BHUBANESWAR: Around 30,000 people, including 27,000 students from Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), on Friday took lunch with members of Commonwealth countries and British Council at one place inside the KISS campus here. They relished the traditional foods like khatta, ghanta, dal and chicken kasa served with papad and Rasagola over the lunch.The ‘Commonwealth Big Lunch’ hosted by KISS in partnership with British Council India started at around 12.15pm and ended by 1pm. Members of 20 Commonwealth countries of the world sat among the children to have lunch. Students were feeling happy to chat with the members over the lunch.There were no chaos, shouting or delay in serving the food. Everybody started their lunch at a time and completed it within 30 minutes. Guests had all praises for the students and the management of the institute.British Council is celebrating its 70 years of inception in the Commonwealth countries of the world. On this occasion, the Council is organizing this kind of mega lunches. KISS was the only organization selected from Asia along with four other Commonwealth countries including Australia, South Africa, Ghana and Edinburgh (UK) to host this mega lunch.The main objective of this programme was to encourage people to get together to celebrate their Commonwealth connections through food. “Shared meal envisages binding the diverse and vibrant network that connects over 2.4 billion people from over 53 countries,” said a statement from British Council.Alan Gemmell OBE, director, British Council India, said his team is working for two months to make this lunch happen. “Young people are future of the Commonwealth. So we wanted to celebrate the occasion with them by dining together,” he added.Budhadeb Sabar, a plus III second year student, said he discussed with British Council members about his tribal culture while taking lunch with them. “It’s a privilege for us to dine with important persons of different countries. They advised me to make a great career,” he smiled.Achyuta Samanta, founder of KIIT and KISS, thanked British Council for selecting KISS to host the mega lunch.KISS mega kitchen has been providing more than one lakh meals per day. It has also hosted a grand luncheon in 2011 with the chief justice of India and chief justices of high courts, judges and legal luminaries of the country.The British Council members also inaugurated the Commonwealth Hall in KISS campus and interacted with the tribal students.

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