At otenga, it has a unique experience, unlike ither cafes, because of its communal concept. It started as a graduation program, the idea of creating a community was there from the beginning. The original idea was feeding the singular floating population to create a healthier student community, which became a reason to build so many good relationships that otenga still harnesses and celebrates today. Its inspiration was how food brings people together, sharing their stories and even cooking together were early ideas for forming a community. Ahmedabad has a diverse population and with recent cultural shifts, there is a need for place like Otenga to build community
Community building at otenga is done in a very sensitive and careful manner and has been unstated set of rules. Otenga is designed in such a way that merges individualism with the community. On entering the space, they can be themselves; it’s calm, and there is no one to judge. One can walk up and have a conversation with anyone and meet like-minded people. It’s all about the people and how they make one feel, which makes it different from other cafes and restaurants. Hence, this place became a community of like-minded people who share the same beliefs. The portrays the diverse knowledge every other person would have. It is a community of free thinkers who are interested in similar things, are heartened, and like to socialize. Summarizing this, the patrons will have diverse encounters such as communal culinary, societal, creative, cultural, and intellectual, improving the overall experience at otenga.
What makes otenga community unique?
A community is a group of people having common characteristics or interests within a larger society. A group that shares social objectives has some social implications and thrives in those objectives. Building a community is like growing a plant, a plant doesn’t grow in aday similarly a community also takes time to grow and expand. It starts with different people coming together at one place for different interest like, reading, cooking etc. eventually, as the interactions grow between the patrons and share their experiences they gradually start to build a bond then create a community. Some of otenga’s community qualities are supportive and helpful to everyone, active engagement, vision, compassion, and empathy with an aim to flourish, collectively. A community is considered an intangible part of otenga. It’s one of those places where you will end up meeting interesting people or get engaged in good conversation. At otenga nothing is business-oriented, here patrons are priority over profits which makes it a special place that offers an authentic experience. If metaphorically described otenga’s community is
