The Indian Weekender, 26 March 2021

10 NEW ZEALAND
Friday, March 26, 2021
The Indian Weekender
RAFI-KISHORE-MUKESH NIGHT
concert once again wows the audience
RIZWAN MOHAMMAD
Creations NZ Group left no stones
unturned to make its live concert ‘Rafi
Kishore Mukesh Night 4’, another
masterpiece of a show.
Despite being postponed twice due to
Covid-19 lockdowns in February and early
March this year, the show was able to garner a
full house booking and with at least 50 people
politely declined due to unavailability of seats.
Rafi-Kishore-Mukesh Night 4 was held on
Saturday, March 20, at the Dorothy Winston
Centre in Freemans Bay, and the auditorium
gleamed with yesteryears’ music lovers
singing-along and asking for more.
"
The 15-minutes medley of
these singers’ famous and
loved songs mesmerised our
audience, and it was a time
remember how the whole
auditorium echoed with the
audience joining in the singalong,
and it was the best
feeling for me
Led by Arif Zia rendering the voice of
legendary singer Md Rafi, Viraj being the voice
of Mukesh, and Joseph – one of the most loved
singers in Auckland and being the voice of
Kishore Kumar.
The most popular songs from the three
leading singers- Dard-e-Dil from Karz film
sang by Arif, Jaane Kaha Gaye Wo Din from
the film Mera Naam Joker sang by Viraj and
singer Joseph dressed in sherwani and turban
as worn by Amitabh Bachchan rendered the
famous song Pag Ghungroo from the film
Namak Halal.
“The three most popular songs sought by
the crowd received a thunderous applaud
and cheers in the auditorium,” Arif Zia,
chairperson of Creation Group NZ, told The
Indian Weekender.
The audience raved about the ambience of the
concert, which was not limited by the singers’
songs but also the perfection of the musicians
and stage decoration that sets a new benchmark
for such shows every year.
Unlike previous years, the concert also
presented a medley of legendry but not-soremembered
singers starting from the early days
of the Indian (read Bollywood) music industry,
such as Noor Jahan, Shamshad Begum, Talat
Mahmood, Hemant Kumar, Manna Dey etc.
“The 15-minutes medley of these singers’
famous and loved songs mesmerised our
audience, and it was a time remember how the
whole auditorium echoed with the audience
joining in the sing-along, and it was the best
feeling for me,” Arif said.
Creation Group NZ also completed ten
years in 2021 and, on occasion, felicitated its
media partners The Indian Weekender with a
memento for its work towards the Kiwi Indian
and migrant community living in New Zealand.
Kiwi-Indian mum-daughter duo hopes to get
popular votes for people’s choice category
of Outstanding NZ food producers awards
SANDEEP SINGH
A
Kiwi-Indian
mum-daughter food business – Sobhna’s
- which makes Indian curry pastes and spice blends, is
hoping to get popular votes from the members of the
community for Coast People’s Choice Award in the Outstanding
NZ Food Producer Awards 2021.
The awards have fast gained the reputation – within five years
of its inception since 2017 - of being the best of the country’s
locally grown and made food and drink products.
Nimeesha Odedra, the daughter and the co-founder of
Sobhna’s, told the Indian Weekender that they were inspired by
their solid customer base to enter into the Outstanding NZ Food
Producers awards for this year.
“From my understanding, no Indian food business has ever
won a gold award or the Coast People’s Choice Award in this
competition, and we are determined to change this.
“We think it is really important for our community to have
our businesses pushing boundaries and winning awards,”
Nimeesha said.
Sharing the inspiring journey of how Sobhna’s first came
into existence which was out of compulsion, Nimeesha said,
“Seventeen years ago my mum gave up her job to help me bring
up my son when my marriage fell apart so that I could carry on
in my career. When my son was old enough to go to school, my
mum found herself locked out of the job market due to her age.”
“But she never gave up, and this is how Sobhna’s began,”
Nimeesha said.
“Initially, she started making vegetarian samosa and pakora to
sell at the local farmers’ markets. These were really popular, and
often she would sell around 500 plus samosa in the space of 3-4
hours. My mum has an amazing personality and loves meeting
and talking to people and so she developed some amazing
relationships. Over time she added spring rolls to her menu.
The other popular product line of the business – Indian curry
pastes – also emanated out of compulsion from another crisis.
“In December 2019, my mum damaged her shoulder, and it was
really difficult for her to carry on making samosa from scratch.
Especially the pastry, which is very difficult. So, we shifted focus
to the curry pastes range, which our regular customers are quite
liking,” Nimeesha said.
The 2020 lockdown brought more challenges, forcing the
mum-daughter duo to innovate further and adapt.
“During the first lockdown, the business couldn’t trade at all.
To keep my mum busy and to have some fun with our Facebook
followers (approx. 200), we started making short cooking video
tutorials. After five weeks, our followers went up and up, and at
the end of lockdown, we were sitting at 1200 followers.
“When we hit Alert Level 3, we started getting orders for the
curry paste. I had to literally drive all over Auckland to deliver
curry pastes because we had no courier system set up.
“It took us a few weeks to find a supplier of packaging, get a
courier and just find our feet,” Nimeesha said.
Recalling the whole experience of managing and running this
small food business in 2020, which has seen many established
businesses go down, Nimeesha said, “The last several months
have been a rollercoaster ride. We now have a website, over 8000
followers on Facebook and a range of products.”
Speaking about the
motivation behind
entering into this
popular award category
Nimeesha said, “This is
the first time ever that we
have entered our products
for any Food Awards. I think
when you look at food awards
in New Zealand, there often isn’t
much diversity. We really want to
aim high with our business and showcase
authentic, healthy Indian food to the world.
“We think it’s really important that our community pushes
these boundaries and showcases our culture and value by entering
and winning these awards. In our case, we may not win because
at this stage we are only a small mother-daughter business;
however, we will have showcased our products, and more people
will know about us and the ethos behind our business.”
“This would be a total game-changer for us and would really
help showcase healthy authentic Indian food,” Nimeesha said
with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
(Here is the link to vote for mum-daughter duo : tinyurl.com/
qpzxchwu)
(You only need to put Sobhna’s as your favourite producer
(the farmers market is optional)