RCPM Club Day Come March and RCPM starts gearing up for the annual club day. This year with our ever enthusiastic Rtn.Varsha as club admin. it had to be something to look forward to. The talented Varsha came up with a brilliant idea.”Navras Expressions”. Based on Bharatmuni’s ‘Natyashastra’, the nine Rasas had to be emoted by nine groups. President Bhavana took charge. After many meetings, discussions and of course fellowships, later nine groups were formed along with a sutradhar group. Our work was done and Metroites started on. Everything was a suspense and everybody waited for 28th April. On the D-day there was Navras in the air. The program started at dot 6.30 pm with the felicitation of past Presidents. Mike was then handed over to ”Sutradhar” group and wow!!Vandana and Pramod Joglekar started on backed by a brilliant script by Madhavi Kulkarni and Kavita Deshpande. Not to forget the help by Girish and Anagha Ranade, Datta Deshpande and Vivek Kulkarni. The first ras was ‘Shringar”. And who else but the romantic couples Madhura-Hemant, Neha-Madhav, Sneha-Uday and stylish Aparna could have done it better? Dances on romantic songs fully showcased the shringar. Then was “Hasya Ras”. Raja Utturkar, Milind Upsani, Dilip Nimkar and Tau performed a skit based on legendary Pu.La.Deshpande’s ‘Bhramanmandal’ .Hasya filled the auditorium. Third was “Raudra Ras”. This was an all Anns performance And they did a great job. Snehlata Chatare, Madhavi Gandhi, Shubhada Joshi, Anjali Joshi and Poornima Halbe aptly showed the raudra emotion on ‘Shiv -Tandav’. Very entertaining. Then came the “Karun Ras “.Must say the team of Anjali and Vishwas Sastrabuddhe and Vaijayanti and Avinash Satpute did full justice to the emotion. Their renditions were very heart touching and eyes were moist. Suddenly there was total darkness and a masked man came running in the audience. A heartbeat skipped and then started a presentation of Film clips . “Bhayanak Ras”. Fear in the eyes of actors and fear in the mind of viewers. A really fearful presentation by Mohan Chatre, Neelkanth Joshi, Shardul Gandhi, Harsha Halbe and Satish Shingade. This was followed by “Veer Ras". Courage and Indian Army are synonyms. An act on the brave Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman was the ultimate showcase of veer ras. Arusha, Rajendra and Yash Majali, Neelima, Deepak and Sharv Bodhani, Mukund and Mughda Chiplunkar, Jyoti Shirodkar, Makarand Phadke and Aneel Joshi were the Veers. A wonderful tribute to our veer jawans . ‘”Adbhut” amazing , miraculous……This ras was captured in the miracles of nature. A beautiful presentation of some film clips showing miracles in nature was tastefully done by Nayana Joshi, Dr.Varsha Bapat and Manasi Kulkarni. Truly Adbhut. The “Bhakti Ras” was the next. Like the Navrasas there are 9 forms of Bhakti...-Bhajan, Abhang, Ovi, Gondhal, Bhupali, Vasudev…..these forms were shown through songs, dance and acts by Vasanti Bedekar, Padma Shahane, Milind and Poornima Ghaisas, Shubhada and Abhay Joglekar , Ujjwala and Shirish Lawate, Madhavi Potdar and Meera Nimkar.The environment became pious. With Bhakti filled in the hall, the last ras began.”Shant Ras”‘…Some information about the ras and a peaceful ,divine music started playing with a candle dance very soothing; A meditative environment was created with the ‘Shanti Mantra’ which was also translated in English. This act was carefully crafted by Ashwini Joshi, Seema Deshpande, Madhavi Chauhan, Smita Kulkarni and Rajshree Sakunde . And the “Samarop”.A ‘thank you’ by the President, Club Admin and Convener. A cake cutting ritual and the buffet was open. Thank you all for your co-operation. Thanks also to Balasaheb Shinde for making the auditorium available and Rajendra Majali and team for technical support. A big bang 23rd club day.