As soon as you push open the gleaming doors of the Delhi Gymkhana Club, you are assailed with an old-world feel. A handful of members are chatting over cups of tea and the club's famous chicken sandwiches, while others are concentrating on a game of bridge. The kitchen is bustling with preparations for the lunch service and the corridors are being meticulously cleaned.
As the Club celebrates its centenary year, it is easy to picture the wooden floors crowded with young couples practising the foxtrot while the officers of the British Garrison exchanged the day's news over platters of flambeed meats and trifle pudding. The completion of 100 years was marked with the release of a commemorative stamp and the centenary souvenir by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee.
Established on July 3 1913, the Club was first housed at the Coronation Grounds in Kingsway Camp but moved to its present quarters on Safdarjung Road in 1928 after Lutyen's Delhi was conceived. "Initially the Club was christened the Imperial Delhi Gymkhana Club (IDG) and was meant exclusively for the British civil servants and dignitaries. The only Indians to be made members were seven maharajas because of their contribution in setting up the Club," says club secretary Col O P Malhotra (retd). These were the Maharajas of Gwalior, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kashmir, Udaipur and Kishangarh, besides the Nawab of Bhopal. Two decades later, their successors were given honorary membership in recognition of the valuable assistance rendered by their forefathers.
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It isn't an easy task to gain membership to this iconic institution. "The waiting period in the government category is 20 years and in the non-government category a minimum of 35 years," says Malhotra. The Club started out with a provision for only 200 permanent members, but today the number has gone up to 5,600, The list includes Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit, Bharatiya Janata Party leader LK Advani and many more. The membership doesn't transfer from generation to generation. Children of a permanent member can, however, get a dependents membership, provided they are less than 21 years of age at the time of taking membership.
For most the Club is like a second home. "A lot of the members come here after breakfast, spend a day playing tennis, squash, rummy or bridge and then go home only after having dinner," smiles Malhotra. The 26 grass courts and seven clay courts are the pride of the club members and staff alike. "Our tennis courts are as good as the ones at Wimbledon. Even our squash courts are state-of-the-art with national championships having been held here in the past," he says. The only centrally heated pool in Delhi, it was built in 1935 when Lady Willingdon offered Rs 21,000 to design it. These sports facilities are open only to members at Rs 100 per month. And bibliophiles can choose from a huge collection of 36,000 books that includes rare publications such as the 1930 edition of the National Geographic and the 1843 edition of Punch, a British magazine dedicated to satire and humour.
You can find three generations of the same family working in various capacities. Manager Surinder Singh is one such example. His father Sain Singh worked for nearly 40 years in the library and now his son Dipender Singh has joined the staff as well. "Aane ke time hai 9.30 am par jaane ka koi time nahi hai. Even then, we love the Club; it's not a place of work but family," he says.
The chief administrative officer, Hans Raj Parihar, too is the second generation from his family to work at the Club. "My father worked as the chief librarian here between 1941 and 1991," says Parihar who has completed 35 years in the institution. He started off by working in the library under his father, was soon made chief librarian and then promoted to his current post. "Today people who have become big politicians, I have seen them here since they were little kids. Sachin Pilot used to come to the library a lot as a kid. He was always such a gentleman, he would come here sans airs and without security," he says.
Known for its food, the Gymkhana menu still includes dishes that were legendary in the Raj era. "The caramel custard is one and so is the bread, which is made in-house," says Parihar. The Club also boasted of a soda factory which churned out drinks like Club Cola, Club Orange, ginger ale and vimto. "At that time, cold drinks weren't bought from inside but made in-house. However, the factory was closed in 1986-87," he adds.
The members frequent the Club, not just to swing a game or two at the grass courts or to partake of the delicious fare, but also because it allows them to follow in the steps of their forefathers, to soak in the history and to feel the nostalgia. It is a privilege that money can't buy. As a member wrote: You can take us out of the Club. You cannot take the Club out of us!
