"The little girls of our (Calcutta) community seem to be growing up quite fast and this year decided to address serious issues by raising funds for cancer patients,” wrote Calcutta Parsee Club (CPC) member Gulnar Mehta in an email to Parsiana about the Club’s annual food festival and fancy dress competition held on January 27, 2019. The girls sold bows and a book (Tweets from Grandmother) by Geeta Gopalakrishnan on cancer awareness and collected over Rs 30,000 which was donated to the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mehta wrote.
Above, from l, 1st row: the Breakfast Boys Club; winning team, Slicers;
2nd row: Calcutta’s kids at the Parsee Club’s fancy dress event
Food made and contributed by Parsi households was for sale, she noted. "The most loved stall was the Breakfast Boys Club, who made their special akuri, which we all got a chance to taste finally and realize what all the fuss is about.” Every Sunday morning the young boys of the community get together to make and eat breakfast at the Club, Mehta stated.
"While eating food is fun, preparing and cooking is more exciting,” said Mehta. Three teams, Slicers, Peelers and Choppers, had to prepare two dishes — one omelette and a potato bacon roesti and two fruit decorations. No recipes, just images and ingredients were handed over to the amateur cooks who had 25 minutes in which to prepare the food. "Chaos ensued as each team had a designated ‘disaster striker’ who could blindfold, tape up someone’s mouth or tie up an opponent team member’s hands!” informed Mehta. Slicers were adjudged the winners by judges Numazar Mehta, Cyrus Confectioner and Kersi Engineer. A cooking demonstration by Gina Sreshta, and Thai dishes made by Nok Katrak were other food highlights. Parsi artifacts like chalk na dabbas, hand embroidered kurta pieces, stoles and bags were on sale, Mehta noted.
In the afternoon super heroes, an Amul girl, a fairy and master chefs walked the ramp in the fancy dress competition with Nirvhan Mehta Vyas dressed as singer Elvis Presley belting out Jail House Rock. Samara Mehta Vyas dressed as "Sweet sunshine on a rainy day” won the Sarah Oonwala Trophy, while Ariyanah Mehta ("Wonder Woman”), as runner up walked away with the Arnavaz Dastoor Trophy. Other winners were Vivana Mehta ("Maleficent”) and Ivaana Rabadi ("Amul Girl”). Yasmin Panthaki, Pervez Kaikobad and Anastacia Damani Madan judged the children’s (and their parents’) creativity.
"We often say CPC is (our) second home and if you never felt that way, you got an opportunity to experience it first-hand on that day,” noted Gulnar.