Club culture had come surprisingly early to Navsari. Although history had been made at a nearby beach at Dandi in 1930 when Mahatma Gandhi picked up salt during the Civil Disobedience Movement, no English officer had ever been posted in the area. In the absence of the English, it was left to the Parsis to take a lead to establish gentlemen’s clubs where, unlike the Ripon Club in downtown Bombay, ladies were soon admitted. However, till the early 1970s, conservative Parsis did not approve of club culture. Playing rummy for money was frowned upon (even though the ladies played Bezique......