When Clube Nacional, in Panjim threw its doors open in July, following a
hiatus of nearly two years of operation, the news was met with much elation.
But there is a far greater depth to the emotion behind it. For about a century,
the social club served as a hub of many gatherings in the city of Panjim. Upon
its reopening, many of its members rushed back in a need to celebrate ‘the good
old days’. However, along with some of the old faces, many newer, curious ones
waltzed in too, looking to see what all the hype was about.
The trend of social clubs being ‘cool’
can be attributed to a series of factors. There is the new hipster trend that
celebrates anything that is vintage, as valuable; there is the curiosity of
wanting to know what happens at social clubs, especially by those who aren’t
members (and membership can’t just be bought into); most of all, there is a
revival in the kind of activities and services being offered by these once
almost defunct institutions, which are making them all the more appealing.
For instance, let us turn our attention
southward, to ‘Clube Harmonia de Margao’,
which through many of its more recent initiatives and very vibrant organising
committee, has turned the club’s direction around. This is exemplified by their
ever-popular event, the ‘Margao Tinto’. The clube celebrates its centenary year
in 2017 and the current president, Ameet Pinto, along with his team, has spared
no expense (monetary or otherwise) in making sure that the club is a place that
has a tag of desirability attached to it.
Speaking on some of the activities being
undertaken as a part of the centenary year, Ameet shares a few details, saying,
“In honour of the centenary year, we’ve been organising programmes for a while
now. In fact, we have one every month. We began with ‘Discover Margao’, a
treasure hunt with photographic clues in around Margao. We had about 25 teams
which participated. We had to shut entries at 25 teams, since it was difficult
to accommodate more participants. In the month of August, we organised a fado-themed evening that was a huge
success, attended by about 300 people. It had greater reaching consequences,
because the club lent the premises to Sonia Shirsat to conduct a fado workshop, and thereafter, we
felt it would be a good opportunity for her students to perform along with her.
Just two evenings ago, we had a stand-up comedy event attended by a lot of
youngsters, which was also sold out. Earlier in the year, we had organised a
summer camp for children from the age group of 3-12, for which 75 kids were
registered in the month of May. This was followed by our signature ‘Tinto’ in June.”
All of these celebrations will come to a
close on October 28, where a photography exhibition will also be held,
celebrating and displaying photographs of events held at the club, from the
time it started, till date.
However, one of the biggest hurdles
faced by the current committee was drawing the younger crowd back into the
fold. “We have somehow managed to get the younger generation back (and
interested) in the club by having a lot of events for them. This does not mean
that we have forgotten the older crowd, for whom there are events of interest
too, such as the ‘Friday Forum’, held every second Friday of the month, which
has been a big success. We have had 18 so far, not having missed a single
Friday since we began, and the attendance has only been on the rise,” Ameet
adds.
Ameet also makes it a point to highlight
how there has to be allowance for non-members at events too, as it is not
possible to run events with only members making up the numbers. Having said
that, he also asserts that by initiatives such as differential rates for
members and non-members, the former will always have a place of consideration,
as is their right.
For many in the capital city, it is
considered a privilege to be proud members of the illustrious, century-old
socio-cultural club that is Clube
Nacional, in Panjim. For that same lot, it was considered a rather dark day
in the club’s history, when the entire roof of the office and restaurant
section collapsed. Fortunately, given that it was a Sunday and there were no
occupants at the time, there was no negative impact in terms of damage to
living beings. The premises has since been rebuilt, under the able leadership
of Tony Dias, the club’s president, along with his governing body.
Tony himself has, over the years, become
as much of an institution as the club and reflects upon its revival over the
last couple of years, saying, “It was not an easy task to undertake all the
repairs, with all the problems that we faced. However, it was through the hard
work of the committee members that we were able to revive the beautiful ‘clube’ in such a short span of time.”
In the processing of preserving the
physical structure of their club, Tony and Co. have also managed to preserve
all that the club’s essence stands for. Perhaps without even realising it, what
they’ve effectively done is taken a huge step towards keeping local heritage
alive. The very foundation of Clube
Nacional has once more come alive in the best way possible, with many
of the locals having made it their own watering hole once again.
If rumours are to be believed,
then Clube Nacional’s ‘frenemy’,
the ever-potent Clube Vasco da Gama may
well be on the rise too. While it’s not all cut-and-dried just yet, there are
very strong rumblings of a revival on that front that will make it a place
where the young and old can mix through common interests of music and
conversation, bringing back a touch of grace to its once near-hallowed halls.
However, strong as the grapevine may be, these remain rumours right about now,
and one can but hope that they prove to be more tangible with the passage of
time.
These clubs are
the ones in the spotlight, with all that they are currently doing to elevate
themselves from a status of dormancy, to that of being a powerhouse on the
social front, just like the good old days. And everybody talks about the good
old days like they were the glory years of Goa. So surely, this must be a
massive step in the right direction, socially.
