Garba festival a showstopper in Patan
Come Navratri, the nine-day festival of celebrating Goddess Durga, the historical town of Patan, 120km north of Ahmedabad, will bristle with Garba dance and music as the Rotaract Club of Patan, RID 3055, will host a 10-day fun fair titled Rankaar. “The Navratri event is our nine-year-old flagship project and last year (2024) we spent ₹37 lakh in organising the Garba event with generous donations from sponsors and gate collections as it is a ticketed programme. Each day, we have thousands of visitors, including around 125 Rotaractors and their families, performing and enjoying the Garba mela,” says Milan Paresh Patel, club president (2024–25).
The huge dance arena reverberates with musical tunes and beats from artistes who play different instruments, while traditional and film songs with catchy rhymes create a magical ambience in the dance hall. “Last year, we hired 17 artistes to perform music, and the response from the public is awesome,” he says. Patel is hopeful that in this new Rotary year too, “we will recreate the Garba magic with good participation from the locals and sponsorship from local enterprises.”
During the Jagannath Rath Yatra 80 Rotaractors reached out to thousands of devotees visiting this small town and distributed 13,000 ice cream cups and cones as summer relief.
Then DGN Nigam Chaudhari (2026–27) was the chief guest at the felicitation of 13 families of soldiers killed in their line of action under Project Shaurya Sandhya. “Each soldier’s family was given a cash reward of ₹1.11 lakh and mementos as token gestures for the supreme sacrifice of their husbands/sons who laid down their lives in protecting our nation on the borders,” says Patel Shivam Jayeshkumar, the then club secretary, and new club president. Patriotic skits, storytelling, dance performances and a musical tribute by live orchestra with heartfelt songs enriched the programme with strings of vibrant emotions and nostalgia among the audience.
Veteran army men recalled their battlefield incidents, and beneficiary families shared their irreparable loss of their breadwinners on stage, which made the event a poignant one that will not be forgotten, says Jayeshkumar. “We are honouring the families of soldiers killed in action over the last four years in partnership with our parent RC Patan and Prayas Welfare Foundation. DGN Chaudhari was all praise for Rotaractors and Rotarians of Patan for conceiving and doing this impactful project of felicitating the bravehearts’ families for years,” he says.
Under Project Baby Bliss, the club has distributed 755 newborn wellness kits to mothers at the government civil hospital, Patan. “A group of Rotaractors used to visit the hospital and present the newborn kits to 6–8 mothers each day, thus lifting our public image and also creating awareness about Rotary-Rotaract among the patients and in the neighbourhood,” says Milan Patel.
During the Jagannath Rath Yatra, an annual event in Patan, around 80 Rotaractors reached out to thousands of devotees visiting this small town and “distributed 13,000 ice cream cups and cones to them as relief from harsh summer in June this year. In July 2024 too we had another seva camp for devotees of Lord Jagannath, and have been rendering service to pilgrims arriving in Patan for eight years or so,” he explains.
Having been in Rotaract for 13 years, Milan Patel (29) is a wholesale dealer in construction materials. “I will join RC Patan, the parent club of Rotaractors, after two years and continue my service there too as I have done in Rotaract,” he smiles. The 32-year-old RAC Patan has 100 Rotaractors with college students and professionals in equal numbers.
