A Mahmovies! Valentine’s Surprise

As if last night wasn’t amazing enough…
Watching the phenomenally creative and colorful movie “Sita Sings the Blues” is enough to make my day all on its own…
Selling my little cupcakes-for-Haiti (flavors: chocolate, vanilla, and Bounty this week) as fast I could ice them is enough to satisfy me for a week…
Being present at a concert as new and deeply moving as last night’s, where we enjoyed the rare opportunity to interact with the men who built this city, will keep me buzzing for quite a while…

On top of all this, my dashing husband concocted a wonderful valentine’s day surprise through his role as Curator MC extraordinaire! He arranged for one of the guys, Mohamad Farooq aka “Mr. Love” to sing a song from Fana’a (one of my favorite Bollywood soundtracks) and dedicate it to me. It was the best valentine’s day surprise ever! Mr. Love knocked it out of the park – his performance was spot-on and highly entertaining. Thank you, Mahmoudi!!

But back to the programme overall, it was truly a remarkable evening. The response to the concert especially has been overwhelming; in attendance were videojournalists from two publications and reporters from three more (we’ll stay tuned for the release of their stories), someone was supposedly almost in tears describing it on the radio this morning, the twittersphere is ablaze, and the bloggers keep on bloggin’. From my perspective, as I try to define why it was so special, I think Mahmoud really nailed it in his introduction when he said this is not an event with a political agenda, this is not about charity, and there’s no pity or condescension – it was simply a moment of acknowledgement and celebration. On their own terms, in recognition of their talents and passions. For many of us, certainly for me, it was the first opportunity to do so.

Eva from Marienbad Continues Her Cupcake Crusade

As you all know, I devoted the proceeds from cupcake sales in the previous season of Mahmovies! to the MESCO schools and nurseries in India. What you might not know is that I have received an avalanche of very touching comments from the MESCO folks as well as the amazing creatives of “Creatives Against Poverty” from around the world. I really didn’t think my little fundraising drive would mean so much – it’s been a thousand times more gratifying than I thought it would be.

I even got a little mention in the latest MESCO newsletter! It reads:
“Eva champions MESCO’s cause
Your effort in your eyes may look small, but the idea and the sentiments behind these efforts are far reaching and have catalytic effect. It just invigorates us and tells us subtly that the power of giving is with each one of us.
A young lady Eva Star Sayre in a town of Marienbad, who had never experienced hunger and hardships of life or so called outcome of poverty, brings life to many by her sincere efforts. She being a member of “Creative Against Poverty” an NGO, decided to do her bit (for MESCO), to provide snacks (Batawada) to the students of Std. X in a School in Mumbai by making cupcakes and selling them at Mahmovies Festival, with an intention to forward the proceeds (profits earned from such sale) to MESCO, using the slogan “cupcakes for you = batawadas for them”
Through such effort she raised $300 in one attempt which will be sufficient to provide two batawadas each to 100 students of Std. X in a School, during their lunch time for a period of two weeks. It ensures that they will attend the supportive extra classes until the end of the academic year. This will make all the difference between going beyond school and being a school drop out. Eva and her friends plan to raise funds for children through innovative methods. It's the “Efforts” which bring reward from heavens no matter how insignificant these may seem in our mortal eyes.”

Isn’t that so sweet? I love it, and am happy to be mislabelled as Polish for a good cause ☺

Moving forward, I’m raising funds for Haiti in this current season of Mahmovies. We’re in the middle of it now and achieving record attendance. This is our best season yet in terms of both music and movies and the press coverage has been fantastic. I’ve been selling out of cupcakes each week!

Week 1 flavors were dark chocolate strawberry and white chocolate cappuccino.
Week 2 flavors were chocolate cheesecake (Mom’s famous “black-bottom cupcake” recipe) and vanilla-on-vanilla.
I need to put away the laptop now and tie on the apron for the Week 3 kitchen explosion: nutella and carrotcake with cream cheese icing.