May 2017

4 | Club ElitE | May 2017

MBC MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

& PORTFOLIOS (2016-17)

Publisher : Rays Publications Pvt Ltd

From the Commitee 5

New boats at MBC 7

Rush Hour on the Adyar! 8

Chilled Cucumber Yogurt Soup 12

Tabouli 13

Kayaking down the Chaliyar 14

PRESIDENTMr. M.R.RAVINDRA

CAPTAIN OF BOATSMr. JAMES JOSEPH

HONORARY SECRETARYMr. FARID A. HUSAIN

HONORARY TREASURER Mr. ASHISH GUPTA

MIC - CATERINGMr. ABRAHAM KANDATHIL

MIC - HOUSEMr. PRAVIN AIANA

MIC – CORPORATE AFFAIRS& EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

Mr. C.A. THEAGARAJAN

MIC – POOL & GYMMr. G.V. SUBBA RAO

MIC - BARMr. J.H. KUMAR

MIC - ENTERTAINMENTMr. S. SRIRAM

CONTENTS

MADRAS BOAT CLUB 2. 3rd Avenue , R.A.Puram,Chennai-28

website : www.madrasboatclub.com

Contact Nos : 2435 3190 / 24354751/ 24339289

General Email : madrasboatclub@gmail.com

Chambers : mbc1867@gmail.com

Party Booking : mbcparty1867@gmail.com

General Manager : Mr G.N.Anban Ph:9840175947

Managing Editor : Mr. Farid A Husain

Editorial Team : Sumana Narayanan

Designer : B. SathishKumar

Cover picture: Broken Bridge, Adyar Estuary

CAPTAIN’S DESKFROM THE

N

S

Dear Member,

I am happy to report that as far as Rowing is concerned, Madras Boat Club has had its best ever run probably in its known history, this year. MBC won literally all there was to win in the ARAE meet in Pune and followed it up with a clean sweep of the Men’s A events at the Madras Colombo meet. We sent a small team of boys and girls to the Asia Cup Rowing meet and the Asian Schools Rowing meet for the under 19 in Singapore in the last week of July. Here several Asian countries got together to showcase their best Rowers. The distance in the open event this time was 2000m and the competition was at a high standard. SIddharth Sunil of MBC placed a creditable 7th in the highly competitive single sculls event and Saketh Reddy and Philip James came up with a brilliant Gold medal winning effort for MBC in the under 19 double sculls 1000m event, clocking an excellent timing. The girls double sculls of Ananya Thomas and Anushka Dhanda placed 9th and in the single sculls Priyanka Venkatesh placed 7th. A more detailed report on the event appears in this issue of the Oarspeak.

Indian athletes, barring some like the shuttlers, boxers and weight lifters perhaps, continue to send

back dismal reports from the Rio Olympics. In rowing, although the lone Indian Rower Dattu Bhokanal placed only 13th in his single sculls line up, he shows potential to win a medal in the 2020 and 2024 Olym-pics, provided he is nurtured and trained well.

Meanwhile at MBC, Alex Mann the US Rowing Coach from Seattle, Washington and Tteja Senthilna-than, the bright and enthusiastic coxswain from Junior High in Boston, have completed 2 weeks + of a dedicated Coaching camp which Alex has conducted profes-sionally and with a lot of effort and enthusiasm. Nearly 60 participants enrolled for the camp including several PUC members, which has turned out to be a boon for Rowing at MBC. The camp closes on the 20th of August with requests from Rowing enthusiasts for more of such camps in the future.

The following proposals have been made and cleared by the Commit-tee:

OWN YOUR OWN BOATSUnder this scheme we offer mem-bers the opportunity to buy their own boats. Those who wish to use a better quality of boats can, if they wish, henceforth, join with 3 or 4 other members and purchase their own boats which will be stored in

the MBC on an arrangement where they have the first right of usage. Today a single scull costs upwards of 1.5 lakhs. Anyone interested to start a dialogue and know more of this scheme can contact the under-signed.

CONTRACT YOUR COACHES.MBC’s policy that members who are coaches should not charge for their services is no longer valid as this only serves to extract a half hearted effort from the person coaching resulting in a dampened interest from the person who wishes to learn Rowing as well. MBC Captain, with the approval of the committee, will hence forth recog-nize and appoint Coaches who may be contacted by members or by the club itself for a fixed fee per hour /month as the case may be through the office of the Captain and with the approval of the committee. The modalities and details of both of the above proposals are being worked out and the grey areas ironed out. Meanwhile members may email their suggestions to the undersigned at the mail ID given below.

Abraham KandathilCaptain of Boats Email: taratex4@gmail.com

Dear Member,

You will be pleased to know the Committee has completed six months of its term without any glitch.

We have had a very busy schedule right from the commencement of our tenure in the form of various rowing and social events to mark our 150th Anniversary. Our thanks to the 150th year Organizing Committee for successfully organizing the Anil Srinivasan Piano recital in March followed by the Unni Menon musical concert in April. Both programmes were well received by members. We have been working towards organizing various events to celebrate our 150th year in close coordination with the 150th year committee and to make it a memorable year in the annals of our Club.

Our Captain of Boats, Mr. James Joseph has kept everyone very active on the rowing front. In January 2017, we hosted the 75th ARAE regatta where a record 14 clubs participated making it a very grand success. In February, we held the Chennai Inter School Regatta with active participation from 14 schools. In March, the traditional Mile Race was held but renamed as the Head of the Adyar in four rowing categories and Rolling Trophies were instituted in the names of some of our departed members who have contributed to the sport of rowing and the club in a big way. The Trophies instituted are in the names of late club members M. Kesavan, Arvind Bhagat, Ketan Adhia and Ejaz Sikkander Bhakt and were handed over to the winning crews by our Honorary Member and past Captain of Boats Mr. Pervez Mulla.

In April, thanks to the keen interest of our Captain James, Mr. Radhakrishnan, and efforts of past President Robbie Rao and his team, the M&B Regatta has been revived and re christened as Merchants Bankers and Clubs Regatta. At present we have 12 companies and a few city clubs training earnestly in the club. The finals of this regatta are scheduled for 24th June 2017. This is the first time other city clubs are participating in this regatta. I sincerely hope all members will come over to cheer the crews and also attend the traditional Regatta night that day where our member and popular city DJ Ashok Bajaj will keep members regaled. We have an International Invitation Regatta planned for 22nd July 2017, to mark our 150th Anniversary to be held in our club along with the Madras – Colombo Regatta, which is planned for Friday 21st July 2017. We are expecting crews from UK and Europe apart from neighboring countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka to participate in the Invitation Regatta.

The annual Rowing Summer Camp is in progress and we hope to see new talent emerging from this camp. We held four Swimming Camps this year and thanks to the Member in Charge Mr. Subba Rao and his sub-committee for their efforts in co-coordinating this activity. The Inter Club Water Polo Competition is scheduled for 12th June 2017 and we hope it is a grand success as in earlier years. The B-Olympics is scheduled for July and I am sure it will be well received by the members.

We have seen marked change in the catering side with the sales figures and the profit margins showing a healthy increase. Our bar seems to be the talk of the town not only due to the ambience but on account of the variety and choice in beverages on offer.

We are happy to inform you the protracted negotiations with the Labour Union have concluded amicably just as this letter is being sent. While we would like to reward the staff for their good work, we were keen on rationalising the outgoings due to the prevailing financial position of the Club. The club was suffering continuous losses for several years and with the present high wage structure and employee-related costs we will never be able see a profit in the functioning of the club. We can however be proud of the quality of food served and our efforts have been to increase the service standards. Our efforts to bring in better efficiencies by close monitoring and appropriate deployment of staff have started showing remarkable results and the day is not far when the club can come out of the red.

We have introduced the new party guidelines effective 1st May 2017. The better transparency in party bookings has already resulted in the increase in the number of parties being held in the club. Our efforts to curb the tipping menace have also been well received by the members. We see more members using the gratuity box to make their contributions

May 2017 | Club ElitE | 5

CAPTAIN’S DESKFROM THE

N

S

Dear Member,

I am happy to report that as far as Rowing is concerned, Madras Boat Club has had its best ever run probably in its known history, this year. MBC won literally all there was to win in the ARAE meet in Pune and followed it up with a clean sweep of the Men’s A events at the Madras Colombo meet. We sent a small team of boys and girls to the Asia Cup Rowing meet and the Asian Schools Rowing meet for the under 19 in Singapore in the last week of July. Here several Asian countries got together to showcase their best Rowers. The distance in the open event this time was 2000m and the competition was at a high standard. SIddharth Sunil of MBC placed a creditable 7th in the highly competitive single sculls event and Saketh Reddy and Philip James came up with a brilliant Gold medal winning effort for MBC in the under 19 double sculls 1000m event, clocking an excellent timing. The girls double sculls of Ananya Thomas and Anushka Dhanda placed 9th and in the single sculls Priyanka Venkatesh placed 7th. A more detailed report on the event appears in this issue of the Oarspeak.

Indian athletes, barring some like the shuttlers, boxers and weight lifters perhaps, continue to send

back dismal reports from the Rio Olympics. In rowing, although the lone Indian Rower Dattu Bhokanal placed only 13th in his single sculls line up, he shows potential to win a medal in the 2020 and 2024 Olym-pics, provided he is nurtured and trained well.

Meanwhile at MBC, Alex Mann the US Rowing Coach from Seattle, Washington and Tteja Senthilna-than, the bright and enthusiastic coxswain from Junior High in Boston, have completed 2 weeks + of a dedicated Coaching camp which Alex has conducted profes-sionally and with a lot of effort and enthusiasm. Nearly 60 participants enrolled for the camp including several PUC members, which has turned out to be a boon for Rowing at MBC. The camp closes on the 20th of August with requests from Rowing enthusiasts for more of such camps in the future.

The following proposals have been made and cleared by the Commit-tee:

OWN YOUR OWN BOATSUnder this scheme we offer mem-bers the opportunity to buy their own boats. Those who wish to use a better quality of boats can, if they wish, henceforth, join with 3 or 4 other members and purchase their own boats which will be stored in

the MBC on an arrangement where they have the first right of usage. Today a single scull costs upwards of 1.5 lakhs. Anyone interested to start a dialogue and know more of this scheme can contact the under-signed.

CONTRACT YOUR COACHES.MBC’s policy that members who are coaches should not charge for their services is no longer valid as this only serves to extract a half hearted effort from the person coaching resulting in a dampened interest from the person who wishes to learn Rowing as well. MBC Captain, with the approval of the committee, will hence forth recog-nize and appoint Coaches who may be contacted by members or by the club itself for a fixed fee per hour /month as the case may be through the office of the Captain and with the approval of the committee. The modalities and details of both of the above proposals are being worked out and the grey areas ironed out. Meanwhile members may email their suggestions to the undersigned at the mail ID given below.

Abraham KandathilCaptain of Boats Email: taratex4@gmail.com

to the staff. We have decided to take stringent action against the erring staff in this regard as per the existing Rules of the club. We remind members to adhere to the Rules and help us to bring in better discipline and efficiencies among the staff. We may be constrained to take action against members who resort to direct tipping as this form of tipping is perceived as taking additional advantage to the detriment of other members of the club.

We are renovating both Stroke side and Bow side party rooms to improve the ambience.

We have planned for an Extra Ordinary General Meeting on 12th June 2017. You must have received the notice calling for the meeting and we request the members to attend this meeting. Apart from other matters the main issue is for carrying out certain modifications to the Articles of Association mainly to remove the anomalies with regard to Lawn members’ rights due to conversion of the club from AOP to a Section 25 Company.

There was a delay in obtaining the approval from the Registrar of Companies (ROC) due to a case filed in the High Court by a disgruntled rowing member against our Club and the ROC, calling for an Investigation into the affairs of the club by appointing an Inspector.

We have introduced new stickers for Car parking effective 1st June 2017. These stickers will be serially numbered and will have the membership no. as well. Our efforts to introduce this arose on account of the limited car parking slots within the premises and members sometimes park their cars in a haphazard manner resulting in under utilization of the car park. By carrying the membership code number we can identify members who could be called upon to correctly park their vehicles. We have limited the car stickers to two per member and stickers will be issued after recording the car numbers in a register. For members having more than two cars you may send us a mail and we will arrange to provide additional stickers on payment of a fee. We also request members to ensure they or their guests/ drivers park the cars on one side of the road outside the club and not block the gates of the residents in the area. This will ensure free flow of traffic and not affect the residents. A suit filed by the Boat Club Residents association against the club in this regard is still pending disposal in the High Court, Chennai.

As you are all aware the City is reeling under a severe water crisis due to poor monsoons and lack of storage levels in the reservoirs. We are building additional water storage tanks both underground and at the roof level to overcome this difficulty. We look forward to your co-operation to conserve water wherever possible in the club.

We are planning to have a members’ talent night shortly and our Entertainment Member in Charge Mr. Sriram will be getting in touch with you all soon.

It has been a wonderful experience working for the Club as Hony. Secretary and I wish to thank the President Mr. Ravindra for his unwavering support and the freedom given to manage the affairs of the club. Thanks also to Mr. Abraham Kandathil for his sage advice on many matters touching the affairs of the club to preserve the glory and traditions of our club. It has been a complete team effort all through and thanks go to all Committee members as well.

We seek your cooperation to make our glorious club with its 150 year history a harmonious place where members can enjoy their time spent in the club.

Farid A HusainHony. Secretary

6 | Club ElitE | May 2017

May 2017 | Club ElitE | 7

New boats at MbCThe Merchants, Bankers & Clubs Regatta training sessions are in full swing with the river full of activity. While this is in progress the annual summer camp at MBC is also at its peak. Both events consist of a large number of beginners, many of whom are starting the learning process of rowing from scratch.

To teach budding rowers the basics, the boats that are most ideal are the Coxed Maiden Pair and the maiden (wide hulled) single sculls boat (with floats like trainer wheels on a kid’s bike).

MBC had recently purchased three such single sculls to replace the old ones that had become unusable. Teaching sculling was not a problem with floats being fitted to some older sculls as well.

However, learning how to sweep row depended on two very old shell type wooden “Coxed Pairs”, that have seen better days. This created quite a scuffle on the raft, with each Company/Club vying for practice time.

The problem has now eased considerably with the Merchants, Bankers & Clubs Regatta Committee 2017 collecting enough funds from sponsors, to purchase and donate three “Maiden Coxed Pairs” to MBC. The major sponsor in this effort is “PARRYS” who, very fittingly, were one of the founding companies of the Merchants & Bankers Regatta that started in 1900.

8 | Club ElitE | May 2017 Club Pages Continues on Page no -12

Rush houR on the AdyAR!With the MB & C Regatta training and Annual Summer Camp ongoing, the Club is buzzing with activity in the mornings. In spite of the weeds threatening to engulf

the river, our rowers are all agog to get out on the water. Hardly any boats or blades are left unused in the boathouse!

Chilled CucumberYogurt Soup

With the summer heat relentlessly beating down on us, it is time to eat cold collations and avoid spending time in the kitchen! Here are some recipes to get you started

Prep time : 10-15 min plus time to chillYield : 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients:

Peeled, grated cucumber 4 cups (about 2 large cucumbers)

Water 2 cups

Curd 2 cups

Salt (to taste)

Finely chopped garlic 1 clove

Herbs (to taste)

Pepper

Combine the grated cucumber, water, yogurt, garlic in a large serving bowl. Add pepper and salt to taste. Get inventive on the herbs you add! Try some fresh chopped mint or dried dill or any other herb that catches your fancy! Chill the soup.

12 | Club ElitE | May 2017

TABOuLI Dry bulger wheat 1 cup

Boiling water 1.5 cups

Salt 1-1.5 tsp

Lemon juice ¼ cup

Olive oil ¼ cup

Garlic 2 cloves (crushed)

Pepper to taste

Finely chopped onion 1 medium

Coriander (minced) 1 cup (packed)

Mint leaves 10-15

Tomatoes 2 medium sized

Capsicum (diced) 1 medium sized

Cucumber (diced) 1 small

Cooked chick peas ½ cup

Ingredients:

Yields: 6-8 servingsPrep time: 30 min (plus time to chill)

Note: Bulger wheat or durum wheat can be found at speciality shops. An alternative is to use broken wheat, dalia or lapsi as it known in Chennai.

Pour boiling water over bulger wheat and cover with a lid. Keep it aside for 20 to 30 minutes till water is absorbed and bulger is tender.

In a bowl, mix lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic. Add to the bulger and mix well. Cover tightly and refrigerate till 30 minutes before serving.

About 30 minutes before serving, stir in the remaining ingredients and mix well.

The first two steps can be made even a day in advance.

Tabouli makes a refreshing light meal in itself. You can also serve it cold with warm pita bread.

May 2017 | Club ElitE | 13

14 | Club ElitE | May 2017

Last year, about 50 people kayaked down the Chaliyar river in Kerala. Yes, kayaked.

This was a part of the Chaliyar River Challenge 2016. The Challenge starts from Nilambur in Malappuram district and travels over 60 kms over 3 days to end in Beypore in Kozhikode district, where the river meets with the Arabian Sea.

So who is organizing it and why?Jellyfish Watersports, based in Kerala has been doing this for the last 2 years to spread awareness about keeping the environment clean, at a grass roots level, among the local residents, school children and also the commercial establishments along the river.

The idea of cleaning the river arose after finding heaps of garbage in the Chaliyar during one of Jellyfish’s founder Kaushiq Kodithod's kayaking trips. The idea is to "leave no trace” camping.

Last year, the participants ranged in age (the youngest was 9) and experience (non-swimmers, newbies to kayaking to experienced hands). This year, Jellyfish expects 100 participants.

So, are you ready to test the waters in Kerala?

For more info, go to: www.jellyfishwatersports.com

Kayaking down the Chaliyar