“It was like a day in Kudabandos”, said some of the participants. Oh yeah!, it was fun, enjoying and thrilling! The Manchester Cookery Session held on the 4th of February in Manchester ended after a full day of activities and entertainment. All the outdoor activities were held in the Manchester Openshaw Park.

Members started arriving as early as on Friday evening! A total of 42 members took part in the session. The day started similar to the event in Bristol with a football match, which was played between two teams selected by the team captains Andhu and Shafiu. Despite the hard tactics adopted by Andhu team, Shafiu team won the match with a three-goal difference. The best player was Fazeel from Wigan. Following the football match, there was a session of Faigathalhaa. As in Bristol, both the Devil types and Angle types participated in this event, including very disobedient young devils and obedient angles. Not only that, the Mancunians in the park saw this game (may be for the first time) and couldn’t oppose without joining in! Every one enjoyed the Fiagathalhaa event.

Then came the Bashi match! Each team gave one “landu” and hence the match ended in a draw. Moosa from London was seen to have explicit talents in this game. The final game of the day was the cricket match. The team captains were Gory and Andhu. Gory team won the toss and started batting. The opening bats men were Razeem and Shafiu. Razeem said, “ This is my first time with a cricket bat. Cricket is interesting to play and I would certainly look forward for another game”. Members who didn’t play cricket had a tennis session in the tennis court. Despite the desire to continue with football, tennis and other plays, the outdoor activities were halted around 4.30pm for the cooking.  

The cookery session then started around 4.45pm. The practical know how of cooking was presented and explained to the audience as in “ready steady cook” prior to the preparation of a particular dish from the menu. The menu items included fried rice, chicken curry, dhal curry, kukuulhu garudhiya, roshi, kulhimas, salad and fruit custard. The participants then prepared their selected dishes with the guidance from the demonstrators. All the dishes were simple to prepare! According to the participants, the food was yummy and they enjoyed the feast!  

It seemed the day was too short when you have a big crowd at one place. Everyone was so tired at the end of the day and some participants started their return journeys around 9pm. There were game sessions of double cross, Uno and chess until Sunday morning! The last group participated in the event left around 10.45am on Sunday morning. MSA-UK thanks all the participants and the coordinators for making the Manchester Cookery Session an euphoric event!