Women’s Day at the Bangalore Club
On March 8th, Bangalore Club organized an afternoon for Women’s Day. It was only for members of the Club or their spouses, and participants were asked to arrive wearing pink.
And so, when I walked in at about noon on to the Anchor Lawn, a dizzying variety of pink met my eyes. Prizes were offered to the seniormost amongst the crowd…the eldest lady who stood up, hale and hearty, was 90! Prizes were given to ladies as young as 79…and then there was an elimination round where with each parameter, more ladies were eliminated ( ladies with sleeveless blouses…ladies wearing dangly earrings….red-painted toenails…whose spouses’ first names began with P or R…and so it went) Those who remained were asked questions about the womena associated with Bangalore Club….unfortunately, very few could answer those questions at all! Stil, in the spirit of the event, titles of “Miss Universe/Bangalore Club”, “Miss World/Bangalore Club” were handed out! Then a few more prizes were handed out to women who had the largest bindi, the highest heels, and so on…it was hilarious.
The Club had selected 8 women of achievement that it wanted to honour: Ashwini Nachappa, Jija Hari Singh, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, Madhura Chatrapathy, Mahpara Ali, Rubi Chakravarthy, Shukla Bose, and Suja Isaac Mathai. Each of them shared anecdotes about the things that happened to them on lhe way to success.
Lunch was then served, and this was where a major goof-up happened, as just after about 50 or 60 women ate, the food ran out. More food was apparently prepared and served…but many women were left waiting, and it left not food, but a bad taste in everyone’s mouth! Many of us just went to the Club dining room instead of waiting for food that might or might not come. Surely, if 350 women had registered, the Club should have made far better arrangements about the food, instead of everything run out after just 50 to 60 women had been served. This faux pas really spoilt the goodwill that the ceremony had created.
Begonias were distributed to all the ladies, and they dispersed. It was a good thing to see the sorority of Bangalore Club out in force, and watch their solidarity…er, until it came to going for the lunch!
I could not help wondering how many of the ladies there had given their maids the day off for Women’s Day…..
Last line summerizes the true spirit of the effort!! I wonder how many truely understand why this day was earmarked and the purpose behind it.
It was nice to see women at 90 enjoying the spirit of women’s day along with youngsters. So much effort had gone into conducting the programme and i wish the organisers had also taken care of organising enough food for the vegetarians. After calling people for lunch if you let them go hungry it is in bad taste. I hope the oragnisers keep this in mind, the next time such events are organise.