Latest news with #Raihan
The Star
17-05-2025
- General
- The Star
Reclaiming motherhood after loss
Apple of their eye: (From left) Raihan, Ahmad Nazri and their son Ahmad Hafiy Haizen with Dahlia Diyani Naa'ira; Wati and Norizal with Nur Adriana. KLANG: After losing their own special needs children, two mothers discovered that the most healing path for their broken hearts is the one that leads them to channel their love towards other children facing similar challenges. They each adopted one of a pair of twin girls with Down syndrome, giving the sisters a loving home while preserving their bond. It began when Raihan Kamaruddin gave birth to her daughter Jasmin, who had Down syndrome, in 2014. 'Jasmin was also born with severe heart defects and an underdeveloped anus. 'She underwent three heart surgeries and remained in hospital from birth until she passed away the following year,' said the 47-year-old mother from Ipoh, Perak. Devastated, Raihan spent two years in grief until she received an invitation from a private orphanage in Kuala Lumpur. A visit to the home, accompanied by her husband and her teen son, changed everything. 'We were shown a pair of twins with Down syndrome. 'We fell head over heels for the younger girl,' Raihan said, adding that her husband Ahmad Nazri Md Rejab also felt an instant connection with the three-month-old baby. With the consent of the baby's mother – a foreigner impregnated by her employer – Raihan, who works at a legal firm, adopted the younger sibling Dahlia Diyani Naa'ira, as the family could not afford to raise both sisters. Back home, she could not stop thinking about the older twin, Orked Diyan Nahila, fearing the girl might grow up alone in the orphanage once her birth mother returned to her home country. She reached out to her friend Wati Hamzah, also 47, from a support group for mothers who had lost their special children, and asked if she would consider adopting the other child. Wati had lost her three-year-old daughter to leukaemia not long after Jasmin had passed away in 2015. She and her husband, lorry driver Norizal Salleh, brought the older girl back to their home in Melaka. The couple, who have four biological children aged 16, 18, 22 and 24, renamed their new daughter Nur Adriana Diyan after their late child. Although the sisters, now nine, are raised in separate homes, Raihan and Wati make sure they celebrate their birthday and Hari Raya together. 'We want their bond to remain strong as we can see how close they are and how much they love each other,' said Raihan. Although Nur Adriana Diyan is non-verbal and Dahlia Diyani Naa'ira has limited speech, the twins, who also face other health issues, seem to communicate well in their own special way. Wati said the girls have also brought both families closer. 'We are now like one big family, and we thank our special girls for bringing us all together,' she added. And now, Raihan's only concern is that her daughter has yet to be granted citizenship. 'Wati's daughter has already received citizenship as the adoption was formalised through the Welfare Department, but ours is still pending as we adopted the baby directly from the mother and the orphanage,' she said.
Hindustan Times
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Beyond startups to pop-ups in Bengaluru
Akhila Srinivas may well be Bengaluru's queen of pop-ups. Akhila runs The Courtyard, her family home now transformed into a gathering space, and The Conservatory, which has hosted a number of restaurant pop-ups that are not as expensive as the five-star ones but aren't cheap either (the range is from ₹1,500 to ₹6,000 per person per meal). What distinguishes her curations is that they are rooted in a specific cuisine prepared in a specific way. Consider the recent line-up: Sienna Café's Bengali food, Gingko Pune's Uzuki summer menu, the Maratha Kitchen's food and more. There are a lot of women chefs with interesting takes on their native and learned food, be it Goan or Keralite. A good indication of their popularity is that five-star chefs get on the wait-list to attend. So what's the feedback, I asked Akhila. 'Visiting chefs say that Bengaluru's diners are both adventurous and attentive to food,' she says. 'When a chef comes to explain the concept, the diners actually listen.' At the other end of the spectrum is the recently finished culinary pop-up at The Leela Palace Bengaluru with 3 Michelin-starred Chef Massimo Bottura. Priced at ₹50,000++ per person, the sold-out event attracted visitors from Bengaluru and nearby cities who don't hesitate to spend for high-end experiences brought to their doorstep. Bengaluru a la Delhi, you might say. I think of all this as I talk to Raihan Vadra, during the Bangalore Art Weekend that happened last month. Raihan is 25 and together with Svasa Life magazine, Platform Magazine, The Usual Suspects India community, brand-agency Form & Flow and other collaborators, he put together a weekend of panel discussions, art, music and fashion, all held at Sabha, a restored bungalow in Kamaraj Road. I try not to bring up his mother, Priyanka, his father, Robert, both of whom have been in the news. Instead, I ask the Delhi-based visual-artist about how Bangalore is different from the events that he has organised in Delhi and Mumbai. Well, for one thing, Bangaloreans actually listen, he replies, echoing what Akhila said. In Delhi, young people quickly lose interest in hour-long panel-discussions. In Bengaluru, as I witnessed, there were panel discussions held over two days, on topics ranging from conscious living to making films. A full house of people mostly in their 20s and 30s sat patiently and listened. The second thing Raihan mentioned was the fact that the entire weekend was alcohol-free, which would be unheard of in Delhi. Kombucha was on offer from Dad's Hack, created by Bengaluru boy, Zeshan Rahaman. But the sessions were still packed with folks, chatting and viewing art. In Delhi, said Raihan, unless it is a 'party,' meaning unless there is alcohol, it is hard to get folks to attend. The last thing he mentioned was that there seemed to be a 'hunger for art and culture' here in Bangalore. Now this is something that feels contradictory. On the one hand, talk to art galleries like Sakshi and Sumukha and they will say that Bangaloreans don't buy, or appreciate art. We may have our startup billionaires but culture, we lack. Even Chennai buys more art, they will say. But that may refer to older folks who have the means to buy fine art. The youth of Bangalore have a hunger for other forms of culture including zines (self-made magazines), graphic art and manga. Bangalore Art Weekend was nominally about art, but it also had workshops on zine-making, sketching and design. The panel discussions included performance poetry, ad films, discussions on reclaiming public spaces, mental health, upcycling clothes, getting off social media and living a slower, more intentional life. Designers sold clothes. But most importantly, people stayed back to listen. My favourite recent pop-up was an exhibition of embroidery artworks by 10 Lambadi artisans who undertook a residency under the guidance of Bangalore-based fashion-designer Anshu Arora, who along with her husband, Jason Cherian founded a label called The Small Shop. Anshu connected with The Porgai Artisans Association where over 60 women who belong to the Lambadi tribe relearned the embroidery techniques that was their heritage. What Anshu did over a four-month residency was nudge them into making embroidery art so that it could be elevated to gallery spaces and command a lot more money. So ten women volunteered and created a stunning variety of artworks that were sold in Sabha. I attended a panel discussion on the last day in which the visionary founder of Tribal Health Initiative (under which Porgai operates), Lalitha Regi spoke about how crafts such as the Lambadi embroidery could be brought back from the brink of disappearance. As I stood and gazed at the intricate embroidery panels hung in the museum-like space, I felt as if I were in the beautiful Sittilingi Valley where these women live and work among birds, bees, trees and butterflies. (Shoba Narayan is Bengaluru-based award-winning author. She is also a freelance contributor who writes about art, food, fashion and travel for a number of publications.)
