Ready for a new chapter?

Jamshedpur, June 12: The wives of the workers of Indian Steel and Wire Products (ISWP) now have an opportunity to showcase their culinary skills.

Disha, the company?s one-year-old ladies? club, has decided to engage the wives in a recipe contest. And, here comes the juicy part, 50 best recipes would be compiled into a book, which would be put on sale.

After six years of dull production figures, ISWP, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Steel, had recently posted high production figures. The announcement has brought about a renewed vigour among the staff and the competition is aimed at spreading the enthusiasm among the wives too.

Kusum Tilak, the president of the ladies? club, said: ?More than the spirit of the competition, it is an attempt to give these talented women a taste of success, and also to revive their hopes, which they are building after six long years.?

?The basic idea of the competition is to encourage the women to work together in doing something innovative. The winner will get an attractive reward,? added Manisha Nandi, a member of the club.

The best recipes would be chosen in September and a couple of months later, the book is expected to be published.

Usha S. Kumar, vice-president of Disha, said: ?If we get more good recipes, we might even make it 100 best recipes, instead of 50.?

Though the price of the book is yet to be decided, the president of the club said there would be a ?nominal? profit margin for the association. The booklet would be sold at the winter melas that would be organised by various clubs and other such social organisations.

With 700 workers on the steel unit?s payroll, members of Disha say they have reasons to believe that they have a good contest at hand.

The event would be divided into 16 categories and would include preparation of rice, vegetarian and non-vegetarian curries, international cuisine and desserts.

The contest is open for a month and the club has started receiving entries since June 8. The last date for the entries is July 10.

?We have a good number of Punjabi and Bihari families among the workers. Therefore we are expecting some real spicy recipes to come in as entries and find their way into the book,? said Kumar. Each family can send in only one recipe.