Bombay Gymkhana members irked over upcoming event for Women's Day

The Bombay Gymkhana club

A proposal to host a function at the Bombay Gymkhana club at Fort on the weekend before Women's Day has irked members for two reasons: an event during the pandemic, and the fact that it is a fashion show. ‘With our very own ladies walking the ramp,' read the poster announcing the recent audition for the March 6 event.

International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8 annually, but many events are held on weekends closest to the date. The decision to hold the function at the SoBo venue has come in for fierce criticism and members are letting fly in online messages both to the committee and amongst themselves.

Anger simmering within

Some online exchanges are a showcase to the anger simmering within. Nandini Sardesai, Sociology professor, long-time club member and well-known for making a case for gender parity within the club, said she sent an email to the Managing Committee on February 13, and "it has also been sent to at least 100 members."

The upscale club at Fort. Pics/Suresh Karkera

The senior citizen has urged restraint and common sense. Sardesai stated in her communiqué, "Caution has been thrown to the winds as if there were no pandemic. No other club in Mumbai is doing any celebration! Last year also when all clubs were gearing up for the lockdown, and cancelled all events, the Bombay Gym went ahead and had events for both Holi and Women's Day."

And, if this Women's Day event has to happen, she thinks it should in a more appropriate way, by replacing the ramp walk with honouring women frontline workers. She said, "The day should be observed with sobriety especially after the suffering, anguish and sorrow so many have endured in the past few months. There are so many frontline women workers who should be gratefully acknowledged with sobriety and quietude!" The gender equality activist said that women should not be viewed as "eye candy".

Response rush

Sardesai's communication has invited a host of responses, many of them supportive. A writer and columnist has said this is "beyond pathetic." A former club president has gone beyond the hosting of this event and expressed strong displeasure at the eight guests per member rule on regular days. Other members, too, are peeved at the number of guests that leads to crowding, as there is little space for members themselves and they are being crowded out. "Is the Bombay Gymkhana for members and families, or mainly for guests?" the former president has asked. A well-known activist at the forefront of saving open spaces has called the eight-guest rule "shocking" and has also called out holding of "crowded events," slamming desperation and asking why we don't see "better sense."

Another member has endorsed the view about the nature of the women's celebration being jarring, asking on email, "How is parading women up and down a ramp a celebration of them. It would have been much nicer for the club to felicitate frontline workers."

The other side

Bombay Gym president Aga Hussain said they have and will continue to follow all COVID-19 protocols. Responding to a question on the fashion show, Hussain on Thursday told mid-day, "We are constantly monitoring the scenario and will see, even though we adhere to all guidelines, if we want to scale down the event or do a rethink. The club has a Social Activity Committee, which deems what is appropriate and what is inappropriate. This is then put to the Managing Committee that takes a call as to whether to go ahead. There will always be people who are supportive and those who think otherwise." Hussain added that a recent Valentine's Day event at the club, panned by members for the number of people and lack of physical distancing, "had everybody following guidelines."

On the eight-guests rule, he said, "We allow eight guests on weekdays, Monday to Thursday, and four guests on weekends. There is place for members. Even as we speak, I am on the club's balcony and there are three tables that are occupied. I had lunch earlier at the bar and there was just me and a friend at one table," he finished.