Rotary news January 2015

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ption

Rs.4

20 January 2015

Vol.6

5, Is

sue 7

When music partnered polio

Tiranga makes history

The largest national human flag formation with 43,836 participants.

RI District 3230’s Rotary Day makes history. Display of patience and

patriotism.

07 From the Editor’s Desk

09 President Speaks

14 No way to run Rotary

36 Behind Successful Rotarians

50 Go to the Gym, get pregnant

52 A young polio warrior

48 Rotary My Flag My India

54 Myanmar Beckons

60 Are we a Sinful Nation?

62 Your garbage is my gold

66 Literacy Focus

74 Fighting for Odisha’s tribals

76 An eBook reader for visually challenged students

40 Rotary Pak peace scholars roped in for polio

44 Giving away Money

19 Magic Moments

24 Institute High Points

32 Pakistan’s ongoing war against polio

CONTENTS

32

54 74

14

36

50

62

66

Vibrant new lookIt is nice to see a new change in Rotary News. The presentation of articles and photographs is good and gives the magazine a vibrant new look. The editorial titled ‘Water in Rajasthan, bullets in Pakistan’ is excellent. I salute the water messiah PRIP Kalyanji, TRF Trustee Sushilji, Rtn Philippe and others for gifting a great project which has brought hope and smiles to many rural people of the region. The photo of the gypsy family is great and teaches us to be positive when faced with adversities.

Rtn T SusantRC Berhampur-D 3262

I congratulate the editorial team for the excellent upgrade of Rotary News.

Rtn Krish ChitaleRC Madras-D 3230

issue reveals a new style and spirit. I found a relaxation in the pictures, colour-combination, etc. In articles such as Greening the Desert, When charity began at Home, Polio workers, Tapas in Spain and The Legacy of Giving I found a terse and

Rasheeda Bhagat. A similar cosmic ray is there in her signature.

Rtn Ashok JindalRC Nabha Greater-D 3090

I congratulate the Editor for her excellent work in making Rotary News

2014 issue was full of positive ideas and highlights. I suggest you take up topics to raise awareness against smoking and alcohol, and for compulsory helmet and seat belt in cars. Smoking and alcohol kill and accidents create widows and orphans.

Rtn Dr ShebanRC Thuckalay-D 3212

I must congratulate you and your team for making Rotary News interesting. For almost a decade, Rotary News had become monotonous and boring. I used to just glance through the pages and then forget about it. Now, I look forward to receive my copy to know about the activities in various clubs as also information about RI programmes.

Rtn Gulshan Rai RC Delhi Midwest-D 3010

The revamp of Rotary News is a good step in the right direction. The articles are done professionally, encompassing a wide range of issues. To make it more reader-friendly I suggest that action photos of clubs should be continued, reviews of books written by Rotarians, a dedicated column for youth which can feature the activities of Rotaract/Interact clubs, and a few pages in regional

Rtn Nicholas FrancisRC Madurai Mid Town-D 3000

I was moved by the article ‘A unique club is born.’ Being a Rotaract President 40 years back,

club activities. The bold step of including youngsters from all strata of society is a great step forward to serve humanity. Kudos to

RC Indore Uptown for starting this club which is an eye-opener to what can be done to give back to the society.

Rtn Bharat MerchantRC Bombay Seaface-D 3140

The article ‘Water Harvesting’ by Selvi was really an eye-opener for us. Making Barshi village in

building canals makes me proud as a Rotarian. Instead of depending on Goverment for water, I suggest Rotarians from Tamil Nadu should also take up such projects as there is a huge scarcity here. In Rotary Newson Mobile Phone Safety is very informative.

Rtn B PasupathiRC Dalmiapuram-D 3000

The write up on our project, ‘A Thousand Satyarthis,’ which was a salute to a real hero and also awareness project on child rights and child education, was really good.

Rtn Allirani BalajiRC Tiruchirapalli Shakthi-D 3000

Thank you very much for a wonderful experience of reading the e-version of the Rotary News. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Every article was interesting and informative. I have heard your

We welcome your feedback

LETTERS

analysis on the BBC Hindi radio station, and now look forward to read the interesting articles by you in Rotary News.

Rtn Dr Gaurish PadukoneRC Bhatkal-D 3170

Bullets in PakistanThe editorial ‘Water in Rajasthan, bullets in Pakistan’ is the contrast which is well juxtaposed between philanthropy and misanthropy. It is an eye-opener that alarms all Rotarians to work amidst encircling gloom. Change of perception on the part of the visionary editor is remarkable, impressive and quite thought-provoking.

Rtn Arun Kumar DashRC Baripada-D 3262

Rotarian I have never seen polio workers being shot in Pakistan. As a single case of polio can con-taminate the whole world, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria should be freed from polio.

Rtn Sitapati RaoRC Machilipatnam-D 3020

Continue projectsWhile applauding RI and districts for pursuing projects of humanistic value and need, we have to take seriously the absence of continuity

charge every Rotary year, most concurrent and appropriate projects are chosen at RI and district levels. Though there is a provision for pursuing the ongoing projects, dearth of funds prevent the clubs and the district to do effective work. Senior

the projects get completed and Rotary’s name is not tarnished.

Rtn N R U K KarthaRC Trivandrum Suburban-D 3211

The Editor’s comments on the polio workers being killed in Quetta brings to mind RIPE K R Ravindran’s negotiations with the LTTE to permit our Sri Lanka Rotary team

to go over to Jaffna to immunise children during the ethnic war. Rotary was always respected by the Governments and the terrorist groups as well. It is a pity that in Pakistan this isn’t happening.

Thanks for allotting an additional page for the ‘Letters’ column and publishing ‘The American Connection,’ which describes the efforts of the Golden Jubilee Club - RC Madurai West. Other interesting articles were A Thousand Satyarthis, The Water Messiah, Mobile Phone Safety, and ofcourse Mr R K Raghavan’s Challenges and Solutions - CBI.

Rtn Nan NarayenenRC Madurai West-D 3000

We welcome your feedback

LETTERS

An all-inclusive issue

aspects of life. Editor’s words, President Speaks and First Thoughts are wonderful. I compliment the Editor and her team for bringing out such a beautiful and one of the best magazines with knowledgeable, interesting and relevant articles listing Rotary achievements as never before. She must have some stamina to cover such long distances and collect so much information and present all this in such an appealing manner.

God bless ... we expect more articles such as The legacy of giving and When charity began at Home.

are lucky to be in Rotary, such a great sevice organisation. I suggest that in future issues, one column must be earmarked for Rotarians’ questions on important and latest Rotary topics.

Rtn Raj Kumar Kapoor, RC Roopnagar-D 3080

I congratulate the Editor for the excellent leadership which has taken an

issue with vital information. The magazine is now being appreciated by all Rotarians for its educative and inspirational value. Your own articles speak of your knowledge. A Rotarian since 1971, I have participated

the disaster relief work done by Rotary for those affected by the super cyclone in Odisha in 1999. I look forward to such high quality in the coming issues.

PDG G C Senapati, D 3262

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ROTARY NEWSROTARY SAMACHAR

EditorRasheeda Bhagat

Assistant EditorsJaishree Padmanabhan

Selvi Kandaswamy

Trustees list.indd 6 11/28/2014 7:04:13 PM

JANUARY 2015 ROTARY NEWS 7

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

The year 2014 ended on a horrendously tragic note, with the Pakistan Taliban (which has killed 170

polio workers in 22 months) butchering 132 children in an army school in Peshawar. This barbaric act of shoot-ing innocent children in their heads multiple times and at point blank range, and setting on fire a teacher before the eyes of the children, has taken the mean-ing and context of terrorism to a much darker level. A Pakistani poet said it best when he wrote “Phool dekhte thhey janazon pe hamesha Shaukat / Kal meri aankhon ne phoolon ke janazey dekhey.” (I had always seen flowers on coffins, but yesterday my eyes saw flowers’ coffins.)

The highlight of December was the Chennai Institute, and for me the polio sessions on the challenges faced by the Pakistani Rotarians in immunising children in the troubled FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Area) and KPK (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) regions, proved captivating. Both INPPC Chair Deepak Kapur and Pakistan’s National PolioPlus Committee Chair Aziz Memon engaged the par-ticipants by describing their long experience. As Pakistan, once close to polio-free status, before the Taliban dis-rupted its polio vaccination programme, grapples with this virus, it was touching to see all senior Indian Rotary leaders assuring Memon that if India could do it, so could Pakistan. Kapur recalled how Rotary leaders in India were taunted that eradicating polio was “a midsummer night’s dream.” But with all his seniors — the two PRIPs Rajendra K Saboo and Kalyan Banerjee, PRIDs Ashok Mahajan and Yash Pal Das, Trustee Sushil Gupta — encouraging him to forge ahead, the magic day of March 27, 2014 arrived, when India was declared polio-free. Also heartening was Memon’s account that the killed polio workers’ families had resolved to give more vol-unteers for Rotary’s polio immunisation work, and the Pakistan Government was firmly committed to polio eradication. Pakistan’s National Assembly member Ayesha Raza Farooq said firmly: “We will defeat the forces of darkness who oppose either the education of girls or polio vaccination.”

That Indian Rotarians put their money where their mouth is was proved when Memon thanked

RC Baroda Metro for donating 500 mobile phones to Pakistan’s polio workers, but said 5,000 phones were required for the whole country. As the session ended in 10 minutes, District 3131’s DG Vivek Aranha and PDG Deepak Shikarpur stepped up to announce a donation of $10,000 for Pakistan’s polio vaccinators!

The Rotary spirit of giving was encountered in the western corner of India in Mumbai during a delightful chat I had with octogenarian Rotarian Mohanbhai Patel who made light of gifting away crores of rupees to edu-cational institutions and bright students. “When all your needs are taken care of, beyond a point what is the use of money,” he quipped, adding, “anyway I might have 2-4 more years to live and I can’t take my money with me!” The man who built up his fortune from scratch by his pioneering foray into aluminium packaging, also planned and built the huge Rotary Service Centre in Santacruz when he was RC Bombay West President.

Deeply disturbing is Lok Satta Party founder Dr Jayaprakash Narayan’s account on how the Right to Education Act has become a stumbling block in giving quality education to our children. By pumping huge funds into the public sector and discouraging private education through impossible guidelines, it has intro-duced a Licence Raj in school education, he says.

Moving to the border, it is interesting to watch the different shades of Indo-Pak relations. Periodic sharp tones at the Government level, to warmth, camaraderie and generosity at the Rotary level, to a spontaneous outpouring of grief and horror in Indian homes at the massacre of Peshawar’s children by the Taliban butch-ers. From IAS officers to young students in India ... the resolve is not to celebrate the new year in view of the Peshawar bloodbath. Let us all pledge too ... to introspect in the new year the true spirit and essence of religion. And, be unforgiving of those who twist religious ideology to spread hatred and violence.

Rasheeda Bhagat

Peshawar carnage sets a dark tone for the New Year

8 ROTARY NEWS JANUARY 2015

Rotary International’s first couple, President Gary Huang and Corinna landed in Chennai just in

time on December 6 to witness the greatest PR event, Rotary My Flag My India, and stayed an entire week in this southern Indian city of art, culture and music, to charm the participants of Vanakkam Chennai.

Whether it was the ice-breaking games for the DGEs on the first day, or the Antakshri night the next day, the first couple was not only there but also min-gled with all the DGEs and spouses with charming ease and humility.

Inaugurating the Governors Elect Training Semi-nar (GETS) on December 10, Gary inspired and moti-vated the DGEs to do their best in 2015–16.

Starting with his customary “Happy Clap,” he encouraged the DGEs to work hard and keep India on top of the Rotary world.

Gary & Corinna light up Vanakkam Chennai

In his absorbing inaugural address, President Gary hailed the great work done by Indian Rotarians. He warmly congratulated Rotary India for the No.1 world position India holds in membership development.

He also applauded Indian Rotarians for the mag-nanimous contributions to TRF in 2013–14 — an impressive $13.7 million which placed India in the thrid position in the world, only behind USA and Japan. He was also delighted that India is now polio-free.

Gary also addressed the DGN seminar and DRRs of South India.

In his concluding remarks at the institute, he show-ered rich compliments on the organising committee and asked the audience to give a standing ovation to the convener, RID P T Prabhakar, for putting together a great Institute.

(Detailed coverage on page 14)

by Team Rotary News


��

Dear Fellow Rotarians,At the beginning of this Rotary year, I asked Rotarians everywhere to Light Up Rotary by holding a Rotary Day. How you do this is something I’m leaving up to you: It can be a full day or just a few hours. It can be organised by your club, by your district, or even across your entire country. It can be a service project, a festival, or any kind of event you want. As long as it’s open to the community, embraces the whole family of Rotary, and is fun, it’s a Rotary Day.

The goal of a Rotary Day is to shine a light on Rotary. For many years, we in Rotary felt that it wasn’t appropriate to boast about our good work. We felt it was best to serve quietly and let our work speak for itself. But today, in many communities, people aren’t even aware that they have a local Rotary club. Not because the clubs aren’t strong, or because they aren’t serving well. They are. But if Rotarians don’t talk about their work, people will never know about it.

It is time for us to Light Up Rotary and let people know what we are doing. In the first half of this Rotary year, I’ve been thrilled to see how many Rotarians have taken up my Rotary Day challenge. I’ve attended Rotary Days in so many places, including the Philippines, Korea, China, the United States, Turkey, India, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Every one has been different, and every one has met the challenge to Light Up Rotary in its own way.

If you’ve organised a Rotary Day in your community, tell us about it: Email details and photos of your event to [email protected], with “Rotary Day ” as your subject line. We’ll do our best to feature as many Rotary Days as possible in the coming months.

And if you haven’t planned a Rotary Day yet, why not? It’s a great way to share your love for Rotary with your community. When we tell others about Rotary and let them know how membership can enrich their lives, we share a gift that was given to us when we were invited to join our clubs. By passing that gift on, we help ensure that Rotary, and its service, will endure for generations to come.

Gary C.K. Huang President, Rotary International

The goal of a Rotary

Day is to shine a light

on Rotary. For many

years, we in Rotary

felt that it wasn’t

appropriate to boast

about our good work.

““


Dear Fellow Rotarians,

My Flag My India creates history RI President says it is a grand victory!

A super venue in Grand Chola Great speakers make it a memorable mela “Vanakkam Chennai” with a celebrity mix

Chapter six was a “heady fix”!

January ushers in the New Year bringing with it the much needed warm feelings

of friendship generated by the exchange of gifts and greetings to counter the chill

weather, and usher in a grand New Year. I extend my sincere season’s greetings

to all and hope that the New Year brings you peace, prosperity and happiness!

The mega event in Chennai on December 7 has put India on top of the Rotary

world once again! Rotarians of District 3230 organised the largest ever PR event

in Rotary’s history of 108 years. Fifty thousand Rotarians, Rotaractors and citizens

of Chennai formed our National Flag, together with the ‘Keep India Polio Free’

message, creating a Guinness World Record! Alongside, the participants presented

50,000 Rotary wheels simultaneously, a grand spectacle! Kudos to DG ISAK Nazar,

who put together the biggest and best Rotary Day! This huge PR event in December

was a precursor to January, designated by RI as Rotary Awareness month.

The Rotary Institute, Vanakkam Chennai (December 9 –14), was a spec-

tacular event. After an informative GETS (Governors Elect Training Seminar)

attended by 39 DGEs which included one each from Bangladesh and Nepal and

5 adjunct seminars for DG, DGN, District Trainer, COL representative, DRFCs

and District Membership Chairs, we moved on to a gala TRF recognition dinner

and a remarkable TRF Seminar.

The inaugural function was a beautiful blend of Dances of India, the boat

journey of the flags along the Coromandel Coast, RI President’s inspirational

address followed by glittering display of fireworks.

We were privileged to have RIP Gary and Corinna, RIPE K R Ravindran

and Vanathy, Trustee Julio Sorjús and Carmen, RID Larry Lunsford, RID Safak

Alpay and Deniz, RIDE Frederick Lin, Trustee Jackson and of course all the

senior leaders from India. The participants came from 11 countries to make this

a truly international event.

Great speakers like Dada Vaswani, Vijay Amritraj, Union Minister Venkaiah

Naidu, BK Shivani, CTS Vice Chair Lakshmi Narayanan, besides senior Pakistan

Education Minister Nisar Khuhro and Pakistan MP, Ms Ayesha Raza Farooq

inspired the delegates.

The icing on the cake was the presentation of the Polio Ambassador Award to

music maestro A R Rahman who was humble and gracious in accepting the award.

��

P T PrabhakarDirector, Rotary International

With 900 delegates

this was one of the

finest Institutes in

recent times and

all credit goes to

Institute Chair Raja

Ramakrishnan and

his dedicated team

of Rotarians.


With 900 delegates this was one of

the finest Institutes in recent times and

all credit goes to Institute Chair Raja

Ramakrishnan and his dedicated team

of Rotarians.

Rotary awareness encompasses

twin aspects of internal and external

awareness – Rotarians’ perception of

Rotary and the common man’s percep-

tion of a Rotarian.

It is said that a well informed Rotar-

ian is a better Rotarian. Rotary today

has grown into a multi- dimensional

organisation with activities in multi-

farious areas.

There are 34,558 Rotary clubs in

536 districts across 202 countries with

a combined membership of 12,20,115

Rotarians. RI is a very large family

indeed. The attainment of Rotary’s

goals and its continued enhancement

would become distant unless each

member fully understands the intrinsic

nature of Rotary and makes the spirit

of Rotary service a part of himself.

Rotarians are not born — Rotarians

are made. And in this process, knowl-

edge about Rotary plays a vital role.

I’d like to recall, again, the

thoughts of William T Sergeant, who

after 12 years of membership, no

office, little contribution and worst

attendance record was asked to write

the Club bulletin.

He loved it and five years later,

became District Governor and later

RI Director, and Chairman of the

International PolioPlus Committee

for over a decade!

There are many Bill Sergeants

among us. Relevant information about

Rotary could be the catalyst to trigger

a chain of enthusiastic reactions with

exciting possibilities!

I request all Rotary leaders to

ensure that Rotarians are imparted

Rotary knowledge through relevant

Rotary information, inspiring speeches

of senior Rotary leaders, quiz and

Rotary information in Club bulletins.

He who sees further than others

can give the world, vision. He who for-

gets himself in doing things can give

the world, action. He who serves and

serves selflessly can give the world,

the religion of Rotary.

This new year let us correct the com-

mon man’s perception of Rotary as an

elitist organisation of members wearing

Rs 40,000 suits, driving Rs 40 lakh cars

and enjoying Rs.4000 dinners. Let’s lift

the veil of misperception and ignorance

and show Rotary as it truly is — a splen-

did service organisation with wonderful

projects like PolioPlus. Public goodwill

is of paramount importance to the con-

tinued survival and well-being of Rotary

and therefore public relations assumes

great significance. I urge all Rotarians

to involve the media — including social

media — in projects wherever possible,

as its reach is mindboggling. Their help

in spreading awareness about Rotary

would be beneficial to its cause.

The philosopher, William James

said,“The greatest use of life is to

spend it for something that will out-

last it.”

As Rotarians, let us exemplify this

philosophy, spending part of our lives

in the development of an organisation

we are privileged to serve, which is

dedicated to the principle of “Service

above Self” and an organisation that

will outlive our own earthly span.

Someday, our decisions and perfor-

mance will be audited by future gener-

ations and we must prepare ourselves

to face that test.

Let’s spread Rotary Awareness

With Pride and devotedness

Rotarians like you and me

Are builders of eternity.

To each is given a book of rules.

A wonderful club and projects as tools

And each must build before his/her

time has flown

Towards the future a stepping stone.

Together, let us build stepping

stones towards a new world order!

Yours in Rotary,

P.T. Prabhakar

Director

Rotary International (2013–15)


The session 6 of the Chennai Institute, Vanakkam Chennai,

on December 13, 2014 turned out to be a historic session. Session

The Historic Chennai Declaration

Chair PRIP Raja Sabooji piloted this session with efficiency and effectiveness. His opening remarks reflected the keenness of Rotary

International to work with Govern-ment of India, on Swachh Bharat! Rajaji then proceeded to administer the pledge, which was taken by all the 900 Rotarians present.

What followed the pledge was ‘The Chennai Declaration,’ which made it a historic day for Indian Rotary. Yes, the declaration was expertly drafted by Rajaji, in consultation with TRF Trustees Sushilji and Kalyanda and the senior leadership of India.

Rajaji made the Rotarians present, repeat each and every sentence of the Chennai Declaration and ensured that they subscribed to it in its entirety. The agreement was signed by me and RIDE Manoj Desai in the presence of Shri Venkaiah Naidu, who added the golden words, ‘Great Day.’ This was followed by a brilliant speech by Shri Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Rural Development. The audience were spell-bound by his oratory and were instantly convinced about the need to work in partnership with Government of India, on Swachh Bharat.

Later that night, Shri Venkaiahji called me to say that he had informed the Honourable PM Shri Modiji about the genuine intentions of the Rotarians of India in taking up Swachh Bharat, with all sincerity and dedication imme-diately and the PM would be sending a message of encouragement.

December 14, 2014 turned out to be a red letter day in the history of Rotary in India.

Yes, I received the historic message from Prime Minister Modiji, welcom-ing the Swachh Bharat pledge taken by the Rotarians and wishing us all the best in this noble endeavour.

I shared this message with the audience who received the same with thunderous applause!

Undoubtedly, the message from the Honourable Prime Minister of India was the icing on the cake and the most important event of not only Vanakkam Chennai but also Rotary year 2014–15!

by P T Prabhakar

Taking the Pledge.


TRF Trustee Julio Sorjús shares with Rasheeda Bhagat his impressions of the Chennai Institute and Rotary India.

Dazzled by India

I have attended many Institutes around the world but this one has been the most outstanding, given the high level

of the moderators, panelists and speakers and the numer-ous subjects covered. The two speakers that impressed me most were the Pakistani MP Ayesha Raza Farooq, who gave us, with clarity of mind, a strong message about the End of Polio in her country given the enormous difficulties they face, not only in some isolated areas but also with some criminals trying to sabotage it. We were horrified to learn that so many vaccinators have been killed doing their humanitarian job.

The second was the 95- years old Dada J P Vaswani who delivered a loving peace message under “Light Up Rotary.” I liked its transcendent content very much. RIPE Ravi also delivered a strong message giving all of us his thoughts on his future presidency. I concur with the content of his message.

The Chennai Declaration on Rotary Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan and the encouraging letter from the India Prime Minister Narendra Modi showed the exceptional and close relationship between the Government and the Rotary lead-ers of India. Since 1999 I have visited India several times under the presidency of PRIP Rajendra K Saboo when I was Governor, and also as Aide to PRIP Kalyan Banerjee. Both leaders have always been an example of what a Rotarian should be. As Mahatma Gandhi said, to me their life is their message.

Thanks to receiving the ‘Rotary News’ magazine and some Indian Governors’ monthly letters, I’ve followed the huge increase in membership and contributions to The Rotary Foundation, and the enormous success in ending polio in India, which Indian Rotarians and Government worked together to achieve. I am impressed by Rotary India and give them a 10.

Magic showAt the Chennai Institute, the first nice surprise was the Magi-cian’s performance which was astonishing. I paid a lot of attention to all his movements to discover his tricks but to no avail. I still wonder how he did it!

The performance by Ms Radhika Shurajit’s troupe was outstanding; I took a lot of pictures! The Spastic children’s performance was so amazing that sometimes I thought we were in front of professional dancers.

Flag ceremonyThe flag ceremony was very moving, particularly when the Spanish flag appeared and its national anthem was played. The Rotaractors’ film reminded me of a similar one we watched at the Opening Ceremony at the Sydney Con-vention. The filming and commentaries were excellent and gave us a broad idea of places and history of their ports of call.

The fellowship, warmth and the determination to do good in the world of all the participants I met is undoubt-edly the magic of Rotary service in action. Convenor RID P T Prabhakar and his wife Nalini took care of all the details, resulting in the huge success of the Institute. The organising committee led by PDG Raja Ramakrishnan, with help of his wife Rajalakshmi, and the Sergeant-at-Arms PDG Babu Joseph did a great job.

A quick visit to Dakshin Chitra, a unique centre for arts, crafts and architecture, allowed Carmen and I to know South India better. We also enjoyed the farewell dinner with President Gary and First Lady Corinna offered by the Convenor and the Institute Chair at the Madras Club, considered to be the best of its kind in the country.

Before arriving to Chennai we paid a short visit to the Kochi and Kollam Districts whose Governors Venugopalan Menon and K S Sasikumar took great care of us with a warm and welcoming hospitality. In each District we visited several clubs and projects, and attended a Polio Seminar.

The event in Chennai was so bright and uplifting, just like the International Assembly and Convention events.


It was the first session of the day but on the dot — 9 a.m. — the huge hall at the Chennai Institute was packed to capacity as RIDE Manoj Desai in a brief intro

of RI President-elect K R Ravindran, described how he brought his business acumen to his Rotary activities. He also recalled how he had negotiated a ceasefire with the LTTE to continue polio vaccination in the troubled region of Sri Lanka and helped rebuild the Tsunami-devastated schools in 2004.

Delivering an extempore speech with ease and elan, Ravindran said both the RI President Gary C K Huang and he were businessmen, and wanted Rotary to be run as a business. “I realised long ago that if I produced 100 million labels a day at 99 percent quality, that would mean one mil-lion labels poor in quality. So 99 percent was just not good enough.” Even a 99.9 percent rate left a reasonable number with inadequate quality. “So if we talk of efficiency, low costs and transparency in our business/professions, why don’t we bring this to bear in our Rotary activities? Is it not our responsibility to do so?”

Not pulling his punches, the President-elect asked the audience of DGs, PDGs and RI officials and senior Rotary

No way to run

Rotary

In a hard hitting speech, RIPE K R

Ravindran told Rotary leaders

that if they didn’t cut cost and

improve performance, they’d

have no place to hide.

by Rasheeda Bhagat


leaders to consider if they had run a business with “stagnant growth for 10 years,” as was happening with Rotary, “by now you’d have been fired.” But fortunately most Rotary terms lasted for only a single year and blame for poor performance or mess-up went to the next candidate.

At the outset he asked his audience to introspect on an organisation “where the budget is rising every year without proper results,” and large investments were not getting suit-able returns.

Only the best“I believe that Rotarians and the community deserve only the best. We are too valuable an organisation to do anything but the best for our community, and the people who support us with their money. You need to understand that every cent we spend in Rotary comes from Rotarians. They pay for us to be here, they pay for the President, Directors, Trustees and Governors. Nothing we do should be wasted even a little bit.”

As he and President Gary had “the same wavelength,” Rotarians should expect big changes during this and the next year. As he had promised the Nominations Committee while seeking election, he would endeavour to “bring meritoc-racy into appointments, which won’t be done on the basis of friends, or some old boys club;” and two, he would drive costs down.

While the RCs and RPICs would be appointed purely on merit by an independent committee of “people who are completely impartial,” co-ordinators would be picked to “perform; not for prestige.” Similarly the Trustees were being selected by a committee of two second year Directors, and two first year Directors. “I did not put in one name and didn’t even speak to them on one occasion. We just gave them the parameters and said you pick the people you think are best.” From 90 names he had sought three names for each region from which he would pick one.

“It so happened that I agreed with the names they gave and the priority too. It may not be the best system but there is some transparency in what has been done. I am happy to tell

Had you run a business

with stagnant growth

for 10 years, you’d

have been fired. “ “


you that President-nominee John Germ will also follow the same path next year as well. There is a feeling that I have given up my power, I have abdicated my responsibility, but it is better that I do that for the benefit of Rotary than hold on to power because I want to emphasise that I am the President.”

Nobody calls meOn a lighter note Ravindran added: “The advantage is I get very few telephone calls lobbying for positions. Nobody calls me. I am at peace.”

He announced he was doing the same with the RIP’s representatives. “I’m going to ask past presidents, direc-tors, trustees to recommend names; the condition being they must be very good speakers, very good in their Rotary and wouldn’t have been there before. “I am going to keep 15-20 percent for myself, maybe for my friends or past presidents but that is something you will grant me and my wife.”

As the spellbound audience hung on to every word, Ravindran waved the red flag to the coordinators and said their work was being reviewed on various parameters and even if they had a multi-year term, they’d be removed if they weren’t performing. Automatic renewals would end.

RI Directors tooNext Ravindran warned RI Directors that they too would be evaluated on key performance indicators (KPIs) once in three months. “Every director is expected to visit his districts.”

To do all this, four annual RI Board meets would be held; “we’ll see how the directors, general secretary and the committees perform. The directors are expected to do the same with governors. The RI President is responsible to the directors, the directors to the governors, governors to their presidents, and the presidents to the Rotarians.” If this chain could work down the line, “then you will have Rotary functioning like a machine as it should. That’s the

Most DGs and PDGs I talked to, endorsed RIPE Ravindran’s proposals and the tone and tenor of his speech. But they also felt that mere intent was not enough, implementation would be a challenge.

Said PDG Dr Ulhas Kolhatkar, District 3140, “Our President-elect has laid down brilliant principles. But many people here feel that it should be implemented strictly and religiously. Only then we can get good results not only for 2015–16, but also subsequently, because the trend would have been set.”

DG ISAK Nazar, District 3230, was all admiration for the “power-ful address with the right content, at the right time and the right forum. He rightly touched upon the urgent need to control costs, bring in tangible results in every Rotary position and the never-ending menace of taking Rotary to courts for simple issues, spoiling Rotary’s image.”

PDG Sambasiva Rao Patibandla, District 3150 said, “What was said today is badly needed in the Indian

There’s a feeling I’ve

given up my power,

abdicated responsibility,

but it is better that I do

that for Rotary’s benefit.

“ “A new


goal, to succeed. Will we, I don’t know, but we can make the effort,” he said.

Cost cuttingThe higher cost of more Board Meets would be curtailed by reducing the days from 5 to 3, longer working hours, shorter lunch breaks and spouses remaining home, “so that Rotary doesn’t have to pay for them.”

Another major cause of concern was the dramatic rise over five years in the cost of both volunteers (42 per-cent) and staff (17 percent). “Today governors are cost-ing more than $10 million; RCs, RPICs and RRFCs cost $2.4 million a year. In three years the coordinator should bring in at least 40,000 new members just to break even — our membership was going up before we spent so much money … now we spend money but don’t see the returns. Earlier, membership was going up. Some tell me if we didn’t spend this much it would go down. But I have no evidence to support that.”

The mantra, added Ravindran, was clear: Perform or Perish.

Then there was the ridiculous cost of parking and visa fees, hotel stay, etc. for the RIP’s reps, which last year was a whopping $93,000. In future, “I hope you’ll be honourable enough to pay your own expenses. If you don’t, that’s fine. We’ll find somebody else to do that job. And there are plenty of volunteers.” (Huge applause).

Litigation Another ridiculous cost was $97,000 spent last year “on hiring lawyers in India to defend ourselves against lawsuits filed by Rotarians against RI. Can you think of a more crim-inal waste than enriching the legal community in India?”

Making his irritation amply evident, Ravindran thun-dered, “Here we are thinking of cutting costs and some of you are forcing us to spend money — Rotarians’ money, not your money — to protect and defend ourselves against these lawsuits.”

Apart from the cost there was the other irritant of RI officers and staff being implicated by such lawsuits, and pulled up for contempt of court.

In a recent case filed in India the General Secretary was drawn in and now he is “in violation of India’s civil or

Rotary scenario — both performance indicators and cutting costs. This would be the first step in making Rotary effective.”

Congratulating him for his “straight talk,” DG Dr Vyankatesh Metan, District 3132, said he liked best the RIPE’s intent to “recognise and reward intelligent people; people who have worked hard; they are usually, though not always, neglected. Perform or per-ish was the key line.”

PDG Deepak Shikarpur, District 3131, said the speech was bound to resonate with many Rotarians. “Most of us are entrepreneurs or profession-als and the objective of any indus-try/profession is to create wealth, increase turnover and reduce cost. That he wants to instil the same val-ues in charity is remarkable. Earlier we said charity with a smile; now I’ll say charity with smile and profession-alism. That is a new mantra.”

On litigation he said India was not the only country though the percent-age here was high. “It is a black mark against us and done by some people who go to courts not to get results but only to cause problems and give

Paying $97,000

a year to lawyers

in India is a

criminal waste. “ “

mantra


Rotary a bad name. But there is no easy solution.”

DG Ramesh Agarwal, District 3052, said those present were “inspired and motivated by the address to re-pledge and re-dedicate ourselves to Rotary. The content was just right for today’s needs and requirements.”

A smitten DGE Sibabrata Dash, District 3262, said, “After long years I’ve heard such a speech which clearly lays down the principle of perform or perish. The message that ‘every penny you spend is Rotarian’s money, so be careful how you spend it,’ was great. I’ve been in Rotary for 20 years, this is the first time I am hearing a speech like this.”

On litigation he added that there were some culprits in his own district, but the solution given by Ravindran to ostracise such people was excellent.

PDG A Subramaniam, District 3230, called it a “brilliant speech. It is time somebody went up on the stage and said what he said. It increases my confidence in Rotary as an organisa-tion. It is time we looked at our cost; and I agree with him about wasting money on litigation.”

DGE David Hilton, District 3080 said, “RIPE K R Ravindran’s perceptive and forthright message of stressing on performance (KPI) by Rotarians at all levels, cutting operational costs and superfluous expenditure and resolving all disagreements within the ambit of the Rotary structure without litigation, is most welcome and urgently needed for the welfare and future of Rotary.”

democratic rights! Why should the staff be put at risk for an election problem,” he asked.

In the United States, a candidate for a post of public importance had to declare before the FBI of any criminal complaints filed against him. “Now imagine him sitting before a jury and saying this was filed against me in India and there is nothing I could do about it. Why should they be subjected to this? It is irresponsible.”

Election petitions should be handled by review commit-tees and those Rotarians who insist on going to courts should be treated as outcasts and not allowed into such conferences and even Rotary club meets, he thundered.

There was stunned silence as he said, “People like this are defiling our name, all the good work we do is being spoilt by them. The General Secretary now says, ‘why don’t you people resolve all your issues; don’t even come to us. You file action against each other. We don’t care. Why are you harassing our staff?’ He is right. It is time each one of you took responsibility for this instead of being silent spectators. What I am saying may not be popular but it has to be said.”

He added: “Our money must be used judiciously. Our greatness is only measured by what we do for the commu-nity. Are we doing sustainable projects? Are we doing good work that uplifts the community?”

He recited the story of a hospital in Gaulle, Sri Lanka, built with Rotary money where he saw a tiny baby which could fit in both his palms, with tubes running all over its body. The sight made him say instinctively: “Fight, baby fight. Your mother and father are out there; they don’t have the money but we have it ...”

Ravindran concluded his speech to standing ovation with

these words: “That’s our mission, our goal, our productivity ... and our product is livelihood and hope.”


ROTARY INSTITUTE

Rotary leaders from across the world converged at the ITC

Grand Chola, Chennai, for the Rotary Institute for Zones 4, 5 & 6A, (December 9–14) and the entire week was filled with camaraderie and bonhomie, energising the del-egates through powerful presenta-tions, exchange of ideas and lots of learning.

The Convener, RI Director P T Prabhakar, and Institute Chair PDG Raja Ramakrishnan, worked hard to structure the GETS, DGN Seminar and the DTTS to prepare the gover-nors-elect and governors-nominee to achieve the ambitious goals set by the leadership. Prabhakar introduced

the speakers at various sessions and inspired the DGEs and DGNs with his motivating talk.

There were 900 participants from eleven countries. With RI President Gary Huang as the chief guest and senior leaders such as RIPE K R Ravindran, TRF Trustees Julio Sorjús, Jackson Hsieh and Sushil Gupta, RI Direc-tors Larry Lunsford, Safak Alpay and Prabhakar, RI Directors-elect Frederick Lin and Manoj Desai, PRIPs Rajendra K Saboo and Kalyan Banerjee, PRIDs Y P Das, Shekhar Mehta and Panduranga Setty, and Rotary Foundation India Chair Ashok Mahajan and staff from Rotary International Headquarters and South Asia Office in New Delhi, it was

a star-studded and meaningful event for the Rotarians.

Overview of sessions:Following the warm welcome by Insti-tute Chair PDG Raja Ramakrishnan on December 9, the next five days included power-packed plenary ses-sions addressed by motivational speakers, and the break-out sessions enabled the District officials to thrash out various issues and learn from each other’s experience on membership growth plans, promoting public image, improving contributions to TRF etc.

Valuable inputs on membership were provided by Michele Berg, RI’s Chief Programmes and Member

by Jaishree

Magic Moments

RIDE Manoj Desai and RID P T Prabhakar sign the Chennai Declaration. Also seen in the picture are (L to R): PRIP Rajendra Saboo, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu, RIP Gary Huang and TRF Trustee Sushil Gupta.


Service Officer and James Robinson,Director – Strategy, Innovation and Evaluation. Janna Glucksman, Regional Grants Officer Programmes & Grants, TRF, and Kristin Brown, Manager, Rotary Service Connec-tions, shed light on TRF global grants and other RI programmes.

With RI District 3131 topping the list in Rotary India membership growth, new Rotary clubs, high-est growth in women members, maximum number of new Interact and Rotaract clubs, ARC and PDG Deepak Shikarpur, D3131 shared his experiences with the DGEs and district membership officials. Dis-trict 3131 also topped in per capita overall contribution ($ 1.59m), Term Gifts contribution ($ 800,000 - No. 1 in the world), Polio Fund in South Asia ($275,000), maximum num-ber of AKS members (3) in Rotary year 2012-2013 and ranked No. 2 in South Asia for overall contribu-tions to TRF. Rotary Coordinators Basker and Vijay Jalan also spoke on the importance of increasing membership.

RRFCs Madhu Rughwani and S R Yogananda, along with resource persons Sanjay Parmar and Jayashree

Raveendiran from RISAO inspired the delegates on Foundation giving. Jayashree, along with Joseph Thomas, talked about the role of RI South Asia Office.

GETS GETS was attended by 39 DGEs, including one each from Nepal and Bangladesh. Addressing the gover-nors-elect with his trademark inspir-ing speech, PRIP Kalyan Banerjee set a target of $14 million from India

towards TRF contributions. By 2017, when TRF celebrates its centennial year, India should top $20 million and rank No.2 in Total Giving in the world and No.1 in per capita giving, he said.

His main concern was the “grow-ing disharmony and chaos of Rotary clubs of India and election disputes and mismanagement, which are on the rise.” He passionately appealed to the delegates to “please put up your right hand and say to yourself, ‘I know what is wrong with my District and I prom-ise I shall set it right.’ Just do that, my brothers and sisters — because today to RI and the Board, Indian (Rotary) problems are the biggest challenges. We go to court and make criminal com-plaints against the General Secretary. In Rotary, yes, we have differences. But why can’t we just let it remain within our clubs or districts? Why must we take it to the court?” he asked.

Banerjee stressed on continuity of projects and called on the DGEs to give thrust to literacy projects and focus on Gen Next. Giving valuable advice to the incoming DGs, he said, “As DG, you may have to talk a lot. But please try to be a good listener as well. Peo-ple will love you a lot for this.” He reminded them that after a year, they go back to their own clubs and “some-one will take the seat you just left. So

Polio Flame lit by RIP Gary Huang in the presence of INPPC Chair Deepak Kapur, RID P T Prabhakar and Rtn. S N Srikanth.

PRIP Kalyan Banerjee with Sindh Education Minister, Nisar Ahmad Khuhro.


make this one year monumental and to really succeed, you will have to look beyond yourself. Leave your District better than how you found it.”

DGN SeminarThirty-two DGNs attended the semi-nar which was chaired by PDG Surya Prakash Bhat. Desai said a new Strate-gic Plan would be enforced; Member-ship, public image and service projects, being the three legs of the tripod, would be the focus. “No personalised theme,” he requested the DGNs. His plan to bring in a new approach as RIDE was evident throughout the seminar. On Foundation giving, Desai said, “Innovation is the name of the game. Innovate or Evaporate. Traditional Membership seminar, traditional Foun-dation seminar… the last five years, the graph has shown a zigzag pattern. Now we will show that the upward trend has started and it will continue.”

One of the DGNs was concerned about the bifurcation plans for her Dis-trict. Desai reassured her that bifur-cation eases pressure on the District leaders and enables them to perform better. “My target, set by PRIP Raja Saboo, is to have 50 Districts in India, so that our voice is heard. It is one-tenth of COL.” He also urged them to partner with corporates to explore the CSR advantage. Desai advised the DGNs not to overload the club presidents with their personal goals as the clubs already have the RI Presiden-tial Citation and the national priority, which now is literacy.

DTTSThe District Trainers Training Sem-inar, chaired by PDG Krishnan V Chari and PDG Manandi Suresh as Vice Chair, was a lively programme with interactive floor participation from the District Trainers. While Chari elaborated on the roles and responsi-bilities of a District Trainer, Basker highlighted the regional membership plans, new invoicing and club central. “Each region has its own challenges

and issues, and is therefore allotted specific plans based on their oppor-tunities and strength,” he said. The District Trainers presented tried and tested ideas on membership growth and retention. Some of them felt that proper training is necessary for the club presidents and assistant governors on forming an Interact/Rotaract club, organising RYLA etc.

To a question on how far the RI’s PETS programme has to be adhered to, Chari replied,“RI has laid down one important fact: Do Good in the World. Let us customise RI rules to what India and your District need. As District Trainers you are opinion makers, so shape your projects accordingly.”

Polio FlamePolio Flame, a novel idea of RC Madras, was lit by Gary Huang; the torch will travel around the world before reaching Sao Paulo in June 2015 for the RI Convention. It was handed over by club President Srikanth to PDG Krish Rajendran, District 3220, who has donated $1,000 for this pro-ject, to be taken to Sri Lanka.

The session ended with the recog-nition of PRID Ashok Mahajan, Dr E G P Haran, Rtn K C Vijayan and Rtn Rambhau Dhondu Shirode with Inter-national Service Award for Polio-free World, and certificates to PDGs Rajiv Modi, R S Rathi, Jesiah Villavarayar and Dr Senthil for their extraordinary role in polio eradication campaign.

Swachh Bharat Rotary’s commitment to support the Indian government’s Swachh Bharat campaign was sealed with Prabhakar and Desai signing the Chennai Decla-ration on behalf of Rotary India. This was counter-signed by Gary Huang and Union Minister for Urban Devel-opment Venkaiah Naidu at a session chaired by Saboo who hailed the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and called upon Rotarians to have a personal commitment towards environmental cleanliness.

The Chennai Declaration urged Rotarians to include cleanliness as their significant project and also involve the Interactors, Rotaractors and RCCs in this. Other significant

Bharata Natyam dance recital.


Rotarian delegates at the Institute.

features of the Declaration said that Rotary clubs of India will take up the WinS programme (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in schools) proactively and adopt schools (at least 10,000 schools every year in selected areas of the country), providing facilities and inculcating awareness in school children; develop an all-India Rotary structure to promote activities under WinS in partnership with the govern-ment; Rotary leadership will initiate and conclude similar arrangements with organisations such as UNICEF and seek financial support from cor-porates to meet these objectives. The Declaration also specified that Rotary clubs will undertake building of suit-able toilets and wash facilities across the country.

Prior to the signing of the Decla-ration, all delegates took the Swachhta Pledge.

Minister Naidu’s address detailed the government’s plans for reali-sation of the Swachhta dream of Prime Minister Modi. He remarked that the Centre now encourages public-private partnership for suc-cessful implementation of welfare projects. “No programme can succeed without people’s participation.

Work hard and leave your District better than before.

PRIP Kalyan Banerjee

‘Sab kam Sarkar karega; hum bekar baithe toh chalega’ (Government will do everything, and we can idle) no longer works.” he said, drawing applause from the audience. He called upon the corporate sector to join hands with Rotary to usher in development.

Modi congratulates RotaryAcknowledging the commitment of Rotary to the cause of Clean India, Prime Minister Modi conveyed his appreciation through his letter addressed to Prabhakar, and tweeted his congratulations to Rotary to his 8.85 million followers.

PRID Shekhar Mehta gave an impressive account of the activities and achievements of Rotary India Lit-eracy Mission. The Pakistan literacy scenario was presented by Mr Nisar

Ahmad Khuhro, Senior Minister of Education, Government of Sindh.

Musical eveningThe evening of the penultimate day was pure magic as Rtn Anil Srinivasan, Naresh Iyer and Saindavi took the

audience down memory lane with their soul-stirring music. The icing on the cake was honouring of music legend A R Rahman with the Polio Ambassador Award, presented by RI President Gary Huang and Corinna and RI Director P T Prabhakar and Nalini.

The Chennai Institute served as a passport to good governance and positive promotion of Brand Rotary and proved to be an unforgettable experience.


What did you think of the various sessions at the Chennai Institute.

Who are the two speakers who impressed you the most and why?

by Rasheeda Bhagat

Senior RI leaders who attended the Chennai

Institute have taken back warm memories home of the great hospitality, inter-

esting sessions, and above all, the colourful cultural

bonanza that the host city, Chennai, has to offer.

Here are some of their impressions.

A great cocktail of serious talk, colour and sparkles

and PDG Aziz Memon at the Polio update.

How do you rate the work done by Rotary India? Which areas have they excelled in?JH: Rotary India is an excellent region, I give them a 10. The event in Chennai was so bright and uplifting, just like the International Assembly and Convention events.

KB: I am very impressed with the work being done by Rotarians in India. I have visited projects in both Mumbai and Chennai and was moved by what I saw. I learned a great deal about work with disabled and disadvantaged children. I was amazed at the degree to which Rotary steps in and provides for Gov-ernment schools and builds and staffs hospitals and other healthcare centres.

My favourite project is the Win-ners Bakery. It is a highly successful bakery which is able to support sev-eral vocational training projects from bakers to nursing students to computer classes.

Your general impressions of India, Chennai, particularly the “time out” sessions, the serious talk, the dances and other performances. JH: The dance performances were abso-lutely amazing. One of my favourites was the procession during the Opening; so lively and energetic with one speech followed by a performance, one after the other. It really kept the energy high.

Seeing the excitement and diligence of the spastic children really moved me. They gave it their very best and showed nothing is impossible. Bravo!

KB: I really liked the dances from dif-ferent parts of India.

TRF Trustee Jackson Hsieh

Kristin Brown

TRF Trustee Jackson Hsieh: The sessions were all very informative. Ms Shivani’s “Balance Sheet of Life” presentation made a great impression on me. I also got great ideas from Dada J P Vaswani’s “Light Up Rotary.” He’s a very noble and wise 95-year-old with lots of experience and positive insight.

Kristin Brown, Manager, Rotary Ser-vice Connections: I liked President- elect Ravindran’s “straight talk” on the issues facing Rotary globally and in India. Also both PDG Deepak Kapur

What did you think of the flag ceremony and the film of Rotaractors carrying the flags in a boat from the southern tip of India to Chennai?JH: The flag ceremony was unique and the Rotaractors great. The first time I’ve ever seen such an elaborate ceremony/video outside international conventions such as in Sydney.

KB: This was a fun way to “tour” India and get a glimpse of other sights to see — for my next trip to India … whenever that will be.

Any other comments on the Institute?JH: I did sightseeing in Chennai only a few hours after the Institute; I spent my time with my aide DRFC Muthu Palaniappan, who was very friendly and welcoming. He showed me two famous Hindu temples and two churches, and I enjoyed the little time I had very much. My first visit to Chennai impressed me a lot and I hope to return soon.

KB: An impressive agenda with Rotary senior leaders, representatives of the Indian and Pakistani governments as well as prominent Indian artists and spiritual leaders! I appreciated the oppor-tunity to visit an artists’ colony and some traditional homes in Chennai, as also the beach, Vivekananda House, Central Sta-tion and a Hindu temple.


ROTARY INSTITUTE

Light Up Rotary Seminar“Ek pyar ka nagma hai, maujon ki ravani hai, zindagi aur kuch bhi nahi teri meri kahani hai ...” sang Rotar-ian Deepak Talwar saying that this is “Rotary and my story.” Light up Rotary Seminar, under the chairman-ship of PDG Sam Patibandla, was an immensely interactive session.

While 4,000 new clubs were added in Rotary worldover, the net membership gain remained as low as 226 percent. “Is it feasible for an international organisation like Rotary? Is it sufficient?” asked PDG Mahesh Raikar who later unfolded the Regional Membership Plan. PDG Rabi Narayan Nanda also mentioned about one of the challenges faced: “the basic funda is that individuals

do not want to leave the leadership. Efficient people do not get a chance.” Therefore ideas are lost and so is the ability to bring in more members.

“Our first challenge is to bring in members,” said PDG Vinod Bansal. Members leave Rotary or refrain from joining it because of the increas-ing cost, mentioned a participant. Bansal threw open a debate when he questioned, “Should Rotary adapt a dictum — serving masses through classes?” PDG N Asoka brought to the notice of the audience TRF Grant structure and signature pro-jects that enhanced Rotary’s public image. PDG Ramesh Agarwal gave an insight into effective PR.

The seminar gave each member in the hall an opportunity to come

forward and Light up Rotary with their Rotary Moment.

Council on Legislation The Council on Legislation (COL) is an essential part of Rotary’s gov-ernance. The COL Seminar chaired by PDG P T Ramkumar and PDG A Subramaniam briefed the dele-gates about the mechanics of the COL Meet that would be held at Chicago in April 2016.

Ramkumar and Subramaniam made the attendees realise that COL was no rocket science. Demon-strating a mock COL session, PDG Ramkumar announced, “This is the proposed legislation,” holding a big binder with the ‘proposals’ from various parts of the world. The COL

Institute High Pointsby Kiran Zehra

PDG P T Ramkumar speaking at the COL session.


representatives for the year 2016 were briefed on the Rules of Procedure — How a resolution is to be tabled/ with-drawn, how to move a motion, what are the motions that are debatable/ amendable? The five day COL “busi-ness session lasts from 8.30 a.m. to

6 p.m., depending upon the number of proposals,” said Ramkumar.

Every three years, Rotarians from across the globe meet at the COL to review and vote on proposed legisla-tion. Representatives consider propos-als arranged in the binders based on their relevance. Holding up the red, green and yellow cards Ramkumar explained, “Flashing the green card conveys that you are ‘for’ the pro-posal, red shows you are ‘against’ and this is only during the discussion phase.” So what does the yellow stand for? “Yellow, when you want to make an amendment to the proposal being considered.”

“If a person flashes the yellow card, he is given an opportunity to speak,” explained PDG Subramaniam. A time limit of two minutes is given to the speaker; the language used has to be English. So you go up to the microphone and say, “Chairman, I am so and so, I would like to propose this amendment for this reason.” The amendment is then passed for voting (electronic) before which “another Rotarian has to second it,” said PDG Ravi Vadlamani.

“At the Assembly will we be served Indian food?” inquired a mem-ber in the room while another wanted

to know “how to relax during the ses-sion.” PDG Subramaniam said that the best relaxation will come in the form of humorous points during the debate. He recalled how PRIP Cliff Dochterman reacted to getting a title called ‘youth act’ — “We have Inter-act, we have Rotaract, I have cataract, now why do we need youth act?”

The session was adjourned on this humorous note.

Padharo Maro Desh – Curtain raiser for Rotary Institute 2015Anns dressed in colourful Rajasthani attire dancing to the tunes of Kesariya balam ayoa ni padharo maro desh welcomed an overwhelming crowd to the Rotary Institute 2015, Jaipur.

“Sharmishta and I invite you to the Pink City — Jaipur for Rotary Institute 2015. Please be there to witness the new perception of Rotary, which can be described in three words — Dare, Care and Share.” said RIDE Dr Manoj Desai.

Institute Chair PDG Dr Ashok Gupta said, “I strongly believe that this will be an excellent opportunity for all to get a feel of the rich her-itage, cuisine, fellowship and above all the hospitality of the Rajasthani people.”

Music legend A R Rahman being honoured at the Institute.


Dada Vaswani Lights up Rotary“Would he be able to speak clearly?” asked a member in the audience look-ing at the elderly man being pushed on a wheelchair towards the microphone placed at the centre stage. “Friends and fellow Rotarians, we have in our midst the great spiritual leader Dada J P Vaswani,” announced RI Director P T Prabhakar. A video introduced the speaker to his audience. There was complete silence in the hall and when somebody was found talking or if a cell phone rang they were signalled to keep quiet.

“Rotary is a movement that has moved around the world,” said Vaswani. “Friendship, fellowship and fruitfulness are its virtues.” The man on the stage known for his great story telling skills narrated an interesting story of Mulla Nasrudin. “Let us not curse the darkness. Let us kindle little lights,” he said at the end of the story.The gathering collectively laughed, clapped, some got emotional and even shed tears, as Dada Vaswani gave “suggestions” for a better a life. “When you give to someone, give

silently, with humility, give lovingly and unconditionally,” he continued. He told the Rotarians, “God has created you and poured love into your hearts so that you may do your best to alleviate the suffering that is around you.” He also answered questions related to love, grief and happiness.

A standing ovation greeted Dada Vaswani, as he said that no matter how old you are, it’s the spirit to “live in harmony” that speaks aloud.

Vijay Amritraj Sportsman, entrepreneur, actor... Padma Shri Vijay Amritraj after completing his assignment as a United Nations Messenger of Peace, founded The Vijay Amritraj Foun-dation with the mission to “bring hope, help and healing to the defence-less and innocent victims of disease, tragedy and circumstance in India.”

Vijay Amritraj who has been con-ferred with the ‘Distinguished NRI

Dada J P Vaswani

Vijay Amritraj being honoured by TRF Trustee Julio Sorjús and RID P T Prabhakar.


Award’ by RC Madras East described his childhood struggle and hard work. “Why do you have to go all the way there to lose?”asked his grandmother, who wasn’t happy about his decision to take up tennis as a career. But ten-nis changed his life and taught him to “win well and lose well.” He shared his thoughts on how sports can help shape youngsters into better human beings.

Service above Self Addressing the packed hall , Brahmakumari Shivani asked some tough questions to the participants at the Chennai Institute. What is the true meaning of “Service above Self, your motto”? She made it clear that “service that seeks reward or rec-ognition is no service at all. If you expect that, it is like one hand giving and the other hand taking ... demand-ing a return.”

True service was that which just gave and gave and expected nothing in return.

Asking the audience to take con-trol of their emotions and not harbour negative thoughts and feelings, she

challenged them to take a 24-hour test. “Make a pledge that in the next 24 hours you will not get angry or lose your temper even once.” This was pos-sible, she said, giving the example of another mammoth gathering she had addressed recently, where she had given the same exercise. The next day an overwhelming majority of the partic-ipants returned with a positive answer.

Rubbles to RubiesUttarakhand witnessed massive destruction in June 2013 floods. While many assisted in immediate relief, Rotary India was looking at the big-ger picture — rebuilding schools in Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi. PRID Yash Pal Das played an enduring 10-minute video that showcased the good work being done. While schools in Kyunja, Chameli and Banyadhi have been completed, there is more to be done — more rubble to be trans-formed to rubies.

When you give to someone, give silently, with humility, give lovingly and unconditionally.

Brahmakumari Shivani flanked by Suresh Oberoi and Mrs Manju Das.

PRID Y P Das.


Planning their moves! Across the dance floor, two future RI leaders, RIPE Ravindran and RIDE Desai, seem to be writing a secret code of their own.

Chai time: PRIP Kalyan Banerjee (Right) enjoys a cup of hot chai with TRF Trustee Sushil Gupta in a cool Chennai.

Couple time: DGE David Hilton with his better half Patricia.


Bouquet time: DG Nazar, obviously relaxed after the successful completion of the mammoth Human Flag formation, sports a smile while welcoming Janna Glucksmann.

All attention: PRIPs Rajendra Saboo and Kalyan Banerjee with Binota Banerjee.

Rotary lights up Chennai sky: Time for fireworks... of a kind different from RIPE Ravindran’s straight talk!


A new high: No prizes for guessing what has uplifted the spirits of RID Prabhakar and PDG Surya Prakash Bhat!

Award time: Usha Saboo being conferred Rotary Spouse award for “demonstrating exemplary humanitarian service through Rotary.”

Present & Future: First Lady Corinna along with Vanathy Ravindran.


The Raja-Raju pair: Institute Chair Raja Ramakrishnan and DGE C R Raju.

All ears: PRIP Banerjee is all attention as RIPE Ravindran seems to share his future strategies with his predecessor.

Words & Schools: Two PRIDs Yash Pal Das (Right) and Shekhar Mehta have a lighter moment at the Institute.


the last $275 million for polio campaign came from the Islamic Development Bank and the UAE Government is openly funding the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) polio vaccination.

Endangering his lifeIntroducing Memon at the Institute session on polio, PRIP Kalyan Banerjee paid a tribute to the relentless work he has done when he said, “sometimes he even takes risks and puts his own life in danger. The Pakistan army has told him there are certain areas in Karachi he should not be going to because the Taliban is very active there.”

Memon told the Institute participants that Banerjee had travelled to Pakistan one day after the recent Wagah blast in which 60 people were killed. “He called and said ‘I am being asked not to travel, what should I do.’ I said, ‘you come, we’ll take care of you.’ The ground reality is different from what the media reports and misreports. Our battle against polio has become a geo-political bat-tle, we spend more time with the ministries of Defence and Interior (Home) and less with that of Health.”

Today Pakistan has 268 polio cases, of which 168 are from the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) “where war is going on and where the Pakistani Constitution doesn’t run. Polio vaccination was banned here for four years after the killing of

Pakistan’s ongoing war against polio

by Rasheeda Bhagat

In the killing fields of Pakistan’s northwestern region where 175 polio workers, including nine policemen, have been killed by the

Pakistan Taliban, the dogged resolve of Pakistani Rotar-ians, led by its National PolioPlus Chair Aziz Memon, and supported by the Nawaz Sharif government, came through at the various polio sessions held at the Chennai Institute.

Earlier, in an interview to Rotary News, Memon said that Rotary’s persistent and aggressive approach to eradicate polio from Pakistan has been “a double-edged sword. When we pushed the top politicians, the bureau-cracy woke up, worked hard and full security was pro-vided to polio workers.”

But simultaneously “the Taliban also got energised because their funda is to oppose anything the Govern-ment does. But if we don’t make this high profile, we don’t get results.”

The encouraging thing, said Aziz, is that recently after four polio workers were killed by the Taliban, “and we went to Quetta to offer condolence to the families, they came forward to offer more polio volunteers. With every killing our resolve to eradicate polio becomes stronger.”

Memon said the earlier misinformation by the Taliban that polio vaccines disturb fertility and the workers are “American agents” has been blown “because

(From Left) RID P T Prabhakar, Pakistan Polio Plus Chair Aziz Memon, Pakistan MNA Ayesha Raza Farooq and INPPC Chair Deepak Kapur.


Osama bin Laden. The army went in there in June but some parts are still with the Taliban.” About 3,80,000 children were trapped in these areas and couldn’t get a single shot of OPV for 3-4 years. The virus broke out here and when the affected children were driven out, they became potential virus carriers. Almost all the affected children are Pashtun.

There are 168 cases in FATA and 60 in the adjoin-ing KPK, and Sindh and Balochistan have cases from migrants who travel from around Pakistan, taking the virus with them. Even Karachi has 22-24 cases. But Punjab, the largest province with 68 percent of peo-ple, has only three cases and even those are Pashtun children.

While the reservoir of FATA throws up polio infec-tions, “Prime Minister Sharif and the Army are helping us and we are taking full advantage of the low trans-mission season and immunising children,” he added.

Memon added that 25-26 polio cases are reported out of Sindh and but for two cases, the rest are from Karachi because “one third of Karachi is with the Taliban. They have their hub here and in one small area there are 16 cases. Earlier we used to go there, clean the place, and run schools, but today we cannot even enter that area.”

Pakistan is one of the three countries in the world where polio exists; but the other two — Afghanistan and Nigeria — have barely 14-18 and 7-8 cases respec-tively. Ironically, once upon a time Pakistan got the virus from Afghanistan, today it is the opposite.

India’s successAddressing the polio session, INPPC Chair Deepak Kapur recalled how when Rotary set about to eradicate polio from India, “they said it was a midsummer night’s dream, an impossible quest, and many of us believed them.”

He admitted that on occasions he too harboured doubts. “But there was always Raja Saboo pushing me forward, Kalyan Banerjee saying shun pessimism, Sushil Gupta coming up with new initiatives, Ashok Mahajan interacting with the Muslim Ulemas, Yash Das who kept pushing me towards enthusiasm.”

And “Uncle Google” came up with inspiring quotes from celebrities such as Nelson Mandela who said ‘it always seems impossible until it is done’ and Superman Christopher Rees and super boxer Mohammed Ali who said ‘impossible was just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easy to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power to change it.’

“Indeed the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow. And when on March 27, 2014 India was declared polio-free, years of your relent-less efforts, tons of sweat and tears of mothers and the support of partners like UNICEF, and film stars, crick-eters, the media, paid off.”

But, cautioned Kapur, even though India had been declared polio-free, “as Saboo keeps saying there is no room for complacency. Success breeds complacency and complacency breeds failure. At one time or another India has exported the polio virus to every continent and there is no reason why it can’t come back the same route. So we need an emergency preparedness plan in

PRIP Kalyan Banerjee


place and ensure that in case the virus returns there is no local circulation.”

Routine and supplementary immunisation levels also have to be kept high; “we have to ensure Rotary continues to work as before.”

Rotary SpiritThe Rotary spirit came to the fore and it was touching to see Kapur comforting Memon when he said, “Our friends from Pakistan can take heart from the India experience. It was widely believed that India would be the last country in the world to do it.” Large num-bers, density, lack of water, sanitation, malnourishment, endemic diseases…. these are the factors that create a fertile ground for the polio virus to survive.

Reeling off statistics Kapur said that against India’s 1.2 billion, Pakistan had only 187 million; its density of population was 236 against India’s 421; 15.3 million don’t have access to safe drinking water in Pakistan against 91.5 million in India. “But one crucial difference is that in India at no time in the history of the campaign was a polio worker killed. And yet, if India can do it, so can Pakistan with people like Aziz willing to put their lives on the line.”

Pak government’s resolveAyesha Raza Farooq, Pakistan Prime Minister’s focal person on Polio and Member of the National Assembly (akin to a Lok Sabha MP in India), lauded Rotary for “touching millions of lives across the world with compassion and portraying the indomitable spirit of the human mind, tran-scending borders, cul-tures and religions.”

She recalled that she was present when in March, 11 nations of the world were declared polio-free including India … a total of 1.8 billion people. “I said it then and say it again that your triumph against polio reflects the victory of hope, perseverance and improvisation. We have all learnt a lot from the Indian experiences. Polio paraly-ses lives, traumatises families and commu-nities. Pakistan embarked on this journey in 1994 and there were times during these two decades when we were so close to stopping transmission ... yet too far.”

But, she assured the gathering, the swinging fortune of this programme “has

done little to dampen our spirits and with partners like Rotary and the unflinching support of our leadership, our march towards our goal will gain momentum. Polio has been eliminated from 90 percent of Pakistan; the security dimension rooted in geo-politics remains Pakistan’s last battle.”

Ayesha Raza added that the supreme sacrifice ren-dered by polio workers and the resolve of the entire nation to fight against ignorance that allows a child to become a victim of such a horrendous disease will ensure the defeat of the polio virus. “Our armed forces have launched decisive operation in FATA where polio teams were either banned or denied entry ... we will defeat the forces of darkness who oppose either the edu-cation of girls or polio vaccination,” she said.

As the Institute Convenor and RID P T Prabhakar welcomed the Pakistani delegates and lauded them for their spirited fight against polio, the Pakistan MNA said to thunderous applause: “Thank you Chennai, thank you Rotary, for housing us with warmth and for the

opportunity to be part of this wonderful conference of the most amazing people who have,

through their ideas and actions, made a real difference.”

Later, answering a question she said the Pakistan government gave a financial package of Rs 2 mil-lion to families of the killed polio workers and a job to a relative of the deceased. Memon added that RI had announced USD 2,200 to

each polio victim’s family and a fundraiser is being

organised on Janu-ary 31 towards an Endowment Fund for the affected families.

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RI President Gary C K Huang inducts Ayesha Farooq as an Honorary Rotarian.

PRIP Rajendra K Saboo


Pakistan’s national PolioPlus Committee Chair Aziz Memon said the need of the hour is to provide polio workers with cell phones to increase communication among polio partners for wider

coverage of polio vaccination. “Due to the weak road network and lack of transport, communication becomes a great challenge for polio workers. The situation is aggravated where geographical accessibility is difficult.”

RC Baroda Metro, the club of RIDE Manoj Desai had already donated 500 phones. “But we need about 5,000 phones for the whole of Pakistan,” he said.

As PRIP Kalyan Banerjee, Chairman of the session, was wrapping it 10 minutes later, DG Vivek Aranha and PDG Deepak Shikarpur from District 3131came forward to announce a donation of $10,000 for families of Pakistan’s slain polio workers!

“This is Rotary”, was all that Banerjee needed to say in his concluding remarks.

District 3131 to the rescue

Now the Nigerian Government wants health camps without much publicity about polio immunisation, and has asked for three mobile clinics to carry doctors, paramedics, diagnostic tools and medicines. “I talked to AKS members J B Kamdar and Sajjan Goenka for Rs 12 lakh each and collected more money for not three but four vans, after getting a discount from Tata Motors for the chasis of the vans.” (What Saboo did not disclose at the session was that he has personally donated Rs 12 lakh to make up the shortfall.)

Next came the rigmarole associated with shipping. This was overcome by involving TRF, and now the donation will be made and the vans acquired directly through the auto major’s Nigerian agency.

“After hearing this, the Australian High Com-missioner in Nigeria said ‘I’ll give $50,000, get us a discount too,’ so I am working on that!”

TRF Trustee Sushil Gupta said Pakistan was a unique case. “At one time it was being said that India would be the toughest nut to crack. But now Pakistan is proving to be that tough nut! But no nation can remain polio-free till the world is polio-free.”

PRIP Kalyan Banerjee said the fight against polio in Pakistan is a huge challenge that no other country has. “And that they are continuing the work despite such huge challenges is also remarkable. We’ve also seen that the commitment of the people becomes stronger when the workers get shot.

Mobile clinics for NigeriaPRIP Rajendra K Saboo recalled his experiences in Nigeria where for long years he has been involved in conducting polio corrective surgery camps. At the last polio meeting the WHO representative said that it is time the Indian prime minister got in touch with the Pakistan PM for polio eradication. But such direct dia-logues do not happen for several reasons. So the idea came “why don’t we take it up at the SAARC summit. We tried but it was too late to put it on the agenda. So on behalf of Rotary we wrote a letter to PM Modi and Foreign Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and believe it or not, six days later, Modi announced in Myanmar that he was going to take up polio eradication at the SAARC summit.”

DG Vivek Aranha announcing the donation.

We will defeat the forces of darkness opposing education of girls and polio vaccination.

Ayesha Farooq

“ “


The Spouses Session on December 10 & 11 aimed at preparing the spouses for the International Assem-

bly and their year ahead. A positive message by First Lady Corinna Huang,

“You may not be the Commander of the ship; but you are the silent wind that sails the ship,” really gave a great start to the GETS programme. The International Innerwheel Past President Kamala Ramakrishnan’s inaugural address on “You too will lead” emphasised more on the importance of the role of the spouses, as spouse ‘leaders.’

The guest speaker Dr Shashi Shyamsunder’s ‘Panchatantra of Leadership’ was an informative and interesting speech, based on the word ‘ROTARY’ elaborating it as: R - Recognise to be recognised; O - Optimise resources; T- Teach what you practice; A - Avoid the delays; R - Respond, not react; Y - You are unique, so be yourself. Dr Madhavi Pandya’s ‘Your Journey Begins Now,’ covered all the nitty- grittys of preparing for the International Assembly — the travel, gift selection, packing smart, fitness etc.

Dr Sharmishta Desai‘s ‘Get Involved’ covered the aspects of the spouses’ involvement in Governors’ visit to clubs, conferences, assemblies and other events of the district. Dr Sangita Bansal explained the importance of

Behind Successful Rotarians

by Nalini Prabhakar

Round Table session in progress.


communication and public speaking, under the topic ‘Reach Out.’ Dr Amita Kotbagi’s, ‘Get set Get going’ dealt with the Rotary programmes, Rotary moments etc.

On day two, the stage was set for a panel discus-sion on ‘A Special Year.’ It was a star-studded session with two Past Rotary first ladies — Usha Saboo, Binota Banerjee, present First Lady Corinna Huang, future First Lady Vanathy Ravindran as speakers and International Innerwheel Past President as the moderator.

The panelists gave their views on ‘Support and Share the Rotary Goal’ by providing personal support to District Governor; motivating the club first ladies; and participating and motivating participation in the district events.

Mrs Kamala encouraged the audience to a Q & A session. The spouses were engaged in interaction with the senior leaders much beyond the time scheduled. The preparatory information on two more major events to be held at the International Assembly: Cultural Display and International Evening were also discussed, followed by a mock cultural display. The spouses were prepared for a Round Table discussion at the International Assem-bly by conducting them through a similar round table discussion headed by the senior leaders in each table.

A visit to Dakshin Chitra, a unique centre for arts, crafts and architecture of South India and a shopping spree brought much cheer among the women and the shared fun and fellowship would be cherished for a long time. End of each day, after dinner, the DGEs and their spouses went through rigorous practice preparing to present a vibrant group dance medley at the International Assembly.

GETS sessions were enriching with knowl-edge, information and training mixed with fun all the way.

Usha Saboo and Binota Banerjee at the session.

Mrs. Carmen, spouse of Trustee Julio Sorjús and Dr Sangita Bansal.

You may not be the Commander of the ship; but you are the silent wind that sails the ship.

Corinna Huang

“ “

PRID Ashok Mahajan receives ‘International Service Award for Polio-free World’ from RIP Gary Huang. PDG Deepak Shikarpur, D3131, with his District awards.

Dr E G P Haran receiving ‘International Service Award for Polio-free World.’

Rtn Rambhau Shirode being conferred the ‘International Service Award for Polio-free World.’

STAR PERFORMERS

Donor Trophy IPDG Dist.Usha and Raja SabooTrophy Highest Giving to Annual Fund Vinod Bansal 3010

Binota and Kalyan Banerjee Trophy Highest Giving to Endowment Fund Dineshsinh Thakor 3060

Nitish Laharry Trophy Highest Per Capita APF Giving to TRF Vinod Bansal 3010

Special Award Highest Giving to Term Gifts Deepak Shikarpur 3131

Zone 5Trophy RI District IPDG

Highest Total Contribution to TRF 3190 K S Nagendra

Highest contribution to Annual Fund 3190 K S Nagendra

Highest contribution to Endowment Fund 3230 A P Kanna

Highest Per CapitaTotal Giving to TRF 3190 K S Nagendra

Highest Per Capita Giving to Annual Fund 3190 K S Nagendra

Highest contribution to Polio Fund 3211 John C Neroth

Zones 4 & 6ATrophy RI District IPDG

Highest Total Contribution to TRF 3010 Vinod Bansal

Highest contribution to Annual Fund 3010 Vinod Bansal

Highest contribution to Endowment Fund 3060 Dineshsinh Thakor

Highest Per CapitaTotal Giving to TRF 3131 Deepak Shikarpur

Highest Per Capita Giving to Annual Fund 3010 Vinod Bansal

Highest contribution to Polio Fund 3131 Deepak Shikarpur

OF ZONES 4, 5 & 6A

DG Sanjay Khemka, D3250, being recognised. PDG A P Kanna, D3230, receives this District awards.

DGE Theenachandran, D3000, along with spouse Vasanthi, receiving GETS Graduation Certificate from RIP Gary Huang.


ROTARY INSTITUTE

by Rasheeda Bhagat

Rotary Pakpeace scholarsroped in for polio

From Left: INPPC Chair Deepak Kapur, PRIP Kalyan Banerjee, Pakistan National PolioPlus Committee Chair Aziz Memon, TRF Trustee Sushil Gupta and PRIP Rajendra K. Saboo.

ne of the major highlights of the Chennai Institute were different ses-sions on polio, which has come into a sharper focus thanks to the continuing shooting of polio workers involved in the Rotary immunisation programme in Pakistan.

At one session PRIP Kalyan Banerjee introduced TRF Trustee Sushil Gupta as innovator who always thought out of the box and how many Rotary projects had benefited from

this trait, which he is now applying to tackle the difficult polio situation in Pakistan.

One such brainwave Gupta recently had was to involve the seven Peace Scholars Rotary has in Pakistan in this project. “I’ve been associated with polio eradication since 1988 in one capacity or the other, and have realised that as with our membership, one size does not fit all. The polio strategy in one country will not suit


another, so unless we have some inno-vative thinking, or out of the box solu-tions, we can’t succeed.”

He recalled that in India when there was a huge spurt in polio cases in 2003–04, and “the situation looked terrible, we had come out with new responses. Pakistan is a very unique case. At one time it was being said that India would be the toughest nut to crack. But now Pakistan is proving to be that tough nut!”

He recalled the different strate-gies Rotarians had adopted in India, and now Pakistan was facing a pecu-liar problem in having different sets of Taliban. In a bid to explore new opportunities, “one thing that came to my mind was that for the last dec-ade Rotary has been preparing peace scholars all over the world, spending millions of dollars on their educa-tion. They are present in almost every Rotary country of the world, so why not use them?”

Seven universities around the world offer courses in peace and conflict resolution and Rotary sponsors many such “peace schol-ars.” So when he tossed the idea of using the seven Peace Scholars Rotary has in Pakistan with the IPPC Chair John Germ, “saying they are our assets,” he immediately agreed, saying “we have invested in them, so why not?”

The result is that these seven peace scholars have been pressed into the polio eradication cause. One of these is a woman and she is now heading the initiative. “They have formed a group; most of them are in education, and have students all over Pakistan including the troubled areas where the polio immunisers face a big challenge.”

This group now meets every month to thrash out new ideas and devise strategies on how to make polio immunisation inroads into

areas, mainly in the tribal regions of the northwest where the Taliban doesn’t allow the immunisation of children. “Our experience has taught us that once an initiative comes from the community, it makes a big difference.”

Asked if he has more such aces up his sleeve, Gupta smiles and says, “Just as we did in Nigeria, we are keeping quiet and doing the job. We are looking for more out of the box solutions and I am sure that polio can be conquered in Pakistan when the Rotarians are working so hard on it.”

On the continuing shooting of polio workers in Pakistan, PRIP Kalyan Banerjee says, “It is a huge challenge that no other country has and that they are continuing the work despite such huge challenges is also remarkable. The commitment of the people becomes stronger when the workers get shot, and that is a big positive.”


Team Rotary News

Volleys between two PRIPsVanakkam Chennai was full of lighter moments. One was a witty exchange between two giants — two PRIPs — Rajendra Saboo and Kalyan Banerjee.

While chairing a TRF seminar on polio, where Banerjee was given 20 minutes he said he’d rather give his time to the others and put on stage a galaxy of speakers who’ve done path- breaking work on polio prevention and corrective surgery.

One of them was Saboo, and as Banerjee invited him to recount his experiences, particularly in Nigeria, Saboo said, “If you want me to start from 1979, it’s a long, long story. How much time do I have?”

“As long as you want, but we’ll finish in five minutes,” quipped Banerjee.

“Ok, five minutes ... by my watch,” was Saboo’s return volley.

Speeding Sheriffs?At the DGN seminar, RIDE Manoj Desai recounted the address by PRIP Kalyan Banerjee at the GETS and

when Banerjee asked the batch of DGEs whether they are ‘Smiling Sheriffs,’ they announced, ‘No Sir, we are ‘Speeding Sheriffs.’ “Speed-ing Sheriffs … but they took their time to say that they were ‘speeding,’ ” observed Desai.

Motivated?A DGN wanted to know if they should refer themselves as ‘Speeding Sheriffs’ or if they can change their name. Desai immediately replied, “What is in a name? If you’re motivated, you can call yourself anything. This is my way of motivating you. Are you moti-vated?” Pat came the reply from the DGN: “Yes.” “Then I can go?” asked Desai, before addressing the session!

Peace Award Expressing concern over the growing politics in the Rotary Districts, PRIP Kalyan Banerjee suggested to RIDE Manoj Desai to institute a Peace Award to recognise the most peaceful district. Responding to his suggestion, Desai countered, “My job is made more

difficult with one more variety of an Award. Now I really wonder if I should occupy this seat (RI Director) or not.”

3 brekkers, 4 lunchesPRIP Kalyan Banerjee in his address to the DGEs at the GETS ‘warned’ them saying, “As DGs, and in sheer honour of the job, you will be well looked after, well-fed, thoroughly spoilt — three breakfasts and four lunches a day in different houses … Keep your weight in check.”

Fine or FinesUnion Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu’s speech on the Swachh Bharat campaign was peppered with rhyming phrases and punch lines — all of which had the audience in splits (in contrast to the serious note with which he started his address). Recount-ing his visit to Singapore, he said that commenting on the spic and span condition of the country to one of his aides, he had said, “Singapore is a fine city.” His aide quipped: “Singapore is a ‘fines’ city too.”

Lighter Moments

Excellent Fellowship: TRF Trustee Sushil Gupta with PRIP Kalyan Banerjee.


Membership in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives

As on December 1, 2014

RI Zone

RI District

Rotary Clubs

No. of Rotarians

Women Rotarians

Rotaract Interact RCC

Source: RI South Asia Office

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

A time to reflect and actJanuary: In Roman times, this was symbolised by the two-headed god Janus — one head looking back and one head looking forward.

This is the time for us to take stock and see, of the goals we set for ourselves at the start of the year, how many we have achieved, and how we can fully realise all of them by the end of this Rotary year.

How are we meeting our goal of polio eradication? Did we encourage our district to give 20 percent of its District Designated Fund toward the eradication of this terri-ble disease? Are we supporting National Immunisation Days? There is still much to do. The number of polio cases in Pakistan in 2014 far exceeded the number in 2013.

Have you made your contribution to our charity — our only charity — our Rotary Foundation? Have we impressed on those Rotarians who have not made a contribution the need to do so? The number of Rotarians who have not given to our Foundation far exceeds the number who have given, and we need to reverse that statistic. Our target for the Annual Fund is US $123 million. Let us ensure that we reach it.

Have you considered taking advantage of the new grants programme by using dis-trict or global grants? Last year, 858 district grants and 492 global grants were awarded.

Have you nominated a Rotary Peace Fellow candidate? Have you sought out a Major Donor to help fund the programme? Have you registered for the Rotary Peace Symposium, just prior to the Rotary Inter-national Convention in São Paulo, Brazil, in June?

I have always held the belief that if the message of Rotary does not get to the Rotarian and the club, it loses its thrust. The Rotary club is the heartbeat of Rotary. What you make of the remaining months of the year, as you endeavour to Light Up Rotary, is up to you.

My New Year best wishes.

John KennyFoundation Trustee Chair

5

5

4

5

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

6

6

4

4

4

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

2980

3000

3010

3020

3030

3040

3051

3052

3053

3060

3070

3080

3090

3100

3110

3120

3131

3132

3140

3150

3160

3170

3180

3190

3201

3202

3211

3212

3220

3230

3240

3250

3261

3262

3271

3272

3281

3282

3291

3292

Total

159

100

133

67

91

103

66

71

50

84

117

82

75

88

108

68

124

76

143

93

61

124

136

92

125

105

130

84

67

131

76

93

76

77

83

96

150

86

150

88

3,928

6,990

4,386

5,361

3,302

4,837

2,263

2,556

3,457

1,864

3,646

3,295

3,296

2,008

2,041

3,409

2,614

4,834

3,236

7,343

3,396

2,270

4,900

5,633

3,892

4,755

4,115

4,121

3,438

1,908

5,851

2,717

3,394

2,477

2,702

1,467

2,078

4,575

2,390

4,032

2,871

1,43,720

252

305

544

180

544

262

185

486

163

321

282

162

65

96

154

212

699

243

984

276

102

239

215

294

236

187

232

152

228

413

265

464

282

261

172

387

519

169

605

329

12,166

71

140

56

30

43

29

36

25

13

34

46

41

20

9

43

28

50

38

98

66

8

25

38

49

63

53

9

16

62

111

40

37

14

24

35

17

184

111

44

92

1,948

271

266

185

193

180

87

119

126

30

96

127

149

30

84

48

30

177

87

336

161

37

245

362

114

86

344

63

130

182

361

116

132

97

59

15

35

68

20

96

89

5,433

191

68

80

258

123

131

329

123

89

105

58

98

122

146

60

48

65

56

138

109

80

154

141

41

43

38

114

117

93

271

110

165

41

66

13

32

171

38

523

85

4,733


a

by Rasheeda Bhagat

Giving away money!

This Rotarian of 56 years built the Rotary Service Centre in Santacruz way back in 1965 when he was RC Bombay West

President. He loves to give away his money ... in crores of rupees!

very year Mohanbhai Patel, Past Pres-ident of RC Bombay West, Chairman of the Patel Extrusion Group and a former Sheriff of Bombay, organises an event where he honours five scien-tists for their original research finding useful application in industry.

Four years ago, at one such event held in Anand district in Gujarat, the chief guest was the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. As the awards

meeting was on, the CM suddenly halted the proceedings and said: “Where is your family? I want to take a picture with them.” The family was put together, the chief guest stepped off the podium and such a picture was taken (Above). “Even then I told him that in 2014 I will invite you to a similar function, but then you will be the Prime Minister of India,” chuckles the grand old man, all of 85.


But Patel’s claim to fame is not astrology. This Rotarian of 56 years, born to a farming family in Gujarat’s Kheda district, loves to give away his money for charity, and not in small dribbles. Recently he donated Rs 1.5 crore to the Rotary Service Public Charitable Trust, through his family Trust (Surajba Charitable Trust), to reward brilliant students from 50 educational institutions in Mumbai. But giving away what he has is not new to him.

The beginningPatel had his primary and secondary school education in Gujarat and when he “joined an English medium school in Bombay, I was thrown out because I didn’t know enough English.” So he completed his school education in

Gujarati medium before being sent to London. After schooling he wanted to become a barrister, but there he met another Patel who advised him against a profession that “would give me income from pitting one brother against another, and similar cases, and advised me to become an engineer.”

At the Matriculation Examination of the London University, he topped in English, Math and Chemistry and later graduated in mechanical and electrical engineering from a London College, paying for his education through part-time work.

He joined the London office of the Tatas in 1952 and later sought a trans-fer to work with Tata Sons in India, where he headed the electrical depart-ment of one of its subsidiaries.

“You asked me when I began giv-ing away my money. It happened with my first salary of Rs 1,500 in India, which I donated to my village school. Second month’s salary went to my sis-ter, the third to my hospital and fourth to my parents,” says Patel.

Surely he wasn’t married then, or else his wife would have stopped this trend, I joke with my Gujarati interviewee.

Pat came the reply: “Luckily she was the daughter of a Patidar (Patel) and not a Bohri (my community), so I faced no such problem!”

It is the light touch with which he wears his wealth and the generosity with which he gives it away which makes Patel special. As also the fact that he is the sole creator of this wealth.

A pioneer in packagingIn 1958 Patel started his own com-pany to make collapsible aluminium tubes, then a West German preserve,

and also pioneered the making of the aluminium ophthalmic nozzle for eye ointments. Next year came the blind nozzle aluminium tubes for adhesives and rubber solutions. These innovative products gave a fillip to the indigenous pharma industry by making availa-ble cheaper Indian-made packaging material.

Much earlier he joined the free-dom movement and in 1942 an arrest warrant was issued for him. “It still remains; so you can say I am an absconder,” he grins.

Reminiscing on his Rotary years, the octogenarian says that after join-ing Rotary in 1958, he has remained an “active Rotarian all through 56 years.” He first became secretary of RC Bombay West and its president the next year. “The huge Rotary Service Centre in Santacruz was built in my time; both the idea and execution were mine. We had two halls and medical facilities. I think we were the first in the whole Rotary movement to own our own building in 1965 ... even before the one in Evanston, Chicago.”

Declined governorshipHe explains that this building is very prominently located at the Juhu circle; the plot was at least 2,000 sq yards and the whole structure cost around Rs 15–17 lakh. On why he didn’t become district governor, Patel says, “The governor-ship was offered to me, but I declined because it involved too much work, which my business responsibilities did not permit. And apart from business, I had social, educational and other responsibilities too.”

While he has been making “small donations of Rs 2–5 lakh for Rotary, this was the first time I’ve made such a

We owned our building in Bombay in1965 ... even before Rotary owned its building in Evanston.


big donation of Rs 1.5 crore,” he says. He set up the Rotary School for the speech and hearing impaired in the memory of his mother 12 years ago.

When I press for more details about his philanthropic ventures Patel says, “I normally don’t like saying this but because you’re asking, I donated a few years ago Rs 4 crore for the University of Science and Technology in Kheda district.”At this campus there is a large college (the Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel Institute for Computer Applica-tions) named after his late wife. His total contribution to this University is around Rs 8 crore.

So what does Rotary mean for him?

“It has given me good company; I enjoy listening to good speakers, some on health, others on education. Now of course I go only for special meetings.”

So how do his three children — two sons and a daughter — look at their father giving away so much of his money to charity, I ask him.

“You must ask them. My daughter is right now beside me; I’ll give her the phone you ask her.”

But before doing that Patel says he enjoys giving his money to charity. “When all your needs are taken care of ... beyond a point what is the use of money? And anyway, I might have two or four more years to live ... and I can’t take my money with me.”

He next explains how in the Taittreya Upanishad, the muni has said to his students....

deiyam, deiyam, deiyam (give away). “But he had said samjhi ne aapo (give with knowledge and under-standing.) You may be a Bohri but you have Brahmin blood in you as you peo-ple were converted 800–1,000 years ago. So you should know all this!”

When he hands over the phone to Nisa Sagar, (“she is the daughter-in-law of the famous film maker Ramanand Sagar,” he says proudly), she says all his children are very proud of their father’s philanthropy.

The Rotary Service Centre in Mumbai was packed to

capacity with bright, cheerful aca-demic achievers, their parents and Rotarians on September 5 when the Smt. Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel Rotary Excellence Awards were given to deserving students.

Rtn Mohanbhai Patel staunchly believed that an investment in knowledge pays the best interest. He had been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from RI, apart from other significant decorations.

Patel created a corpus of Rs 1.50 crore for the Rotary Service Public Charitable Trust to institute the Smt Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel Rotary Excellence Awards for students who have topped their Board exams from schools and institutions in western suburbs of Mumbai and tribal schools in Dahanu Taluka, Maharashtra.

Students from 50 schools, colleges and institutions secur-ing the first three ranks are given

Rewarding achieversby Selvi

Rtn. Mohanbhai Patel handing over the awards.

cash prizes of Rs 10,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs 3,000 every year from the income earned from the corpus. The cash awards and certificates were given to the students by for-mer Vice Chancellor of SNDT Uni-versity, Rtn Dr Rupa Shah in the presence of Patel, Rtn Mohan Joshi, President of Rotary Club of Bombay West and Rtn Arvind Shah, who heads the Award Committee.

RC Bombay West, RI District 3140 recently celebrated its dia-mond jubilee. Through its perma-nent and humanitarian projects over the last six decades, the club has touched several thousand lives. The club owns and manages the KDN Shruti School for hearing-impaired children, Popatlal Prabhudas Char-itable Medical Centre and Rotary DG Goenka Blood Bank. The Rotarians provide interest-free loans for vocational courses and wom-en’s self-help groups, and sponsor skill enhancement programmes at schools for under-privileged.

“He has earned all his money and his giving away teaches us that we should also give back to the society. We see Papa doing it all the time and that is a great inspiration for us. There is so much to learn from

him; if I can be even 5–7 percent of what he is, I’ll be thrilled,” says Nisa.

As for the future, Patel says he will continue to give away his money ...“this is only the beginning.”


ROTARY - CSR COMBO

recourse to funds for their projects not only from internal resources, but also from external resources as a routine. All over the world, the concept of Cor-porate Social Responsibility (CSR) is increasing and spreading. Business establishments, high net-worth indi-viduals, trusts, families, etc., believe increasingly in giving something back to society. If such organisations and individuals can be co-opted in the plan-ning and execution of Rotary projects, resource problems will diminish to a large extent. Clubs can concentrate on

social projects. But, no institution or individual will be happy to be associ-ated with a Rotary club unless they see a big picture in the form of a credible USP and long term projects covering a few years.

They look for a system that will be accountable for the resource utili-sation over a few years and a system that results in the value additions to the corporations in terms of image and in terms of their employees taking part in social activities. Not much to ask by a giver; but too much to ask from Rotary clubs of today’s dispensation.

This is again my experience with the Rotary because I was for more than a decade a Director of one of the largest multinational companies in the world and an active member of Rotary simultaneously. I could rarely keep at bay the criticism of many promis-ing corporate houses that would like

to engage Rotary in a big way. CSR has to be taken to different heights by the actual implementation of synergy between organisations on either side of the CSR.

Rotary’s future depends on the cred-ibility of its projects and its value addi-tion in other spheres. An eco-system of involvement of the world outside (read corporate, HNIs etc.) for long term programmes is an excellent way to change Rotary from the ‘current year’ mindset to ‘long term’ mindset. Bringing CSR imaginatively is one of

the solutions that is doable and doable immediately.

More and more organisations are encouraging their employees to engage in social work through social service organisations that are auditable and long standing. They would like to channel CSR through such represent-atives of their own.

Isn’t it the right time for Rotary to use this beautiful opportunity?

(The author, member of RC Bangalore Jeevan Bhima Nagar, District 3190, is former Director

of Motorola organisations in many countries and an Ex-officer of Indian Air Force. His current entrepreneur-

ship of growing short rotation forests and produce cheap electricity from

biomass is first of its kind in the world. He holds two world records

in two different fields, namely Aerial Weapons and Software.)

aspect of Rotary Culture, different from other cultures, lies in the for-mality of running the Rotary organ-isations. Arguably, this is the best method to normalise Rotary activities and practices across the world and bring in a transparent and acceptable eco-system, minimising subjectivity.

During such an evolution, an important element called “the current year” became an all-pervasive factor. Starting from the club presidents, all the echelons right up to the top are “responsible” for achievements dur-ing ‘their’ year. This ‘one year’ think-ing resulted in a major practice that is detrimental to the growth and future of Rotary. Every year, the Club Pres-ident raises resources internally, and The Rotary Foundation. This puts tre-mendous burden on members. As the club presidents need not look beyond ‘their years,’ legacy projects for soci-etal good extending over a few years are hence not taken up. This manifests itself in lack of USPs to the clubs. In addition to yearly financial burden, absence of the big picture makes peo-ple leave Rotary. During my 25 years of Rotary association and during so many years of leading the clubs, start-ing new clubs and implementing novel corporate programmes like Mind Trig-ger etc., I found to my dismay that the situation is accepted largely and rarely challenged.

How does one overcome such an in-built lacuna in the system? It is very necessary that the clubs should have

by Rtn Sam Venkatesam

Absence of the big picture makes people leave Rotary.

48 ROTARY NEWS JANUARY 201548484848484848484848484848484848484848484848844848484888884488888484848484484888884848484844844844884444484844444884444484444444444884884488444444888 ROTROTROTROTRROTROTROTROTROTROTROROTROTROOOOOOTROTROTROTROTROTROTROTROTOTROTOOROTOTROTROTRROTOTOROTROTROTROTRROTROTOTRRRROTRRROTOTRORRROROTOTOTROOOOROOOTOOROOOOOTOTRROORROOOTTRROOOOOTOOOOORROROOOOOR ARYARYARYARYARYARYARYARYARYARYARYARYRYRYRYARYARYARYARYARYARYARYRYYARYAARYARYARYARYARRRRRYARYRYRRRRYRYYARYARYARYRRYRRYRYARYRRARARYRRRYRYRYYAAARYRRRYYYYARRRYARYYYARYRYRYRYYRRRYYYARYYYYYYYYY NENENENENENENENENENEENENENENNENENENENENNENENENNNENENENENENENNEEENNNNENNNNNNNNNNNNENEWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWWSWWSWSSSSWWSWSSWSWSWSWSWSWSSWSSWSWSWSWSWSWSWWSWWSSSWSSWWSWWWWWWSW JANJANJANJANJAJANANJANJANJANJANJANJANJANJANJANJANJANJANJANJANJANJANNJANJANJANJANJANANJANJANNJANJANNJANJANJANANNNNJANJANJJANJANANJANJANJANJANJANJANNJJANJANJANNJJANJAJAANJANJJAAANNNANNJJANAAANJ NJ NJ NJ NNUARUARUARUARUARUARUARUARUAUAAUARAUARUARARAUARUARUARUARUARUUARUARA Y 2Y 2Y 2Y 2Y 2Y 2YYYY 2Y 2Y 2Y 222Y 22Y 22Y 2Y 2YYY 2Y 2YY 2Y 2Y 2YYYY 2YY 22Y 2Y 22Y 222222Y 222222222Y 222222222Y 2222222Y 2Y 22222222YY 222222222222222Y Y Y 2222222YY 220015000010100000011155555015000001000000111155555015000000015001111015555015015000100000001515015000010000000110150155501500000015000000151015150150000000000001500000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

A gigantic cheer went up from the youngsters, even as they had to remain still for five whole minutes in order to create this record. The first attempt failed — four minutes of their intense effort went waste as the Guinness adjudicator present — Seyda Subasi Gemici declined giving them this title, as the “whites” in the flag had moved! Another effort, this time more seri-ous, paid the required dividend and the event got the record of the world’s largest human flag — a patriotic public image initiative of RI District 3230.

This great moment was celebrated by the organisers — RI District 3230 and News 7, a TV channel — by unleashing the international favourite Rahman number Jai Ho. This time the crowd of 43,836 erupted, and Rotary leaders on the dais threw up their hands in jubilation, cheered and clapped to celebrate their victory. RI Director P T Prabhakar said, “It doesn’t happen every day. We’ve made history. I am delighted.”

“You are heroes. You are amaz-ing. Now you are Officially Amazing,” said RI President Gary Huang congrat-ulating the participants. He lauded the

India set a new Guinness record

Rotary My Flag

My Indiaby Selvi and Kiran Zehra

Aerial view of the human flag formation.

Jiving to A R Rahman’s mag-ical tunes in discos or pri-vate parties gives people a dizzy high. But imagine a venue packed with 50,000

plus youngsters, all charged up with national fervour as they hold over their

heads, placards in the three vibrant colours — saffron, white and green, about to create a Guinness record for the largest human flag formation in the world. And then infuse into this set-ting the very special Rahman number: Vande mataram!

experience is an incredible privilege. The entire Rotary family in India should be so proud of this exemplary public image.”

From participants fainting on the ground and Rotarians rushing to the rescue, Adjudicator Gemici holding out a chair for a journalist, countless selfies, with over a thousand

participants waiting to be part of the flag formation (many fighting to get in) ... amidst the cacophony, ‘Rotary My Flag My India’ emerged a big winner. Chairman of the event Rtn Mohan Raghavan thanked “Rotarians, Rotaractors, Event manager Quanta-G, News 7 and all the volunteers for making the event a grand success.”

Adjudicator Seyda Subasi Gemici declaring India ‘Officially Amazing.’ Also seen in the picture (L to R) PDG A P Kanna, RID P T Prabhakar, DG ISAK Nazar, Actor Sarath Kumar, RIP Gary Huang, Corinna Huang and Rotary Day Chairman Rtn Mohan Raghavan.

efforts of Rotarians of D3230 saying, “It’s not easy to organise an event with thousands of people. This great pro-ject has created awareness among the younger generation to love their coun-try, their flag and their community and in turn promote good for the country.”

The earlier record was that of Pakistan with 28,957 people.

Responding to the call of RI Pres-ident to host a Rotary Day, RI District 3230 began its preparation for the event 10 months ago. “We mobilised peo-ple from colleges and corporate firms over a period of time. We had a set of architects who planned this,” said DG ISAK Nazar. He also reminded the audience that “India is polio-free thanks to Rotary.”

Watching the crowd assemble on the ground, Gemici said, “It’s amazing to see so many people come together and patiently waiting to demonstrate their solidarity.” Describing the whole event as “exciting,” the adjudica-tor who prefers “dosa and dal soup (sambar)” to idli said, “Each country must create this record.” RI Director Larry A Lunsford said, “ To start my first day ever in India with such an

Pride and awe by Rtn V Ramani

Those who witnessed the humungous event were awestruck and overwhelmed with pride to witness this

world record that will be cherished forever not just for the incredible numbers that formed the largest ever human flag, but also the spirit with which the event was successfully organised.

DG ISAK Nazar conceived and executed this mega PR event on a gigantic scale. “I was convinced that instead of doing many small PR exercises, the larger objective would be better served by organising a massive public image event to draw national and international attention,” he said.

It would provide an opportunity to highlight Rotary’s commitment to the community and global service projects like Polio eradication, and spark interest among institutions and corporates to actively associate with

Rotary, Nazar said, adding, “Increased membership and contributions to The Rotary Foundation would be the logical corollary and additional benefits.”

The masterstroke was choosing the largest human national flag formation ever, as it would appeal to everybody, evoke patriotic fervour, positive emotions and a sense of pride. On December 7, National Flag Day, we pay tribute to our armed forces. Planning began 10 months earlier, overseen by RI

Director PT Prabhakar and senior Rotarians such as IPDG AP Kanna, Chairman Mohan Raghavan, Joseph Raja, E David, R Ramesh, Ganapathi Suresh, VC Kannan, Neelakantan, Vikas Chandra, Dr A Sangaran and R Tamilselvan.

Presence of RIP Gary Huang, First Lady Corinna, RI Directors Larry and Prabhakar, President of Nadigar Sangam Sarath Kumar, Vice

Chancellor of Madras University R Thandavan added lustre to the event.

The record set, a collective roar erupted along with chants of ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai.’

DG ISAK Nazar RI Dist. 3230


It was like a bonus offer, weight reduction topped with the news of my pregnancy ...

I felt so good,” says Meenakshi, mother of a baby boy. She was advised by her doctor to go to the gym to reduce weight in order to conceive. “My baby is seven months old now and I’ve returned to my workout routine. Being healthy is important,” she adds.

Anovulation (a condition in which the ovary fails to release an egg) in obese women causes problems from conception to delivery. Women with a BMI (Body

Mass Index) of 25–30 are 50 percent more prone to anovulatory infertility than those with a BMI of 20–25.

Obesity affects male fertility as well. Dr Narayana Reddy, a sexologist says, “Obese men suffer from hormonal imbalance which results in adverse sperm count affecting fertility,” making weight loss and fitness necessary.

Fitness and exercise have always been associated with celeb-rities. Thanks to the internet, peo-ple are realising the health benefits of gyming. A rise in exercising bars — unisex gym, ladies gym,

government-run gym and gym equip-ment made available at local parks is proof that healthy life-style is becoming a priority. Jaya Shobana, a regular gym goer says, “I started gyming because I want to look good on my wedding day, but working out is much more than just looking good.”

Age is no bar at the gym for Deepa, who is over 50. A retired Head of the Department of Economics at a leading university in Chennai, she says, “After an accident I developed an aversion towards walking. The doubt of having developed Parkinson’s syndrome

Tried, tested, here’s a new reason to hit the gym today.

by Selvi & Kiran Zehra

Go to the Gym, get pregnant


began to haunt me. I searched on the www (her way of saying ‘internet’) for a ladies gym.” Heading to the gym has been the right choice for her because “I lost 22 kg in nine months and proved my neurologist husband wrong. He asked me to sit at home and here I am, more confident and stronger.” While many want to look attractive, young and fit, Deepa wants to “gift a healthy body to my old age.”

Seetha Muthukumar, proprietor of Pink Gym says, “Today weight loss programmes are personalised packages; customers can opt for a trainer and keep a tab on their diet diaries. They can choose between inch-loss programmes and weight-loss

programmes.” As for the age groups, “20–40 are the ones who work out most but we do have few customers over 50.” She also adds that “people come here to gain weight as well.” Six years in the gym business “is profita-ble and a feel good factor,” for her.

Talking about diets, Mythili, a physiotherapist and gym trainer says, “Crash diets are never a solution. Proper exercise topped with a balanced diet gives lasting results.” On strength training for women, she says, “It’s important for the body to burn exist-ing calories through cardio exercises first. Then the strength exercise which is specific to each muscle comes into play.”

Leaving behind a candlelit dinner, romantic movie or a hand-in-hand stroll on the beach, couples in India are sprinting towards the gym — the latest hotspot to strengthen not just muscles but relationships too. With gyms offer-ing couple packages, the number of women dragging their husbands to the gym has increased. “Spouses are worried if their better halves would still be attracted to them, post weight gain, pregnancy, surgery etc. Going to the gym not only increases the con-fidence, it also improves the couple’s chemistry,” says Lakshmi Subha, a Kerala-based homeopathy specialist.

Seetha Muthukumar, Proprietor - Pink.


“When Malala can do it, I sure can,” says a cou-rageous Saad Khan. All of twelve this young

man is hell bent on eradicating polio from Pakistan. From awareness rallies to administering polio drops he does it all to “help my people, my country and the most important reason is that I want to make the world a better place.”

Early-Act Club of Lahore Greenwood, RI District 3272 (Pakistan and Afghanistan), is sponsored by Rotary Club Metropolitan Lahore (RCML) and “it’s the first active Early-Act club in Asia” says Rotarian Saleem

Ahmad Khan, member of RCML and proud father of the EarlyActor. He was 7 when he attended his first Rotary Conference as an EarlyActor and at the age of 11, Saad Khan became a Paul Harris Fellow, sponsored by PDG Ravi Vadlamani, RI District 3150. “Two years ago I met an interesting boy in Pakistan. He was propagating polio awareness at such an early age and I wanted to honour him,” recalls the PDG.

In a recent attempt to create polio awareness his Early-Act club engaged in a stage performance. “My

Meet young Saad Khan who is fearlessly administering polio drops in Peshawar, the

region where polio workers are attacked and killed.

Performing his role Saad Khan (centre) in the Early Act play.


by Kiran Zehra

Administering polio drops.

Saad Khan with PDG Ravi Vadlamani and Rtn Saleem Ahmad Khan.

friends and I discussed the play and Miss Bushra, our teacher helped us script it. Five hundred people watched us perform the story of a polio worker who visits an underdeveloped village to administer polio vaccine. The illiterate village chief tells his people: ‘Do not let the polio worker vaccinate your children. Else they won’t stay Muslim and will be thrown out of the village.’ The scene changes when a polio-stricken child explains his plight to the villagers and begs them to save their children from polio.”

Skating and reading are a passion for Khan who aspires to become a lawyer and a Rotarian just like all the other members of his family. “I am going door to door administering polio vaccine to children. I am sure that by the time I become a Rotarian, polio will be gone.” His club also creates awareness programmes on dengue and raises funds to feed the poor.

“I want to visit India, because my friend Haffi, who was sent to India for a heart surgery came back and told me, ‘India mein maza aya! (I had fun in India.)’ ”

I want to visit India, because my friend Haffi, who was sent to India for a heart surgery came back and told me, ‘India mein maza aya!’

“ “Do not let the polio worker vaccinate your children. Else they won’t stay Muslim and will be thrown out of the village.

“ “


As the Myanmarese are comfortable with India’s historical non-aggressive

approach, a greater partnership between the two countries would

be mutually beneficial.

by Shakti Sinha

One of the insidious effects of colonialism and obsession with the Western world is that we know so little

about our own heritage. And even less about how our traditions have taken roots in nearby lands, adapted and flourished. My frequent travels to Java (Indonesia), particularly to Yogyakarta, popularly referred to as Jogja, with the nearby monuments of Borobudur and Prambanan, also triggers the feeling that this is India as it would have been without British rule.

A recent visit to Myanmar and discussions with some academicians, retired diplomats and businesspersons

The golden dome of Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.


of Indian origin brought out the complex ways in which the Myanmarese took to and have adapted aspects of Indian philosophical, metaphysical, religious, linguistic and cul-tural ethos. It was also a pointer on how going forward the two countries can work together in the fields of commerce, economic growth and diplomacy.

Most people associate the introduction of Buddhism by monks sent by Emperor Ashoka as marking the beginning of Indian influence in Myanmar, but as a number of scholars told us, the links are older. Even today, Sanskrit is a com-pulsory subject taught in Yangon University. The museum in the ancient temple city of Bagan, home to thousands of temples, is located in an old Hindu temple. Our recent history has been more mixed. The British joined Myanmar (Burma) to India, exiled the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar to Yangon (Burma), and later the last ruler of Myanmar, Thibaw, to Ratnagiri.

Early Indian influenceIndian professionals dominated Burma from early 20th century, its teachers taught in the University and its clerks filled the government. Indian traders dominated commerce and industry. Often these single men in business took local ‘wives,’ but did not extend legitimacy to the offsprings from such unions. This gave Indians a bad name.

Post-independence the two countries were close friends but the military coup and subsequent nationalisation of all economic activities meant an exodus of Indians, particularly the educated and affluent classes. Presently there are over 2 million Myanmarese of Indian origin, including quite a few in business.

There are Hindu temples all over the country, but the community is considerably integrated and use the local language. The younger generation has little knowledge of Indian ‘domination,’ or even India. However India’s success in IT, and breaking out of the poverty trap are appreciated.

After more than half a century of military rule, almost two decades under crippling sanctions, Myanmar is emerg-ing as a rising economy. Its recent political reforms have been rewarded with the West dropping most, though not all, sanctions, and in less than five years, Myanmar has emerged from the economic backwaters to becoming one of ASEAN’s rising stars.

Before one looks at how the two countries can step up their mutual economic engagement, it would be worthwhile to look at the baseline parameters.

Gateway to ASEANMyanmar is India’s gateway to ASEAN. It is a member of a subset of ASEAN — CLMV or Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam, four countries that are moving from central planning to a market economy. These countries are the fastest growing economies of ASEAN, though presently they account for only 9 percent of ASEAN’s GDP, while occupying 32 percent of its land area. Primarily agrarian economies, these countries have vast potential, abundant natural resources and a low-wage labour force. Other than Vietnam, these are all Less Developing Countries (LDCs), which means they have access to low cost development assistance as well as the crucial preferential access to devel-oped country markets.

Myanmar’s GDP was $56.8 billion in 2013–14; mak-ing its per capita income $1105 with a population of 51.4 million. Its economy grew 8.3 percent in 2013–14, and is on track to expand by 8.5 percent in 2014–15, driven by recovery in agriculture, gas production and investment.

According to the World Bank, Myanmar has “one of the lowest population densities in the region, fertile lands,

Even today, Sanskrit is a compulsory

subject taught in Yangon University.


wood and wood products, construction material, down-stream products of petroleum and natural gas like fertilisers.

India must build upon its historical, cultural and eco-nomic role that would facilitate Myanmar’s journey into the unchartered seas of economic, social and political modern-isation. The Myanmarese elite want to see a greater role for India, as they do want strategic space for their country, and see themselves more comfortable with India’s historical non-aggressive approach. Mutual effort for mutual gain is the way forward.(The author, a retired IAS officer, is Director, South Asian Institute for Strategic Affairs and worked for the UN in Afghanistan.)

Government and non-government entities will be mutually beneficial. There is scope for Indian entities to create social and economic capabilities in Myanmar to trigger economic growth. The Govt. of India, by facilitating such intervention, will prove it wants friendly relations with Myanmar.

If the shipping and banking links between the two countries can be stepped up, Indian mid-caps would benefit. Assocham, already present there, and the Indian-origin business community can provide access to the local market. Once India completes the construction of the Kaladan multi-modal transport project that would provide access to Mizoram and the North-East through the Sittwe port, Indian entrepreneurs can exploit growth opportunities in Myanmar.

As Myanmar looks for investments and technology to create wealth and add value to its abundant raw materials, the social changes taking place, if unguided, can create chaos in society. It is here that India’s soft power, reflecting the genius of the Indian people, can play a useful role in working with thought-leaders of Myanmar and help the country ride the storm of globalisation by building on the strong ethical foundations of the Indo-Myanmarese tra-ditions. Highly respectable Buddhist teachers like Sitagu Sayadaw have been working on preserving, highlighting and propagating physical and spiritual achievements of these shared traditions. These efforts should be supported, supplemented and made more diverse.

Opportunities for Indian investors

Though India is an important market for Myanmar (third largest export market after China and Thailand), our

exports are relatively less though growing (seventh larg-est supplier accounting for 3 percent of Myanmar’s global imports). India is also largely absent as a source of FDI. Indian FDI in Myanmar is $360 million, 98 percent being in the petroleum & gas sector. If you take this away, India’s presence is negligible.

It is clear from these statistics that the opportunities and challenges of economic cooperation between our two coun-tries are huge. There is a lot that can be achieved through technical assistance and relatively-low levels of investments across a wide spectrum of fields.

For this to be achieved, a partnership between the Indian government and private sector and the Myanmarese

significant untapped agricultural potential, and a rich endowment of natural resources.” Being geographically located next to India and China, it seems “well positioned to resume its traditional role as a regional trading hub and a key supplier of minerals, natural gas and agricultural produce.”

Myanmar’s natural resources are plentiful, including natural gas, copper, timber and gemstones, apart from petro-leum, tin, antimony, zinc, tungsten, lead, coal, marble, lime-stone and hydropower.

On the face of it, growth in Myanmar would be driven by investments in power, petroleum and infrastructure. There is a huge potential for investments in agro-processing,

Tomb of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.

A typical Myanmarese platter.

A Hindu temple.


RC Pondicherry Elite, RI District 2980 – To promote healthy eating habits the club distributed nutritious food to the inmates of Vihaan, a home for children who are affected by AIDS.

RC Ariyalur, RI District 3000 – To encourage students to attend school and make learning a dignified experience the club distributed school uniforms to the students of Panchayat Union Elementary School.

RC Sonipat Uptown, RI District 3010 – In association with MS Vahini Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) the club organised a medical camp to screen for thalassemia. Over 200 children were tested at the camp.

RC Visakha Port City, RI District 3020 – The club conducted 17 blood donation camps at Andhra University. Around 820 units of blood was collected.

RC Akola, RI District 3030 – Under its signature project ‘Read with me,’ the club set up a book bank for rural students at ZP Marathi Kendriya Primary School, Vyala. The school caters to 150 students from the village.

RC Ujjain, RI District 3040 – An e-learning projector was installed at a higher secondary school in Daulat Gan in support of Rotary’s TEACH programme.

RC Mandvi, RI District 3051 – Relief

material and water was distributed to the victims of Nilopher cyclone.

RC Udaipur, RI District 3052 – Under Rotary’s TEACH initiative 5,000 notebooks and stationery kits were distributed to students of Government Higher Secondary School, Paliyakheda.

District Scores

Books collected and donated to promote Literacy.


RC Shahjahanpur, RI District 3110 – The club conducted a dental camp. Rotarians created dental hygiene awareness for the public.

RC Allahabad Elite, RI District 3120 – In order to support Rotary India Literacy Mission Rotarians and

Rotaractors donated and collected books for the TEACH programme.

RC Kharghar, RI District 3131 – To enhance spoken English among the student community, the club conducted English communication class for student of Zilla Parishad School.

RC Latur Mid Town, RI District 3132 – A painting competition was conducted by the club, to enhance Rotary’s public image. Over 4,000 students participated in the event.

RC Lokhandwala Khandivali, RI District 3140 – Typhoid and rubella vaccination camp was conducted at Damu Nagar. The main objective of the camp was to prevent spread of such diseases and provide healthcare for children and women.

RC Nizamabad, RI District 3150 – To make schooling a dignified experience school bags, shoes and socks were donated to students of the Government High School, Mallaram village.

Clubs promote cleaner environment by promoting Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in the communities.

RC Nokha, RI District 3053 – In order to encourage village school children to attend and continue their education, Rotarians distributed study kits at a government school in Nokhagaun Village.

RC Jetpur, RI District 3060 – Villagers of Vala Dungra benefitted from a dental camp as part of the Gram Kalyan Project conducted by the club. Dental hygiene was also imparted to over 200 beneficiaries.

RC Chachoki Phagwara, RI District 3070 – The club permanently adopted Netraheen Virdhashram, an old age home. The club provides the inmates with food and other basic necessities.

RC Saharanpur Classic, RI District 3080 – Sports day was organised at Netraheen Bal Vidyalaya (school for the visually challenged). Students participated in various events. Rotarians also purchased candles made by these students.

RC Ferozepur Cantt, RI District 3090 – Dental camp at Primary School Gwal Mandi tested and treated 274 underprivileged people. Dental hygiene was imparted and dental kits were distributed.

RC Moradabad West, RI District 3100 – Rotarians observed World Mental Health Day by spreading public awareness on Schizophrenia. The club released a booklet ‘Living with Schizophrenia’ at a seminar.

The gift of educational materials at Government Higher Secondary School, Paliyakheda inspires the tribal students to pursue education.


RC Guntakal, RI District 3160 – To make storage of water an easy task at the AP Fire Services Department, the club donated a water tanker.

RC Kolhapur City, RI District 3170 – Sewing machines to stitch leather was distributed to the needy in order to make them economically independent.

RC Mangalore South, RI District 3180 – Vocational service was rendered to the needy by way of distributing sewing machines. They would now be able to undertake the tailoring vocation and support their family.

RC Pavagada, RI District 3190 – The club along with Vishwa Gramodhaya Swayam Seva Samiti Sai Trust, Bangalore and Jilla Andhathva Nivaranaa Samiti, Tumkur conducted an eye camp.

RC Coimbatore Texcity, RI District 3201 – A zumba programme conducted by the club collected funds enough to renovate rural government school in Alandurai. Infrastucture was donated, roof and walls were repaired.

RC Tirupur Thirumurugan Poondi, RI District 3202 – The club distributed khaki uniforms to panchayat labourers with a view to help them come to work with dignity.

RC Ezhukone, RI District 3211 – To emphasise on Rotary’s literacy mission, the club distributed school diaries to students at UPLP School, Irumpanangad.

RC Tinnevelly, RI District 3212 – A water tank with a capacity of 1,000 litres was donated to destitute girls living in the Government Service Home.

RC Madras Central, RI District 3230 – The club conducted a medical camp for poor and needy patients.

Around 116 people were benefitted by these camps.

RC Jalpaiguri, RI District 3240 – Nutritious food and clothes were distributed to the girls living in Anubhab, a home for the homeless.

RC Nawada, RI District 3250 – Total Literacy programme was organised at Mubarakpur village. Rotarians distributed slates and books to the womenfolk to help them learn.

RC Mandla Maikal, RI District 3261 – RYLA was conducted for children with special needs to motivate them and enhance their leadership qualities.

RC Toshali, RI District 3262 – The club conducted a Clean India campaign. Rotaract Club Vivtech and Innerwheel Club of Bhubaneswar Toshali participated in the programme.

RC Port Blair, RI District 3291 – Vermibed and vermicompost donated to a girls school to help them learn waste management and help in creating a healthy environment.

RC Kathmandu North, RI District 3292 – Cancer awareness programme was conducted with a view to impart clear knowledge about the disease amongst the public. Representatives from WHO addressed the programme.

Zumba dance raises funds for remodelling a rural school in Alandurai.

For more photographs, please visit www.rotarynewsonline.org


I do not know if there is God; but I do believe that there is sin. The great-

est of all sins is unfulfilled potential. If a child, endowed by nature or God with innate abilities, is not given the opportunity to rise to her full potential because society failed to nurture those abilities through education, it is an unbearable sin. By this yardstick, India today ranks as a most sinful nation.

This observation may seem strange in a country that prides itself of its edu-cational accomplishments. We have our Satya Nadellas and Indra Nooyis; we have our IITs and IIMs. We have our Right to Education Act (RTE); and our school enrolment is near universal at 96 percent! So, what is wrong with our education?

Let us examine the evidence. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) is a summary of yearly sur-vey findings of school education by a reputed NGO, Pratham. ASER, started in 2005, surveys rural school - going children in over 600 districts of India, and includes children going to both government and private schools. Year after year, ASER findings are stark and distressing. In 2013, for instance, 53 percent of children in Class 5, and 26 percent in Class 8 could not read a passage of Class 2 without difficulty. In fact, the percentage of children in government schools in Class 5 who can read Class 2 level text has fallen from 50.3 percent to 41.1 percent from 2009 to 2013. In private schools it is margin-ally better, and remained static at about 63 percent. In arithmetic, among rural children in Class 8, 54 percent cannot divide a three digit number by a single digit; and 30 percent children cannot

even subtract a two-digit number from another two-digit number. Again, pri-vate schools seem to be little better, but not good enough. In fact, performance is falling in both government and private schools. In Class 5, the proportion of children who can do division fell from 36 percent to 21 percent in government schools and from 46 percent to 39 per-cent in private schools between 2009 and 2013! It is amazing that the RTE Act has not improved things at all.

Dismal recordLet us see how Indian children fare in comparison with the children in other countries. In the PISA (Programme for International Student Assess-ment) survey of OECD (Organi-sation for Economic Co-operationand Development) in 2009, at the age of 15, India stood 73rd out of 74 nations when children are tested for language, math, science and logic. Shanghai- China, Singapore and Hongkong- China stood first, second and third in that order. Only Kyrgyzstan was ranked lower than India! And the response of Government of India would be amusing, if it is not so tragic; India refused to partner with OECD in further surveys! If our children are not measured against global competition, there would be no comparison, and we can merrily continue to believe in our great achievements, and persist with failed ways!

RTE was enacted in 2009 with great fanfare. Over the past ten years, signif-icant sums (Rs 2,86,000 cr) have been spent on improving school infrastruc-ture and enrolment under Sarva Sik-sha Abhiyan. There is a midday meal

programme in government schools costing about Rs 11,000 cr a year. In addition, state governments spend vast sums (about Rs 2,50,000 cr) on school education every year. Despite all this, our educational outcomes are appalling. Amazingly, enrolment upto class 8 in government schools fell by 9 percent between 2007–08 (13.37 crore) and 2013–14 (12.19 crore)! During the same period, private school enrolment has increased by 40 percent from 5.09 crore to 7.12 crore!

It is reasonable to assume that almost all the children who are in government schools are from poor families. It is equally clear that the recent 40 percent increase in private school enrolment is almost entirely because of poor families admitting their children in those schools and paying fees out of pocket.

RTE specifically discouraged pri-vate sector, introduced a Licence Raj in school education, imposed near- impossible infrastructure standards on private sector, and pumped huge funds into public sector. But the net result is despite RTE, millions of poor families feel compelled to spend vast amounts of money disproportionate to their incomes, and enroll their chil-dren in private schools. RTE, instead of focusing on outcomes as much as on enrolment, actually prohibited all kinds of examinations. Instead of promoting competition and choice, the law sought to create a government monopoly. The net result is shift of enrolment of poor children into private sector, and appall-ing outcomes in education in general.

In this gloomy scenario, the strong demand for quality education and the willingness of parents to sacrifice a

Dr Jayaprakash Narayan

Are we a sinful nation?


great deal to give their children good education, are signs of great hope and dynamism. But we cannot hope for better education by mere increase in private school enrolment. The out-of-pocket tuition expenses are impover-ishing many families. Despite such sacrifice, most children are denied meaningful school education. As a result, most ‘educated’ youth lack min-imum skills to be employed in a mod-ern economy. In the 21st century world we can no longer pretend that digging pits and filling ditches through man-ual labour is productive employment. With low skills, our productivity and wages continue to be very low. As a result, poverty continues to plague hun-dreds of millions of our people. Qual-ity school education and skills are the only way out for eradication of poverty and achievement of high growth rate. Good education is not merely a moral imperative; it is an economic necessity!

What can be done to ensure real quality education to every child? Now RTE is the biggest stumbling block for improvement of school education outcomes. The law prohibits sensible evaluation of students, public-private partnership choice to parents, and state reimbursement of school fees for poor parents. The way to hell is often paved with good intentions! The law needs to be amended to facilitate real improve-ment of education.

Innovation requiredOnce RTE becomes an enabler and facilitator, and not an obstacle, we need to design innovative policies and programmes at moderate cost to ensure real education to every child. Let us assume that a third of India’s children belonging to educated, high-income families, and going to high-end private schools, will take care of themselves. The real chal-lenge for the rest of the children is not money; it is quality. The govern-ment now is spending Rs 20,000 – 25,000 per child per year on school education. Its Kendriya Vidyalayas

are spending about Rs 27,000 per child and are generally respected for their educational outcomes. Therefore we can improve quality without substan-tial addition to cost.

Two key features will guarantee better outcomes. First, sensible eval-uation and stress-free examinations to measure outcomes and define suc-cess. All our parents, teachers and school managements want success. RTE now ignores ‘success’ by pro-hibiting examinations. When we have examinations they are often stressful, measuring rote-learning and ignoring innovation or application, and are prone to rampant copying. If mean-ingful examinations and evaluation system are introduced and rigorously implemented, outcomes will signifi-cantly improve.

The second measure is choice to parents and competition among providers of education — public or private. All private schools con-forming to certain standards, sub-ject to a tuition fee ceiling of say Rs 18,000 per year, should be encour-aged, preferably in non-profit sector. Parents should be given the choice among schools, and the fee should be reimbursed by government. Gov-

ernment’s role should be largely monitoring outcomes. Each child should also get a reasonable trans-port subsidy, so that commuting to school is not a burden. Even now, millions of poor children are attend-ing private schools at considerable distances.

Once evaluation and choice are institutionalised, there will be a sea change in educational outcomes. Other measures — consolidation of schools to give economies of scale, proper teacher training, and greater accountability through autonomous district education boards will deepen the process.

India is at the cross-roads. We have a priceless opportunity to impart true education and skills to all our children and create a pro-ductive workforce. This will make our demographic dividend real, and catapult India to an economic giant status. The strong demand for edu-cation across all sections of society can be harnessed to radically alter the outcomes with little additional cost. The time is ripe for a long- overdue revolution.(The writer is Founder, Lok Satta Party,

eminent thinker and educationist.)


India’s philosophy that in life you don’t exist but co-exist, makes it

special to foreigners.

Your garbage is my gold

by Rasheeda Bhagat


of art, but can claim to have some of human beings. And then how can you not love someone who loves India so much? When we met first, he had said that what many foreigners don’t get about India is that it “is a mosaic with a lot of languages, cultures, and so on” but also, India needs to soften up ... like “we add a little water in the wine to soften it.”

Having worked as a sales execu-tive for Cartier for 33 years in Paris, Van Cleef started painting 10 years ago “because I don’t sleep much. I sleep at 9 p.m. and get up at 3 a.m. and started

painting.” Working with a jeweller like Cartier has certainly influenced his painting, giving him an eye for colour and beauty. “Somebody said you work with crystals at night (Swarovski crys-tals in his work) and diamonds (Cartier) in the day!”

And yet the crystals don’t make his work dazzling or overbearing. “That’s because I don’t do crystal as marmalade on the bread. I do crystals like powder of the strawberry that you sprinkle,” he says.

Dream of IndiaSo how does he find India changing over the years; he comes here twice a year.

Van Cleef shuts his eye for a moment, reflects and says quietly, “A lot of things have changed and yet not changed. Of course all the technology changes are there for everyone to see ... Facebook, Twitter, etc. But the essen-tial dream of India hasn’t changed.”

He next explains what is “special” about India. “Take America, or for that matter, Europe; you have the coke, the chicken, the pork. That’s it. But in India you have the tiger, the elephant,

the flower, the hot season, beautiful

He is as passionate an Indophile as you can get. Visiting India with his grandmother when he

was only 15, and imbibing Indian ethos, even though from a luxury suite at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay, Olaf Van Cleef, the French painter-cum-Cartier executive, can celebrate the smile of an Indian child all grimy after long hours of play in the streets.

The Indian child comes up in our conversation while discussing the over-whelming India influence in his paint-ings — from Indian gods, elephants and Maharajas to birds and other motifs. “India is my life. I think about India every day. A foreign lady once told me that the boys in Indian streets are so dirty. So I said: “Ma’am, this young boy plays in the street from six in the morning with the rising sun. He spends 10–12 hours in the street. I don’t know a French child who can stay 10 hours in the street, have so much fun and be so happy. I told her in India many are poor, but few are morose. You have to see India in a dif-ferent light and respect it.”

I’ve been following Van Cleef’s visits to India and his paintings for a few years. I don’t have much knowledge


longer going to be from west to east but vice versa. And your Modi talks like a big businessman. In America he came through like a rockstar.”

Another thing he loves about India is that it is the family, rather than individuals, that get prominence in the Indian scheme of things. Also there is more tolerance for the gay community in India, compared to China, he adds.

Van Cleef found it easy to gravi-tate from Chennai towards Pondicherry which has a substantial French pres-ence. Here he has opened the Van Cleef Hall in Vettikuppam, a poor locality.

A place for polio dropsIt is an air-conditioned place where any artist can have his exhibition or display her work. “No gallery offers what we offer … the artists can exhibit their work for just Rs 1,000 a day, which has to paid only after the work is sold. If they don’t sell, they don’t pay anything.

This place is for everyone,” he shrugs.

One doctor comes here to admin-ister polio drops. “It is kind of a com-munity centre. Now I’m planning to put wifi here so people with no internet access can come here and surf the Net.” The idea is to give back to India what he has got from it. The money earned from the sale of his paintings is invested back in the country. This hall also serves as a storage area for all of Van Cleef’s paint-ings, which are priced at Rs 1.25 lakh (large) and Rs 75,000 (small).

trees … like the green being more green in the next garden.”

Van Cleef is fascinated by the transition taking place in India, and gives the example of the smart phone and how it has revolutionised everything. “People can make one or two euro payments through the mobile phone. The same is happening in Africa, and that is the transition that is taking place in India. I am not a great fan of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi, but look at the beautiful things he is trying to do in just six months. This is the 21st century when business is no

So is economic recession over and are people buying high-end jewellery at Cartier? And have fashion trends changed?

“Nothing is fixed. There is evolution in the technique, work, in the cutting of the stone, size of the jewellery and the customers too. Yesterday the Arabs, Brazilian and Russians were the buyers, today it is China, and tomorrow somebody else ... this is the reality... a mosaic,” says Olaf Van Cleef, who works out of the most prestigious Cartier showroom on Rue de la Paix in Paris.

During tough economic times businesses have to device different strategies to remain viable, he says. So while very expensive diamond jewellery can be sold only occasionally, brands such as Cartier can see 200 ball point pens priced 100 euro every week. The same is true for diaries, phone books, etc. This way the brand remains visible.

On the Indian market, Van Cleef calls it “the market of tomorrow. I believe that with Modi the Indian market will open up quickly and business and economy will move forward. This man knows exactly what is good for India.”

As for Cartier jewellery, that was once so popular with the Indian maharajas, he says, “Well, India today has new maharajas in the form of businessmen and industrialists. Today they are buying Cartier but not necessarily from Paris — which has so few vegetarian restaurants — but from the Singapore or Hongkong airports and certainly from Cartier showroom in London where Indians are more comfortable thanks to the English language.”

Indians and Cartier


Van Cleef has no inhibitions about relating a recent interesting story from Pondicherry where his attempts “to play Pygmalion” fell flat on its face. At the Hall, there was a 20-year-old artist who painted with “col-ours from the earth ... a little pink, lots of red, which you find in Pondicherry. Very impressed with his work, I felt like Pygmalion and bought him some painting books, colours etc. and said: ‘You don’t have to pay me for these. Just give me your first painting.’ ”

When the young man returned with the painting, his face wasn’t happy at all. He did his best work when he worked with the colours from the earth and not with the artificial col-ours that came out of a tube. “This was a lesson for me. Don’t try to change people ... you have to adapt to them. This is not your country; what

he was doing was totally unique and when I tried to change that, I failed”

It reminded him of a lady in France asking him why he didn’t stay with his mother in Monte Carlo instead of “going to India to pick (chocolate) paper from the beach.”

The colourful bits of chocolate paper finding a place in Van Cleef’s painting are all picked up from the ground ... in the streets. “Somebody told me that instead of picking up chocolate paper from the streets, why can’t you buy two metres; it will last you a long time. I can do that but where is the diversity? How do I tell such people that your garbage is my gold?”

A Bhutan odysseyNow Van Cleef has been commissioned to do a set of paintings for exhibition in Bhutan’s national gallery in September 2015. There is an interesting story around why he chose Bhutan! One day he read on the Internet (Wikipedia) that Van Cleef is only well known in the Indian sub-continent. “I didn’t

understand what this sub-continent was.” Further reading on the net told him that Bhutan was part of this sub-continent and since there is a Taj hotel in Bhutan—(he is a die-hard Taj group fan and while in Chennai at the Taj Coromandel it is nothing less than the Presidential suite for him, in Pondicherry it is the Ginger hotel!), he decided to explore Bhutan.

Here he met the manager of the Bhutan Museum who said she’d love to have his exhibition provided his paintings did not have “Hindu but Buddhist themes.”

He agreed, but he admits that “after working on the rich and flamboyant Hindu themes, it is difficult to work on the sedate Buddhist themes. Just do the comparison between Thimpu and Tirupathi or Madurai temples. Thimpu is very plain and so is the Zen attitude.”

So Van Cleef went to a lot of muse-ums, including of course the Louvre and researched Buddhism and is “slowly finding that the sex of the man (the phallus) is on every home; in Bhutan it is sacred, they celebrate it!”

So now he is both educated and sensitised, like knowing in India “that I can’t paint a Brahmin wearing his thread the wrong way. That is not acceptable.”

As in India, we won’t take out any money from Bhutan; “I’ve learnt from India that in life, you don’t exist, but co-exist!”

He brushes aside any comment on his generosity with, “If you give noth-ing, you have nothing, but if you give a lot, you have a lot. Tomorrow if you die, everybody will forget, but at least a few will remember.”

Pictures by Rasheeda Bhagat


Goals for Volunteers• Imparting literacy to non-literate adults (above 15

years), specially women and adolescent girls, in urban and rural areas

• Imparting literacy to adult non-literates in offices and homes of Rotarians

• Providing Continuing Education to Adult Literates, after they are certified as Literates

• Helping in Skill Development of just certified Adult Literates

Volunteer’s Role in Starting Adult Literacy Projecti. Conduct a survey, using Adult Literacy Survey

Form No. A1 (available on website), in the already

The new-year resolution for all Rotarians should be “Total Literacy and Quality Education.” Adult Literacy continues to remain in focus during January 2015. This being a project where volunteers can make meaningful contribution, given below are some points to keep in mind

when volunteering for an adult literacy project.

Become a Shiksha Sathi to sustain your efforts!

• Conduct a weekly revision class for the new Adult Literates

• Organise group activities on lessons

• Organise quiz contest, etc. (encourage Adult Learn-ers to answer; quiz questions may even be shared a week in advance)

• Motivate the learners with gifts, prizes, etc.

• Encourage and inculcate the habit of reading news-papers; if needed, subscribe to a copy or two for the group

• Run the Continuing Education Programme regularly over a period of one or two years, as per the need of the group

identified urban slum, basti or village to identify adult non-illiterates

ii. In each identified area, conduct a test of each person who claims to be literate, using the primers for Adult Learning

iii. Note that the purpose of the survey and the test is to identify the adult non-literates

iv. Counsel the adult non-literate to join adult literacy classes (to be held at a place identified by the Rotary Club involved)

Role of a Volunteer Teacher• Volunteers have to undergo a 5-day training programme

on how to teach adults, using the Adult Literacy Primer • Familiarise yourself thoroughly with the primer, teach-

ing method, duration of the course and the certification procedure

• Your class will generally consist of about 30 adults• Make a lesson plan for the entire course duration• Use examples and anecdotes to explain• Make your lessons interactive• Make learning fun and interesting • Be patient while teaching• Encourage group discussions/activities


• Do not embarrass/admonish anyone• Instill in them a sense of pride in learning• Make them understand how their effort contributes to

making India fully literate• Monitor individual progress, give attention to the weak

learners• If using E-Learning Methodology of TCS or other ven-

dors, make sure you understand the content, operation of hardware, etc. properly before starting the class

Volunteer’s Role as Counselor & Teacher of Adult Non-literates• Counsel, re-counsel anyone remaining absent unreasonably • Award the learners for regularity in attendance, good

performance, etc., to motivate them• Encourage each to carry her/his copy of the primer to

the work place and keep reading whenever she/he finds time

• Facilitate their examination by the National Institute of Open Schooling and after that follow up so the success-ful get their certificate

Teaching Adult Non-literates at Home / Office• Identify the adult non-literates around you like domestic

staff, drivers, darwans, peons, etc.• Start adult literacy class for them at home/office • Follow the same technique as explained in the previous

section • In large housing complexes, staff could be taught in any

available common area at a time suitable for most of the learners

• Individual attention will have to be given since all participants may not be able to attend all lessons together

• A similar exercise can be done in office complexes• Adult Learning Programme conducted in residential or

office complexes should include staff of non-Rotarians as well

• Where necessary, counsel employers to allow their staff to join the adult literacy class

Volunteer’s Role in Skill Development

Some of the things that you may be required to do:

• Be involved in survey to find adult non-literates interested in skill enhancement/training

• Skill Development Programme will also include imparting literacy to adults who are non-literate

• Skill development initiative is an incentive for non- literate adults to become literate

• Be involved in survey to identify industries employ-ing skilled people so as to help the adults post-skill development programme to find employment

• Volunteers accomplished in any special skills like tailoring, beautician, etc., can become Trainers if that skill is being taught at the Centre

• Trainer’s have to be well versed with both, theory and practical aspects of the skill

• Training will be as per prescribed curriculum provided

• Guide those interested in Skill Development to Rotary clubs conducting vocational training programs in association with ITIs & Jan Shikshan Sansthans

• You can also participate in the administration/oper-ation of a skill development centre

• Facilitate their examination by the National Institute of Open Schooling and after that follow up so the success-ful get their certificate

• Take pride in the fact that you have converted so many adult learners into adult literates

• Ensure that the adult literates do not lapse back to illiter-acy with the passage of time due to lack of a continuing education programme.


It was widely expected that the defeat of UPA-2 would lead to an

investment revival. It is now well over six months since the BJP-lead NDA government came to power in Delhi. But no such thing has happened. Nor does it look likely to happen soon.

There are many reasons for the slowdown in new investment. Most people think this is because of the restrictions on land acquisition placed by the laws passed by the UPA which made new land very costly for com-panies. The massive shortage of elec-tricity in the industrialised states is also blamed, as is that of water all over the country. The retrospective tax introduced by the UPA is seen to deter foreign investment while the risk aversion of banks is another reason.

And so on. The list is long. Yet there is one crucial reason that no one has focused on. And this is the extent of the debt in which large Indian companies are mired. As long as they have old debts to repay, how can they think of mak-ing fresh investments? More simply, the health of India’s corporate sector can be readily gauged by their debt positions, and this is not comforting at all. True, some amount of debt is healthy for all companies. But when that debt increases to the level where companies can’t even meet their interest payments, then you have trouble—not only for the companies themselves, but for the banks they

took loans from. Making matters worse has been the economic slow-down that has substantially reduced the corporate sector’s ability to ser-vice its debt.

So how did this happen?In a fit of fiscal imprudence, India’s biggest companies have been pil-ing on debt even as their earnings have taken a hit. A telecom major, for example, saw its debt grow at a CAGR of 40 percent over the last five years, bringing its FY14 gross debt amount to a whopping Rs 78,000 crore. Even the Adani Group saw its debt grow at a CAGR of 30 percent over the last five years.

To be fair, of the largest busi-ness houses in India, it has been the

smallest that have been the least pru-dent. So, the corporates with the high-est growth rates in their debt positions include the Vedanta, GVK, Lanco and Hinduja Groups. The Tatas and Ambanis have been relatively more careful in this regard. Many indus-tries like construction thrive on debt, but companies also usually have the means to pay it back. The interest coverage ratio, a measure that con-trasts a company’s earnings to its interest expenses, is a ready snapshot of the ability of that company to pay the interest on its debt. Lower the ratio, lower the company’s ability to pay. This ratio is at critical levels for most companies, having fallen steadily from 2010 onwards. Several companies are in a bad position.

Whither investment revival?by TCA Srinivasa Raghavan

It is not only farmers who are mired in debt. Most of India’s large companies are also neck-deep in it.


Another, simpler parameter to look at is the debt to EBITDA (earn-ings before interest, taxes, depreci-ation and amortisation) ratio. This simply pegs a company’s borrow-ings against its earnings — an exer-cise every household will be familiar with. Different industries have var-ying healthy levels for this ratio to be, but most companies are far from this level. In this case, lower the ratio the better. To put things in perspec-tive, Lanco’s debt-EBITDA ratio grew from 5 in 2010 to 21 in 2014. Such companies have followed more or less the same pattern. All of this is very important, not because these companies are large enough to affect the Indian economy, but because they are having an increasingly det-rimental effect on India’s banking sector, which is far more critical to the Indian economy. Over the years, an ever-increasing proportion of the loans given out by banks have been to these large corporate. This means that banks are increasingly finding their fortunes tied to these compa-nies, which is an unhealthy position to be in. It brings to bear the whole ‘too big to fail’ question and makes it more real. And the stronger the hold these companies have over the banks, the more they can hold the banking sector hostage. But this is not a hopeless scenario. Several com-panies have tried to repay their debt by selling assets and have met with considerable success. As of March 2014, Videocon had sold assets worth Rs 14,450 crore, which amounted to 34 percent of its pre-sale debt. Jaypee and GMR too sold assets worth 25 percent and 27 percent, respectively, of their pre-sale debt.

The challenge for the banking sector is to encourage all the other companies to follow suit and sell their assets to repay the debt as soon as possible. Until this is done, not only will companies find it hard to borrow, the banks will also find it difficult to lend.

Very Brief ly

RC Nagercoil Suburban, District 3212, presented the Vocational Excel-lence Award to Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, a distinguished scientist from DRDO and CEO of BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited, for his contributions to the Research and Development field in Indian Defence Ministry.

A Special Day Postal Cover and Stamp was released at the Rotary Day celebrations of RI District 3250, in commemoration of the visit of RI President Gary C K Huang and spouse Corinna.



A drive through the city roads brings us face to face with shock-

ing sights of gross negligence and scant regard for life by a majority of road-users. Abandoning the helmet or the seat belt, conversing on the mobile phone while driving, jumping the traf-fic signal ... and what not! More people are killed or disabled due to road traf-fic injury than a heart attack or termi-nal illness, rues a neurosurgeon. And doctors are also of the view that more often than not, head injuries are the cause of death or serious life- altering situation in two-wheeler accidents, and helmets are the best protective headgear.

While the traffic police are con-ducting spot checks and penalis-ing errant riders and drivers, it has become easy to predict their regu-lar spots and avoid them by using by-lanes. The unsuspecting would of course cough up the fine and ‘wilful ignorance’ would continue the next time around. It is high time people are sensitised to the fact that a ride with a

disregard for road safety rules could be their last ride.

Rotary Bangalore Rajarajeshwari Nagar Centennial (RI District 3190) in its tenth year of charter decided to use a completely different approach to ensure adherence to the basic road rules for safe driving. It was felt that the best way to motivate an adult is through their children. And the Rotar-ians did just that.

The Rotarians planned to address the children in their respective school assemblies and empower them to bring about this change in the incorrect habit practiced by their parents. A pledge was constructed with a strong emo-tional appeal, which would be taken as an oath by the children on November 14, Children’s Day. The pledge simply stated that the child would refuse to sit with their parents on a two-wheeler / car if their parents do not wear a hel-met / seat belt and would urge them to move to the roadside to take/make a call while riding/driving. It requested them to follow these basic road safety

Come Home Safe

Students reading out the pledge.


rules even when the child was not trav-elling with them. The initiative got titled as ‘Come Home Safe.’

Schools were identified in the vicinity and the school managements readily agreed to allocate time for the Rotarians in their respective school assemblies to address the students and administer the pledge.

Pledge sheets were distributed to the schools in advance with a request to the class teachers to explain the ini-tiative to the students and get them to personalise the pledges that they would eventually read out on Children’s Day. Teachers were also requested to mon-itor the effectiveness of the campaign through regular follow-up with the stu-dents. Support was also garnered from the Board members of three Interact Clubs who reached across to each class and explained the need for change and how each student can play an active part in this initiative.

In a collaborative effort Rotari-ans spread across the schools at the appointed time and gave a motivational

speech to the students urging them to enforce their pledges and switch roles to becoming a parent to the errant child (the parent who is not following road safety rules). In most schools, the pledge was administered by the accompanying spouse. Twenty-one schools with a combined strength of 16,500 students partook in this exer-cise within one and half hours (var-ied assembly timings) to bring about a culmination to this overwhelming campaign.

Principal Vijaykumar Koujalgi of Baldwin Co-Education Exten-sion High School shared an incident with us. On the day, the pledge was administered in the school assembly, the security guard at the gate was a witness to a drama that unfolded at the gate after school. A student of the junior grades, refused to get on the two-wheeler behind her mother, insisting that she wears a helmet. Now, the mother had not carried the helmet with her and no amount of pleading or cajoling the child worked. She had to

return home, wear the helmet and ride back to school to pick up the child.

Sarita Sharma, the mother of a 9th grade child, of another school shared her experience with us. For over eight years now, she has been using her scooter for running local errands, besides dropping off/picking up her children from school. She was aware of the dangers of riding the two-wheeler without a helmet. But now, with her daughter insistent, she has started using the helmet for all trips.

The club intends to drive home the point further by requesting the school to enlist the support of the school staff in patrolling the school entrance and to inform errant parents about the pledge taken by their children and to honour them always.

Join the ‘Come Home Safe’ group on facebook; like, share and comment to take this initiative forward.

Rtn Suresh WarrierRC Bangalore Rajarajeshwari

Nagar Centennial, RI District 3190

RI Leaders Honoured

The IIS University, Jaipur conferred RI President Gary Huang and TRF Trustee Sushil Gupta with D Litt (Honoris Causa), an honorary doctorate degree in letters, in recognition of their exem-plary services to humanity. The con-vocation was held on December 8 at Jaipur.


Anna Kujur, 47, is a popular figure among the tribals of Sundergarh

district in Odisha. She not only encour-ages them to stand up for their rights and entitlements but also gives them a reason to hope for a better tomor-row. Clad in a plain sari and ordinary rubber slippers with a cloth bag slung over her shoulder, this simple tribal woman from Sunajor village has spent nearly a decade spreading awareness among the forest-dwelling communi-ties in the region about their legitimate claims on forest resources. It’s routine for Anna-di, as she is known in these parts, to traverse around 25 km on her cycle everyday, talking to peo-ple about land rights and facilitating them in securing their own ‘patta’ for cultivation.

In Sundergarh, the scheduled tribes make up 50 per cent of the total population of the district. For suste-nance and survival, these poor, largely illiterate folk either turn to the forest

or resort to some minor agricultural activity. Since the verdant greens have always provided them with for-est produce, water, grazing grounds and habitat for shifting cultivation for generations, they have not only been staying in and around forest lands but have also guarded and conserved them with a lot of love and care. However, this integral and close-knit relation-ship between the tribals and the for-est has rarely been recognised by the authorities.

Under the laws that govern forests in India — the Indian Forest Act, 1927 and the WildLife (Protection) Act, 1972 — the rights of people living in or depending on the area declared as a forest are to be ‘settled’ by a forest settlement officer. This makes them vulnerable to exploitation as well as eviction. Although the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 does restore the rights of the forest-dwelling commu-nities — and provisions for making

conservation more effective and trans-parent — the reality on the ground has not changed much.

Anna is no stranger to tough times. As a child, she witnessed her landless parents work day-and-night to make ends meet. After marriage, her problems only multiplied. Nurs-ing a burning desire to change her own fate, and that of others like her, she had always wanted to make a difference. “Even as a child I had wanted to serve my people and fight the injustice I saw around me. In 2000, I set up the Athkosia Adivasi Sangathan and have been agitating for the members’ rights under this banner. In 2003, I connected with the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), a national platform of tribal and forest dwellers' organisations, and participated in a three-day train-ing workshop on the rights of forest dwellers. This gave my own activism a sharper focus.

Fighting for Odisha’s tribalsby Sarada Lahangir

Thanks to the courage and hard work of one woman, thousands of tribals in Sundergarh district

are able to live in dignity.


Then when the Forest Rights Act 2006 came in place, it became slightly easy to achieve my goal. Being at the helm of organising awareness pro-grammes among forest dwellers of around 148 villages, I mobilised them to join forces and demand their land rights.”

Though it was a challenging task to pursue files in various offices for the land patta, with the help of CSD activists, she was able to move forward. “Today, it gives me immense pleasure when I see the people who got their land patta and are cultivating their land,” she adds.

So far, Anna has helped about 2,000 tribal people obtain their right-ful patta. Sugal Ekka, 44, from Goth-bandha village, is one of them. Says this mother of three, “We are small farmers who are dependent on the forest. Unless we cultivate land, we have nothing to eat. Earlier our land-lords, who are generally non-tribal, threatened us and even destroyed our crops. However, with the support and guidance of Anna-di, we applied for the patta and got it in 2008. After obtaining the right over our land our life took a turn for the better. Now-adays, we grow vegetables and sea-sonal crop.”

Malti Balka, 40, from Buda Jharana, also acknowledges Anna’s contribution in making her life better. She says that till they got their patta

in 2008, they worked as daily wage labourers. Since work was not always available here, “it was extremely dif-ficult to feed our children. We used to go into the nearby forest to collect minor forest produce but time and

again we were threatened by the for-est officials. It’s a shame that even though our families have been resid-ing here since generations, we are still branded as encroachers. Under Anna's leadership, we learnt to raise our voice for our rights over the land. After years of struggle, we have suc-ceeded. Everything has been possi-ble only because of Anna-di, who has braved all odds for our sake.”

But in her quest to help others, Anna got no support from her family; her husband. Nicholas felt she was neglecting her household duties to do “social service,” which didn’t bring any money home. Often, to dissuade her, he would beat her up. But Anna encouraged him to attend a public meeting. Here, not only was Anna praised and thanked, many people thanked Nicholas too. This changed his attitude and today he also works for this cause.

“I now realise that what she does requires a lot of patience and guts that most women do not possess. She is the strength of my family,” he now says.

Anna has also courageously exposed the corruption of forest per-sonnel and is instrumental in the sus-pension of a Ranger for taking bribes.

Today, thousands of tribal forest dwellers in Sundergarh live without fear and produce different kinds of seasonal crops, thanks to Anna’s relentless work. © Women’s Feature Service

After obtaining

the right over

our land

our life took a

turn

for the better.

Nowadays,

we grow

vegetables and

seasonal crop.


At the conference of social entrepre-neurs organised by IIM Ahmedabad in November, where

the work done by 20 social entrepre-neurs was discussed, “the audience was mesmerised when a visually challenged girl and her teacher demonstrated the use of Sunetra, a lightweight, easy-to-carry device which can carry the content of up to 70 Braille books in audio form,” says PDG of District 3131 Deepak Shikarpur, one of the social entre-preneurs who participated.

“I spoke for barely two minutes about how District 3131 had gifted 200 such eBook readers to visually handicapped students, containing complete syllabus from class nine and class ten, and then handed over the proceedings to the student and her teacher,” he says.

He said that when he was District Governor in 2013–14, “we wanted to focus on helping special children and it was felt that visually handi-capped children found it difficult to achieve academic excellence as studying from Braille books can be both cumbersome and challenging.”

So in consultation with the Poona Blind Men’s Association, this device was got ready and fine tuned to make it relevant and useful for the academic needs of visually handicapped children. Each device costs around Rs 12,000 and while the hardware is imported from Taiwan, the software for converting text to audio has been developed by a Rotarian free of cost. The third component is training as both the teachers and students have to be trained how to use this device.

About 200 special children in and around Pune have been gifted this device, and trained how to use

it. “While working with these special children we learnt for ourselves that the sixth sense of these children was really well developed and they were able to grasp very fast how to use Sunetra to improve their academic performance,” says Shikarpur.

Other presentations made at this conference included the Jaipur Foot, Rickshaw Bank, Guwahati; Megh Pyne Abhiyan, Bihar; Aravind Eye Care System, Madurai; Honey Bee Network, Odisha; Awaaz De, Ahmedabad; Beyond Sight Foun-dation, Mumbai; Rural Relations, Pune; Skillveri Training, Chennai; Agastya Foundation, Bangalore; SEVA, Madurai; Centre for Pub-lic Innovation, Hyderabad; Aakar Innovations, Bhopal; Samhita Social Ventures, Mumbai; Grama-laya, Tamil Nadu; Eram Scientific Solutions,Thiruvananthapuram; Protoprint, Kolkata; Shelter Associ-ates, NY USA; Basicshit.org (which works in street sanitation), Delhi and Diksha Foundation, Indore.

“Leading scientists who were in the audience appreciated Rotary’s efforts and sent us congratulatory messages,” says Shikarpur, adding that one message was from Padma Vibhushan Dr Raghunath Mashelkar who wrote: “It was such a pleasure to interact with the visually challenged children and teachers. Very satisfy-ing indeed.”

Padma Shri Niranjan Pandya, a social activist working for the visually challenged, and Chairman Pune Blind Men Association also endorsed and appreciated this Rotary project.

An eBook reader for

visually challenged studentsTeam Rotary News

PDG Deepak Shikarpur speaks about the ebook reader.


Indians, like people in all good democracies , dis l ike their

politicians. Yet, paradoxically, they love politics very much. So they are willing to read any number of books about it. The more salacious the gossip and the inner stories in such books, the more they sell.

In the last nine months there have been two hugely successful such books. The first was Sanjaya Baru’s The Accidental Prime Minister. He had been the media advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from 2004 to 2008 which were the UPA I’s glory years.

The second is Rajdeep Sardesai’s 2014: The Election that Changed India. In contrast to Baru’s book it is mostly about the UPA II’s debacle years from 2010–14. He tells the story well, though not with great insight or wisdom because those have perhaps been exhausted in the interminable debates on TV. But there are lots of anecdotes, including one about how in the 1990s Narendra Modi would go the extra mile to be on national television.

As one of India’s three main television news anchors, Sardesai has had the great advantage of access. Extending over more than a decade, this access gave him more than enough material to produce a longish book, all of 372 pages. Every politician was willing to meet and talk to him. He was able to interview them at will. He could pick up the phone, check things

out whenever needed. He seems to have dined with all of them, sometimes on winning bets.

His description of his dinner with Mamata Banerjee, who cooked the meal for him, is very evocative: “The sight of the West Bengal Chief Minister in the kitchen, her crumpled sari tied in a no-nonsense knot, sweat pouring from her brow, rushing between steaming pots of Bengali delicacies was, I must confess, more than a little disconcerting.”

Also, he has what it takes to be a good political writer, a feel for the way a politician’s mind works. But, as I have written elsewhere, “an understanding of low cunning is not enough for political writers. It must be complemented by the ability to link into a coherent whole the seemingly disparate dots that emerge during conversations with politicians and the bureaucrats.”

Sardesai has managed to do this with great finesse. The result is as accurate an account of contemporary history as one is likely to get. That he should have produced such book within just a few months — between May and October 2014 — is also highly commendable, and indicates his capacity for real hard work.

The book is intended largely to explain the political processes and shifts which Narendra Modi’s rise to power — and the decline of the Congress — ushered in. Sardesai

begins with the tremendous organising abilities of Modi which first came to be noticed when L K Advani was on his Rath Yatra in 1989 to reclaim Babri Masjid for the Hindus. Modi, says Sardesai, understood the power of the media even then and kept journalists happy. It was only later, after he had become Chief Minister of Gujarat and the riots had happened that he slowly turned against traditional media.

The author’s coverage of the riots and its aftermath for NDTV where he worked at the time was one of Modi’s pet peeves. During the 2014 election campaign Modi refused to give Sardesai an interview. It wasn’t always like that. In the 1990s when Modi was living in Delhi — as an exile he would say from Gujarat politics — Sardesai and he struck up a good professional relationship over kadhi-chawal.

Sardesai, by the way, largely exonerates Modi of direct responsi-bility in the riots. He says as a rookie CM he could only stand by and watch as the likes of Praveen Togadia of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) called all the shots.

In conclusion, I cannot resist pointing out that I was one of the first journalists, (as far as back as 2006 in fact) to say in an article that Modi could become Prime Minister one day. Sardesai — and the other breathless TV-wallahs — missed the deeper undercurrents of Indian politics then. In this book, he misses them again.

A Ringside view of

INDIAN POLITICS

by TCA Srinivasa Raghavan

2014: The Election that Changed India By Rajdeep Sardesai

PenguinRs 500

FROM THE SHELVES


“Never knew they were boys and they could dance so gracefully,” commented a thoroughly awe-struck Shobana of class VIII, as she filed out of her school auditorium after enjoying the Gotipua dance performance.

The Interactors of Lakshmi School had recently organised the show in their school in association with Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry Chapter of the Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC MACAY), a voluntary youth movement that promotes our cultural heritage of music, dance, yoga and crafts. The Interact Club of Lakshmi School was spon-sored by Rotary Club of Madurai Midtown, RI District 3000.

Gotipua is a traditional folk dance form of Odisha that originated in the 16th

century, performed in praise of Lord Jagannath. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is performed by young boys dressed like girls.

Long ago, temples in Orissa had female dancers called Maharis who were devotees of Lord Jagannath. When the Mahari dance form started declining, male dancers continued the tradition by dressing up as women. Although Gotipua follows the Odissi style, the technique, costumes and presentation are different from that of the Mahari dance.

A deafening cheer filled up the school auditorium when the eight dancers moved in harmony with graceful steps and flawless acrobatics. Everyone was surprised when they came to know that all the dancers were actually boys dressed up as girls.

Reviving our cultural heritage

by Selvi

Rotary at a glance

Rotarians : 12,17,764*

Clubs : 34,831*

Districts : 536*

Rotaractors : 1,69,395

Clubs : 7,365

Interactors : 3,96,980

Clubs : 17,260

RCC members : 1,86,093

RCC : 8,091

* As of December 1, 2014 As of September 30, 2014

SOLUTION FOR THE LAST MONTH’S CROSSWORD

E W E R M A I L I T A B S

N O N E A L S A C E N I T

G O D D A U G H T E R T O E

S P R O C T B E T A

S T A Y A T H O M E D A D

P I C A S S O N A G

S T A T S R A N G E M D S

A B L E A T L A S D A R E

T E E Q U A S I C E D A R

P V T V I O L A T E

H E L I C O P T E R M O M

A L O E P A W A E R

L A P F A V O R I T E S O N

E T E A R E N A S A U R A

Y E S S T R O D E N E A P


CROSSWORD PUZZLE

Solution in the February issue Reproduced from The Rotarian

CONVENTION

Got culture?

Between the plenary and break-out sessions and the House of

Friendship, Rotarians in town for the 2015 RI Convention in São Paulo, Brazil, 6–9 June, will be busy — but they ought to carve out time to visit some of the city’s great museums. With their convention badges, they’ll enjoy free admission 5–9 June to the Museu do Futebol (soccer museum; www. museudofutebol.org.br) and the Museu da Língua Portuguesa (Portuguese Language Museum; www. museudalinguaportuguesa.org.br). Visit www.rotary2015 saopaulo.org.br to learn more.Here are some other top venues to check out:

São Paulo Art Museum(Museu de Arte de São Paulo) The bu i ld ing , des igned by modernist architect Lina Bo Bardi, is elevated by four pillars to preserve views of the city from street level. The museum houses works by art-ists including Botticelli, Renoir, and Monet. www.masp.art.br

Museum of Contemporary Art(Museu de Arte Contemporânea) This museum, known as the MAC, is located in the Parque Ibirapuera. See paintings, drawings, carvings, photography, sculptures and conceptual works by Picasso, Matisse, Miró, Kandinsky, Modigliani, and others. www.mac.usp.br

Museum of Modern Art(Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo) Situated in the Parque Ibirapuera, the MAM focuses on Brazilian contem-porary works. Artists include Cândido Portinari, Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, and Tarsila do Amaral. www.mam.org.br

Register for the 2015 RI Convention in São Paulo at www.riconvention.org.

S E E 4 1 - A C R O S SAcross 1 Under the ___ of

(sponsored by) 6 Meet expectations? 11 Calif. winter clock setting 14 It’s a joke 15 Town near Bangor 16 Four-stringed instrument 17 Donkey or elephant? 19 Angler’s need 20 Digital watch part, initially 21 Champagne Tony (golf-

er of yore) 22 Singing the blues 23 Jan. preceder 26 H.S. math course 28 In very few words 30 Shed some light on 33 Prefix for suction 34 Modification or nullity, e.g. 35 Bellman’s burden 37 Aristotle’s A 40 PD radio reports 41 “What’s your Rotary ___?”

(theme of article in this issue)

43 Long stretch 44 Word picture 46 Brief car ride 47 Tightfitting 48 Difficult burden 50 They may have pets 52 Madam Secretary

or Gracepoint

55 You get one for bringing someone home, briefly

56 Slowing, in music (abbr.)

57 Coll. dorm supervisors 58 Race in The Time Machine 60 Flap and Fuzz, e.g. (abbr.) 62 Niagara Falls’ prov. 63 Who are followed out

of the womb? 68 Beverage suffix 69 Overdo a scene 70 Long-snouted

mammal 71 Former orbiter 72 Writer’s present? 73 Giraffelike beast

Down 1 iPhone buy 2 Noteworthy time 3 Narrow-bodied

river fish 4 Like LAX or JFK 5 Recorder offering a

view from on high? 6 Anchorman Burgundy 7 Seed cover 8 Space streaker 9 Canine coating 10 Sun porches 11 It’s a snap to Kate Spade?

12 Common toast 13 ___ bear 18 Unrehearsed comments 23 Currency in Libya 24 Split to get joined 25 Member who’s into elevators? 27 Pesky swarm 29 Bit of media hype 31 Hardly lauded, as

some heroes 32 Nation on the

Red Sea 36 More foxy 38 “The ___ first

believed” (“Amazing Grace” lyric)

39 High anxiety 42 Make possible 45 Absolute

certainty 49 Wilde play 51 Loco ___ (in the

place cited; Latin) 52 Tourney type 53 The Amazing ___ 54 Dunderhead 59 Negative

stat for QBs 61 Pierre’s domain (abbr.) 64 Ang or Cliff 65 Emissions

watchdog (abbr.) 66 Tear 67 Mr., in India

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30 31 32 33

34 35 36 37 38 39

40 41 42 43

44 45 46 47

48 49 50 51

52 53 54 55 56

57 58 59 60 61

62 63 64 65 66 67

68 69 70

71 72 73


The Stunning GiftDada J P Vaswani

There was a young man who was an architect by profession. He married an heiress, the only daughter of a wealthy and powerful man.

Soon after the wedding, the father-in-law called the architect and said to him, “I am going to offer you a challenging assignment which anyone in your profession would love to accept!”

The architect was a greedy man. He would have preferred a more materialistic wedding present! However, he asked his father-in-law to tell him more about the project.

The wealthy man had acquired a large plot of land atop a green hill, overlooking a magnificent view of a river. It was what any architect would call a dream location. On this site, he wanted his son-in-law to design and construct a beautiful bungalow for him.

“I am going abroad and I shall be away for a year at least,” he said to his son-in-law. “I leave this project entirely in your hands. I want you to build for me the most beautiful villa you have ever designed. Money is no consideration! Just send the bills to my office. I have left instructions that you be paid as soon as the bills are submitted. No one will ask you any questions. Just give me the house of my dreams when I get back.”

The unscrupulous architect saw the assignment only as an opportunity to make money. He used sub-standard material; he took all possible short-cuts; he made a fortune out of the assignment, and built a bungalow, beautiful to look at, but with a hundred unseen structural flaws.

“My father-in-law is such a rich man,” he thought, “it is no sin to fleece him!”

The father-in-law returned at the end of the year.Meeting him at the airport, the son-in-law said to him, “Sir, your

bungalow is ready for inspection.”The father-in-law shook his hand warmly. “We will all go

together to take a look at it tomorrow,” he said.The next day, father, daughter and her husband drove up the

hill to see the bungalow. The architect had taken care to give it a magnificent elevation and painted it beautifully, on the outside —never mind what lay behind the appearance!

The car stopped outside the wide gates. The rich man looked at the bungalow and smiled in satisfaction. Handing over the keys of the house to his son-in-law, he said, “This is my surprise gift to your wife — my precious daughter!” The architect was stunned into silence.

This is the great law of life — our dishonesty recoils on us!When we think we are cheating others, we are only cheating

ourselves.

Dada Vaswani, born Jashan Pahlajrai Vaswani, is a spiritual

leader and heads the Sadhu Vaswani Mission, that has its centres spread

out across the world. A recipient of U-Thant Peace Award, he has addressed the British House of

Commons, the World Parliament of Religions, Chicago and the

Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders at the United Nations, New York, and

several other gatherings.

For more details, please visit www.sadhuvaswani.org

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books

District Wise Contributions to The Rotary Foundation as on November 30, 2014

(in US Dollars)

DistrictNumber

APF PolioPlus* OtherRestricted

Endowment Fund

TotalContributions

India2980

3000

3010

3020

3030

3040

3051

3052

3053

3060

3070

3080

3090

3100

3110

3120

3131

3132

3140

3150

3160

3170

3180

3190

3201

3202

3211

3212

3230

3240

3250

3261

3262

3291

India Total

3220

3271

3272

3281

3282

3292South Asia TotalWorld Total

57,952

9,539

20,288

35,315

1,240

(1,703)

13,119

(65,500)

16,692

31,221

22,336

44,070

19,849

25,851

33,455

22,430

49,507

7,743

2,81,563

36,134

2,971

10,495

80,834

1,08,959

15,619

20,030

36,881

34,431

58,588

54,959

1,55,978

7,115

42,407

4,148

12,36,564

1,52,728

2,914

17,352

1,43,225

19,702

27,562

16,00,048 3,89,39,178

18,999

0

836

600

305

590

0

0

0

0

1,450

12,986

0

0

1,614

0

5,414

1,000

2,687

1,017

17

258

0

100

3,354

949

1,000

8,105

312

1,597

25

0

0

0

44,215

1,515

17,926

40,405

12,235

25

50

1,16,371 84,99,898

0

0

6,800

20,373

0

0

0

1,627

4,000

11,690

1,829

29,387

0

0

0

103

3,73,704

3,000

1,89,964

18,076

0

0

6,247

17,621

0

0

0

0

9,864

3,000

105

0

0

49,280

7,46,672

500

0

(816)

0

1,000

900

7,48,256 58,67,035

7,834

7,115

1,000

12,500

0

593

0

83,136

0

11,543

0

3,898

0

0

0

0

24,942

0

11,300

27,000

0

0

0

0

0

1,017

6,000

0

42,205

15,050

12,245

0

10,000

0

2,69,544

12,000

0

0

12,000

0

0

2,93,544 69,13,053

84,786

16,654

28,924

68,788

1,545

(519)

13,119

19,263

20,692

54,453

25,615

90,342

19,849

25,851

35,068

22,533

4,53,567

11,743

4,85,514

82,227

2,988

10,753

87,081

1,26,680

18,973

21,996

43,881

42,536

1,10,969

74,606

1,68,352

7,115

52,407

53,428

22,96,995

1,66,743

20,840

56,941

1,67,460

20,727

28,512

27,58,219 6,02,19,165

Sri Lanka

Pakistan

Nepal

Bangladesh

* Excludes Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Source: RI South Asia Office

REGN. NO. TN/CCN/360/2015-2017 LICENSED TO POST WITHOUT PREPAYMENT NO.TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-431/2015-2017 REGISTERED WITH REGISTRAR OF NEWS PAPERS FOR INDIA 3880/57 ROTARY NEWS PUBLISHED ON 1ST OF EVERY MONTH

Rotary news January 2015

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