Clubby in Calcutta

The first major "live” event since the pandemic began in March 2020 was the 113rd birthday and Children’s Day at the Calcutta Parsee Club (CPC) on November 14, 2021. A melange of sporting activities, food and bonhomie were on offer. "Kaizeen Confectioner organized the basketball and football events for the day, keeping their sporting enthusiasts across all age groups on their toes,” noted Behnaz Bulsara Dugar, the Club’s entertainment-in-charge. "Gulnar Mehta planned a kids’ art corner with paints and color, imparting the concept of recycling to the kids.” In a corner of the lawns, 19-year-old author Darius Modi read excerpts from his 2021 book War Of The Tribes.

Happy faces at Calcutta Parsee Club’s first major "live" event of the year

Bulsara Dugar and her team of volunteer members conducted approximately 140 online events during the lockdown, ranging from quiz shows, word scrambles, cookery shows, talent competitions, talks on Parsi cuisine, religion, interviews with leading sportsmen, business leaders and journalists (see "Grounded but bonded,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, June 21-July 6, 2020).
Prochy Mehta, Club president told Parsiana that the November 14 event was "fittingly started by a jashan and concluded with a humbandagi. For the first time in CPC our head priest Ervad Jimmy Taraporewalla led us in prayer as we prayed together for our collective happiness and health.” Besides the head priest, Ervads Darayas Karanjia and Viraf Dastoor prayed at the jashan.
Geeta Rabadi, Indrani Anklesaria and Delna Wadia decorated the Club. "Geeta arranged for little snacks packets for all the kids,” Bulsara Dugar noted. The spirit of camaraderie in the eastern city was kept alive with freshly baked cakes by Havovi Khambatta, Rabadi, Feroza Mogrelia, Kiran Verma, Swati Daver, Anisa Anklesaria, Tanya Batlivala, Khushmand Buchia, Divya Bulsara, Khursheed Ardeshir-Vatcha, Delna Wadia, Mihira Singh, Dinaz Jeejeebhoy, Aban Confectioner and Rajasree Dutta. "Some teens baked for the first time… a few bought from outside.” Yasmin Panthaki was the official photographer for the event "making us all smile throughout,” noted Bulsara Dugar.
The Club’s 198-page centenary souvenir titled "Our own little piece of earth” credits five men with founding the Club on November 4, 1908 — Munchershaw Buttiwala, Byramji Nalladaroo, Nowrojee Nalladaroo, Hormasjee Kandawalla and Keki Spencer. The first woman to gain membership was Sarah Oonwalla in 1932, noted Mehta. F. J.