawn for this. Anyways, let us leave them to themselves while we busy ourselves for the next activity of the department.

The department owes its gratitude to the teachers who contributed to this cause. After all this, when teachers entered the class, the next question was "When are we having the next cooking competition?" The answer was 'May be next term or next year.' Catch up for the next blog for the skit competition coming May 2010 from 'EnGusto 2010'