Baithak

On July 19, 2026, the Adhyayan Writing Community hosted its 37th Session 'Baithak' an intimate gathering, where people reflected on their memories associate with food. This session took place ar Conflictorium, Raipur.

Role: Co-facilitator

Full name: Krishna Priya

Email ID: krishna.priya260404@gmail.com

Note on Contribution: Managed the crowd.

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Role: Host and facilitator of Adhyayan

Full name: Satpriya Kaur Mudhar

Email ID: satpriyakaurmudhar@gmail.com

Professional ID: adhyayan_community

Note on Contribution: Ideation and poster making.

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Role: Poster Illustrator

Full name: Meghana Savekar

Email ID: meghanasavekar7@gmail.com

Note on Contribution: Helped in ideation.

WHAT: To explore food as a medium through which questions of privilege, memory, culture, childhood, and human connection can be examined and shared.

WHY: The initiative was organised to examine the many meanings attached to food beyond its function as nourishment. It sought to question the privilege inherent in being able to distinguish between comfort food and favourite food, and to reflect on how the ability to make such choices is itself shaped by access and circumstance.

The session also aimed to explore food as a repository of memory and a site of cultural exchange. By reflecting on the memories people associate with food, particularly those from childhood and school,the initiative sought to examine how early experiences of sharing meals, tiffins, and food with others often become some of our first encounters with different cultures, communities, and ways of living.

Baithak: साझा खाना, साझा कहानियाँ was a gathering organised by the Adhyayan Writing Community and held at Conflictorium, centred around food as a way of examining privilege, memory, culture, and human connection.

The conversation began by examining the seemingly simple distinction between comfort food and favourite food. The ability to make such a distinction, however, is itself shaped by privilege, the privilege of having access to choice when it comes to food. The discussion opened up questions about how food is understood not only as a necessity, but also as something through which preferences, memories, emotions, and identities are formed.

From there, the conversation moved towards the memories people associate with food. For many participants, some of their most vivid food memories were rooted in childhood and school, the tiffins they carried, the food they shared, and the meals through which they encountered one another. These exchanges often became early points of contact with food from different homes, regions, and cultures. Long before many of us consciously understood cultural differences, we encountered it through what our classmates brought to school and what we shared with one another.

The conversation thus moved between food as a material necessity and food as a carrier of memory, culture, and experience. Participants reflected on the ways certain foods remain connected to particular people, places, periods of life, and relationships, and how the act of sharing food can become a way of sharing parts of one's personal history.

The gathering was conceived as a space where these memories and reflections could be collectively explored. What emerged was a conversation about food that extended beyond taste and preference, to questions of access, childhood, culture, belonging, and the ways in which something as ordinary as a meal can become deeply embedded in our understanding of ourselves and one another.