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162 VOGUE INDIA NOVEMBER 2013 www.vogue.in

IN

A simple plan

DHer current passion project, Egg Dot, concentrates on child nutrition in 34 villages in Maharashtra

SMALL WONDERFrom left: Mokhtarzadeh with her daughter, Uma, in Nashik, February 2013; at the opening of the Savitri Rural Development Project

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SHE COULD SEE IT COMINGDevika Mokhtarzadeh knew she would make her mark in India. When visiting as a teenager, the 39-year-old Londoner recalls feeling a vis-ceral connection with the country where her father—philanthropist and restaurateur Arjun Waney—was born: “It sounds clichéd, but I re-ally found myself there.” Today she is dedicated to the Savitri Waney Charitable Trust, founded in 2001 by Waney, and donates over half a mil-lion pounds to causes like eye care and pallia-tive services every year. It’s a family affair—Mokhtarzadeh’s British mother, Judy, is a key supporter, and cousins have helped fundraise over the years.

HER ROOTS GO DEEPMokhtarzadeh was raised in San Diego, Cali-fornia, where she enjoyed her family’s status as the only Indians in the vicinity. “We used to host huge Diwali parties where we’d invite all of our neighbours and serve Indian food,” she recalls. Her interest in the region guided her to a Master’s degree in ancient Indian history and

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Or even, as DEVIKA MOKHTARZADEH

points out, three eggs. By ALLIE BISWAS

Sanskrit at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. After college, she married art dealer Sass Mokhtarzadeh and spent the next few years raising her children.

SHE HAS VISIONIt was around 2005 that she got involved with the Savitri trust full-time, taking responsibility for “all of the company’s big fi nancial deci-sions”. One of their most successful initiatives to date has been the endeavour to eliminate blindness, primarily in Bihar, where they work with the Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital to treat 1,00,000 patients a year in the hope of eradicat-ing curable blindness in the state by 2020.

THERE’S A LOT ON HER PLATEMokhtarzadeh’s current passion project is Egg Dot—her most ambitious endeavour yet. In col-laboration with Dr Asavari Herwadkar, the ini-tiative concentrates on child nutrition in 34 vil-lages in the Nashik district of Maharashtra. The aim is to eradicate severe malnourishment in kids aged six months to fi ve years and her solution is straightforward: distribute three eggs and three peanut-jaggery ladoos to each child per week and employ Direct Observation-al Therapy to ensure that the child is receiving these. “We found that when we were giving mothers these supplies, they would share them with everyone. Therefore, the child who needed the nutrition wasn’t receiving it,” she says.

Egg Dot has partnered with pan-Asian chain Mamagoto. Run by Mokhtarzadeh’s cousin, Ka-bir Suri, the eatery contributes a percentage of each bill towards the project. Mokhtarzadeh has high hopes for Egg Dot’s future. “It is a simple idea, but it’s working wonders. We could create a model to spread all over India.” ■