A sparkling Garba mela in Patan
All roads in Gujarat led to Patan, a small historical town 125km to the northwest of Ahmedabad, as this ancient place is quite popular for hosting a 10-day Garba Dandiya festival in Sep-Oct Navratri times. The Garba nights with dandiya dance is organised by RAC Patan, RID 3055, and attracts more than a lakh people from across the state.
In fact, most of the Rotarians and Rotaractors from RID 3055 look forward to participate in this mega Navratri musical nights being staged on Panjarapol ground — a place for rehabilitation of stray cattle — which is decked up with festival shamiana (a huge canopy) and other colourful banners, flyers and buntings under floodlights,” explains Chetan Prajapati, a dual member and club advisor of RAC Patan.
As a ticketed event, Project Rankaar is a 32-year-old major fundraiser for the Rotaract club and “we collect a sizeable amount each year for our service projects and other community initiatives,” he says. The 10th night is celebrated as Dussehra to mark “the victory of Lord Ram over demon king Ravan that symbolised the eternal triumph of good over evil in this world,” he smiles.
Five years ago, each Navratri celebration in Patan had a new title given by the Rotaractors, “but from 2020, we got to call it by the same name, Rankaar which means ‘the echo of a particular musical beat’. The club has set a fundraising target of ₹11 lakh from the Garba nights this year as compared to ₹8 lakh collected last year (2024–25).
The 36-year-old Rotaract club has another iconic project called Shaurya Sandhya (heroic evening) with a tagline Ek Shaam Shahid ke Naam, which means ‘one evening in the name of soldiers’. They honour the families of soldiers, who had laid down their lives guarding our frontiers, with cash prizes and mementos in a grand awards ceremony, says Prajapati. Patriotic skits, dance performances, songs and recounting the battlefield events of deceased soldiers “create a sense of bonding with the bravehearts’ families as some of their valorous sacrifices are being narrated for the first time to the public,” he explains. Over the last nine six years, the club honoured 80 families of soldiers killed in action with cash prizes and mementos at the awards ceremony, being held every two years. “Some of them were felicitated at their homes as they don’t want their sons’ (or husbands) heroic deed to be publicised.”
Consisting of over 100 Rotaractors, around 90 per cent of them are college students, and the rest are working professionals and small entrepreneurs, “our parent Rotarians (from RC Patan) extend their moral and monetary support to our service initiatives,” says club president Jayesh Shivamkumar Patel. “We are always ready to carry out our service projects that add value to the society in and around Patan.”
One constant feature of their service outreach is the holding of blood donation camps throughout the year in Patan and nearby villages. “We hold the blood donation drive at different places with the support of local hospitals, and collect hundreds of units each year,” says Prajapati. A mega blood donation camp during Operation Sindoor collected around 350 bottles of blood and “this event boost the public image of Rotaractors.”
Working as an assistant professor at the Government Arts and Commerce College, Sami, a taluk in Patan district, Chetan Prajapati has been a Rotaractor for 15 years and a member of RC Patan for five years. On his Rotary-Rotaract coordination work, he says, “this job has been a tremendous boost for me, adding so many values of social responsibility in my life.” As most of the Rotaractors are his former students, “who have learnt under me, they respect me and are ready to share social responsibility for the good of the community,” he smiles.
