Club 24 Plus Celebrates Valentine’s Day with Family, Fun and Philanthropy

Club 24 2018 President Manisha Gandhi with founder-member Ashok Garg.

Club 24 2018 President Manisha Gandhi with founder-member Ashok Garg. Photos: Bijay Dixit

By Pramod Kulkarni

HOUSTON:

Sunday, February 11 was a cold, overcast day. Once Club 24 Plus members arrived at Magiano’s in the Galleria in their red and pink fineries, the atmosphere quickly changed to the warmth of a joyous Valentine’s Day celebration.

Club-24-in-3

Sangeeta Pasrija serenades her husband Arun with a romantic song as part of the Valentine’s games.

This was the first event of 2018 for President Manisha Gandhi, who took over from Immediate Past President Pradeep Gupta.  “I am truly honored to represent Club 24 this year,” said Manisha.

Club-24-in-2

Social Events member Nimmo Bhagat (left) and Chair Hansa Kothari did a super job of setting up the Valentine’s Day décor, portrait sessions and parting gifts.

“My special thanks to Pradeep for his leadership last year as well as past presidents, Asha Dhume and Sangeeta Pasrija, and to Kiran Gupta for setting up this event before going to India, and to founder-member Ashok Garg for being the backbone of the organization.”

“I think this club represents a family, an accomplished group of members of Who’s Who of the Indo-American community in Houston,” continued Manisha.

Club-24-in-1

Sharing a table at the Club 24 Valentine’s Day party were Tej & Sita Ganjoo (left), Hansa & Atul Kothari, Dr. Suresh Moonat, Nimmo & Ratan Bhagat and Alpa Shah.

“I want the club to progress in terms of diversity and bringing in more members such as Harris Country Judge Michael Landrum and his wife Mary Grace.”

Manisha suggested a new theme for Club 24: “East meets west and west meets east”, which takes the Indo-American community into the mainstream and vice versa, so we can both learn about each other’s cultures and assimilate. We have many outreach events planned for this year to accomplish this goal.”

Social Events Chair Hansa Kothari and member Nimmo Bhagat had arranged for special Valentine’s Day portraits by professional photographer Bijay Dixit and parting gifts in bright, red Valentine’s Day gift bags.

They also organized a game that called on representative couples from each of the tables to perform a romantic gesture to their partner such as performing a love song.

“Valentine’s Day is about friendship, love and caring, and creating bonds with each other,” explained Manisha. “This events fits another of Club 24’s theme of family, fun and philanthropy.”

Manisha then introduced new office bearers for 2018. These included: Treasurer: Rajni Jain, Committee chairs: Nominations- Ashok Garg, Special events – Hansa Kothari, Signature events – Alpa Shah, Outreach – Mary Grace Landrum, and Communication- Venu Rao.

Manisha then introduced new members to the club. They were Drs. Chand and Veena Mathur, Drs. Suresh and Sunita Moonat, Bhavna Sharma and Dr. Rahul Puri, Ratan and Judge Nimmo Bhagat, Vishakha and Sumit Deora, and Vanitha and Bharat Pothuri.

Absent new members were Madhu and Anil Goel, Vijay and Marie Goradia and Dr. Ramesh Krishnan. New members, who will be inducted in March 2018, will be Sita and Tej Ganjoo.

On a somber note, Ashok Garg mentioned to Club 24 attendees about senior member Dr. K.T. Shah being in the ICU and urged the members to send him their best wishes and speedy recovery.