This was the time to celebrate Basant. Nature feasts us with riot of colours all around. We, at Vividha, thought of celebrating it a bit differently. A cookery competition was organised for the members. Everyone had to prepare a yellow dish at home, present it to our judges along with a written recipe. Beautiful presentations, amazing tastes and super excitement were enough to give judges a tough time deciding the results.
This kind of competition was held for the first time in last more than 16 years, but 19 entries gave us the courage to hold more such events in future.
Vandana Marodia’s coconut burfi won judges heart and was an obvious winner, followed by Madhu ‘s beautifully presented khila khila sweet rice which came second. The third prize by a narrow margin was a tie between Kavita Kashyap and Veena Arora. The participants were given token numbers and no names were mentioned anywhere on the recipes.
The winners were given prizes by the judges and the first prize winner was given the title of‘ Vividha chef star’. All the participants were given participation gifts.
The judges were Sunita Chhibber , an avid cook and an excellent host and Punam Chhabra, a doctorate in food science and technology having her own lab to develop tastes and menus. The programme started with lamp lighting by our mentor Ms Sinha and Janak Bhatia. Saraswati prayer was sung by Janak ji and Mrs Kochhar. Birthday ladies were wished with beautiful gifts.
Rich tributes were paid to Dr Sarojini Kulshreshtha , mother of Sadhna Sinha . Dr Kulshreshtha was our founder member and left for heavenly abode on 8 January, just a few days before her 100th birthday. An eminent educationist, writer and poet Sarojini ji touched many lives including ours during our interactions with her.
Indira Kochhar spoke about why and how we celebrate Maha Shivratri as this festival also falls in Februray this time. There was love all over amongst Vividha family members as we celebrate Valentine’s Day also in February.
The outdoor setting was beautiful with everyone wearing yellow and enjoying hot tea rams laddoo and tikki.
We will celebrate Holi, the festival of colours in March.
by Jyoti Bhatia (E-56, 9899995521)
