The Saree Club, as a not-for-profit organisation, has one over-arching brief: our yearly calendar teems with activities that are meaningful, community-focussed, and fun. It was with this in mind that we decided to do something unique to jazz up one of the winter months’ meets. In short, to have a masked ball: the first of its kind, a masked ball with everyone dressed in a saree. The idea was lapped up no sooner than it was floated, and the core team of the club swung into action choosing the venue, organising a DJ, selecting favourite dance numbers, finalising the menu, and of course, purchasing the masks that would be included in the ticket price. It was also decided to make the event public.
The attendee list ticked on slowly at first, gathering momentum as word got around. Come the second week of August, we had dozens of ladies getting frantic to secure a ticket. The day, 17th August, arrived, free of the incessant rains that had blighted most of a cold August. The venue, Pro Regal at Wentworthville, glittered with the promise of a magical evening as ladies walked in, its dance hall spacious, as also a designated dance floor, and a servery well separated from the dance area. The initial 5pm start stretched to 5.30 pm to allow for late arrivals, of the ladies, as well of the DJ, who was rushing from another event. However, the music was started up by the attending staff who were most professional and solicitous.
Ladies were handed their masks as they registered, and the first 15-20 minutes were taken up by greetings and photo shoots. Once DJ Sushil turned up, Poornima got the evening going by welcoming everyone and explaining housekeeping rules and describing some of the games we had organised. The dancing opened with a Happy Birthday number to wish Kalrav, a core team member whose birthday it happily happened to be. As Kalrav executed a solo dance, feet started tapping all over the hall. The excitement kept building to the first item, a dance medley choreographed by the inimitable Rupa and her troupe, consisting of Sai, Poornima, Sneha, Jigna, Anjalee, Sejal, Manisha and Kavitha.
As the sound system belted out Piya tu, from Karvaan, a Bollywood hit of the yesteryear, Rupa and her troupe thrummed up the dance floor, changing their steps, rhythm, style, alignments, and artistic movements as the accompanying music changed genre and form. In all, a scintillating performance that brought the house down with resounding applause. All this, while delicious entrée was served by the well-trained venue staff. At the same time, three members of the core team went around greeting ladies at all the tables, and unknown to anyone, made their selection of three ladies best dressed in a saree.
A late start of 30 minutes meant that we had to abandon or re-improvise some of the games we had planned. That said, everyone joined in Passing the Parcel, which, for want of an actual parcel, was executed with a cushion. As the cushion went from table to table, it often got flung across the hall, till ladies were reminded that either the cushion, or a lady, or some crockery could come to grief by the cushion’s forceful landing.
Thereafter, the game proceeded with proper decorum. At each stop, ladies at the table were requested to nominate a song which they then had to dance to. This way everyone got a chance to go up to the dance floor and jive. Out of eleven tables, the one that was voted as having the best dancers was Pooja Wadhwa’s table. The ladies, eight in all, were then invited to the dance floor and presented with prizes.
More fun came with announcement of the three best-dressed ladies chosen by the judges Bhumita, Sonali and me. While the selections had been made individually, there was consensus among the judges that the three ladies chosen were indeed the best dressed, having draped their sarees in unique styles and accessorised accordingly. As the three winners, Rakhee, Jaibe and Meghna Gandhi were announced, they were each asked to come up to the dance floor and were presented with a gorgeous saree each, these having been sponsored by Club members.
The second game we played was that of unmasking, where bowls placed on each table were used by the ladies for dropping a folded piece of paper. Each of these papers had a secret about its writer that none of their friends, including best friends, were aware of. As these slips were picked at random and read aloud by Rupa and Jigna, there was much guesswork to pinpoint whose secret was being unmasked. Some of the secrets revealed were not just naughty, interesting and playful, but altruistic too. Having completed the unmasking, Rupa launched into a surprise unmasking, reading a poem, and asking the audience who it pertained to. As the ladies sang out the name at the end of each stanza, getting the name right for almost every stanza, behind Rupa and Jigna, a table with a two-tier cake was wheeled out, and Poornima, the lady unmasked, was taken completely by surprise: a Birthday cake heralding her 60th Birthday on the morrow. Crafted by the very talented Sneha Jaganiya, the icing on the cake even matched the colours Poornima had worn to the ball. What was more, asking Sneha to bake it was representative of the Saree Club’s promise to support its members in all their endeavours. As we all gathered around a very surprised birthday girl, the audience erupted into the strains of Happy Birthday for the second time on the day. Deeply overcome, Poornima cut the cake, and then thanked everyone for the surprise, the loving gesture, and the love.
Over the evening, and as dinner got underway, Poornima also took time to record her appreciation of several people. The first to be thanked were the core team, or the Club engine, consisting of Sonali, Jigna, Rupa, Bhumita, Dipika, Kalrav, Manisha Upadhyay, Namita, Nita and me. Poornima was especially appreciative of Rupa and her dancers, who had led the dancing with full commitment, enthusiasm and dedicated practice despite working full time. Also highlighted was the dedication of Manisha Doshi who had since long moved to Adelaide but had flown back just to be part of the Masquerade. Namita was appreciated for making it to the ball straight from another event, while Dipika, who could not be present on account of being committed elsewhere had still stepped in to organise the surprise birthday cake. These words of appreciation were the oil that kept the Saree Club functioning as seamlessly and cohesively as it did.
As dinner and dessert got served, ladies continued to dance, either coming up to the dance floor, or breaking into a jig right where they were, at their tables. The music, consisting of favourite numbers over the years, from Chin Chin Choo to One Way Ticket to the Blue to the finale of Dancing Queen kept us all on our toes. We danced all evening. Venue permitting, we would have danced all night.
– Ravinder Kaur Bali
