News: Ahmed Saeed Assadi
Doha, Feb 8: Karnataka Muslim Welfare Association (KMCA), an affiliated organization of Indian Cultural Association, Doha Qatar, held a family fiesta with cooking competition and Henna Competition for women, drawing competition for children, along with martial arts, sports and magic show.
The event also had a Bazaar with 14 exclusive shops, selling delicious home cooked food by Hidayah Foundation Women’s Wing, snacks stall by South Kanara Muslim Welfare association, books stall by Indian Friends Circle, games stall by Hannan Cricket Club, various garment and clothing stalls by individuals including designer collections such as Armando, Anum Boutique, Babagori collection, Elegance ZB and Signature. Indian and Pakistani ready-made collections, trendy accessories, latest Hijab & Abayas, home décor items and art pieces made with recycled materials were also available in the programme.
The event started at 2:30pm with registrations. The competitions started at 3:15 with cooking competitions and drawing competitions. It was followed by Henna competition. The competitions concluded at 6pm.
The cooking competitions were held in four separate categories; entrée, main course, desserts & innovation dish. The event witnessed an overwhelming response. There were more than 80 dishes by participants and every dish had an elaborate presentation. The event was judged by professional chefs from Hotel Mercure Grande & QAFCO Catering Services based on overall appeal, presentation/ appearance, recipe execution, taste, aroma & the recipe and its complexity.
The winners for the cooking competition were as follows;
In Entrée, First place was won by Shehnaaz Parveen and the second place went to Sana Parveen. In main course, First place was bagged by Safiya Abdul Majeed and the second best dish was won by Arshia Zafar. In the desserts category, First place was won by Salma Shahjahan and the second place went to Arshia Zafar. In the innovations category, the first place was won by Tabassum Shafi and the second place went to Afia Munaf. Arshia Zafar was crowned the KMCA Master-Chef for year 2015.
The children’s drawing competition was held under two age groups; sub-juniors & juniors. The theme for the drawing competitions was ‘Save the Environment’. The sub-juniors were given a topic on the spot based on the theme as ‘Importance of Trees’ and the juniors were given the topic on the spot as ‘Save Plant Earth’. With more than 60 children taking part in the drawing competitions, it was the most creative ideas shaping on the canvas. The drawing competition was judged by professional academia in the field and the winners were as follows;
In sub junior category: First place went to Soha Samiulla and Jewel Pinto bagged the second place. In Juniors Category: First place went to Astra Pinto and Nidal Ahmed bagged the second place.
The Henna competition was a single category competition; the participants were given the same template of the hand to be presented on a 20x20 Ceramic Tile. The judges for the competition were owners of professional beauty salons. The winner of the best henna design in first place was Shifa Ahmed and Shakira Ashraf won the second best design.
The stage function and prize distribution ceremony were held in the Bazaar grounds. The chief guest of the event was Meshaal Nasser Al-Khalifa, a very dynamic personality and an accomplished leader. He is assistant secretary general for administrative support at Qatar Olympic Committee. The guest of honour for the evening was Nasreen Shabbir, a personality who embodies selfless service. She is an entrepreneur in her own respects and owns and runs a school for special children in Qatar. As this event was primarily a Women & Children’s Competition, it was but apt to have such an accomplished woman personality.
The KMCA president, Niyaz Ahmed greeted and accompanied the guests on the dais. He welcomed the gathering highlighting the importance of community events especially for women. He also emphasized the need for environmental awareness campaigns and the need to educate children in that aspect of responsible living. He outlined KMCA’s environment campaign as part of the Indian Cultural Centre’s Initiative towards Qatar Environment Day and highlighted that the event is in alignment towards managing waste responsibly by segregation of paper plastic and food waste. He greeted the gathering and congratulated all the participants for their hard work and support.
The guest of honour, Meshaal Al-Khalifa addressed the gathering and highlighted his delight and pleasure in attending such community events and praised the Indian Expat community for showing such a display of brotherhood. He congratulated all the participants for making the event a success.
The chief guest, Nasreen Shabbir, addressed the gathering expressing her gratitude to KMCA for inviting her and bestowing upon her the privilege of being the chief guest. She emphasized on the need to empower the women of the community, nurture their skills. She also said that the sufficient exposure of their talents will help them to realize their worth in future. She highlighted the need to soften oneself towards charitable causes, especially towards the development of the needy children, be it in education, health or skills development. She noted that as an expat community, we can help by sharing our professional expertise and by getting involved at the grassroots level, thereby making the change happen that we desire. She expressed that she was delighted to see the overwhelming response by the public for the event.
Hassan Chougle, a prominent businessperson and KMCA patron distributed mementos to the judges of the cooking competition, Chef Assaad Saad, Hotel Mercure Grande, Thomas Philippe, F&B Manager Hotel Mercure Grande and Chef Querinho Mendonca from QAFCO F&B Catering Services.
The guest of honor presented a memento to Sharat Chandra Kudru, proprietor of Loyola International School, who provided the venue with all facilities for the event. His contribution and cooperation to the success of the event was invaluable.
The prize distribution was conducted thereafter which was announced by Ruksana Parveen. All prizes were given out by the chief guest along with the KMCA president.
Masooda proposed the vote of thanks. She thanked all the visiting guests of the event, participating organizations and their presidents, Abdul Majeed from SKMWA, Ashmath Ali from KTWA, Abdulla Monu from Hidayah Foundation, Shakir Abdur Rahman from Indian Friends Circle, Khader from Hannan Cricket Club, Nazeer Pasha from QISF, Arif from Maymar Friends Circle & Shaikh Mudassir Ahmed from Qatar Karnataka Friends.
She also thanked the various expat associations’ representatives for their support, Divakar Poojari and Fayaz Ali from Indian Cultural Centre, Ravi Shetty from Tulu Koota and Chandrashekar Shetty from Bunts Qatar.
Arun Kumar was given special thanks for his gracious presence and support. Milan Arun was thanked for all her advice and support to the KMCA ladies wing and her presence throughout the event, Dr Sanjay Kudru for his support in providing audio sound system, Girish Nair for his help in printing materials, local purchase and prize distribution, Junaid for his efforts in bring the trophies from Bengaluru & Ismail and HBK volunteers for all the logistical support for venue preparation, parking attendants, waste management and security services.
She also thanked all the judges of the different events. The event was hosted primarily by KMCA ladies wing coordinators Aisha Rafique, Ruksana Parveen, Masooda Ali, Reshma Banu, Rehana Fayaz, Sana Zia-ul-Haq and Masiha Ashfaq.
The evening also witnessed an environmental campaign flash-interaction by Tulu Koota and a magic show by Jayan Orma.The event ended at 9:30 pm. KMCA is holding their annual blood donation campaign on Friday February 13 at Hamad Medical Corporation Blood Donor Unit from 7:30 am to 11am.
All are invited to be part of the noble humanitarian cause, ‘Give Blood, Save Lives’.