With the obvious nip is in the air Kolkata is eagerly waiting for Christmas and it seems the festival has come a bit early. Thanks to the members of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), Kolkata chapter, that decided to play Santa this year and distributed goodies and food packets to the children of slums and NGOs in Kolkata. To make the entire initiative even more interesting, a group of motorcyclists also joined the cause this Sunday and helped the organization in every way.

The initiative — Santa’s Cause – started on December 11 and will be completed by next Saturday. “We (The members of the association) are reaching out to the kids every day and handing them out the hamper. Including chocolates, juice and biscuits, the hamper has five packers,” said Asif Ahmed, one of the members of the association. In several of those places, the members are dressing up as Santa and handing over the packets.

Last year, the initiative had covered 5000 kids and in 2021, the association has decided to double their reach. “More than 8000 children have already received the packets this year and the rest of them will receive their gifts by Saturday,” said Asif.

On December 12 the entire program turned extra special as more than 10 motorcyclists joined the cause and went to an NGO in Dhapa to distribute the packets. “The kids were more than happy with our presence. They had to sever seen such big motorcycles and several of them clicked photos with the machines,” said one of the riders.