New Year 2019

Ushering in the New Year with rare gusto

Banoo Apa

At the crack of dawn, New Year arrived in the Garden with an hour-long 'variety programme' put up by some of the most enterprising and irrepressible talent of the Club.

Yusuf Rassiwala welcomes the congregation

As expected, Bijoy Gupta led the charge with his much-hyped pol-khol number -- in effect, doing a hilarious expose on Yusuf Rassiwala, Shekhawat and Siba Prasad Maitra.
Gupta had planned to similarly reveal the “deep, darkest secrets of several others”, but mercifully had been cut short as he had overshot his allotted time. Nevertheless, he was assigned a snappy skit with Kiran Prakash later, which the duo pulled off with characteristic wit and elan.
Kiran Prakash was in fact, our emcee (master of ceremonies) today and the New Year function, his baby. He opened the floor with Yusuf R delivering the welcome note before the artistes took over.

Bijoy Gupta and Kiran Prakash enact a skit

Banoo Apa performed a scintillating solo dance (with musical support provided by Maitra’s portable sound system) followed by Bhaswati Bose, Geeta Latte and her brother, Devraj Das enacting a spoof on “Inspector Zalim Singh” – the character Shekhawat is to play on the club's Annual Day function next month.

Devraj Das, Geeta Latte and Bhaswati Bose do their number

In between, Maitra held us spellbound with his recitation of Tanveer Ghazi’s soul

Siba Prasad Maitra

stirring poem on the scourge of rape – “Tu khud ki khoj mein nikal/ Tu kis liye hatash hai…”
Finally, it took the trio of Bhaswati, Devraj and Geeta again to break the sombre mood with a series of popular film songs -- the medley spilling into a wild celebration of clapping and dancing by all present in the true New Year spirit.
A word of appreciation on the party that followed: Never before had the Club been treated to such a variety of eats, served in a well-organised manner – all thanks to Kajal Babani, Naseem Khan, Fahmida Khan, Geeta and above all, Kiran Prakash. Nothing was left wanting – a happy augury for the days and months to come.

Banoo Apa gets us soh'n-papdi

Preparing plates: Time to party

Personal attention to all present

Kiran Prakash:
I convey my sincere thanks to all members for their active participation and cooperation at making the New Year function a grand success. The team of artistes were superb in their presentation with some of the most innovative ideas.

Lt Col Angad Singh (rtd):
Ushering the New Year with an entertainment programme is a unique event. It was wonderful on the part of Club members and enjoyed by the audience overwhelmingly. Hope this continues in the future as well.