Mahro Marward ... One step taken for a Giant leap!

                                       RCC Platinum comes of age...  

That's the feeling I had in the closing  moments of Mahro Marwad... It is not that a fund raiser was conceptualised for the first time by Platinos, nor was it the first time that a few people were very excited about generating funds for noble causes. In fact,  I have been in many of those committees that set out to achieve similar goals. Our attempts have ranged from trying to get Atif Aslam to sing for us, to Kailash Kher, to World Food Festival.  We in fact joined hands with RCC, Rajasthan Association Tamil Nadu & Rajasthan Foundation to host Pushkar back in 2006, and all involved will love to recall what a 'pull'kar it was...

But, it was the first time that somebody showed a lot of conviction, and Platinos rallied behind that conviction. Kudos to Harish, Abhishek and the team for having pulled it off. Writing this piece and reading this piece isn't even a fraction of effort that this team had put in. 

Having started on the path of bringing Kailash Kher back in August and not beings able to complete the marathon, the team was desperate to make it happen this time around. Operation Mahro Marwad was started with an intent to create history, and the team managed to create one. Right from selecting the theme, to selecting the artists, finalising the venue, to getting the sponsors and to finalising the art work, decisions had to be meticulously executed, because, this time RCC Platinum would be in front of the society creating its own.

Attention was paid to small things - the design of tickets and publicity material, which was appreciated by one and all; the ambience at the venue - the bandhnis; the dress code of Platinos - remember the royally dressed people on the royal evening... Thanks Platinos for turning out in dress code that evening.

The two big tasks that has to be accomplished for the show to achieve its primary tasks were to of course get the sponsors - people who would trust e ability of Platinos; and to sell those 1,192 tickets. Both were easily achieved, respectively with the great work from Harish (on sponsors) and the combined effort of Platinos in selling tickets. Worthy of specific mention would be the ticket selling efforts of Sanjeev Dugar and Dharmendar Luniya.

The Dhwani troupe did a great job of singing excellent and melodious Folk Songs of Rajasthan to the audience. Each of the songs were well appreciated and enjoyed. Not to mention the outstanding show by the khad taal players, which was loved by the audience. Post the show, I know there are quite few fans of Rajasthani Folk Songs, including yours truly, who have taken up to listening to Marwadi music.

Platinos! This is well begun... Where do we go from here? We launched 'Paani' that evening. Recall? Paani was the project that was conceived at sTaMpEdE... A project like Paani, requires not only finances, but resources both human and mechanical and of course a lot of time. So, let's pool up and create more history in the years to come...

In pursuit of Purple Patch... Dhiraj Bothra

The Ultimate Dhamaal ....Diva Diwali Dhamaal

Diva Diwali was a event to bring up ladies talent in a very interesting way... As soon as we ladies heard about this event... We all got so engrossed in it and we were all so curious to know what is it all about..... and once  the rules and regulations were out , there was a full on hunt for partners 'n ideas !!!!

Finally the day came in .... when i entered and saw so many ladies traditionally dressed n accessorized ..... Few of those lehenga's were looking gorgeous .... Special mention for Purvi Sanghvi , Poonam Jain , Rupali Srisrimal... they were looking so beautiful and deserved best dressed as they were rightly awarded !!!

First of the two events "Diya Arrangement" started on time... and it was a nice experience to see the competitors working on it ... They all had different ideas over it and every diya decor was different from the other one .... I personally loved the diya decor of Kavitha Mardia and Kavitha Bothra as it was simple and very creative by using only diyas and rose flowers petals and making Lakshmiji out of it.


Then came in the second event which was the mithai and snacks competition. This was very competitive as we found around 26 participants in mithai and 12 participants in savories. Seeing everyone's creativity and ideas was actually making me loose my nerves. Believe me all of them worked very hard on this !! 

While the judges were tasting and judging we were well entertained and relaxed with poker games by the ladies wing committee who were all on their toes.

You name it and the mithai and savories were there .... Phirni, mawa-kachori, rabdi ka malpua, churma, diya baati, choco kalakand, paneer pan masala, badami trio, dilkush khaaja , vegetable stuffed nimki, patra, karela twisters, phalar kachori.... and many more. All we ladies freaked out in tasting each others dishes. With nothing to differentiate much in terms of superb taste and presentation only 3 of them could take away the prizes. In sweets the take away were Sunita Jain, Ashwini  Kankaria and Nikita Sethiya  .... And the savories take away were Sashi Bafna, Chandrakala Ghemawath and Pooja Tatia.

I think we all will agree to the fact that the ladies wing committee has been taking a lots of efforts to bring in new ideas with every program and giving ladies a break from their daily routine.

Kudos to all the committee members and three cheers to Naveen Galada !

By Divya Galada

SMASH HIT

Few words by Sushil Sethiya!


Smash It was truly a Smash Hit. Kudos to the entire sports committee for bringing out such a wonderful event, with an assurance that it continues for 10 more years by the introduction of Rolling Trophy.

We were all welcomed with an appetizing breakfast @ YMCA Nandanam. As we entered the arena I noticed many big boxes neatly kept on a table in the corner of the hall, which made me wonder whether it was full of snacks for the whole day we ought to play. But as the boxes were opened and one by one the trophies were taken out my mind started the premonition of taking home at least one. When the three Rolling Trophies were revealed, most of the eyes were glued to it and I started thinking “had I known the trophies to be so gorgeous I would have put in a little more of practice”.

The event kicked off with a lot of ado and fanfare whether it was Table Tennis or Badminton. After the initial rounds few were knocked out and few were able to advance further.  The competition became fierce now, everyone trying their level best. I was amazed to see so many ladies playing badminton and covet for the trophy but Rani Dasot became the Queen in the Women’s Badminton taking home the first Rolling Trophy.

In the game of Table Tennis, Sunil Chordia though fully tired made every attempt and clinched the Rolling Trophy in TT. He proved that he was still a TT Champ, having won another RCCP TT tournament 5 years ago. Kumar Bhaiya was just a shade behind ending up being the runner-up again to Sunil.

By now, while most of the Platinos were worn out, Vivek Bhandari with his persistent effort established his presence in all the forms of Badminton championships. It was his day in Men’s Badminton, winning the Rolling Trophy for Singles, Men’s Doubles (along with Sailesh) and Mixed  Doubles (with Swetha). Deepak Baid ended as the runners up on each of the Badminton events - Singles, Mixed Doubles (with Asha) and Doubles (with Piyush).

The Men’s Doubles Finals was ‘the match of the day’, with action, anxiety, agility (read Piyush falling down to reach the shuttle and getting up for the next shot!) all through the 40-minute 10-15, 22-20, 15-8 match. While Vivek will be the man to beat next year, there are Platinos (just like me) all charged to clinch the ‘big one’ next year. So Vivek, make hay (with the trophy) while the sun shines…

Championships	Winner	Runners up
Inter Mode International Men’s Badminton Rolling Trophy	VIVEK BHANDARI	DEEPAK BAID
Jain Impex Women’s Badminton Rolling Trophy	RANI DASOT	URVI BHANSALI
Dharmichnd Kothari Men’s Table Tennis Rolling Trophy	SUNIL CHORDIA	KUMAR BHAIYA

Even the kids had a good  bash. The first year of Rolling Trophy and Smash IT… oops Smash HIT was an astounding event to be cherished for the years to come. Cheers to Deepak Baid and the entire sports team for an amazing SMASH HIT

 

Championships	Winner	Runners up
Badminton Men’s Doubles	VIVEK BHANDARI/ SAILESH JHAMBER	DEEPAK BAID / PIYUSH BOKARIA
Badminton Mixed Doubles	VIVEK & SHWETA BHANDARI	DEEPAK & ASHA BAID
Table Tennis Men’s Doubles	KUMARPAL CHOPRA /KIRTI BAHETI	SIDDARTH KICHA /RAKESH JAIN
Badminton Junior Singles	DEV BHAIYA	ROHAN BOKARIA
Badminton Junior Doubles	ARYAN BOTHRA / DEV BHAIYA
Table Tennis Junior Singles	NAMAN SETHIYA	DEV BHAIYA

Stampede - An Unforgattable Event!

Special thanks to "Abhilash Khariwal" for sharing his thoughts... 

Well, well, well… it was rightly said “ROME was not built in a day” and time has proven this idiom to be true. This time, it has been proven factual by the humungous effort put forth and well executed by the RCCP’s energetic Cultural Team headed by Vedant Bhandari.

Vedant Bhandari and his Battalion with “Never Say Die attitude” platinos took up this awe-inspiring
task of heading the Cultural event and bringing together the 142 Platino family under a single roof
of Russian Culture on 12th August 2012 under the name and style of “The Stampede”. As the name
describes, “The Stampede” was planned and framed to be a fight between the four teams of RCCP
Platinos namely “Cowboys”, “Gladiators”, “Rodeos” and “Vikings”. From the day the event was declared to the Platinos, every single member team got together within their team as a single entity to put their individual effort to the team’s endeavor to somehow excel and emerge as the winner of the event. Indeed a praiseworthy effort by each of the team which proved to be the main ingredient to the success of “The Stampede”.

12th August 2012, 9.00am, grand doors of Russian Culture were opened for “The Stampede” and marked the presence of “Manish Malhotra”, “Mohammed Rafi”, “Lata mangeshkar”, “The great Chef – Sanjeev Kapoor”, “well known spoof comedian Crazy Mohan”, “Farah Khan”, “Derek ‘o’ Brian”, etc.
with the presence of all these personalities, the triumph of “the Stampede” was an easy milestone to be achieved. Confused, boggled, surprised and shocked to hear what I am talking about… undoubtedly!!

The combined effort of Vendant and his team brought out these personalities in each of the platinos who were a part of the numerous events of “The Stampede”. Started with the chanting of the Navkar mantra by the melodious sweet voice of Babita Bokadia followed by the heart touching number of Swades by Vedant himself, the day was declared open to energetic Platinos to showcase their talents.

 

The day started with the most interesting and eye-lavishing event “Devil wears Prada” – a fashion show event. This event was no less than a grand fashion event of the Paris. It portrayed an entire wardrobe of admirable fashion wear admired by the stunned spectators. Infact, the competition began way back few days before the 12th August 2012. An event called “Show me the Money, Honey” was the first event o begin which was about investment and returns in the stock market (by virtual money). It brought out the “Mehta’s” and “Parekh’s” in the platinos and the Vikings emerged as the winners. The other pre-event was “Sand Sculpture” where each team was asked to build a sculpture made of sand with a social message to the society. This event proved that there is indeed a lot of hidden talent in each one of them except that they need the right opportunity to showcase them.

 

Back to the 12th August 2012, the entire day was filled with lot of interesting On-stage and Off-
stage events like “Mind-a-thon”, “Spell Bee”, “Taboo”, “Vegetable Carving”, “Chart Busters –
Antakshri”, “Gangs of Symphony”, “Hell’s Kitchen”, “Troussaeu Packing – Tray Art” etc. Few events that indeed stood out in the entire array of events were “SSSHHOOO Painting”, “X-Factor”, “Heads-On”, etc.“i-Project” was one such special event which threw open innumerable doors of ideas to the RCCP Trust towards the ignition of a good charitable project to serve to the society and the needy ones. It was an event well-praised by the judges and the other guests present in the event. 

An excellent mockery of a given situation, the event “Rama-Rama, Yeh Kya Drama” made all the
spectators giggle and laugh their way to stomachaches. The entire ambience was filled with energy, fun, joy and stiff competition to win the event. 

Finally, what the RCCP Platinum Cultural Event waits for was here to come. All the eyes waiting to see the splendid dance performance in the event named “In-Sync” experienced the rich form of Fusion dance by each of the team. The adrenaline tempo in each of the Platino was to its pinnacle by this event which marked the finale of the day. Post “In-Sync”, the energy in every platino never desired to sign-off or retire. The air was filled with so much of excitement that none wanted it to end so soon. 

But all that begins has to end and every competition has to have a winner.
Though there was an equal effort put forth by each team, the team “Vikings” emerged as the winner
of “The Stampede”.

STAMPEDE Champions!!!

    Champion of Champions - Vikings - Paresh Mardia & Team
    Runners up - Rodeos - Abhishek shah & Team
   

S.NO	Events	Team	Winners
1	Show me the Money, Honey	Vikings	Kumar Bhaiya, Ratnesh Mootha
2	Marina (Sand Sculpture)	Gladiators	Prashant Mandoth,Sandeep Baheti, Sunny Dugar & Swati Parakh
3	Devil Wears Prada	Vikings	Ankit Bardia, Ankita Bardia,Ashish Bhandari, Harish Srisrimal,Khushal Jain, Krati Bardia, Nidhi Srisrimal, Payal Mehta, Piyush Sanghvi,Priyanka Baid, Punam Jain, Rakesh Bohra, Shalini Bhandari, Shweta Bhandari,Veenu Bhansali, Vikas Jain & Vivek Bhandari
Mr.RCCP			Ankit Bardia
Ms.RCCP			Shweta Bhandari
Personality			Sonal Daga
Best Walk			Harish Srisrimal
Best Show Stopper			Ajay Kumar
4	iProjects	Vikings	Kumarpal Chopra, Ratnesh Mootha & Vardhman Parekh
5	Mind-a-thon	Cowboys	Vikas Singhvi, Seema Srisrimal & Deepika Seth
6	Gangs of Symphony	Rodeos	Abhishek Shah, Dinesh Bothra, Kavita Bothra, Nikitha Sethia, Purva Rathi, Roshan Lunkad, Shwetha Jhawar, Vivek Metha
7	X-Factors	Gladiators	Manish Gemawath & Chandrakala Gemwath
8	Chart Busters	Cowboys	Abhishek Seth, Neha Gothi & Sudhir Jain
9	Rama Rama ..Why the Drama	Rodeos	Abhishek Shah, Mahendra Bhansali & Kamlesh Bafna
Best Costume			Vivek Dasot
Best Acting			Priyanka Baid
10	In Sync	Gladiators	Ajay Dugar, Ankit Doshi, Ankita Doshi, Arihant Gothi, Bharat Betala , Nisha Betala , Rakesh Barmecha, Ruchika Toshniwal, Sunny Dugar, Tejprakash Chordia
Special Recognition			Vimal Karnawat
11	Knife Riders	Vikings	Jayshree Bhaiya & Nikita Mardia
12	Hell's Kitchen	Rodeos	Kavitha Bothra & Kompal Dangi
13	SSSHHOO …Painting on	Gladiators	Nisha Betala & Ruchika Toshniwal
14	Troussaeu Packing	Cowboys	Asha Bothra & Sunita Jain
15	Head- ON	Vikings	Harish Srisrimal & Ratnesh Mootha

  

Ladies Only!!!

The Ladies wing programme (and yes was meant only for ladies) was at Crimson Chakra, Adyar. Though a distance to travel but was good ‘short-long trip’ without hubbies n kids. The invite seemed to be pretty interesting, promising a pampered afternoon with lots of indulgence for the ladies.




At the venue, each of us were divided into 3-groups. And in terms of first set of pampering we were at liberty to enjoy back massage/leg massage/head massage as options. And other than this there was a professional tarot reader (telling us which team would win STAMPEDE), nail art and eye make-up . Must confess they were very interesting. The professionals had come from Spa Sansa. My personal experience of back massage was pretty soothing and relaxing and all other ladies experienced a similar experience.


Along with these indulgences, the ladies wing team had also organised a few games for us. In one of the games, we had to use plastic and make a model wherein the dress was made of plastic. It was one of the best games that I enjoyed since the 3-models presented by each of the 3-teams were very different and each of them being very innovative. Besides, the other games too kept us in our full spirits and lots of fun and laughter.

And the winding up, the hi-tea delicacies too appealed the taste-buds.

In all, a good event orgainzed by the ladies wing and a Saturday afternoon well spent.

Dipti Shah

all BOYS trip...Coutrallam!

Just about to board Express Pothigai

Wo haaseen ghadi aa gayi

Yo boys! We leave all behind

Away from the daily grind

Off to bath our worries away

In the glory of bachelorhood, we sway

The train chughs along, through the ridges

Above the river bridges

While we talk, shout and make merry

Sailesh shows his 'cheri'

'Coz few co-passengers not happy

We all together call them 'papi'

Tenkasi is the stop of our heart

Train and us do part

Onboard the smooth little bus carriage

We arrive at our short home - Heritage

So what if we are away from wife and mummy

Kanks and his maharaj take care of our tummy 

Super breakfast with doodh jalebi

Eat hinderless, bathing to wash all fat baby

Off we go to the Main Falls

Oh! No rooms and no halls

Undress right there without fiddle

It is heaven when you get to the middle

Looking for more water, less oil

We make Kamlesh’s agent toil

Smart cookie that he happened to be

Got the pass to a falls which had only ‘we’

We bath our asses out                      

Without the worry of time-out

After the bath of our life, in thanneer
We are treated to the best panneer
The parathas aren’t far behind
The food is all about tongue, not mind
With ta-ra-rang, only happy notes in the pool
If you didn’t come, just imagine and drool

Now the night dawns
A few decide to defy yawns
Amidst the cozy Five Falls setting
Our bodies are with cold stuttering
Off to bed for a cozy sleep
Without any worry of alarm beep

New dawn, new location
Palaravi is a place for emancipation
Falls and swimming pool together
Super setting for Platinos to gather
On the way, we link Chandan with Tej
Tushar gets a feeling of outrage

Truth and dare is an old game
But brings Vivek ‘kanwarsa’ to fame
Evening sprinkled with lots of laughter
Waiting is the Venetian Tambola therafter
Some play safe, some play smart
Hirawat for sure has the luck, and the art

Mexican, Italian, Chinese cuisine in dinner
No way can Vivek get thinner
More games, more chitchat
Some eat idly at midnight, howzzat?
Day ends without the daily grind
No worries, as we unwind

Alas, comes the last day
How can all life here I stay?
Directed towards Papanasam
Hurry back! Waiting for us is sambhar-rasam
Why do all good things have to end?
In life all we do is pretend

Rajesh, Paresh, Vikas did a great job
As we part, only missing is a sob
We promise to meet again
When Vikas asks us to board another train
Again, we will travel far and wide
To circumvent the daily tide