Events & Personalities
“Bring vibrancy back”
The first woman to be elected as vice president of the 146-year-old Bombay Gymkhana, Naheed Divecha (pictured), states her priority will be "supporting and encouraging sporting sections of the club to bring in large scale events and tournaments… for kids to seniors…from club level events to higher state and national events.”
"Vibrancy, camaraderie and cheerful times need to be brought back to our club,” she told Parsiana on November 19, 2021, days after the election results were announced on November 14. The sportswoman garnered 683 votes as against 680 by her opponent Sanjeev Saran Mehra. The Gymkhana has 4,000 odd permanent and life members. Membership was opened to women in 1991, according to the Gymkhana’s website.
"Finding ways to beat the attraction of social media and computers among teenagers and young adults… to draw them back to ‘hanging out’ at the club,” is another priority for this mother of three. "An atmosphere of liveliness can be highly contagious,” she stated. Adding that another "intangible on my agenda would be to eradicate the acrimony amongst our members that unnecessarily creates bitterness and anguish... when it can just be a place of contentment and geniality for us all (as also) regaining the trust of members in their elected representatives, and ensuring transparent and accountable roles for the team as a whole.”
Daughter of Nargis and Phiroze Kharas, Divecha has played badminton since the age of 10 at inter-school, inter-college and university level. "I later started playing tennis and have played and represented the Gymkhana in many tournaments specially the Tata Shield Cup in 2006 which we won.” Since 2005, Divecha has played competitive badminton at the state and national levels. "I play in all three categories, Women’s Singles, Women’s Double and Mixed Doubles and have always won the state level tournaments in at least two out of three categories.” Also a pentathlete, karate is yet another passion. "I have participated and conducted the FOZAWAC’s (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations for Welfare and Culture) badminton and tennis tournaments since 2005 and 2013 respectively,” she stated.
Husband Rushad is the managing director of Eros Elevators and Escalators Private Limited. He is "also very involved in fitness…used to run marathons and is now also a black belt and continues training in karate.” Daughter Sireena (24), captain of her squash team at McGill University in Canada, has just graduated as a materials engineer. Twenty-one-year-old son Keahn is a black belt in karate and is studying mechatronics (mechanical and robotics) engineering at Waterloo University, Canada. Youngest daughter Leah is junior graduate of the SOI (Symphony Orchestra of India) Music Academy and plans to go for further studies in liberal arts and music to Canada from September 202. F. J.
"Vibrancy, camaraderie and cheerful times need to be brought back to our club,” she told Parsiana on November 19, 2021, days after the election results were announced on November 14. The sportswoman garnered 683 votes as against 680 by her opponent Sanjeev Saran Mehra. The Gymkhana has 4,000 odd permanent and life members. Membership was opened to women in 1991, according to the Gymkhana’s website. "Finding ways to beat the attraction of social media and computers among teenagers and young adults… to draw them back to ‘hanging out’ at the club,” is another priority for this mother of three. "An atmosphere of liveliness can be highly contagious,” she stated. Adding that another "intangible on my agenda would be to eradicate the acrimony amongst our members that unnecessarily creates bitterness and anguish... when it can just be a place of contentment and geniality for us all (as also) regaining the trust of members in their elected representatives, and ensuring transparent and accountable roles for the team as a whole.”
Daughter of Nargis and Phiroze Kharas, Divecha has played badminton since the age of 10 at inter-school, inter-college and university level. "I later started playing tennis and have played and represented the Gymkhana in many tournaments specially the Tata Shield Cup in 2006 which we won.” Since 2005, Divecha has played competitive badminton at the state and national levels. "I play in all three categories, Women’s Singles, Women’s Double and Mixed Doubles and have always won the state level tournaments in at least two out of three categories.” Also a pentathlete, karate is yet another passion. "I have participated and conducted the FOZAWAC’s (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations for Welfare and Culture) badminton and tennis tournaments since 2005 and 2013 respectively,” she stated.
Husband Rushad is the managing director of Eros Elevators and Escalators Private Limited. He is "also very involved in fitness…used to run marathons and is now also a black belt and continues training in karate.” Daughter Sireena (24), captain of her squash team at McGill University in Canada, has just graduated as a materials engineer. Twenty-one-year-old son Keahn is a black belt in karate and is studying mechatronics (mechanical and robotics) engineering at Waterloo University, Canada. Youngest daughter Leah is junior graduate of the SOI (Symphony Orchestra of India) Music Academy and plans to go for further studies in liberal arts and music to Canada from September 202. F. J.
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