Club Celebrates 25 Years of Women in Rotary

Club Celebrates 25 Years of Women in Rotary

Since its inception in 1905, Rotary was a “male only” bastion.  In 1989, Rotary International’s Council of Legislation voted to eliminate the “male only” provision of Rotary's Constitution.  Since then, women have become members and leaders in the Rotary Clubs and Districts throughout the world.

To celebrate the 25 years of this landmark change, our Club organized a Fellowship Event hosted by the lady Rotarians on Wednesday, 26 September, 2014.  An evening of fun and enjoyment filled with the melodious voice of Ms. Rochana Dahanukar was the essence of the with a special dinner spread of Mexican cuisine and an evening of musical entertainment.

Starting off the evening with the national anthem being sung by all the lady Rotarians taking the stage followed by a welcome address by Past President Rtn.Maya Bhatt, the first female member inducted into the privileged echelons of our Club way back in 1991. Rtn Maya Bhatt welcomed all present on behalf of the 11 lady Rotarians of our Club and went on to introduce the highlight of the evening viz., Ms Rochana as a person with an inimitable style, melancholy voice and stunner looks, traditionally a ghazal singer with two albums to her credit and who explores her music in soul raga. Besides being a superb singer, Rochana is a voice training guru, a music composer and director, she is a link that connects classical music to love poems!

Rochana began the musical evening with us by saying that she was happy, nostalgic and proud to be with us that evening. Starting with the deeply melodious “tere nainon ne jaadu kiya”, the vintage of the songs rendered that evening dated back to 1949! Farid Khanum’s ‘aaj jaane ki zid na karo’ was greeted with wah-wahs and thunderous applause. A special dedication to rtn Kalpana was ‘babuji dheere chalna’ which was followed by Bollywood melodies like ‘kajara mohabbatwala’, ‘jabaan pe laaga re…’, ‘ae dil mujhe bata de, ‘jawaan hai mohabbat haseen hai zamana..’, ‘hoton se chulo tum’, ‘ishaaron ishaaron mein dil lene waale’. Each of the songs rendered were special in their own way, with the audience clapping in appreciation. The evening ended with ‘damadam mast kalandar’ with the audience freaking out completely and enjoying the rendition to their utmost!!

Kudos to the lady Rotarians of our Club for arranging such an entertaining and well enjoyed evening!!