Ananda Yaan Sports Day 2020

The Rotary Club of Bombay’s Ananda Yaan Centres – Dr. E Moses Road and Byculla (a joint initiative by Dignity Foundation and RCB) had their first-ever Sports Day on February 22nd, 2020. Over 100 senior citizens participated. We invited the Rotaract members of ISME School of Management to curate and organise the races. Care was taken to ensure that all the races were safe for seniors and, at the same time, a lot of fun. We booked the ground next to our Byculla centre to ensure that our senior members would not have to travel too far in the morning. Timing was the key to the successful event as with rising temperatures, we had to safeguard that all the performances and races went like clockwork to finish by noon before the sun hit its peak.

The ISME, Rotary and Dignity teams reached the ground early in the morning; the event was scheduled for 10 am. All three teams got to work and speedily set up a pandal, the race tracks, the podium and arranged equipment for the different races. We had invited the Hon. MLA Yamini Jadhav to be our Chief Guest and Municipal Corporator Ramakant Rahate to be the Guest of honour. President Preeti Mehta and Dignity Foundation Founder Sheilu Sreenivasan graced the occasion. Both felicitated the Chief Guest and Guest of honour. Rtn. Ptn. Gautam Mehta, PP Rtn. Ramesh Narayan, Rtn. Ptn. Devi Narayan, Rtn. Madhusudan Daga, Rtn. Manish Reshamwala, Rtn. Rajesh Shah, Rtn. Alok Sekhsaria, Rtn. Ptn. Ekta Shah, Rtn. Vandan Shah, Rtn. S V Prasad, Rtn. Ptn. Jaya Prasad, Rtn. Varsha Daiya, Rtn. Pranay Vakil, Rtn. Poonam Lalwani, Rtn. Ajit Lalwani, Mr. Ramnath and Ms. Rashmi Bapna also attended. It was a colourful sight with
over 150 people donning red caps with the Ananda Yaan logo. Our senior citizens were most excited, some of the ladies had even worn shoes borrowed from their children.

Before the races started, the senior citizens put up Zumba and Bollywood dance performances. The seniors sure knew how to shake a leg and swing an arm.

ISME Rotaractors had arranged for 10 funfilled races. Races like Lemon & Spoon, Balloon race, the three-legged race, a shopping race and a football race were a big hit. It was wonderful to see their resilience; A few seniors, due to physical challenges took longer to their complete their 20 meters but they did not give, step after step, each and every race was completed. The crowds cheered them on. It was true sportsmanship and perseverance. Looking at the gusto of the seniors, President Preeti Mehta, Dignity Foundation Founder Sheilu Sreenivasan, MLA Yamini Jadhav, Municipal Corporator Ramakant Rahate, PP Ramesh Narayan and others participated in an impromptu race. Gold, silver and bronze medals along with shawls and water dispensers were presented by the Rotarians to the winners. Rtn. Poonam Lalwani, Rtn. Charu Agarwal and Rtn. Ptn. Miloni Sampat generously arranged for and donated the shawls and water dispensers. As a matter of fact, we had a photo-finish in one race; we had to see the video to judge who came first. The entire race management was done professionally.

The final event was the tug-of-war between Dr. E Moses Road and Byculla centres. It was just supposed to be 15 people on each side but each and every senior citizen from the centre wanted to participate. Finally the rope could accommodate only 30 people from each side. After much heaving, tugging and lots of screaming, the Dr. E
Moses Road centre won. It was amazing to see the merriment.

The Day ended with the bottle, bucket and water game by ISME Rotaractors. All the seniors and dignitaries cheered them on. We successfully ended the event before noon. All the seniors took their lunch packets and were safely on their way home. A special thanks to Riya Jain and team of ISME College and Rahul Ursekar of Dignity Foundation to connect all the dots that aced the event.