Qatar-based author sponsors 100 cataract surgeries annually

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula

Doha: Virsa, a culinary Journey from Agra to Karachi – a Gourmand Award winning recipe book by a Qatar-based Pakistani author is sponsoring 100 cataract surgeries annually. 

Photographed and written by Pakistani blogger and photographer, Shehar Bano Rizvi, 'Virsa' recently won the Best in the World Cookbook Award at the prestigious Gourmand Awards in Paris in November 2021. This book is a collection of recipes that are the author, Shehar Bano's family heritage and hence the name 'Virsa' which means“heritage” in Urdu language. Virsa has some recipes and memories from a desi big fat family of foodies. 

Compiling, recreating, and photographing these recipes, this project has been a labour of love for the author — a dedication to her mother, a fantastic cook. After losing her father to cancer, she and her siblings did something in his memory and that got her thinking. She says,“I always felt my father would have been so happy to see what we did for him, after he was gone. And it made me want to do something for my mother in her lifetime – hence this book.” 

Shehar Bano donated 100% profits from the sales of to LRBT Free Eye Hospital in Pakistan in memory of her father who was an ophthalmologist and philanthropist at heart. With the sales of the book, she set up an endowment fund that will be sponsoring 100 cataract surgeries annually. 

Shehar Bano claims that these family recipes have never failed her even though she had never been keen on cooking before she moved out of her parent's home. Her journey in the kitchen with zero experience to running a successful blog with the recipe sections being extremely popular, is all thanks to these simple and meticulous recipes. 

“The secret to this success for a beginner like me was the recipe book I scribbled down in a note book, full of my mom's ancestral recipes. 18 years later, I still cannot cook without that book and would be completely lost without it.

So here I am, finally compiling my mother's NO Fail recipes, which have never failed me for my audience whether they are completely a beginner in the kitchen or are pro level,” said Shehar Bano. “My family originally hails from Agra, India. My paternal and maternal grandfather, both migrated to Karachi, Pakistan, post-partition in 1948. My maternal grandfather, Syed Haider Raza Rizvi's great grandfather Mir Zamin Ali Rizvi's tomb still stands tall in the Shahganj area in Agra.” These family recipes have travelled from Agra to Karachi and beyond and anyone who has a palette for Indian or Pakistani food would enjoy these recipes. 

Shehar Bano is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Software Engineer by profession. A Pakistani expat living in Qatar since 2004, whose maternal instincts took over her career aspirations, and she decided to give up her high-profile Banking career to be a hands-on mother. She is now a mom of 3 beautiful children.

She rediscovered her self and now is a speaker, a writer, a blogger, and a professional photographer — a multitasking mom, sharing her passion through her blog, Diary of a PMP Mom. She was identified as the top 30 influential people of Qatar to impact their community in 2019. The book is available in Qatar at Alif bookstore, Amazon and on virsacookbook.com .

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