December 2014 Rotary News

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October 29 was a red letter day in the history of Indian Rotary. On this day, seven Rotarians from India were inducted as members of the Arch Klumph Society. It was a very impressive and solemn occasion, held at the third floor auditorium at the RI World Headquarters in Evanston, USA.

Each of the donors had an opportunity to share his love for service through The Rotary Foundation.It was a very proud day for me, to see so many of our countrymen getting inducted in to the Arch Klumph Society. A dinner was hosted in honour of all the new inductees which was attended by the entire RI Board and senior staff members of TRF.

India till date has 34 AKS members and ranks fourth in this elite club.

Rtn P T PrabhakarRI Director 2013–15

India flies high at Arch Klumph Society induction

Vl6

5I

6

Wrapper_Front_Front_Inside_Dec14.indd 2 28-Nov-14 11:14:44 AM

07 From the Editor’s Desk

08 Smiles & School desks in Rudraprayag

11 President Speaks

12 First Thoughts

14 Greening the Desert

32 In Sachin’s own words

56 Athijeevanam - A New Lease of Life

58 From Smoky to Smoke-free Gamcha

60 And now Rotary meetings on a train

54 Coping with Hudhud

61 Literacy Focus

67 The Special RYLA

70 Backwaters - Magic and Cultural Bonanza

74 Celebrating Fellowship and Service

78 Clean Beaches and Leadership Training

39 Compassion & Cataract

44 When Charity began at Home

48 A Thousand Satyarthis

20 Prominent RI Events

24 Polio workers shot in Pakistan

28 CBI Challenges & Solutions

30 Legacy of Giving

CONTENTS

39

58

74

14

44

56

61

70

contents.indd 6 12/1/2014 2:53:01 PM

Welcome changesI congratulate the Editorial team for bringing out an exceptional maga-zine. Some of the articles like, Their smiles tell the story, A Train journey like no other and your editorial. Of Man-made disaster and a Messiah are remarkable. I’d like to record that recently a co-passenger

magazine that he shared his desire to join Rotary just to get the privilege of getting a copy of Rotary News!

Rtn R Srinivasan RC Madurai Midtown, RID 3000

Congratulations to the Editor for bringing out an array of articles, covering many areas; the October issue is simply fabulous. The con-tents of October are very interest-ing. The topics - Without Change there is no Growth, A Train journey like noother, World Round up, Of man-made disaster and a Messiah, are thought-provoking.

PDG Katta NagabhushanamRID 3160

We have started noticing great

the magazine. October issue is full

The article on Skin Bank is impres-sive and informative. Cover story

to compliment Achyuta Samanta.Rtn Dr Dikshit

RC Paran, RID 3051

LETTERS

reading. It is also nice to see the intro-duction of spiritual aspect in Rotary NewsKudos. I hope Rotary News

Rtn T SusantRC Berhampur, RID 3262

Their smiles tell the storyimpressive as it narrated the inspir-

institutions – KIIT and KISS –

thousands. Such real stories are an eye-opener to many. Congratu-lations to the editor for publishing such valuable features.

The key to heaven is meaningful and thought provoking.

Rtn MT Philip RC Trivandrum Suburban

RID 3211

I congratulate the Advisory Board Rotary

News

PDG Utpal MajumdarRID 3291

Congratulations for the inspira-

youth of this country on their role in elections, and other vital issues

confronting society. I appreciate the article on Sridhar Vembu and his focus on democratisation of educa-

Rotary News.Rtn Arun Kumar Dash

RC Baripada, RID 3262

Excellent job; congratulations to you

Cindrella recreated!

Pune’s Jalpari. The magic

Rotary News for

Dr Meena Borate, RC Pune Hillside, RID 3131

I read the article Building Schools in Garhwal

service rendered by the Uttarakhand Rotarians. It is amazing; I salute them

pictures appropriate. This article made me think if I am really contributing my

introspect and rededicate myself to the

more articles like this in future.Rtn P Giridhar

RC Bangalore Cubbon Park, RID 3190

Am I doing enough?

I am a regular reader of Rotary News. The editorial on vocational service is excellent. It is an eye-opener for all

their vocation. The articles are very interesting, especially the service ren-dered by Rotarians to the devastated Jammu & Kashmir.

Congratulations for bringing out nice editorials and articles covering

Your Comments1.indd 4 11/28/2014 5:31:14 PM

Rtn Rabinderjit S PanesarRC Dimapur, RID 3240

In October issue, the short story in First Thoughts depicts the adoption of Rotary’s ideal ‘Ser-

farmer Fleming saved the young Winston Churchill from sink-ing in the mire. In return Lord Randolph Churchill provided an opportunity for young Alexander Fleming to study and choose

implementation of Rotary’s Vocational Service. RI Director Prabhakar’s inimitable style of selling Rotary is laudable.

Rtn VRT Dorai RajaRC Tiruchirapalli, RID 3000

Train Journey Like no Otheran amazing read. Kindly keep

and cultures.PDG Subhash Sahu

RI District 3260

Crucial question

the article on Membership in the October issue. But I think it is necessary to give importance to retaining members as much

very happy to see that Rotary is serving the needy.

Rtn Mohan VermaRC Dewas, RID 3040

SuperstarI am extremely thankful to the Editor for bringing out the inner truths of a legendary superstar

created history in the 1970s, but kept his style and charisma intact, and reached unscaled heights. The magnitude of love he got

LETTERS

I read the Editorial thrice to understand

the fate of our children, especially those

about the Bachpan Bachao Andolan,

children in bonded labour, etc. My com-

manner and style than I have ever read

action to meet the challenges in J&K and earlier Uttarakhand. I think Rotarians have

needed; they are not just lobbyists, they are doers and don’t demand that others do

-derful message to extend help to the needy and ill around ús, in the true spirit of Light up Rotary, the dream of RI President Gary

helping the poor, needy and ill.The meaning of RI Director

PT Prabhakar’s 4-Way Test in October message goes deep inside and touches the soul of the reader.

Rtn Raj Kumar KapoorRC Roopnagar, RID 3080

Our children deserve the bestduring the golden days of his stardom are a proof of this. Ups

legend is born only once and that

Rtn Sunil KayalRC Rourkela Central, RID 3261

Not so welcome!Rotary News has been advertising the Rotary Institute 2014 since

-tion data sheet, registration form and accommodation form. So far this feature has consumed 38

nearly half of one entire issue.

pages tell us that District Gover-nors, District Governor Elect and

be spending more than Rs 1 lakh

high expenditure in such a brutal

meetings to take Rotary News to schools and local libraries to

Rotary. I joined Rotary in 1993 as

Charter Secretary and have preserved all Rotary News issues published since then. Changes have occurred and I am confused

Rotary News to read about Rajesh Khanna.

Rtn Arun SalkarRC Bicholim Goa

RID 3170

I feel proud of Pune’s Jalpari,

her utmost honesty, human approach, passion and dynamic

-

sections. Rtn Col Gopinathan,

RC Wadakanchery, RID 3201

Your Comments1.indd 5 11/28/2014 5:31:16 PM

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ROTARY NEWS ROTARY SAMACHAR

EditorRasheeda Bhagat

Assistant EditorsJaishree Padmanabhan

Selvi Kandaswamy

Trustees list.indd 6 11/28/2014 6:23:06 PM

DECEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 7

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

The heart warming response to the change in editorial leadership in Rotary News, and more

important, wholehearted and generous appreciation for the editorial team’s efforts to improve and widen the content and coverage of the magazine, strengthens my team’s resolve to make the magazine more interesting and relevant. Rotarians from across the region have written in to say they were amazed to note the work done by fellow Rotarians in building schools for underprivileged children in Garhwal, and reaching water to farmers in villages near Pune. We will continue to bring you such notable projects from across the region we cover. However small your town, if your work is changing lives, Rotary News will find space for it. So put on your best marketing cap and tell us about your projects!

Beginning this issue, we’ll be carrying a series of signed articles from prominent citizens on Rotary’s core values of Service, Fellowship, Diversity, Integrity and Leadership. The first article from former CBI Director R K Raghavan describes the role of the CBI, why it was set up, the slide in public perception of our premier investigative agency and the safeguards needed to redeem its image. We need to begin with a CBI Chief “who is competent, honest and fearless, and expects no favours from the Executive.”

As the recently devastated Jammu and Kashmir goes to the polls, surely Rotarians who cherish another core Rotary interest — that of conflict resolution and peace — are hoping and praying that peace, stability, development and prosperity come to stay in this region.

Rajasthan check damsBut topmost in my mind is the impact of the commend-able work done by the Rotary India Water Conservation Trust to change the lives and livelihoods of farmers in the villages of Rajasthan, in mainly Sikar and Alwar districts. Spearheaded by TRF Trustee Sushil Gupta, and executed on the ground by a team of dedicated Rotarians, this project has completed 55 check dams

at a cost of over Rs 5 crore. The result is greening of a semi-desert region with vast stretches of barren land which earlier gave the farmers such negligible income that their sons were forced to migrate to big cities to do menial jobs in the construction industry. But now, thanks to the Rotary check dams providing sufficient water for their fields, the farmers are able to harvest three annual crops including a profitable cash crop, instead of just one. While an old woman harvested fish worth Rs 1 lakh from one dam, another farmer was able to sell bhindi at Rs 58 a kg! Two images of this transformation stand out. Malliram’s five sons have returned to work on their land, and recently he bought a tractor worth Rs 5 lakh. Another young farmer, Ban-wari (33), has chosen to limit his family to one child as he wants to give him the best education. He himself has already picked up two M A degrees and is now eyeing a Ph D in social work!

But as we go to press, there is tragic news as well of the shocking and brutal murder of Salma Farooqi, the 30-year-old health worker and mother of five, who was abducted from her home in Peshawar in Pakistan, brutally tortured and then killed. Barely a day later a van carrying polio workers in Quetta district was attacked by gunmen who used automatic weapons and four health workers, including three women, were killed and three others injured. The team was going for emergency vaccination campaign being carried out in 18 union councils of Quetta district. The tragic fallout was an announcement of suspension of the emergency immunisation campaign. The local papers reported that since the “polio team had no security escort, the assailants managed to escape.”

What greater tragedy can there be than humanitarian work requiring security?

Rasheeda Bhagat

Water in Rajasthan, bullets in Pakistan

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK.indd 7 11/28/2014 6:34:59 PM

8 ROTARY NEWS DECEMBER 2014

This Children’s Day brought renewed hope to the children of

Rudraprayag District in Uttarakhand, the region which saw such colossal destruction due to heavy rains and flash floods last June.

In the presence of Kedarnath MLA Shaila Rani Rawat, three spanking new schools, rebuilt by the Rotary Uttarakhand Disaster Relief Trust, were handed over to the school management committees. Thanks to their premises, the primary school children at the Kyunja, Chamoli and Baniyadi areas in Rudraprayag district will no longer have to sit on the ground outside their battered schools, braving rain, biting cold of winter or the scorching sharp sum-mer sun.

After witnessing nature’s fury and cracking and crumbling under the impact of the heavy rains, the Rotary schools have been designed by the Central Building Research Institute in Roorkee and approved by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan depart-ment of Uttarakhand. They are now equipped to withstand earthquake tremors as well as incessant rains and landslides that dog the Garhwal hills.

At this event, Rotary was repre-sented by Past RI Director Yash Das, who heads this relief and rebuilding mission (for more details see Rotary News, November 2014), District

Smiles & School desks in RUDRAPRAYAG

Team Rotary News

3080 Governor Colonel Dilip Patnaik, DGE David Hilton, IPDG Rakesh Agarwal, PDG Shaju Peter, Past President and Assistant Gover-nor Sangeet Sharma, Past President D C Bansal.

At the handing over event, Shaila Rani Rawat thanked Rotary for

this difficult project that involved rebuilding schools in the remote villages of Rudraprayag. The prin-cipal of the Chamoli Primary School turned emotional and broke down while expressing her gratitude to the Rotarians “who have come in the form of God to provide such fine new school buildings for our students. In my 16 years association with the Chamoli school, first as teacher and now principal, I believe this new school building has been the biggest gift in my life.”

The sorry fact is that in many remote areas in India, children study in schools with minimal facilities. She added that not even in her wildest dreams had she ever imagined that her school children would get school desks and benches to sit on. “Now they will be able to receive their education in a dignified and comfortable way.”

Rotarians, accompanied by their spouses, distributed biscuits and wafers to the children, who later presented a cultural programme.

Rudraprayag MLA Shaila Rani Rawat at the handing over ceremony of the Chamoli school.

Smiles & school desks in Rudraprayag.indd 8 11/28/2014 5:52:10 PM

kich.indd 9kich.indd 9 11/28/2014 8:19:15 PM11/28/2014 8:19:15 PM

LEARN

Learn how to tell your Rotary story, set goals in Rotary Club Central, apply for a grant, and much more.

EVERYWHERE WITH ROTARY’S LEARNING CENTER.

LEARN AD.indd 50LEARN AD.indd 50 10/29/2014 8:29:47 PM10/29/2014 8:29:47 PM


��

Our conversations are

also a wonderful way

to teach our children,

through our own

actions, what is really

important in life.

I can think of

no better lessons to

teach our families

than the lessons of

Rotary service.

� ��

Dear Fellow Rotarians,If you take a look at the Rotary calendar, it’s easy to see where our priorities as an organisation lie. The Rotary year begins in July; in August we mark Membership Month, in September we celebrate New Generations, October is for Vocational Service, and so on, turning our attention to different topics that are important in Rotary.

It’s a great idea to do this, because it reminds us to talk about subjects that we might otherwise overlook during our busy Rotary year. But we all know that every topic on our calendar — from fellowship to our Foundation — is important. All of them are part of what makes Rotary what it is, and what makes all of us Rotarians.

In Rotary, December is Family Month. Looking back on my years as a Rotarian, I have seen how important family is in Rotary — and how impor-tant Rotary can be to our families.

My wife, Corinna, chose to join Rotary just a few months ago, after many years as a Rotary spouse. All three of our children are also Rotarians. All of them joined their own club, in their own time. All of them have found unique interests in Rotary. As we have watched them find their own paths, we have been struck by how wonderful it is to have so many members of our family involved in Rotary service.

Rotary gives us something good that we can all do together. With Rotary, we always have interesting things to talk about at dinner. We are all involved in different service, in different clubs, so when we sit down together, we are talking about humanitarian needs of every kind, in every part of the world. There is always something new to learn.

Our conversations are also a wonderful way to teach our children, through our own actions, what is really important in life. They learn about what life is like in different parts of the world, and how all of us have an obligation to help others when we can. I can think of no better lessons to teach our families than the lessons of Rotary service.

I hope that in this Rotary year, many of you will encourage your family members to join Rotary, Rotaract or Interact. Bringing your family into Rotary doesn’t just Light Up Rotary — it lights up your own lives as well.

Gary C.K. HuangPresident, Rotary International

“

“

PresidentSpeaks_Dec14_3.indd 11 26-Nov-14 12:37:25 PM


Dear Fellow Rotarians,

Community services flying highFoundation programmes coming alive

Festivity and fellowship on the overdrive An activity bee-hive was chapter Five!

December brings with it winds of change; it is election time — a reminder to us that our term of office in Rotary is fast running out! The ancient Greek poet Homer likened people holding offices to leaves of trees: “The wind blows and one year’s leaves are scattered on the ground, but the trees burst into bud and put on fresh ones when spring comes around.”

Every year, come July, over 30,000 Club Presidents step down. Over 500 District Governors pass the torch of responsibility to successors.

A lot changes in the composition of the RI committees too. And our worldwide association welcomes a new international President.Our roles may change but the spirit on stage keeps the spark of enthu-

siasm within us burning, igniting an outburst of brilliant performance. We are creatures of clocks and calendars, allotted only a relatively short time to play our part on the grand stage of Rotary.

We are now at the halfway mark of this Rotary year — a good time to assess goals and reassess strategy, to activate new ideas and reactivate unrealised ones.

We need to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change those that we can and the conviction and ability to orchestrate change with action and determination.

In the background we hear time’s winged chariot drawing near. In front of us lies the future waiting to be built.

The best way of building the future is by confronting the present — courageously and constructively.

The Institute

This year’s Rotary Institute takes place on December 12–14, at the sprawling ITC Grand Chola Hotel, Chennai.

We will have the pleasure of welcoming RI President Gary Huang and Corinna, President-elect K R Ravindran and Vanathy, TRF Trustee Julio Sorjus and Carmen from Spain, Trustee Jackson and Director-elect

First Thoughts

Halfway mark of the

Rotary year is a good time

to assess goals, reas-

sess strategy, activate

new ideas and reactivate

unrealised ones. Have the

courage to accept what

you can’t change and the

conviction to change

what you can.

P T PrabhakarDirector, Rotary International

FirstThoughts_Dec14_2.indd 12 12/1/2014 3:56:00 PM


Frederick Lin from Taiwan, RI Directors Larry Lunsford from USA, Safak Alpay from Turkey and a galaxy of dignitaries from all over the Rotary world.

We will be enthralled by world-class speakers like Dada Vaswani, B K Shivani, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu, tennis ace Vijay Amritraj and mind- boggling entertainment, all of which will make it an unforgettable Institute.

PolioPlus

December also brings with it the sparkle of the jewel in Rotary’s crown, PolioPlus.

Twenty-nine years ago, Rotary made a promise to the children of the world — to eradicate polio from the face of the earth by the year 2005, an achievement that would coincide with the 100th birthday of Rotary.

In this regard, a story narrated by Past RI President Jim Bommar will warm the heart of every Rotarian.

Once while travelling in the Philippines, he inaugurated a polio immu-nisation camp.

Jim took quick note of the polio-afflicted children who crawled spider- like along the ground unable to stand on their polio-crippled legs.

As Jim held a baby in his arms and put those magic vaccine drops in the child’s mouth, he felt a tug on his trouser leg.

Looking down, he saw one of the crippled polio victims, a smiling little boy who said, ‘Thank you, Rotary!’ And pointing to the child in Jim’s arms, he said, “That’s my sister!”

Thank God that today India is polio-free! But we cannot be complacent because polio in Pakistan can cause

polio outbreak in India. So we need to continue with our NIDs with the same vigour and also strengthen our routine immunisation.

Zero polio seemed but a dream of the heartA desperate cry of desire

But Rotarians made a startWith souls tempered with fire.Let’s continue without languor

Without weariness or hesitationAnd with renewed faith and fervour

Let’s march towards global polio eradication !

Yours in Rotary,

P.T. PrabhakarDirectorRotary International (2013–15)

Tel.: 011 42250101Fax: 011 42250191

FirstThoughts_Dec14_2.indd 13 12/1/2014 3:56:02 PM

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Greening the

Desertby Rasheeda Bhagat

Multiplying farm incomes, reversing migration, Rotary blazes a trail

in Rajasthan.

COVER STORY

Cover Story_25Nov14_1.indd 2 28-Nov-14 7:37:50 PM


When an old woman from a remote, interior village in Rajasthan’s Sikar district comes forth with a con-

fident toothless grin and whispers in the ear of a Rotarian that “this year I made Rs 1 lakh by selling fish which a contractor had quietly put in this dam for me,” you have to take note.

This feat was achieved in the Kemra Wala dam, built in a semi-desert area in Sikar by the Rotary India Water Conservation Trust (RIWCT) in partnership with the PHD Rural Development Foundation. Not only have the incomes of over six lakh villagers – in agri families – in Rajasthan’s Sikar and Alwar districts multiplied several times thanks to dependable water supply allowing three, instead of the earlier one crop, this impressive project has also reversed migration from these semi-arid villages into cities for menial jobs.

Water banksUnlike a dam built across an existing river/rivulet, a check dam is built to check the flowing away of rainwater from any catchment area. The idea is not to create a new water source for irrigation or drinking but to harness and harvest water which percolates into the ground and recharges sur-rounding areas, including wells.

In this classic rainwater harvesting, the catchment areas in the 55 check dams the RIWCT have built so far varies from 3-7 km in length. And the check dam wall is around 14 ft high, with a foundation of 7 ft to prevent its erosion. “Over the years, we’ve learnt to choose ideal catchment

check dams have

been completed,

changing the lives of

lakh rural people.

556

Villagers get ready to welcome their French guests.

View of a check dam.



a couple of bighas (20 bighas make one acre) young men migrated to cities like Delhi and Mumbai to work as coolies, masons, etc.”

But today it is a different story. Goverdhan and his brothers are farming on 60 bighas and his nephew Banwari (33) is all smiles as he says how he sold his first crop of bhindi at Rs 58 a kg. “The last bit I sold at Rs 9 a kg, but I had made my money.”

As we are treated to a sumptuous lunch of makki ki roti with a dollop of butter, pooris, kadhi, methi and potato curry in Goverdhan’s house, the host amazes me with his humanity and generosity. “Man is a selfish and greedy creature anyway, but today, thanks to these check dams, we have copious water for animals and birds and plants and trees too, as you can see from the greenery around.”

PHD Foundation’s CEO Atul Rishi says these check dams and increased water availability have dramatically increased both the area under cul-tivation and incomes. Field Officer Mukti Narain Lal says some farmers’ incomes have jumped up 100–200 times because they had very meagre incomes. “From thatched homes they now have pucca houses, from camels and cattle they now have tractors to plough their fields.”

The best news is that now the vil-lagers have taken ownership of these check dams and their maintenance for longer sustainability. Each dam has a committee with a corpus of Rs 50,000–1,00,000, kept in a bank for future maintenance. “The Kemra Wala dam committee has Rs 3.5 lakh and wants to increase the width of the dam wall which is now used as a bridge because a goat fell off its edge,” adds Atul Dev.

They’d like to increase the height too to store more water but this is not allowed under the project for fear of greater pressure causing a breach.

Adds Gupta with a satisfied smile, “I’m happy to have put water on RI’s agenda!”

To succeed, every great project of this dimension needs passion,

vision and relentless work… a mes-siah! The check dams project got one in the shape of TRF Trustee and PRID Sushil Gupta.

A vice chairman of the Himalayan Environmental Trust and chairman of the Gangotri Conservation Project, he has spent two decades in water. “I have deeply studied water scarcity in India and other countries. Water activism is very dear to my heart,” says the former Chairman of the RIWCT, and present Chairman Emeritus.

So when in 2003 as RI Director he was asked for a possible theme and venue for a global conference, he sug-gested water and Delhi. President A P J

Abdul Kalam inaugurated it and the then Water Resources Minister Suresh Prabhu participated. A major highlight of the Delhi Declaration from this con-ference was creating water awareness and model Rotary water projects.

Thus was set up the RIWCT and Gupta’s passion gave the project global visibility by involving RI Pres-idents such as Kalyan Banerjee and D.K Lee to inaugurate projects named after them.

Barren landRecalling the earlier days Goverdhan, a pillar of the project, says, “The land here was so dry that you could barely get drinking water at 800 ft depth. With monsoon water allowing cultivation of

The waterMessiah

I’m happy to put water on RI agenda.

Sushil Gupta, TRF Trustee“

“

From right: PRIP Kalyan Banerjee, TRF Trustee Sushil Gupta and PDG Ashok Gupta. (Pic: Rtn Atul Dev)



areas and where the check dam can be built,” says Atul Dev, RIWCT Secretary, project coordinator and past president of RC Indraprastha-Okhla. The terrain and area where the Kemra Wala dam shimmers with water was ideal enough for Rotary to construct a string of eight check dams in a row, benefitting farmers in 20 surrounding villages.

The result is an unbelievable transformation in this semi-desert region with scanty annual rainfall. The water from the Aravalli hills flows and stays in the check dam catchments for 6-8 months, with 15 of the 55 dams (includ-ing in Dausa and Mewat, Haryana) becoming perennial, just like the Kemra Wala now breeding fish! And when the water recedes, the silt and rich minerals left behind provide additional scope for a quick cash crop before the onset of the next monsoon!

Pointing to the greenery in the area, despite this year’s disappointing rainfall, Goverdhan, a village elder and back-bone of this Rotary venture, says, “Due to water scarcity, these farmers could earlier grow only millets and a little wheat. Now, they have three crops — millets, wheat and vegetables such as bhindi (okra), tomatoes, and green chil-lies. Last year some farmers sold bhindi worth Rs one lakh and “ek ek kisan ne Kemra Wala ke pani se sawa lakh ki mirchi bechi.” (Many farmers sold chilly worth Rs 1.25 lakh each). Earlier their wells didn’t have water even at 18 ft, against 10 ft now.

A French saviour Small wonder then that there is a mela-like atmosphere in the Kalakota village I visit with Dev and Past President of RC Brumath Truchtersheim Kochersberg, Philippe Dangelser, scheduled to inaugurate three completed check dams and do groundbreaking for three more in Sikar and Alwar districts.

Like a seasoned veteran Dangelser receives the tra-ditional welcome with marigold garlands, red tilak, and Rajasthani turban. He has returned with a fund of 30,000

euros to build 4-5 more check dams; each dam costs around Rs 8 lakh. He comes twice a year to India with money raised from France and Germany for check dams; his latest tally – 20!

His India connection began in 2005 when at the Chicago Rotary Convention, PDG Ranjan Dhingra, also a District Water Chair, invited him to visit India. He did, and has never looked back. He talks with India with enough love and insight to merit a farmer’s comment: “Another god gave us birth, you gave us life.” He finds “India different and very special because I look at India with fresh eyes.”

As we drive towards the Banariwala Dam in Kalakota that Dangelser will inaugurate, the solid work done by the Magsasay Award winner Rajendra Singh in water conservation comes to mind. Goverdhan worked with him for 16 years, before joining this project. Today he is a leading patriarch, but 10 years ago, in the interior village Guwaravyas in Alwar District, 65 km from Jaipur, where he hosted Dangelser in his house for a couple of nights, “the villagers wanted to throw me out when I talked of

Rtn Philippe Dangelser inaugurates the Banari Wala Dam.

20Rtn Philippe Dangelser

has helped build

check dams.



building check dams. They wanted to put a rape charge on me hoping I’d run away,” chuckles the wise man.

Reversing migrationOf the Rs 5 crore spent on these dams, Rs 1.25 crore came from the Latter-Day Saint Charities for 21 dams.

The farmers at Goverdhan’s spacious house are only too willing to share their happy stories. Some have built three homes. Malliram, 60, is one. In 10 years, his five sons migrated to cities to do menial jobs. “They’ve all come back as now “there is khoob pani, khoob anaj, khoob paisa (lots of water, lots of foodgrains and lots of money),” he says. Last year he bought a tractor worth Rs 5 lakh.

The most tangible benefits of reaching water to this parched land is not only arresting but reversing migration from villages to cities. “Our villages no longer have only old men and women. Our young men have returned,” adds Goverdhan.

And the transformation brought about by this water pro-ject, spearheaded by TRF Trustee Sushil Gupta (see box), where Rotarians from US, Canada, France and Russia have donated physical labour too, in the mindspace of villagers like Dinesh and Banwari is amazing. Dinesh can reel off details about different dams from the top of his head.

The check dams chosen for Dangelser are located in remote and inaccessible villages. The terrain our Innovas

cannot negotiate are tackled by two old, rattling Mahindra jeeps. Amazingly, Dangelser asks and gets music in the rickety jeep where a USB is fixed on a music contraption! Long treks, sometimes over 1 km are involved and Dinesh deftly doubles up as my cameraman in frames I’m required, and handles my iPad Air with elan.

By late evening when I’m ready to drop dead and opt out of trekking to the last dam which has turned perennial, he coaxes me to jump on to his mobike. “You can’t miss Kemra, it is the best.” The young Frenchwoman, Anne, joins too and the triple riders on Dinesh’s mobike get peels of laughter from the local women in ghunghats!

The only jarring note is the way the men address their women. Hopefully Rotary leaders such as Gupta will take up gender equity as the next challenge! But if Banwari’s lead is anything to go by... he has stopped with one son, who is 5, and wants to send him to University, things are already changing.

He describes how the thorny kikar trees on the most barren land can fetch income for their wood, the increasing area under tobacco crop as “it has become fashionable for college girls and boys to smoke sheesha/hukkah in big hotels and how “bekar ki cheez mei hamesha jyada paisa hota hei (useless things get more money).” He next waxes eloquent on how the sale of sharab is propping up the Indian economy, and the economics of applying for sharab ke thekey (liquor shops).

As he gives more gyan on the medical properties of aloe vera growing wildly here, how it can cure joint pain, is used in Baba Ramdev’s ointments, I quiz him on his education.

“Oh, I am a double M.A in History and Political Science from the Rajasthan University, and after working with the Rotary check dams, I’ve got a diploma in water conserva-tion,” he replies casually.

His parting shot: “Ab sochh raha hoon ki IGNOU se social work mei Ph D kar lu. (Now I’m thinking of doing a Ph.D from IGNOU)!”

Pictures by Rasheeda Bhagat

I have two M.As; sochta hu ki Ph.D. kar lu.

Banwari, an empowered young farmer.“

“Goverdhan (centre) enjoys a hukkah at his house.



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

As on November 3, 2014

RI Zone

RI District

Rotary Clubs

No. of Rotarians

Women Rotarians

Rotaract Interact RCC

Source: RI South Asia Office

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

Rotary’s future is in your hands

In his inaugural address, US Presi-

dent John F Kennedy made this often quoted exhortation: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country. ”

The same sentiments could be applied to the membership of Rotary.

Whether Rotary will survive or whether it will falter, whether our service will mean much to many or little to few, whether Rotary is known with respect or seen as a relic of days gone by, will be up to each and every Rotarian.

There is so much to be done in our world — to educate the illiterate, feed the hungry, provide shelter to the homeless. Our world is still ill divided, and the gap is not shrinking between the haves and the have-nots. But to whom much has been given, much is expected.

The most important people in Rotary are not the directors of the Board or the trustees of our Rotary Foundation, but the individual Rotarians working quietly in their clubs to assist those in communities who are less fortunate than themselves, for whom they know the need is great. This is Rotary at its finest: Rotarians identifying a need and responding to it.

For many, this is a special time of year. May it bring to each of you the bless-ings that it offers.

As we Light Up Rotary, let us remem-ber that the future of our Foundation is in your hands.

John KennyFoundation Trustee Chair

5 2980 159 6,955 215 71 271 1915 3000 99 4,315 296 140 263 684 3010 134 5,388 544 56 181 805 3020 67 3,277 171 30 190 2584 3030 90 4,804 543 43 178 1224 3040 103 2,274 265 29 87 1314 3051 66 2,569 183 36 119 3294 3052 71 3,455 487 25 126 1204 3053 50 1,858 162 13 30 894 3060 84 3,605 301 34 96 1044 3070 117 3,278 277 42 125 584 3080 82 3,296 160 40 149 984 3090 75 1,982 65 20 29 1224 3100 88 2,032 94 9 83 1466 3110 108 3,440 162 42 46 606 3120 68 2,591 206 27 30 484 3131 124 4,838 699 48 175 654 3132 74 3,102 215 37 87 564 3140 144 7,275 969 98 335 1385 3150 93 3,403 273 62 161 1095 3160 61 2,279 103 8 37 805 3170 124 4,825 230 25 244 1545 3180 136 5,565 208 38 358 1415 3190 91 3,832 279 49 113 415 3201 125 4,754 237 59 86 435 3202 105 4,106 184 53 344 385 3211 129 4,079 227 8 63 1145 3212 84 3,435 150 15 130 1175 3220 67 1,898 226 62 182 935 3230 131 5,731 398 107 358 2716 3240 76 2,699 260 39 115 1106 3250 92 3,294 437 37 125 1656 3261 76 2,492 283 14 97 416 3262 77 2,667 254 24 59 666 3271 83 1,472 167 35 15 136 3272 94 2,008 381 17 34 316 3281 149 4,565 510 183 68 1716 3282 85 2,397 162 111 20 386 3291 149 4,001 596 43 95 5186 3292 88 2,863 325 92 88 85 Total 3,918 1,42,699 11,904 1,921 5,392 4,722

Chair Message_1.indd 19 11/28/2014 5:52:58 PM


I had the privilege of being present at these important RI events.

Here are the highlights.

October 2014 RI Board of Directors Meeting

The second 2014–15 RI Board of Directors meeting was held from October 27–30 in Evanston, Illinois, USA.

At this meeting, the Board reviewed 15 committee reports and recorded 82 decisions.

Club and DistrictThe Board re-organised the following Districts:

District 3010 (India) is split into two new Districts — 3011 and 3012 - effective July 1, 2015District 3140 (India) into new Districts — 3141 and 3142, effective July 1, 2016District 3180 (India) into new Districts — 3181 and 3182 effective July 1, 2016 The Board also reassigned District 2060 (Italy) from Zone 19 to Zone 12, effective July 1, 2015.

Programmes and Awards The Board agreed to create a new member benefit pro-gramme that will provide participating Rotarians with

discounts or reward points on a variety of products and ser-vices. Initial research and development on this programme will begin immediately, with a planned programme-launch in July 2015.

The Board modified Rotary’s calendar of special obser-vances to designate specific months highlighting the Areas of Focus. The new special observance months are:

September : Basic Education and Literacy October : Economic and Community Development December : Disease Prevention and TreatmentJanuary : Vocational Service February : Peace and Conflict Prevention/Resolution March : Water and Sanitation April : Maternal and Child Health May : Youth Services

To create a shared responsibility model for overseeing Rotary alumni, the Board added ‘alumni’ to the list of pri-mary responsibilities for Rotary and Rotary Public Image Coordinators. And to encourage more alumni to attend the International Convention, the Board set a single registration fee for all non-Rotarian alumni—regardless of their year of service—that is the same as the registration fee for Rota-ractors, beginning at the 2016 convention in Seoul, Korea.

RI MEETINGS

Prominent RI Events

The first ever Rotary Day was held in RI World

Headquarters, Evanston, USA on October 25. The Mayor of Evanston was the Chief Guest and he appreciated the wonderful community service

rendered by Rotary around the world.

For the first time, the gen-eral public of Evanston had an opportunity to visit the RI headquarters and learn about the work of Rotary and

the Foundation. They were delighted to visit Room No.711, which is a replica of Rotary’s Founder Paul Harris’s office, as it was in the 1900s. The entire board of Directors and their spouses were present.

Rotary Day in Evanston

prominent leaders.indd 20 11/28/2014 6:41:04 PM


It was an unforgettable experience to be part of the Rotary Day at the United Nations held on

November 1in New York. President Gary Huang and TRF Trustee Chair John Kenny spoke elo-quently about the wonderful work done by Rotary

and it’s Foundation with UN as a partner in the fields of Water & Sanitation, Literacy, Youth Programmes and Women’s Empowerment. After the inaugural session, the audience had group discussions on the above topics.

Rotary Day at United Nations

The Board chose 145 recipients for the 2014–15 Ser-vice Above Self Award. The award recipients’ names will be published on the RI website on 1 July 2015 and in The Rotarian August 2015 edition.

Administration and FinancesThe Board elected Ron D Burton, Örsçelik Balkan, Mario César de Camargo and Thomas M Thorfinnson to be trustees of The Rotary Foundation, beginning July1, 2015.

The Board expanded the Innovation and Flexibility pilot programme from 200 to 1,000 clubs.

Mandarin Chinese was added to the list of official lan-guages in which Rotary provides translations of essential club and district information.

The Board approved a change in the “additional per capita dues,” as provided for in the RI Bylaws, to pay for the projected expenses of the Council on Legislation from $1.00 to $1.50, effective July 1, 2015.

The Board accepted the audited financial statements and report on Rotary International’s financial results for 2013–14. An annual report will be published in accordance with the RI bylaws.

October 2014 - The Rotary Foundation Trustees Meeting

The Rotary Foundation (TRF) Trustees met from October 20–23 in Evanston, Illinois, USA and reviewed seven com-mittee reports and recorded 60 decisions.

Administration The Trustees elected Trustee Kalyan Banerjee as their chair-man-elect for 2015–16 and Paul A Netzel as their vice chair-man during 2015–16.

The Trustees adopted the following four priorities to be addressed over a three-year cycle, beginning July1, 2015:

1. End polio – Now and forever. 2. Strengthen Rotarians’ knowledge, engagement, and

financial support of The Rotary Foundation.3. Increase the quality and impact of Rotary’s human-

itarian service effort through Foundation grants and the six Areas of Focus.

4. Enhance the image and awareness of the Founda-tion’s record of achievements — particularly the



WWW.ROTARY.ORG/ROTARYIMAGES

ROTARYIMAGES

A picture can speak a thousand words.

Now Rotarians can search and access thousands of high-quality photos taken by Rotary International photographers.

Rotary Images is a database of pictures that bring Rotary’s stories to life and can help enhance club Web sites and other publications.

success of PolioPlus and the Foundation’s 100-year record of doing good in the world.

In preparation for celebrating The Rotary Foundation’s 100th year of service, the Trustees approved four TRF Centennial goals:

1. Increase public awareness of TRF. 2. Recognise major achievements related to TRF

programmes; 3. Celebrate by staging

activities at the 2016 and 2017 RI Conventions and at all zone, district, and multidistrict meetings in 2016–17;

4. Reach all-time high contribution levels in 2016–17 for the Annual Fund, PolioPlus Fund, Endowment Fund, and Rotary Peace Centres Major Gift Initiative.

The Trustees also approved a new Foundation centennial logo (see above).

Fund Development The Trustees established for Rotary Peace Cen-tres a new fundraising goal of US $150 million by June 30, 2017 for cash and commitments to support the funding of upto 100 Rotary Peace Fellows.

Programmes The Trustees approved PolioPlus grants to WHO and UNICEF for operational support, technical and

administrative assistance, social mobilisation, and research activities in Afghanistan, Cameroon, DR Congo, Ethiopia, India, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.

The Trustees amended Global Grants requirements to allow for grants in non-Rotary countries where the RI Board is actively pursuing extension, and also approved the use of Global Grant funds for project-related overhead and adminis-trative costs of cooperating organisations.

The Trustees discussed with concern the growing humanitarian crises surrounding the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and requested the general secretary to consult Rotari-ans in the affected areas and revert at the meeting of Trustees in January 2015 on how Rotary could most effectively help with this crisis.

Stewardship The Trustees reviewed reports on allegations of the misuse of Foundation funds and suspended two districts and four clubs from participation in TRF programmes for failure to comply with stewardship guidelines.

Finance The Trustees accepted the 2013–14 audited finan-cial statements and report on TRF’s financial results.

Rtn P T PrabhakarDirector

Rotary International (2013–15)

THE ROTARY FOUNDATION

YEARS OF DOING GOOD IN THE WORLD



HEALTH

Health-related concerns over the hazards of mobile phone usage is rapidly growing as large number of

scientific studies are being published supporting this issue. WHO has reviewed the available evidence and declared mobile phones’ electro-magnetic radiations as possibly carcinogenic(Group 2B).

Scientific studies have shown that exposure to electro-magnetic frequency and radio-frequency radiations may affect brain activity, reaction time, functionality of the ears and eyes, sleep, fertility and behaviour. The signals may also interfere with medical implants like heart pacemakers. It is therefore essential to exercise some precautions,while using mobile phones, to reduce absorption of radiation.

Subscribers can adhere to these measures for safe mobile usage:

• Whenever possible, replace the mobile handsets with safer alternatives such as wired landline or voice over internet protocol programmes (VoiP) like Skype and Gtalk.

• Use desktop computer to access internet services.

• Use a good quality mobile phone with smaller values of Specific Absorption Rate (the rate at which energy is absorbed by the human body). Mobile phones have SAR values ranging from a low of 0.1 to a high of 1.9. Using phones with lower SAR will drastically reduce exposure to radiations.

• Switch off the mobile phone before going to bed and long periods of non-usage.

• Do not carry mobile phone in pockets or bras. Keep the phone in a bag away from the body.

• Make short-duration calls.

• Prefer texting instead of voice call whenever possible.

• Do not use the phone when signal is weak.

• Do not use the handset when battery is low. Keep battery at least half charged.

• Do not keep mobile phone pressed to ears. Hold it as far as possible and prefer to use a wired earphone or speaker function.

• Avoid staring for long time into the mobile phone screen, reading large amount of texts, playing games etc as it dries the eyes leading to eye damage.

• Avoid using mobile phone around other electronics as it increases or focus the radiations on body.

• People wearing pacemaker, sunglasses with metal rims, metal wired bras, tooth filling, knee implants etc should minimise, if not able to avoid completely, the use of mobile phones.

• Open and empty spaces should be preferred to make longer calls.

• Avoid owning multiple mobiles or multiple SIM card based phones.

• Avoid using mobile phone inside moving vehicle as the mobile phone signal intensity changes with dis-tance from base tower and metal body of the vehicle traps the signal, which increases the exposure levels.

• Mobile phone use is banned during driving as it can easily lead to accidents.

• Children have thinner skulls and their brain is met-abolically more active than adults which leads to much more serious effects. Hence children should be completely refrained from mobile phone use. Further, as children are likely to use mobile phones for longer time, lifetime cumulative absorption of radiations will be much higher, which can lead to serious health effects during older age.

• Mobile phone signals can produce adverse biolog-ical effects on the developing child in the womb of pregnant women; hence it should be avoided during pregnancy.

Rtn Dr Madhukar has authored the book Mobile Phone Safety. He is a member of the 150 scientists’ collaboration from across the world, who has signed the International Sci-entist Appeal on setting stringent radiation safety measures, which will be delivered to the United Nations and the World Health Organisation. He is member of Rotary Kushalnagar, RI District 3180. He may be contacted at: +91-9743059668. Email: [email protected].

Mobile Phone SafetyRtn Dr Madhukar

Mobile Phone Safety.indd 23 11/28/2014 5:54:05 PM


The challenge faced by polio health workers in Pakistan is fast snowballing into a crisis with armed attacks on

these workers getting more frequent and lethal. In the last week of Novem-ber, two brutal attacks were carried out on polio workers, killing four female health workers, and injuring more.

Considered the most deadly attacks in two years on polio workers in Pakistan’s north-western tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, these attacks have brought to the fore once again the Pakistan Taliban’s hostile and stated position against polio vaccina-tion. The false propaganda claims that

polio vaccination is against Islam; the polio workers are really “western spies under the guise of health workers” and the western nations are sterilising Pakistan’s children under the claim of immunising them against polio.

In Peshawar District, in the middle of the night, armed militants jumped over the compound wall of the house of Salma Farooqi, mother of five. She was abducted after her husband and children were tied, and next day was repeatedly shot after being tortured.

Another attack followed in quick succession, when a van carrying a group of health workers was attacked by armed militants in the south-western

city of Quetta. Motorcyclists inter-cepted the van and opened fire on the occupants using automatic weap-ons. Three women were killed and other three injured. According to the Pakistan daily Dawn, the inhabitants of the van were part of an emergency polio vaccination campaign launched by the Balochistan government with the collaboration of the UNICEF and WHO.

At 265, polio cases in Pakistan are at a 15-year high, and polio work-ers, particularly women, are regularly targeted by the Pakistan Taliban. While the only other two countries with polio cases — Afghanistan and

Polio workers shot in Pakistan.indd 24 01-Dec-14 11:17:30 AM


Nigeria — are reporting lower num-bers, Pakistan is seeing more polio cases. As the international media is zooming into Pakistan to report these dastardly attacks, there are also allega-tions that the Pakistan Taliban is using children as shields to persuade the US to stop its drone attacks in this region.

The tragedy is that many parents who want to give polio drops to their children are doing so by “smuggling” it in ice packs to their homes, and administering them to the children of only relatives and close friends they can trust. A few months ago,

the British daily The Guardian had reported the story of Amir, 45, who clandestinely brought ice-cooled polio vaccines to his home in an interior Pakistan village to be administered to his extended family. “If we have confidence in our neighbours and close relatives then we share the drops with them, but only if we know we can trust them,” he said.

Commenting on the recent das-tardly attacks PDG Aziz Memon, Chair, Pakistan National PolioPlus Committee, said Rotary International “strongly condemns such incidents in

which polio workers are repeatedly targeted. We offer our heartfelt con-dolence to the bereaved families and request the Government to take action against persons responsible and pro-vide proper security to polio workers.”

Balochistan Health Minister Rehmat Saleh Baloch said that the campaign would resume; “we will not give in to elements involved in killing innocent health workers.”

Added PDG Memon, “We are committed. The children of this coun-try should walk, not crawl. We prom-ised to end polio, and we will.”

Polio workersshot in Pakistan

by Rasheeda Bhagat

Polio workers shot in Pakistan.indd 25 01-Dec-14 11:17:30 AM


Even though most of us dash off quick, informal emails these days, you may know a few older people like my

friend Dominic, whose emails sound like they should be written on parchment and sealed with a signet ring:Dear Kevin,

Allow me to invite you to dine with several of our colleagues in the cafeteria on Tuesday, January twelfth, at 1 p.m. Kindly respond at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely, DominicAnd you might also have younger correspondents who

write more like this:get yurbut 2 cafe 2moro@1 !!NOXCUSES!!!The Dominics among us notwithstanding, you’ve

probably noticed a shift in the last few years: More people of all ages are sending unpunctuated, uncapitalised, or ALL CAPS messages pocked with emoticons (created from standard keyboard letters, numbers, and punctuation) and emojis (a set of icons, such as the sunglasses-wearing smi-ley as the one above). The trend has even infected business correspondence from suit-and-tie types you’d think would know better. Not long ago, I heard from a magazine editor, a Benz-driving gent in his 60s who began his career with a secretary typing his business letters on carbon paper. Now his emails sound like my teenage daughter’s:

KEV wheres nba story??! dedlines 2day so GOGOWhat’s going on? When did business correspondence

go from Strunk and White to shrunken writing?“It’s all about texting,” says business consultant

Barbara Pachter. “Millions of people, especially younger people, do so much texting that the styles of texting have changed their emails. Even those of us who are older and text a lot tend to drop the punctuation or capital letters in our emails, so they look more like texts — with unfortunate

consequences.” Pachter, author of The Essentials of Business Etiquette, has a friend who sent an email saying “thx” for a job interview. Thx. “Every email you send is a presentation of you,” Pachter says. “Make it as sharp and presentable as you’d want to be in person.”

Want to hone your netiquette? Here are seven tips from the experts:

When in doubt, go the formal route. E-correspondence may be evolving fast, becoming less formal as oldsters retire or expire (known in e-commerce as going “into the cloud”) and txtrs take over, but courtesy and clarity still matter. As Pachter puts it, “There’s more downside to being too casual than being too formal. So when you write an email,

you want to err toward the businesslike.”

Take the salutation: Opening with “Dear Ms. Alyokhina”sounds stiff, but it won’t offend Ms. Alyokhina, whether she’s a bank president or a leader of a Russian protest group. Opening with “Dear” may strike anyone under 50 as stodgy to the point of constipation, but its for-mality signifies respect. Once you establish a cor-respondence, opening with the less formal “Hello Maria” or “Hi Maria” makes sense. Of course,

you want to pay close attention to how your correspond-ent addresses you. If someone opens with “Dear Kevin,”I make sure to “Dear” them back.

And if you start with a salutation, you should end with a closing line. “If you open with ‘Dear Mr. Jones,’ don’t close with an emoji,” Pachter says. “There’s a hierarchy here too. Closing with ‘Sincerely’ is formal, while ‘Best’ or ‘Regards’ sounds nicer. I’ve seen ‘Cheers’ a lot lately — an import from England. In Britain, many people close emails with ‘Yours faithfully,’ which sounds to me like a marriage proposal. ‘Cheers’ is more upbeat.”

Pachter’s policy goes double for international email. “We Americans tend to be casual, which can offend people

Pls read. Thx!Business emails are no place for LOLs

by Kevin Cook

Ple read.Thx!.indd 26 11/28/2014 6:53:44 PM


in other cultures. If you’re emailing a businessperson in another country, pretend you’re writing to the President.”

Don’t be a teenager. Unless you are a teenager, CUT THE CAPS and exclamation points!!! Lindsey Pollak, author of Becoming the Boss: New Rules for the Next Generation of Leaders, suggests a limit for exclamation points in a business email: One!

Keep it tight. “Busy people hate long emails,” says email etiquette expert Judith Kallos. “They don’t want to scroll down to get to the point you want to make, and they won’t. You must keep your emails short and sweet.” But what if your point is complex, or requires a long list? “Easy — attach a PDF and say, ‘Please review this when you get a chance.’ ”

Play the emoticon game. I went into this article loathing emoticons, which can signal everything from positivity:) to a hango-ver %\ to Homer Simpson (_8(|). Business-communications con-sultant Scott Mc-Dowell changed my mind. Our attempts to keep emails short can make us sound “clipped, sarcastic, or rude,” he says.A smile can make your meaning clear. As with exclama-tion points, don’t overdo it, but a single, simple emoticon can prevent confusion ;)

Customise your subject lines. “Be specific, and keep it short,” says efficiency expert Peggy Duncan. “Too many people forward emails without changing the subject line. You’ll get one headed YEAR-END REPORT that invites you to lunch. So if you change the subject, change the subject line. This has an added benefit if you’re searching for that email later.”

Toss the empties. Thousands if not millions of people still clog their correspondents’ inboxes with emails saying nothing but “Thanks!” or “OK.” Each one eats up a pre-cious moment at the sending and receiving end. If we added those moments together, we could all sleep an extra hour every night. “Before you send a short, kneejerk reply, ask

yourself if it will change anything,” Kallos says. “If not, spike it.”

On the other hand, hit “reply.” As we get swamped with emails, it’s

tempting to skip the ones that don’t call for immediate action. But

people don’t like to be ignored. One of my pet peeves is the inefficiency — not to say rude-ness — of publicists, editors, and other businesspeople who ignore a simple request rather than saying, “Thanks, but no thanks” or “We appreciate your interest, but [celebrity’s name here] is currently in char-

acter and can only speak [Greek, Hobbit, Martian].” “Ignoring emails is easy,” Kallos

says, “but it’s dumb. Why? Because things change. That celebrity might want

to talk about his next movie.” Any sincere query deserves at least a quick response, she adds.

“You don’t have to reply to spam. You don’t have to reply to hard-sell emails. But anyone who takes the time to send a polite email asking for some action on your part deserves an answer. It takes 10 seconds to hit ‘reply’ and say, ‘We appreciate your interest, but we must pass at this time.’A little politeness may pay off in the future.”

The best e-rules are the simplest: Be polite, be brief, and DON’T SHOUT!

Reproduced from The Rotarian

Any sincere

query deserves at least a

quick response, she adds. “You

don’t have to reply to spam. You

don’t have to reply to hard-sell emails.

But anyone who takes the time to

send a polite email asking for some

action on your part deserves an

answer.

In MemoriumWe express our heartfelt condolences on the demise of PDG Dr Laxmikant Bhojwani, RC Poona, RI District 3131. He served as the District Governor during 1988–89.

Ple read.Thx!.indd 27 11/28/2014 6:53:44 PM


The present developments in the CBI and the appointment of a new Director provide an

opportunity to restore the image of India’s premier investigative agency, and reinstate people’s faith in probity in public life.

These are momentous days for the Central Bureau of Investigation, India’s premier investigation agency. Politicians, judiciary, civil servants and average citizens alike look upon the Bureau as a government agency which has the capacity to solve the

most complicated crimes and also handle investigation of corruption at high places. All of them also believe that it can deliver goods only if it is allowed to operate with absolute freedom. There is near unanimity also that the CBI does not enjoy the autonomy, it so badly needs, to perform its tasks.

The CBI was born in 1964, the year in which the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) came into being, following the report of the Santhanam Committee on how to combat the malaise of dishonesty in public services. The predecessor to CBI was the Delhi Special Police

Establishment (DSPE), which was founded even under the British to look into irregularities in the purchases of the Defence Ministry during the Second World War. To this day the CBI owes its legal existence to the DSPE Act (1946) and does not have a legislation of its own. As a result it suffers from the severe handicap of being recognised only as a police agency and therefore the restrictions imposed by the Criminal Procedure Code (1973). Efforts by successive CBI chiefs and others to get Parlia-ment to enact an exclusive CBI Act which would confer on it adequate legal authority have not succeeded. This omission is attributable to the fear of the political executive that a powerful CBI is a threat to democracy.

Supreme Court IntervenesThe judiciary, especially the Supreme Court of India — the highest court of the land — is conscious of the need to insulate the CBI from political control. It was in this pursuit that in 1997, in the famous Hawala case, it laid down a rigid procedure for the selection and appointment of CBI Director and conferred on him a mandatory two-year tenure. (This writer was the first beneficiary of this salutary ruling). Things went

by R K Raghavan

CBI at the crossroads.indd 28 11/28/2014 6:54:50 PM


on reasonably smoothly, except for a few hiccups once in a while, until the arrival in recent years of the 2G scam (irregularities in the allocation of spectrum for telecom operators) and Coalgate (illegalities in the allocation of coal mines for use by private industrialists).

These two massive and momentous investigations were handed over to CBI by the Supreme Court of India. During the course of the CBI enquiries, which led it to look in to the role of people in high places — including those in the Establishment — rumours began to swirl around that the CBI was being bullied into saving some of those who had put their hands into the till. Most damag-ing was the allegation that in the Coalgate investigation the CBI Chief was personally summoned by the Union Law Minister to have a peak into the agency’s status report to the Court and that he made a few vital changes. When this was brought to the notice of the Court, the latter made a sharp statement which referred to the CBI as a “caged parrot’ in the hands of the executive. This admonition has stuck to the discredit of the CBI till this day.

The latest indictment of the CBI Director for having clandestinely met some persons linked to 2G scam at his house on several occasions is the last nail in the coffin. This was revealed in the public interest litigation by an NGO which categorically charged the Director of trying to help some of the accused in the case. The Director’s defense that he was only trying to find out whether his officers had done the investigation on the current lines has not cut

much ice with the Supreme Court. The court ordered its own probe into the allegation through its Special Public Prosecutor (SPP). The latter has convincingly estab-lished the veracity of the allegation against the Director.

This in turn led to the court directing the CBI Chief to recuse himself from the investigation. This was a serious ruling that attracted nationwide attention. The current CBI chief has chosen to stay on in the job, although he has less than a fortnight to go before his retirement.

These recent developments have cast more than a shadow on the CBI’s impartiality and integ-rity. Although the Supreme Court’s order applied specifically to the Director, and the court refrained from going into many facts in the interest of the reputation of the organisation, there is a general view among the public that this could not be dismissed as mere aberration of an individual and that the objective and the professional-ism of the whole organisation was suspect. This is rather unfortunate, because it is widely believed that

all the actions of the Director were at his own instance and in the teeth of opposition of his key investigators.

Challenge aheadNow it will take a long time to undo the damage caused to the Bureau. This is why the choice of a new Chief after the impending retirement of the current Director assumes great significance.

Under a new amendment to the Central Vigilance Act and the DSPE Act, the CBI Director is chosen by a collegium compris-ing the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India or a Judge of the Supreme Court of India nominated by him. Officers belonging to three seniormost batches of the Indian Police will come under the zone of consideration. The three criteria set out by the Hawala judgment for this appointment include seniority, length of experience in criminal and anti-corruption investigation and integrity.

I am certain that this collegium of unimpeachable eminence will do a clinical job in identifying the right candidate. In my view the person chosen should not only be competent and honest, he should also be fearless, and not expect any favours from the Executive. He should rise above regional and casteist consid-erations. The next occupant of this vital post will therefore have a huge responsibility not only to perform but to restore the CBI’s credibility.

But if he does not rise to the occasion and discharge his duties conscientiously, posterity will not forgive him.

(The writer is a formerCBI Director.)

This is the first of the

column At the Core on Rotary

core values such as ethics and probity

in publ ic l i fe , service, diversity,

leadership and fellowship.

Start with Rotary and good things happen

CBI at the crossroads.indd 29 11/28/2014 6:54:50 PM


His father was only 15 years old when his grandfather passed away. And after the partition, “when my father

came from Rawalpindi to India as a refugee in 1947, he was penniless,” recalls Mukesh Malhotra, Past President of RC Pune Riverside, and Managing Director, Weikfield Products Corporation LLP, Pune.

But, on his journey from having virtually nothing to building up a prestigious food industry, giving the family the ability, and more important, the motivation and generosity, to donate $250,000 to the Arch C Klumph Society of The Rotary Foundation (TRF), S P Malhotra, founding chairman of the company, gave his children some invaluable lessons.

One of them was to celebrate life; “he set up this com-pany in 1956, and even in 1958-59 when we had little, he would ensure that the entire family would go every week for a picnic. He would always say enjoy life,” says the son.

He recalls the day when he was barely six years old, when a friend drew his father’s attention to a starving family. “In the small Standard car we had then, along with me he drove to the bazaar, bought some rice, dhal, sugar, ghee ... about 1–2 month’s ration, and we personally delivered it to that family.”

On October 29, S P Malhotra’s portrait was unveiled during the Arch Klumph Society Induction Ceremony at the Rotary Headquarters in Evanston, USA.

Passion for giving These invaluable childhood lessons are firmly ingrained in the son’s psyche, as he handles a cache of community welfare projects run by the Malhotra Weikfield Foundation. One of these is giving scholarships to deserving students in pure sciences. “Unfortunately the best minds in India do not take up pure science or don’t continue with it. And without research in pure science, applied sciences cannot exist.”

The other bane of our society is to ignore girls’ education. “In poor families even the education of very bright girls will be ignored, but the parents will beg, borrow or steal to educate their sons. So we’ve decided that 65–70 percent of our scholarships will go to girls.”

Of the 50 scholarships given every year — 25 for M.Sc. (Rs 20,000 per student) and 25 for B.Sc. (Rs 10,000), 70 percent go to girls. Scholarships are also given for Ph Ds and research in food.

His family also works in tandem with the Jan Seva Foundation in Pune, which is building toilets in villages ... one for each home. “We started doing this well before Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about it.” As part of the donation to the TRF is for sanitation, this finds a strategic fit.

But what Malhotra is most passionate about right now is the setting up of a world-class vocational training centre. His Foundation has sponsored skill development and placement of about 500 tribals, paramedics, etc. “We want to set up a

by Rasheeda Bhagat

Mukesh Malhotra continues his father’s legacy of helping the less fortunate.

Mukesh Malhotra (second from right) at the Arch Klumph Induction Ceremony, along with RI President Gary Huang.

Legacy of Giving.indd 30 11/28/2014 5:30:06 PM


world class centre and have bought five acres of land about 20 km from Pune and applied for necessary government permissions to convert agricultural land into public service land.”

But this is still hanging fire for two years, even though his plans are ready. While $75,000 from the family’s Arch C Klumph donation will go into building toilets, $50,000 will go into such a centre to train auto and IT maintenance engineers, machine operators, welders in modern methods of welding technol-ogy, and so on.

Global auto majors such as Mercedes Benz and Volkswagon have agreed to provide “us retired people to train our trainers, mostly from villages, in modern indus-trial methods, which make jobs possible at a starting sal-ary of Rs 15,000–20,000. We’ll start with 180 and go up to 1,200. My father always said ‘let us be job creators and not job seekers.’”

Such trainers from villages (he is also looking at retired army personnel as they have the right orientation and discipline — to undergo such training) would then return to their villages and start small training centres there. “Today every Indian village has diesel pumps, tractors, mobile phones; these things require repair and maintenance. If the villages can get competent trained people, there will not be large scale migration to cities for jobs.”

This is the essence of Malhotra’s mission, which may take 5 or even 10 years to materialise. Incidentally, he recently told his sons, when he turned 61, that from 21–61, he “spent 90 percent time doing what I needed to do and only 10 percent on what he wanted to do. Now I’d like to reverse that process.”

Helping Uttarakhand victimsThe undercurrent of philanthropy running in his genes has spurred him to act through Rotary to give speedy aid to victims of natural disasters. In Uttarakhand, badly damaged by last June’s flash floods, the Malhotra family has undertaken an ambitious project in a village 35 km from Mussoorie to rebuild 75 houses with 75 toilets and a school. This project may go upto Rs 6 crore or more; Rs 1crore has been collected. These houses will be built for families earning less than Rs 10,000; houses can’t

be sold for 11 years and labour has to come from the beneficiaries.

But the project has slowed down because of technical problems related to land ownership, contribution of labour; “if the beneficiaries don’t agree to our conditions, which are really safeguards to ensure that the really needy get our help, we might even drop the project, building only the school,” he adds.

When the tsunami hit in 2005, he was RC Pune Riverside President, (“called by some as the ‘royal club’ because we meet at the Meridien”) and the club executed an Rs 85 lakh project adopting a village near Puducherry. Forty new boats with engines and GPS systems were given to fishermen, along with nets and a small cold storage facility set up.

Similarly in the recent J&K disaster, his club has been quick to marshal help for the victims.

Rotary se management seekho

Mukesh Malhotra recalls the passion his father, the late S P Malhotra, had for Rotary. “He’d return from over-

seas at 6.30 pm and attend his Rotary club meeting at 7 pm! My father loved the way Rotary is run; its Presidents/

Governors are trained. I remember as a youngster how he’d bring Rotary manuals home and say ki

Rotary se management seekho. He would tell our GMs and other managers to just observe how such a

huge organisation is run, how they delegate work, organise events. In our company, many of the pro-cedures are based on Rotary manuals. He himself

was a very well organised and disciplined person, and loved Rotary for its principles and procedures.

S P Malhotra never lost touch with his roots; once he invited 75 couples from Pakistan and they were put up in

the homes of Rotarians. The ultimate irony: The man who left Rawalpindi penniless in 1947, returned as a valued guest

40 years later to attend Benazir Bhutto’s wedding in 1987! So what does Rotary mean to the son? “I look at Rotary as a vehicle; it depends on how you press the accelerator and drive the car. Rotary provides you the platform

to do service and have fun and fellowship at the same time. It has helped me and some others build so much cama-

raderie that we can pick up the phone and get work done, that otherwise need 10 meetings. We can

raise Rs 4–5 lakh in just one meeting when disasters like the tsunami strike.”

Legacy of Giving.indd 31 11/28/2014 5:30:07 PM


XXXXXXXXX

Sachin Tendulkar, God to many, legend to even more, finally wrote about himself, his cricket,

and his life. And just like The Word, Sachin’s book too, does not have the flourish of language or any serious scandals. It’s his journey through an eventful life of cricket, as he sees it. In choosing to write a book, Sachin has clearly said what he wanted to, and has chosen to hold back many, many things that we still have to only guess.

A little uncharacteristically though, he talks about his wife, their romance, and given his readers a few pictures of his family, whose privacy he has so far guarded very zealously.

It’s not exactly the kind of writing that will make any of us read the 443 page (plus appendix and other add-ons) in one go, but this is the best that is officially available on Sachin, con-ceptualised by him and given shape to by Boria Majumdar.

Sachin is well aware that he will not be able to please everyone. So he gives us this caveat in the prologue: “It seems to me that no autobiography can claim to document every detail of the author’s life. That’s impossible. There are bound to be issues that can’t be written about for one reason or another, events that are too personal or perhaps too sensitive.”

The controversial parts of the book, where he criticises Greg Chappel (“ringmaster who imposed his ideas on the players”) and Rahul Dravid (2004 Multan Test declaration with Sachin on 194), were already public even before the book was officially released. Those who seek more such controversial stuff from the book will be disappointed. There’s none! Most people, not just cricket lovers, have, for a large part of our lives in these past two decades, followed Sachin’s life and career. Most of us remember the joy that the young boy gave us when he repeatedly hoisted Abdul Quadir over the ropes in a 20-over exhibition match in Peshawar in 1989, and put

What : Sachin’s autobiographyRecommendation : Buy. It’s Sachin, after all!Playing it my way : Sachin Tendulkar, Hodder and

Stoughton, London, Rs 899

Phot

os: b

y Sp

ecia

l Arr

ange

men

t

FROM THE SHELVES

sachin.indd 32 11/28/2014 8:36:01 PM


victory within India’s grasp (with the established blaster Krish Srikkanth watching on from the other end, and later saying that it was one of the best innings he had ever seen in his life), but we may not remember the bap-tism with fire in that series. Sachin confesses in his book, “After my very first innings in Test cricket, during which I was all at sea against Wasim and Waqar, I began to doubt my abil-ity to bat and question whether I was ever going to be good enough to play at international level.”

The series by fire (“much more than a cricket match that was being played between the two teams”) did not end there. At Sialkot, Test No.4, a rising Waqar delivery rearranged his facial features and left him bloodied.

Describing the incident vividly, and what possibly is one of the best, most candid and straight passages in the book, Sachin recalls: “I misjudged

the bounce on the ball. It rose six inches higher than expected and hit me on the flap of the helmet before deflecting and hitting my nose. At that time I was the only batsman besides Srikkanth not to wear a grille. It wasn’t an act of bravado; I just wasn’t used to playing with one...To add to my dis-comfort, a banner in the stands read, ‘Bachhe ghar ja ke dudh pee ke aa.’ (Kid go home and drink milk).” Imran eventually got him for 57, but by then, Sachin managed to ensure that India did not lose that match.

Sachin has taken some space to explain the pains of a middle class boy trying hard to get by with a little too much fondness for cricket, and how dif-ficult it was. All the pain and the hard days would easily not have amounted to much for Sachin too. After all, his pal, Vinod Kambli who, by Sachin’s own admission elsewhere, was more talented, had spectacularly fallen by

the wayside. Sachin will not talk much about it. But the disappointment for cricket lovers is that the 664 the two put together in a school game, is so much more better described by his compatri-ots than in the book — of balls getting lost, of Kambli’s legendary forgetful-ness, of how a bowler refused to bowl any longer, of how the entire reserve had to be called up even as the two kept belting out runs. Nor does the book sat-isfy anyone looking for insights into his legendary Perth innings. One can only assume that this will be the first of sev-eral books of the young legend.

Dedicated to ‘all my fellow Indi-ans,’ the publishers have announced that the proceeds from the book “will be used to support two charitable causes: the alleviation of malnutrition in children and the provision of clean water to the underprivileged.”

That will be two more reasons to buy a copy. Today.

Rotary shines bright at the ‘Race for Humanity’ Team Rotary News

RI leaders at the Race for Humanity event at Mumbai.

Over 6,000 Rotarians and their families in District 3140 came together at the Mahalaxmi Race

Course, Mumbai to Light up Rotary by organising ‘Race for Humanity’ an event

for fellowship and contribution. The pro-motion and publicity of this event had caught the attention of 1,00,000 people from various walks of life. About 1,500 membership kits, including Rotary’s

success stories were distributed to non-Rotarians at the fund raiser.

Eight races, fashion shows and an AV presentation on Rotary India and The Rotary Foundation were the highlights. The event not only helped Rotary raise funds, strengthened Dis-trict Fellowship, reinforced Rotary’s goodwill, but also highlighted Rotary’s reach and network in the society and its overall image. The largest ‘human horse’ made the next day’s headlines.

“I remember how PRIP Kalyan Banerjee and I were sceptical when this idea was mooted. But it turned out to be one of the most significant events that I have witnessed in my 42 years of service in Rotary. Well done RI Dis-trict 3140. Keep it up...” said Chairman, Rotary Foundation India, (2012–15) Ashok Mahajan.

sachin.indd 33 11/28/2014 8:36:02 PM


T he Rotary Foundation’s funding model will be modified starting

July 1, 2015. The changes to current practices are not significant, but will have a big impact on the Foundation’s long-term financial stability.

What is the purpose of the funding model?The funding model lays out a clear order of priorities to ensure that pro-grammes, operating expenses and an operating reserve are funded. The Trustees want to ensure that the Foundation has sufficient resources to continue operations. The model that takes effect on July 1, 2015 will provide The Rotary Foundation with a more predictable level of financial support for programmes and the oper-ating expenses it takes to make them successful. These measures will safe-guard the Foundation’s ability to fulfill its mission far into the future.

Why is the model needed?During the economic downturn, the Foundation did not have sufficient return on its investments to fund its operating expenses. During this period of time, the operating reserve was depleted, and money had to be bor-rowed from the World Fund to pay for operating expenses. At some points, funding for programmes was limited. We realised our Foundation needs more reliable sources of revenue to pay its annual operating expenses and provide for an operating reserve. By using diversified sources of income, we will minimise the impact on the World Fund and ensure that The Rotary Foundation’s programmes are sustainable in the future. Of course, no plan can anticipate every contingency, however.

What do you mean by “diversified sources ?”Traditionally, the Foundation’s operat-ing expenses and its operating reserve have been funded by net investment returns on Annual Fund assets that have Vocational Training.

The Foundation’s funding model

The Foundation’s funding model.indd 34 11/28/2014 5:55:02 PM


been invested as part of a three-year cycle, in addition to a small portion of spendable earnings from the Endow-ment Fund. These sources rely on strong financial markets.

When the Foundation has expe-rienced net losses or diminished returns, it has paid its operating expenses by borrowing from the World Fund and then replenishing it. The funding model does not represent a significant change to our current practices; it simply brings clarity and transparency.

Is anything changing?Yes, what is changing is the need to add 5 percent to global grant cash contributions, which will be used to help cover the costs associated with processing the cash. Under the current system, cash contributed to support a grant by clubs and districts requires administration, but provides no invest-ment income to meet the costs of that administration.

Also, in the future, when the Foundation pursues large corporate gifts, it will negotiate to include up to 10 percent of the gift to cover operating

expenses. This is a common prac-tice in many countries, and each gift will be individually negotiated as is appropriate.

Over time, the additional reve-nue from both of these changes will provide more financial flexibility and make the Foundation less reliant on net investment returns.

Where can I learn more about the funding model?The Trustees recognise that open, clear communication fosters Rotari-ans’ continued support of, and active

involvement in, Foundation pro-grammes. The first step in the fund-ing model communication plan was an announcement on Rotary.org with a link to a document that details the changes, called “Our Foundation’s Funding Model.” Look to the February issue of The Rotarian for more funding model details. Training manuals for officers and committees at the district and club levels are also being updated, and webinars and e-learning modules are being developed. Please send ques-tions to [email protected].


The Humanitar-

ian Project Against Malaria, Poverty,

Hunger, and Illiteracy in Uganda, funded by a

Rotary Foundation grant, provides free school

lunches.

Welcome to Rotary!

ROTARY BASICS ONLINEA fun, multimedia introduction to Rotary.

Find photos, videos, audio clips, and more!

Glad you can join us!

Let’s start with a video overview

www.rotary.org/rotarybasics

ROTAROTAROTAROTAROTAROTAROTAROTAROTARRRRRRRRRYY YY YYYYY BBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAASICSSICSSICSSICSSICSSICSSICSSICSSICS

Print copies are also available for purchase (595, $0.75)

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The Foundation’s funding model.indd 35 11/28/2014 5:55:07 PM


RC Salem Junction, RI District 2980 – An ambulance was handed over to the Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Hospital, Salem.

RC Theni Stars, RI District 3000 – District level chess tournament for boys and girls was organised at Theni in association with The Tamil Nadu State Chess Association.

RC Ghaziabad Shatabdi, RI District 3010 – Rotarians participated in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and distributed 5,000 paper bags to the public to promote cleaner and a safer environment.

RC Vuyyuru, RI District 3020 – The club in association with Innerwheel Club of Vuyyuru conducted an awareness programme on eve teasing and violence against women at AG & SG Siddhartha College of Arts and Science.

RC Akola, RI District 3030 – Skill development programme for girl students from Khandelwal College of Commerce to empower them with income-generating options. The four month training programme imparts skills on accounting system.

RC Bhopal Mid Town, RI District 3040 – Inter–school General Knowledge Quiz Competition organised at Bhopal had participation of students from 20 schools. Cash awards and participation certificates were given to winners and participants.

RC Mandvi, RI District 3051 – TV and DVD donated to Shri Saraswati Shishuvatika School to enhance their learning experience. Villagers were asked to encourage and assist educational activities at the school.

Skill development programme empowers girls with income-generating options.

District Scores

District Scores_4_5.indd 36 01-Dec-14 1:45:54 PM


RC Izatnagar Bareilly, RI District 3110 – Anti rabies drive was organised by the club to curb rabies and create awareness about the disease.

RC Lakhimpur Central, RI District 3120 – Tricycles donated to the physically challenged at Rotary Mahotsav – an event celebrating Rotary’s spirit of service.

RC Kharghar Mid Town, RI District 3131 – Mobile mammography van donated as part of cancer awareness programme. This would bene-fit village women from in and around Kharghar.

RC Koregaon, RI District 3132 – Nutritious food and gifts were distributed to visually-challenged children at a school.

RC Bombay Airport, RI District 3140 – Stainless steel bunk beds worth Rs 3,50,000 were donated to YMCA Orphan Boys Home, Mumbai.

RC Warangal, RI District 3150 – Scholarships provided to underprivileged B.Tech, NIT students to help them pursue their education.

RC Allagadda, RI District 3160 – Stainless steel plates and tumblers donated to elementary schools in rural regions. Awareness on eating hygienically was also imparted to the students.

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

The gift of educational materials and uniforms at Shri Dutt Ashram Jan Seva Trust inspires the tribal students to pursue education.

RC Sikar, RI District 3052 – Students of the Daffodil School took an oath against use of drugs at the Anti Drugs Camp organised by the club. Rotarians also created awareness on ill effects of the usage of drugs.

RC Gwalior Central, RI District 3053 – Rotarians celebrated Diwali with poor and underprivileged children. Gifts, crackers and new clothes were given to them.

RC Surat, RI District 3060 – Infrastructure and educational kits donated to Shri Dutt Ashram Jan Seva Trust, a boarding school for tribal students. Uniforms were also distributed to the students.

RC Jullundur, RI District 3070 – Uniforms worth Rs. 3,50,000 donated to 450 students of National Child Labour Project School.

RC Theog, RI District 3080 – Cleanliness drive organised by Rotarians in support of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The Rotarians were supported by the local municipality.

RC Ferozepur Cantt., RI District 3090 – Club members volunteered in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and thus promoted the initiative among the public too. JCB machines were provided to clean the Government Boys School.

RC Meerut Diamond, RI District 3100 – Solar lamps distributed to students of Kasturba Gandhi Residential Girls School to help them learn during late evening and night. The total cost of the project was Rs.45,000.



RC Ichalkaranji, RI District 3170 – A photo exhibition was organised to raise funds for the education of hearing impaired students.

RC Udupi Manipal, RI District 3180 – Anti rabies drive was organised by the club to promote awareness about rabies and the need to vaccinate pet dogs promptly.

RC Madanpalli, RI District 3190 – Tables and benches donated to a school in

Madanpalli to provide better seating comforts to the students.

RC Kodungallur, RI District 3201 – Around 300 students from 45 schools participated in a painting

competition hosted by the club. The event helped to bring out the creativity in these children.

RC Kasaragod, RI District 3202 – To promote fellowship among Rotarians of different zones, an inter-zone cricket tournament was conducted.

RC Sherthallai, RI District 3211 – Students from Interact Club in DVHS School, Charamangalam took an oath to help eradicate polio from the world.

RC Dhalavaipuram, RI District 3212 – Educational kits distributed to needy students to enable them to pursue their studies.

RC Chennai Chepauk Centennial, RI District 3230 – The Rotarians donated new clothes and groceries to the inmates of Uthavum Ullangal Home.

RC Darjeeling, RI District 3240 – Two -day International RYLA at Himalayan

Mountaineering Institute had 58 participants from countries like Thailand, Burma, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

RC Nawada, RI District 3250 – Health camp for children conducted at D.A.V. School, Nawada had more than 200 beneficiaries.

RC Rourkela Central, RI District 3261 – Painting competition for school students attracted close to 400 students from different schools across the city.

RC Keonjhargarh, RI District 3262 – Rotarians organised and participated in a malaria eradication programme. To stop mosquitoes from breeding, disinfectants were sprayed and stagnant water across Keonjhargarh was cleared.

RC Port Blair, RI District 3291 – Rotarians conducted and participated in the International Coastal Cleanup day. This helped

in creating public awareness on keeping the shores litter-free.

RC Mount Everest Lalitpur, RI District 3292 – The club initiated the Total Literacy drive at Nanglebhare village, providing basic education to the villagers. Educational kits were distributed to them.

Solar lamps chase away darkness for students of Kasturba Gandhi Residential Girls School.

Mobile mammography van would now protect the womenfolk of villages around Kharghar from cancer.

For more photographs, please visit www.rotarynewsonline.org



Compassion& Cataract

found his calling in the villages of Karnataka where eye care facilities were abysmal and the prevalence of cataract widespread.

Studies reveal that a whopping 15 million Indian people are sight-less; and 80 percent of this blindness is easily preventable if detected and treated in time. A majority of the peo-ple suffer from cataract, which can be reversible through a simple surgery! Most of the specialised eye hospitals are city-based, and the rural population

by Jaishree

Right from when Dr Sundar Ram Shetty graduated from the Hubli medical college, specialising in oph-thalmology, several years ago, he treasured an inner vision — to provide quality eye care for the poor. After working in different parts of India, a brief stint in Nigeria and higher studies in Dublin, he returned to his roots, rich with experience and the same burning vision. In 1987, he set up his clinic at Indira Nagar in Bengaluru, all set to convert his vision into action. He

Villagers in rural

Karnataka enjoy better

eyesight today, free

of cataract and other

avoidable forms of

blindness, thanks to the

relentless efforts of Rtn

Dr Sundar Ram Shetty

and his Global Eye

Foundation.


Compassion and Cataract.indd 39 28-Nov-14 8:43:03 PM


is ignored, unscreened and untreated, with no access to quality eye care.

The scenario is Karnataka was equally grim. The Global Eye Foun-dation is Dr Sundar Ram Shetty’s ‘dream come true’ to provide medical care for avoidable blindness, espe-cially for cataract. The Foundation’s outreach programmes extend across four districts of Karnataka has treated 2.5 lakh patients and performed 65,000 surgeries.

During the 90s when he started practice, IOL surgeries were not common and cataract surgeries used to be a long painful process; surgeries were done with ICC (intra-capsular cataract) where the entire cornea is operated, lens removed and incision closed. With both eyes bandaged, the patient was immobilised for a couple of days. The national plan, GIA — Government in Aid — also did not allow IOL surgeries. (But today GIA funds for the IOL).

Dr Shetty personally funded the IOL and treated needy patients free of charge. Later, at the request of Lions Club members, he offered his services at Hoskote, an industrial township 28 km from Bengaluru, where only an elementary base hospital existed. He’d drive to Hoskote daily in his Maruti 800, screen patients for cataract in remote areas, pack as many patients as his car could hold back to the hospital, perform surgeries — upto 25 a day — and drop them back to their home the same day. Within a year (1991-92) he was able to provide eye care for nearly 20,000 children, adults and old people.

Expenses were met from his pocket, apart from generous contributions from friends and relatives.

His membership in the local rec-reation club helped him connect with philanthropists. Along with nine of these friends, he started a trust with a corpus of Rs 5,000. Thus was born ‘Global Eye Foundation’ (GEF) at his clinic in 1995.The next year, GEF opened its first hospital at Hoskote in a rented building. Soon he got a call from late Rtn K P Bhaskar of RC Bangalore Indira Nagar and the club donated some spectacles, as it was involved in eye care projects. Dr Shetty persuaded the club to sponsor IOLs. By 1997, he became a member of the club.

GEF HospitalHis present state-of the-art GEF Hos-pital was started with a Rs 40 lakh bank loan in 2005, and has now grown into a 65-bed facility at Hoskote, helped along the way with Rotary support including Matching Grants. Dr B R

Pai (former Director, National Aero-space Laboratories) is the vice chair in this non-profit venture, where 600 operations are performed annually.The hospital gives free treatment to a large number of poor patients in such a way “that the poor do not feel small or uncomfortable, or feel they are getting charity,” says Dr Shetty. Against 50 paying patients, 500 are treated free of cost, and the patients are given the option to pay or not. “No patient is turned down for want of funds here,” he says.

Serving as a central base, the GEF Hospital staff screens through eye camps, patients across four districts — Chikkaballapura, Kolar, Bengaluru Rural and Urban — for cataract, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and refractive errors. Follow-up action, including free surgeries, is done at the hospital, with the patients being provided even transport, food and accommodation.

Dr Shetty’s patients now get cat-aract surgery done with manual SICS

A patient being led after the surgery.




Dr Shetty’s long-term mission is to make Karnataka cataract-backlog free, and he puts in relentless work to achieve this goal. “Inadequate eye care facilities, ophthalmologists and paramedics are the root causes for the huge backlog of cataracts, with more people being added to the list every year,” he laments. So GEF has developed a three-tier system — primary vision centres, a tertiary cen-tre and a referral hospital.

But how long can he provide free services; is such a venture sustainable?

Dr Shetty’s response: “Once the eyesight of the blind is restored, they become a productive workforce; their affordability increases and schemes such as Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana would make it affordable for people to avail medical care.” He esti-mates that by 2030, at least 20 percent of people with preventable blindness would become financially stronger, if his dream shapes up.

He has also set up a 20-bed hospital at Shiroor, a village in the foothills

of the Western Ghats, through the Parvathy Mahabala Shetty Charitable Trust in memory of his parents. While the OPD is handled by optometrists and paramedics from the locality (including youth from the Kudubi tribe), Dr Shetty visits the village once a month to perform the surgeries. This hospital serves as a secondary-care level facility, catering to the 35,000 population. He is confident that Rotary and other donors will come forward to expand it. Yet another hospital is under construction at Chinthamani, a village in Chikkaballapura district.

Rotarians reach outRC Bangalore Indira Nagar has been a huge supporter of this giant undertak-ing right from the start. Equipment and several eye surgeries are being funded by the Rotarians every year. Rotary clubs of Koramangala, IT Corridor, Jeevanbhima Nagar, and other organi-sations such as Ramakrishna Mission, Helpage India are the other supporters.

After doing so much, Dr Shetty feels that this is just the tip of the iceberg. “Rotary should go on a war-footing like its polio eradication campaign to eliminate avoidable blindness. Club presidents should adopt preventable blindness as a flagship project,” he says.

Dr Shetty is a Paul Harris Fellow, a Major Donor, and the District Advisor of District 3190’s Avoidable Blindness Committee. His target is doing 10,000 cataract surgeries a year, and the part-ing shot is, “it can be anywhere in the world.”

(Small Incision Cataract Surgery), which is suture-less precision surgery where an IOL is placed manually inside the eye.

His passion is evident in his speech and his dream is to propagate this pro-cedure to “as many ophthalmologists as possible, for it is the perfect answer to India’s burgeoning cataract popula-tion,” he believes. And he is on the job — providing extensive training to oph-thalmologists, from within and outside India.

GEF as Training CentreThe same complex also has a training centre funded by C.P. Bothra, Founder & Trustee of Chandanmal Pukhraj Bothra Trust, (hence called GEF Hos-pital & Bothra Institute of Community Ophthalmology) to prepare doctors to tackle preventable blindness in vil-lages and small towns. But charity is the underlying factor; Dr Shetty has made it mandatory that those trained here will give part of their expertise free of cost.

Rtn Dr Sundar Ram Shetty at the hospital.



WORLD ROUNDUP

Rotary Club of Duxbury, USARotary Club of Duxbury, USA during the presidentship of Razia Jan approached Afghan Ministry of Education officials to donate a piece of land in Deh’Subz, a village 30 miles outside Kabul. Today, the Zabuli Education Centre (ZEC) is in its sixth year and has a roster of more than 400 girls in kindergarten through ninth grade. Students at ZEC are taught Dari (the local language), English and Math. As their studies progress, the curriculum expands to include Pashto (another local language), History, Science, Health and Hygiene, Geography, Religion and Reading the Quran.

Community Centre for impoverished Mexico neighbourhood.

Food plant solutions in Solomon Islands.Girls school in Afghanistan.

Rotary Club of Ajijic, MexicoThe club in association with Rotary Club of Lincoln, California, turned an abandoned building into the Tepehua Community Centre. For its first year, the centre provided a soup kitchen every Friday to feed over 200 women and children. A women’s health clinic was set up and in the first 15 months, 1,000 pap-smears and breast exams were conducted, and 800 women attended family planning and counselling sessions. The Centre also provides education and counselling in the region. Current classes include sewing, arts and crafts, computer skills and English. The centre also offers auxiliary nursing classes and has certified dozens of women as auxiliary nurses. A nursery and a playground were built to provide child-care while the local women participate in the centre’s activities.

World Roundup_Dec14.indd 42 28-Nov-14 6:03:48 PM

Rotary Club of Vancouver Island, CanadaJordan has become home to refugees fleeing from oppression and war in Palestine, Syria and Iraq. With the support of the club and teenage refugee volunteers from the Collateral Repair Project, a non-profit organisation that helps refugees create a sense of community in Jordan, an art programme has been implemented to give refugee children a creative outlet for their dreams and ambitions. Ten life-skills deemed essential by UNICEF and WHO for those coping with forced displacement is being imparted to these children.

Rotary Club of Boaz, AlabamaInstallation of two water wells in Aflao, a town in the Volta region to provide clean water was undertaken by the club. With the cooperation of local leaders, who offered to provide the manual labour to extend the pipelines to their villages, the project reached nine villages. Pipe stands were set up at the villages and in places deemed important to the participating communities, including a common market, a boarding home, a school and a poultry farm.

Clean water in Ghana.

Rotary Club Devonport North, AustraliaLearn Grow, a project supported by Rotary Club Devonport North, Australia helps people in developing countries grow local food that suits their nutritional needs. The club launched its pilot project in the Solomon Islands, producing a compendium of local edible plants, field guides for growers, and a book on crops for schools and community groups. Local organisations provide support and distribute information while a qualified agriculturist serves as a technical support specialist. The project team has received enquiries from 20 other developing countries.

Rotary Club of Shanghai, ChinaThe clubs raised a total of $46,000, including $21,000 in matching funds from Rotary Club of Warner Robins, USA and TRF. The Shanghai club collaborated with Vision in Practice, an organisation that provides surgical training, consultation and assistance to eye care institutions and professionals, to oversee the procedures and assist hospital staff. The Global Grant project has introduced a low-cost, high-quality cataract surgery model into the Chinese healthcare system.

Restoring vision in China. Art to help refugee children in Jordan.

World Roundup_Dec14.indd 43 28-Nov-14 6:03:53 PM


Beit at their PT sessions, dressed in bright coloured T-shirts and shorts, the dining hall offering prayers

with bowed heads, on the basketball field at their spacious 10-acre lush green campus, or asking me how to become a good journalist, the girls at Him Jyoti School in Dehradun will remain in my memory for a long time.

Sandhya Rai, who with her mellifluous voice can enthral an entire Assembly, is an orphan from Sikkim, and hails from a poor family, as almost all the 267 students selected from government schools in Garhwal and Kumaon regions of Uttarakhand. From Class 5 to 12, their education and residence is borne by the Him Jyoti Foundation, a charitable trust born in 2003, thanks to one man’s dream. Many get scholarships for higher education.

A train journey Recalling that dream, PRID Sudarshan Agarwal, a for-mer Governor of Uttarakhand, says a discussion with his

five Rotary companions on the train he took for his oath ceremony resulted in a corpus of Rs 11 lakh by lunchtime at Raj Bhavan, with his personal contribution being one lakh rupees. “Thereafter I wrote to other friends and corporates; money started pouring in. Over two years, 100 students were receiving Rs 25,000 a year for their courses.”

In 2005, the late PRID O P Vaish suggested they start a school for underprivileged girls and contributed Rs 5 lakh, and Him Jyoti School was born in a rented building with 20 girls.

With the Governor telling the State Chief Minister about the school for girls, a 10-acre land-fill was allotted.

Seeing its perfectly manicured and landscaped greenery, it’s difficult to believe this place was once a mere garbage dump where truckloads of cow dung were required to grow trees. PDG of District 3080 Prem Bhalla, Treasurer-cum-Trustee, recalls how parents were initially suspicious of sending their girls to this school. But within a decade, after three batches have passed out, with five girls studying in LSR College in Delhi, several pursuing professional courses in medicine, dentistry, engineering, education, Chinese language etc, the scenario has changed. “Now there is competition to enter Him Jyoti; we select 300 best girls from Government schools in Uttarakhand and take 33 each

W H E N C H A R I T Y

B E G A N A T

H O M Eby

Rasheeda Bhagat

The Him Jyoti School is turning Uttarakhand’s underprivileged girls

into educated, polished young women, all thanks to the efforts of one man.

WhenCharityBeganAtHome_4.indd 2 26-Nov-14 12:30:53 PM


year after written tests; two seats are reserved for Sikkim,” says Bhalla.

Interacting with the girls, hearing their chatter and response in perfect English, it is difficult to believe that when they come here in Class V they speak only Garhwali and Kumaoni, and barely some Hindi. The quality of education imparted by the Principal Jyothi Dhawan, an accomplished educator in both national and international curricula, and her team is so good that most of the girls go for higher education. The handholding continues; the Foundation supports the higher education of 52 girls, with an annual stipend of Rs 25,000–30,000.

I watch two short plays — includ-ing Sai Paranjpye’s Birds of a featherwhich the girls re-enact so lovingly for me and am amazed at the talent pool. The girls speak English with a clipped accent; Jyoti says with a smile: “Recently our team defeated the Doon School team in a debating competition.”

ChallengesBut challenges abound in ensuring that the girls who receive such a quality education go through their high school exams comfortably, and then proceed to colleges. Jyoti recalls how many girls facing board exams are reluctant to go home for winter breaks. “They say we have to help our mothers and don’t get time to prepare for our exams. So we counsel parents that a 5-hour daily break and a secure place to study are essential.”

Though the parents understand this and give them the required time, what the girls cannot be assured is a

similar quality of lifestyle — comfortable accommodation and nutritious food. And so many girls return from their summer and winter breaks with pinched cheeks and tanned faces.

Isn’t there another danger of the girls turning up their noses at their parents after their transformation into polished, accomplished young ladies?

Jyoti says girls are constantly counselled by their teachers to be grateful to their parents for allowing them to study at Him Jyoti. And Agarwal administers annual oaths to parents that “hum apni betiyon ki shadi abhi nahi karengey, hum unhey aagey padhney dengey.”(We’ll not get our daughters married now. We’ll let them study further).” And parents

willingly take that oath.A chat with them confirms they

haven’t forgotten their roots. Gulshan Jehan — there are eight Muslims girls in the 267 group — daughter of a labourer earning barely Rs 3,000 a month, wants to be a doctor. Joshila Rai, from Sikkim,

whose father has a small farm, wants to be a civil engineer. Others want to be teachers, pilots, musicians, journalists. No dream is too big for them.

But all of them say in unison that when they go home they are very happy to help their mothers — in cooking, fetching firewood or water and tending to their younger siblings. Joshila’s priority after getting a good job will be “first of all to fulfil my mother’s dreams; she has had a

very tough life.”But one major problem in the hills,

points out Bhalla, is alcoholism. Jyoti quietly adds that only the other day one

Prayer time before meals.

Sandhya Rai sings a song for the visitor.



File photo of PRID Sudarshan Agarwal with the students.

A view of the dorms.

of the senior girl’s father came “completely sloshed and she was sobbing and said, ‘I don’t want to go home with him.’ So we told him she couldn’t leave that day as she had some lessons to complete and asked him to send his wife the next day to fetch her.”

The school is environmentally friendly; solar power panels provide 4,800 litres of heated water and water har-vesting is done religiously.

Agarwal’s term as Governor has long ended but he continues to visit the school; a stickler for cleanliness Jyoti recalls the time the 83-year old founder picked up a cleaning cloth and demonstrated to the kitchen staff how to clean the walls!

Funds pour in Agarwal says Rs 1.75 crore is annu-ally spent on running the school; many donors sponsor the girls’ edu-cation at Rs 60,000 per student a year. The Foundation now has a corpus of Rs 16 crore; “ONGC, the Uttarakhand government and Dr Sitaram Jindal, a friend, have contributed Rs 2 crore each. We’ve spent Rs 8.5 crore on the school buildings — classrooms, hostel, teachers’ quarters, a guest house and principal’s residence.”

Currently all the students are being supported by Indian corporates, Trusts and individuals. ONGC sponsors 50 girls, and Apollo Tyres has undertaken to sponsor another 50; CR Dua (20), The Rotary Foundation Trustee and PRID Sushil Gupta (12) and Agarwal’s family (10) are other sponsors. “The Rotary Foundation

gave us Rs 60 lakh under two Matching Grants for the school and hostel furni-ture, computers, etc,” he says. While the Sikkim Government has donated Rs 40 lakh, Agarwal has raised another

Rs 50 lakh through a golf tournament while he was Gover-nor and his family has committed an additional Rs 50 lakh. Other notable donors are K N Memani, Virendra Dayal’s family trust, R N Khanna and Rakesh Oberoi. “Now, as we have a corpus fund, we want support for the vocational training institute which we are building to train 125 girls

every year in a two-year course. It will be ready by 2015,” says Agarwal.

A valuable lesson to be learnt for those interested in charity is that on his 80th birthday, on an appeal from his family printed on the card, his friends donated Rs 55.7 lakh for the school.

A Rotarian from 1961, Agarwal was RI Director in 1987–89; “Rotary has helped me to give expression to my inner urge to serve fellow human beings,” he says.

Today, Agarwal, who is giving a dream future to hundreds of underprivileged girls of Uttarakhand is justifiably proud that he “has made some contribution to repay my debt to the community which gave me so much honour and respect all through my life. I imbibed values of honesty and compas-sion from my mother who gave me invaluable advice when I became a judicial officer in 1956 — to treat wealth as no more than mere dust; and to always help the poor.”

Pictures: Rasheeda Bhagat



Despite being a country with 1.2 billion people, India faces a blood shortage of three million units. This can be sorted out if an additional two percent of her people donated blood, say health experts.

To add to the woes, irregularities of some blood banks in collection and distribution of blood also affects a donor’s intention to donate blood.

The idea of virtual blood banks (VBB) is thus catching up across the country and Rotaract Club of Altruism, Kolkata is offering the service to needy patients. So how does it work? Explains Deep Shankar Saha, the president of the club: “The virtual blood bank is an online database, where details of potential donors such as blood group, contact, etc., are stored. The data is sorted according to area/locality so that help is available quickly. Here you need not actually donate blood until someone in your neighbourhood needs it.”

Unlike blood donation camps, where precious blood gets wasted some-times either due to abundance or short expiry dates (the shelf-life of donated blood is 35 to 42 days), here blood is donated by donors only when the necessity arises. The concept also eliminates the chance of blood smuggling, as donors know who they are donating to.

Asked how it all started, Deep reminisces their first project, a blood donation camp for thalassemia patients which they organised in Febru-ary 2014 at Kolkata at a cost of Rs 15,000. He was amazed at the overwhelming response to the call and the idea of VBB was then born. The main objective of VBB was to stop illegal syphoning of blood for com-mercial reasons. On how it works, he says the recipient’s relative or the hospital can place a call on their helpline

which is open 24 x 7, and the Rotaractors zero in on the registered donors who match the patient’s requirement. Then physically donation takes place.

“We ensure that calls don’t go unattended and that there is prompt link-up with the prospective donor so that the

patient gets timely help,” he explains.

If you are above 17 and fit, you can register with this VBB by filling out the form at http://bit.ly/virtualbloodbank

The club has also launched a facebook page, Virtual Blood Bank of RC Altruism, and within 24 hours of its launch on August 1, they were pleasantly sur-

prised to have 600+ registrations. Currently based at West Bengal, they have plans to expand

across India and tie-up with other Rotaract clubs, who have similar movements. Today,

VBB has more than 1,100 registrants pan India and they have also responded to

blood donation requests at Bangalore and Chennai, says the club President.

Rotaract Club of Altruism was sponsored by Rotary Calcutta Outram, RI District 3291. Chartered in March 2014, it has 30 members on its roster, the average age being only 22 years. The Rotaractors are an enthusiastic team. They have

organised a two-day medical camp at Chandrapur in Burdwan

district where 546 people were screened and provided treatment

for various ailments. The region, they say, had no doctors in its vicinity and

the camp has benefitted the villagers. The Rotaractors visit Rupayan, a rehab centre for street

children, periodically and particularly on festive occasions and provide them the necessary support.

Justifiably, they won the ‘Best New Club’ award at the 2013–14 District Rotaract Conference.

by Jaishree

Invisible Bank.indd 47 11/28/2014 5:56:28 PM


Commemorating the conferment of Nobel Peace Prize to Kailash

Satyarthi in recognition of his relent-less fight against child labour and exploitation, a unique initiative of Rotary Club of Tiruchirapalli Shakthi, RI District 3000, gave a visual treat — a thousand little Satyarthis, at the Jegan Matha Matriculation Higher Second-ary School grounds in Tiruchi (Tamil Nadu).

The Rotarians had organised a Mask Movement wherein 1,000 stu-dents donned face masks depicting

Satyarthi. This was to focus atten-tion on the Nobel laureate’s tireless campaign to uphold children’s rights. He was hugely instrumental in get-ting more than 80,000 children out of hotels, homes, mechanic shops, industries and agri fields, freeing them for education, through his Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood campaign). He had ear-lier captured the world’s attention by creating the international tag, ‘Rug-mark,’ that endorsed rugs and carpets which were not produced by factories

employing child labour. Through this he raised awareness among Western clients not to support child labour. He shared this year’s Nobel Peace Prize with Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai.

The Mask Movement was pre-sided over by Regional Passport Officer K Balamurugan and District Social Welfare Officer Usha. It was fascinating to see the school children, all masked as Satyarthi, in a ‘textbook formation,’ reiterating the activist’s campaign for children’s education.

Jaishree

A Thousand Satyarthis

“Child slavery is a crime against humanity. Humanity itself is at stake here. A lot of work still remains but I will see the end of child labour in my life time.” - Kailash Satyarthi

1000 SATHYATHIS.indd 48 11/28/2014 6:44:08 PM


As the Rotary Club Madurai West, RI District 3000, celebrated its

golden jubilee on July 4, along with the American Independence Day, the region’s student and teaching community got an exposure to the educational opportunities available in the US.

The US Consulate in collaboration with the club and USIEF (The United States — India Educa-tional Foundation) later hosted the ‘Experience America’ from September 8–10.

The students were told about the thousands of accredited colleges and universities, numerous programmes of study and flexibility to change their courses in the US, all this at affordable rates. ‘Experience America’ pro-vided the student community of Madurai an insight into learning opportunities in the US.

Andie De Arment, Cultural Affairs Officer at the US Consulate, briefed students from

ten schools and colleges about higher education in the US, visa procedures, Fulbright Fellow-ships. At an inter-college debate, students exchanged views on the topic: ‘Freedom of expression: the hallmark of a true democracy.’

An Engl ish Language Teaching (ELT) workshop on Communicative Language Teaching Methods for teachers,

innovative business idea competition for college students, a workshop on multi-culturalism addressed by Ben Ousley, Deputy Consul, US Consulate, and a web conference on combat-ing gender-based violence were the highlights of the event. Students also offered a tribute to American author and poet Maya Angelou who passed away recently.

About the event, Priyanka, a final year student from Lady Doak College said, “We dream about going to the US to study. But Experience America has shown us the way to make this dream come true.”

Team Rotary News

Student community in Madurai gets an insight into learning opportunities in the USA.

‘‘We dream about going to the US to study.

But Experience America has shown us the way to make

this dream come true.”

Exchanging views at the debate.

Andie De Arment, CAO - US Consulate with school students.

The American Connection.indd 49 11/28/2014 6:52:43 PM


After my first book , Get

Size Wise, I have been doing book tour — readings and book discus-sions in various cities and spoken to hundreds of women about fit-ness and exercise. I am often sur-prised at some of the questions they

ask. Mostly, pleasantly surprised. I see a thirst for honest answers and solutions to real life problems that some women seek. I see a real need for a deeper understanding of the term ‘lifestyle change.’

Many of them have been through diverse experiences with drastic weight loss, trainers, gyms, health drinks, extreme diets and expensive supplements to lose weight. Most are still searching for that magic pill.

I also find that the women most open to influence and guidance are in the over-40 group. By this time they have experimented with all that there is to in weight loss and finally found it useless. They have discovered that being in a raging hurry to lose weight or gain fitness is what has them in their current situation in the first place, often still over-weight and unhealthy, so instead of losing more time on trial and error, they want to get serious about training.

There are many however, who are still trying to play the blame game. I have had several occasions where short of tearing

my hair out in frustration, I fenced accusing questions and counter arguments about why a certain woman has not lost weight, or why she finds it so utterly difficult to do so.

Some conversations went like this -She - I just find it impossible to lose weight doctor.

I have done everything including diet, yoga and walking. I even went to an ashram and stayed for 15 days. I lost weight but gained it all back.

Me - This is exactly what I have been trying to explain — rapid weight loss, especially with drastic diets are notsustainable. You will regain the weight.

She - So I think I am doomed to be fat.Me - No you have not done the right thing. The right

combination of exercise and diet will work, even if only slowly.

She - But I have tried everything doctor!Me - Have you started weight training to build muscle

in addition to Yoga and walking, and eating the right quantities of food to nourish your body?

She - I think all that is not possible. I don’t have time. Me - You don’t have to spend more time on exercise,

just divide the time sensibly and change your eating.She - I don’t think

that is possible doctor. I know I can’t lose weight. I have tried everything.

So, she has made her choice. A choice not to make the time.A choice not to under-stand the bigger pic-ture.A choice not to lose weight sensibly.

I think the fitness industry, innumerable food options and the media are largely to blame for the current crisis in women’s ina-bility to lose fat and keep it off successfully. Their consistent search for the unattainable.

by Dr Sheela Nambiar

Women, there is no magic pill!.indd 50 11/28/2014 5:46:54 PM


Of course the women are to blame as well because they often believe what they like to hear. Such promises as ‘lose five kilos in a week’ (or less) are much appreci-ated and sought out. The industry propagates these myths for mone-tary gains. The media taps into our insecurities. The constant message of, ‘you are not good enough, we can make you better, buy our lipstick, sil-icone breasts, body shaper or what-have-you’ is sufficient to convince any young (or old) woman trying to ‘fit in’ or ‘look better.’

It’s a choice we make and all choices have consequences.

It may appear that you don’t have a choice. That you don’t have the time to actually fit in an exercise routine (one hour a day) because you are too busy working, keeping home, travelling etc. If you take an honest look at the way you spend the hours in your day, however, you may find to your surprise that there are many hours in the day that are really ‘time wasters.’ Hours you spend watch-ing mindless TV or surfing the net. These hours can be better invested in regular exercise.

You DO have a choice- You could continue to convince

yourself that you don’t have time, or you could make the time.

- You could wait for diabetes, hypertension and heart disease to afflict you, or you could start pre-venting their onset now.

- You could wait for obesity to set in, knees to hurt, depression to envelop you, or start changing your lifestyle now.

Every choice has a consequence. If you begin making the right choices, you will eventually face the incredible consequences of a better quality life.

The writer is author of the book Get Size Wise, and a fitness and lifestyle Consultant. She can be contacted at [email protected].

INPPC Chair Deepak features in Foreign Policy magazine

INPPC Chair Deepak Kapur has been recognised as one

of the Leading Global Thinkers of 2014 by Foreign Policy

magazine, USA.

He shares space with notable names like President Vladimir

Putin of Russia, Angela Merkel of Germany, Indian Prime

Minister Narendra Modi, Jack Ma of Alibaba group, Alex

Salmod of Scottish Nationalist Party, the female fighters of

Kurdistan and Physician Sangeeta Bhatia amongst others

who have made a breakthrough in their field or made a dif-

ference. For more details please visit:

http://globalthinkers.foreignpolicy.com/#healers/detail/

kapur

Foreign Policy is a leading news magazine of global poli-

tics, economics and ideas from USA. It is published in print

and daily online with 200 million annual page views and

6,00,000 newsletter subscribers. Every year it publishes

some 100 odd names as the leading global thinkers — from

world leaders, to change makers to newsmakers, everyone

who has made a difference.

Link to the entire list of 2014 Leading Global Thinkers:

http://globalthinkers.foreignpolicy.com

Chairman Deepak Kapur is recognised in the group ‘HEALERS.’

Source: INPPC, New Delhi.

Women, there is no magic pill!.indd 51 11/28/2014 5:46:54 PM


The Rotaract Club of Mahesh Dhris-tiheen Kalyan Sangh, a new club

sponsored by RC Indore Uptown, RI District 3040, has two distinctions. It is an all girls club and all the Rotaractors are visually challenged. This is prob-ably the first of its kind in the world, says District Governor Narendra Jain.

It all began with the RYLA hosted by RC Indore Uptown and co-organised by RC Pune Kothrud, RI District 3131. The two-day programme was organ-ised at the scenic resort of Choki Dhani, Indore, and the Rotarians had invited the students of Mahesh Dhrishtiheen Kalyan Sangh to participate and get empowered with leadership skills.

The Sangh is a residential school-cum-hostel at Indore imparting B.Ed. courses, post graduate studies and other vocational and career-oriented courses for visually-impaired. Around 175 students from across Madhya

Pradesh are enrolled in various streams at this centre. The Rotarians of RC Indore Uptown have been involved with welfare activities here for 20 years. At the invitation of the Rotari-ans some of the students took part in the RYLA programme.

The sessions at the RYLA included workshops on management skills and public speaking. The eight trainers conducting the sessions were also visually challenged. Drawing inspi-ration from them, the girls zealously took part in the lessons. Their interest and enthusiasm impressed the Dis-trict Governor who recommended to the Club President Sanjay Bansal that a special Rotaract club be formed for these girls. And thus this unique Rota-ract club was born.

The charter ceremony was held on September 21 with 48 members. The Installation Ceremony saw the

Rotaractors assume various leader-ship roles and every word uttered at the solemn oath-taking occasion seemed to come straight from the girls’ heart. They had put up a stall here to display handicraft products like diyas, wall hangings, rakhis and clay Ganesha idols handmade by them. All these items sold like hot cakes and by the end of the programme, the girls had made an impressive Rs 10,000!

The club is led by Rtr Rajni Sharma, from Ujjain, who is pur-suing a B.Ed. course at this centre, having completed her Master’s in Hindi Literature. She pens poems too in Hindi. “It is a very nice experience to serve as a Rotaractor. For so long we have been at the receiving end … receiving physical and material sup-port from people. Now as a Rota-ractor, I am happy to serve others. This gives me lots of satisfaction

by Jaishree

The chartering of this special Rotaract club in its 26th year of humanitarian service is a feather in the cap for 80-odd members

of Rotary Indore Uptown.

A Unique Club is Born.indd 52 11/28/2014 5:57:22 PM


and a sense of achievement,” says an excited Rajni.

On the activities planned for her Rotaractors, she says cultural compe-titions, debates and workshops will be conducted to enhance communication skills of the students at the Sangh as well as in other schools. Rtn Manish Tiwari, Executive Member and Trus-tee of the Sangh says Rajni suffers from a bleeding disorder called ITP (immune thrombocytopenia); but she is energetic and eager to learn. The dedication and punctuality of the entire team amazes him, he says.

Bansal says the Rotaractors are ready to concentrate on all the six focus areas of Rotary and have adopted pro-jects related to environment, including planting of saplings and initiatives for clean and hygienic surroundings. The girls were taken to the neighbouring slum locality to help spread awareness among the slum-dwellers about the ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign. This saw

good reception from the locals mainly because of their physical condition. “ ‘If a visually-challenged person can have so much concern for our envi-ronment, why shouldn’t we?’ was the universal thought of the locality,” says Bansal. The club also plans to publish a monthly bulletin in Braille.

The club provides these Rota-ractors a platform to grow their self-confidence and self-esteem. DG Jain has invited the Rotaractors to attend the District Conference in Jaipur in the last week of December, and has waived registration charges for them.

SOLUTION FOR THE LAST MONTH’S CROSSWORD

Rotary at a glance

Rotarians : 12,15,250*

Clubs : 34,806*

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 September 30, 2014*As of November 3, 2014

DG Narendra Jain presenting the charter.

A Unique Club is Born.indd 53 11/28/2014 5:57:25 PM


by Kiran Zehra

This was the third natural devas-tation India has seen in the last

18 months. After Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir were pounded by torrential rains, the cyclone Hudhud, named by Oman after Israel’s national bird, has caused colossal damage to coastal Andhra Pradesh.

Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram were the worst hit cit-ies in this southern State. “And even though there wasn’t a single Rotarian in our District (3020) who was not hit by this cyclone in one way or another, many Rotarians forgot their personal misery and came together to help the worst affected victims of this natural disaster,” says DG Dr Mohan Prasad GV. Rotarians clearing the path.

Coping with Hudhud.indd 54 11/28/2014 7:08:37 PM


Government estimates of the damage caused runs to about $10 billion. “Visakhapatnam, the big-gest city in District 3020 was at the epicentre of the destruc-tion. Winds of 230 kmph ripped open the homes and businesses of thousands of people. Almost all Rotarians — about 2,000 from 30 Rotary clubs in the affected area —experienced great hardship and property losses. Disrupted power and flooding still continue in some of the areas.”

In a recent meeting, senior Rotary leaders like PRIP Kalyan, PRIP Raja Saboo, TRF Trustee Sushil Gupta, RIDE Manoj Desai, RID PT Prabhakar, PRID Yash Pal Das, PRID Sekhar Mehta, promised support to Dr. Prasad for constructing 250 low-cost shelters for the victims.

The destruction of property is colossal and many people are left both without homes and properties. While every aspect of human life is affected by Hudhud’s fury, the most severely affected are the schools in rural areas.

The fishing community too has borne the brunt of nature’s fury as their boats and fishing nets, and along with them their livelihoods, have been washing out.

In the wake of the calamity Dr Prasad has constituted a committee to help the victims and channelise relief and rehabilitation activities. Rotary clubs in the Vijayawada region rushed relief material. Lorries carrying bis-cuits, water packets, and rice were rushed immediately, with clubs pitch-ing in. RC Anakapalle sent in drinking water tankers and food kits, RC Nuzivid Mango Town sent 15 tons of rice, RC Visakha Port City distributed clothes,

Distribution of rice bags to cyclone victims.

Workers assembling food kits.

food kits and organised a mobile gen-erator to pump water out of houses. Rtn KS Narayana handed over a cheque of Rs 1 lakh to The Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Portable UF water puri-fying units manufactured at National Chemical Laboratory, Pune (praised by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam for simplicity and efficacy) were also sent to Vizag by RI Districts 3140 and 3150.

District Assistant Governor YV Chowdary in association with GLOW (a humanitarian organisation) donated Rs 25 lakh for setting up tree guards. Rotarians distributed bedsheets, milk and bread worth Rs 1.3 lakh and phys-ically helped in clearing trees that had fallen on roads and homes. With help from the NTR Trust and NRI Insti-tute of Medical Sciences, 41 medical camps were held in Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam where 40,000 people were given assistance.

In its hour of need the victims of coastal Andhra need your help. Please send your cheques drawn in favour of ROTARY DISTRICT 3020 HUD-HUD CYCLONE RELIEF FUND, A/c No.129611100000715,IFS Code ANDB0001296 to Andhra Bank, Prabodha Book Centre Branch, Vijayavada, Andhra Pradesh.

Coping with Hudhud.indd 55 11/28/2014 7:08:42 PM


Athijeevanam in Malayalam means to survive/outlive, and the artificial limbs fitment camp conducted

by this club in RI District 3211 has been helping the orthopaedically-challenged and enabling them to outlive their disabilities. The camps held over the last two years have been a huge success. V S Sivakumar, Kerala Minister for Health, inaugurated the week-long camp at Sasthamangalam, Trivandrum. District Governor K S Sasi Kumar lauded the Rotarians for conducting the camp for the third successive year. He thanked State Bank of Travancore for its substantial donation.

The camp is a combined effort of the club along with Rotary Jaipur Limb (RJL) based in UK, and MS Dada Foundation, Chennai. Of the total expenditure ofRs 7.1 lakh, Rs 5 lakh came from the RJL and the balance from corporate sponsorships and club contributions.

More than 200 people who had lost one or both legs in accidents, congenitally or due to some illnesses, have benefited from these camps.

Standing tallTechnicians from MS Dada Foundation assessed the feasibility of each patient. Measurements were taken and moulds formed to provide custom-made artificial legs. By the fourth day the beneficiaries walked out of the camp in their own light-weight limbs supplied free of cost. “To many beneficiaries the moment to stand tall on their feet was magical; the instant relief and smiles on their faces showed their gratitude,” says Rtn S Balachandran, Secretary of the club. Project Chair Rtn Suresh added, “Satisfaction for the club members is when they see the beneficiaries who are literally carried to the camp, walk back home fitted with the artificial limb.”

Help in time of distressThe story of Sadique, a daily wage labourer who was fight-ing cancer, and had his two legs amputated to curb the spreading disease was heartbreaking. “My world seemed to crash around me. But I had to agree to the amputation because that was the only way the spread of cancer could be prevented,” says Sadique. After surgery, his life was miserable as he had to crawl around and depend on his family and friends for even simple tasks.

The artificial limbs camp came as a big relief for him. There was a setback initially as the camp was not equipped to provide prosthetics for an above-knee-amputee. The Rotarians reassured him and contacted the MS Dada Foundation in Chennai. After a second review he got a pair of shortened artificial limbs that would help him slowly

For three years now, Athijeevanam, the artificial limbs fitment camp hosted by RC Trivandrum Central has been enabling several physically-challenged people, to walk

tall and stand on their own feet.

Technicians from MS Dada Foundation at work.

by Selvi

DISTRICT SCORES

Athijeevanam - A New Lease of Life.indd 56 11/28/2014 6:36:37 PM


build muscle strength to use normal artificial limbs. “I do not have words to describe my delight, when I was fitted with two shortened lower limbs. I am sure these will hasten my return to a productive and more self-reliant life,” says Sadique with a smile.

Onam celebrations were also organised at the paediatric ward of the Regional Cancer Centre, Trivandrum by this club. Terminally ill children participated in the event with enthusi-asm. Prizes and gifts were distributed to the participants and winners. The celebration ended with Ona Sadya(a traditional spread served during Onam festival). This lively celebra-tion lighted up the ward where other-wise pain, gloom and distress stalk the world of these children in the cancer ward.A section of the recipients.

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Athijeevanam - A New Lease of Life.indd 57 11/28/2014 6:36:39 PM


More than three billion people around the world cook on open fires and stoves, burning biomass fuel such

as wood, dung and crop waste. This method causes several deaths due to household air pollution (HAP), apart from causing environmental harm through deforestation and carbon emission.

In 2010, adventurer/entrepreneur Rtn George Basch’s desire to give back to the people of the Himalayas, an area he loves and has visited often, led to his founding the Himalayan Stove Project (a US-based, not-for-profit project) to end HAP due to rudimentary cooking methods. The project involves donating clean-burning, fuel-efficient

stoves to impoverished communities in Nepal. More recently, ‘George, the Chief Cook,’ through his club, RC Taos Milagro, RI District 5520, USA, established global collaborative partnership with Rotary clubs worldwide, to promote this initiative.

Since 2010, when the project was piloted, 3,000 stoves have been installed in Nepal. A survey done by the Himalayan Stove Project reported that indoor air pollution has been reduced by 90 percent; fuel use has been reduced by 75 percent and food is cooked faster. Nepal’s healthcare nurses introduced the stoves through their health education programmes to mothers and youth groups.

The Himalayan Stove Project believes in the conservation of nature, improving people’s health and transforming lives of individuals, families

and communities with one clean, smoke-free cook stove at a time.

by Kiran Zehra

Village band playing welcome tunes.Rtn George Basch distributing

the Himalayan stove to villagers.

Same home, after installing clean Cook Stove.Home in Megere, cooking over open fire.

DISTRICT SCORES

From Smoky to Smoke-free Gamcha.indd 58 11/28/2014 7:44:21 PM


These stoves are manufactured by Envirofit, a social enterprise producing efficient and affordable cook stoves that create environmental, health and social impact for homes and institutions in developing nations. Talking about the quality of the stoves Basch says, “We wanted to be assured that we had the best available product so that we could concentrate on fulfilling our mission without any product worries, and working with Envirofit has been an excellent choice.”

In February 2014, 90 smokeless stoves were installed in Gamcha village, on the outskirts of Kathmandu with the help of RC Tripureswor, RI District 3292. “The distribution of the new stoves was an exciting community-wide event, with a small community band, and lots of speeches and applause and many ‘thank yous’ — it was very gratifying to see and feel the positive response from the community,” says Basch.

In order to develop a sense of ownership, each household that receives the stove contributes NepaleseRs 500. The amount thus collected will be spent for other development projects as needed by the community.Poor families were identified and their traditional rudimentary stoves were replaced with improved smokeless stoves.

Rajendra Shakya, the then President of RC Tripureswor, and Basch visited Gamcha in March 2014 to follow up on the project. “One of the questions we asked was: ‘Would you sell your stove, and if so, how much would you want?’ NO ONE was willing to sell their stoves, because they uni-formly liked them, and didn’t even quote a price …” he said.

On his title ‘Chief Cook’ his take: “The title ‘Chief Cook’ has turned out to be one of the best and most engaging marketing moves we’ve made — most titles are so stuffy and boring — President, Managing Director, Chief Informa-tion Officer etc. We wanted to be distinctive, so I am ‘Chief Cook,’ our outreach volunteer is ‘Chief Ambassador,’ our videographer is ‘Chief Documentarian’ (we have a few of those now, but they are not jealous). Whenever I give some-one my card they start smiling and engage in a conversation when they get to the ‘Chief Cook’ part.”

Laxmi Bhandari, a local social worker from Gamcha says, “There is no smoke inside the house, kitchen utensils do not get stained and the new stove takes lesser time to cook food, thus saving time for us to engage in other work. This stove has now become a status symbol.”

Shop at http://smile.amazon.com to help the Himalayan Stove Project, which will get a part of your money.

Did you know? Household Air Pollution (HAP) is the single most important global environmental risk factor, and particularly in poor regions. It affects over 3 billion people world-wide, almost one half of the world’s population.

There are 4 million deaths annually attributable to HAP from cooking fuel. That’s larger than deaths from outdoor air pollution and smoking.

Most of the impact is on adults, but 5,00,000 deaths occur annually in children from ALRI (Acute Lower Respiratory Infection) diseases, like pneumonia.

This makes HAP the fourth largest cause of death in the world.

Source: http://www.himalayanstoveproject.org.

Demonstration by volunteers. Using her new stove.

From Smoky to Smoke-free Gamcha.indd 59 11/28/2014 7:44:26 PM


It’s not any train... it is the very popular Deccan Queen Express, on which thousands of passengers commute daily between Mumbai and Pune,

and which was started in 1930 in the British era as a weekend train.

Always an innovative District in many ways, RID 3131 recently char-tered the First Moving club — the Rotary Club of Pune Deccan Queen — actually on this historic train. “This is perhaps the first club in the world which meets in a train,” said DG Vivek Aranha, who paid an official visit to the club on November 20.

Every Thursday this club has a weekly meeting in the special bogie

(reserved for Pass holders). This moving Rotary club has 25 mem-bers at the moment, and they invite prominent citizen travelling in the train as speakers.

According to the Wikipedia, the train was initially a weekly ser-vice and its first journey was from Calyan (now Kalyan) to Pune. But it soon became a daily service starting from Bombay Victoria Terminus (now renamed Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus CSTM). One of the longest running trains on the Indian Railways, it has never run on steam power, having used electric locomotives from the onset. Occasionally, it was given

diesel locomotives in case of orig-inal locomotive failure.

This train claims many “firsts”— India’s first superfast train, the first long distance electric hauled passen-ger train, first to have a ‘Ladies Only’ car, and the first vestibuled trains.

It is fitting that a train with such history and pedigree is now witness to several community service pro-jects done by this club — health check up camps for porters and Railway staff as well as infrastruc-ture improvements on Pune Station for passengers. The club is planning fellowship meetings in the city (once a month) so that family members will also know Rotary.

And now Rotary meetings

on a trainTeam Rotary News

RI District 3131 DG Vivek Aranha addressing a club meeting inside the Deccan Queen. Also seen are PDG Dr Deepak Shikarpur, Director Club Extension Pankaj Shah and President of the club Rajan Mathrawala.

And now Rotary meetings on a train.indd 60 11/28/2014 5:59:21 PM


2. Select a venue for the centre; the venue could be

• a place provided by the slum/basti residents or villagers free of cost or at a nominal cost,

• a neighbourhood school (to be used after school hours), or

• a community centre or youth club premises

3. Conduct a survey in the slums/bastis and rural areas proximate to the Rotary Club to select adult non-literates (above 15 years of age) using the Form No. A 1 available in the Resources Tab within the Download Forms Section on www.rotaryteach.org

4. Focus on women and adolescent girls when conducting the survey.

Happy Schools, Happy Children

Our Mission of Total Literacy in India can be realised only if the 28.7 crore adult non-literates (according to UNESCO report), the largest in the world, are helped to become and stay literate. Rotary India Literacy Mission’s Adult Literacy project seeks to address this issue in collaboration with the Government Organisations. In December, RILM will concentrate on establishing 500 adult literacy centres.

Given below are the guidelines for Rotary Clubs to start an Adult Literacy Centre (ALC):

1. Identify a slum/basti/village to start an Adult Literacy Centre

5. Counsel the selected adults to join the Adult Literacy Centre.

6. Once a batch of adult learners (approx. 30) is finalised, please visit the website, upload the Adult Learners’ details by selecting Project Upload tab. On selecting “Upload

by PRID Shekhar Mehta Chair, Rotary India Literacy Mission

Literacy Focus Opening Adult Literacy Centres (ALC)

Quick steps to start an ALC

• locate a venue, • survey, counsel and identify the adult illiterates from

that area• identify teachers / volunteers and train them • procure primers and set a routine for the adult

literacy classes

TEMP_Literacy Focus Opening Adult Literacy Centres_2.indd 37 28-Nov-14 7:03:59 PM


Projects,” click on “New Projects” and select the Adult Literacy category. On filling up the details a Unique Registration Number will be generated for each adult learner. This unique number will be required to update details on the website once the adults become certified literates.

7. Conduct classes for a batch of adult learners at a time that is suitable to most of them.

8. Identify and use the services of qualified, trained volunteers to teach at the centre.

9. RILM has collaborated with the National Literacy Mission Authorities (NLMA), a Govt. of India organisation under the Dept. of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of HRD. They are supporting our Adult Literacy project by sharing soft copy of primers in local languages and helping to train our volunteers with the aid of their master educators.

10. Districts/Clubs can source the soft copies of primers from the respective State Resource Centre (SRC). These will then need to be printed and a copy given to each adult learner along with exercise book and pen/pencil.

11. At times, funds may be available with “Saakshar Bharat” project of Government of India that can be leveraged for printing primers.

12. The identified volunteer teachers should be trained. They should have full knowledge of the content of the primer, the syllabus, the course duration and the daily routine. This can be done with the help of the Master Educators to be provided by the SRC.

13. Equip the centre with blackboard, chalk and other teaching material as needed.

Sustaining Adult LiteracyIt is not enough to make adults literate. It is also important to provide opportunities for Continuing Education to these neo-literates and ensure they do not lapse back into illiteracy.

Financial support from RILM

RILM will provide Rs 250 per Adult Learner after he/she is certified by NIOS as literate.


Thus, it is necessary to do the following:

a. Appoint a dedicated committee from the club to regularly monitor the progress (monthly) of the learners, teacher’s performance and troubleshooting.

b. Ensure the examination for each batch of adult learners is conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). These examinations are conducted twice a year, in March and August, by NIOS.

c. After the adult learners are certified by NIOS, update the Adult Learner Forms on the website using the unique RILM registration number for each candidate that had been generated upon the initial upload of this form (see serial no. 6 above).

d. A Continuing Education Programme has to be initiated incorporating weekly revision classes, for a period of a year or two, as per the need of the certified neo-literates.

e. The club needs to monitor that the certified adult literates do not lapse back into illiteracy.

So, now is the time for clubs to start educating the first batch of learners and make them ready to appear at the examination conducted by NIOS in March 2015.

Adult Literacy Committee Members

Tips for Counselling Prospective Adult Learners:

• Persuade them that for India to become Totally Literate, each individual has to become literate

• Instill in them a sense of National Pride

• Share with them the advantages of being literate

• Show them how it will help improve their current profession, if any

• Women can be motivated by telling them the good impact this will have on their children and family

• Be soft, polite and humble with these people

• Mix with them, understand their issues and try to win their confidence

• Lend a sympathetic ear to any additional problems they might have. It is best to handle these to the extent you have authority or ability to do so, without making any commitments

PDG Uttam Kumar Agarwal Member

PDG Lalit Mohan GuptaMember

PDG Subhas Sahu Member

PDG Lakkaraju Satyanarain Chair

PDG Ashok Kapadia Vice Chair




Rotary Social Mediawww.rotary.org/socialnetworks

More Online Resources

www.rotary.org/rotarian

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Rotary eNewsletters www.rotary.org/newsletters

BookmarkRotary

books

District Wise Contributions to The Rotary Foundation as on October 31, 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

52,914

9,489

20,191

28,468

1,240

(3,842)

13,119

(68,500)

2,726

26,273

11,667

39,695

19,849

23,551

34,194

12,976

47,155

7,168

3,64,678

29,474

1,856

9,823

63,568

1,06,959

14,845

20,030

32,111

11,712

50,364

41,488

1,20,311

4,244

29,643

1,328

11,80,766

90,441

2,414

9,912

80,026

4,502

10,362

13,78,4242,85,96,775

14,145

0

811

600

305

0

0

0

0

0

1,450

11,887

0

0

1,614

0

1,544

0

1,322

1,017

17

208

0

100

1,794

949

1,000

4,117

203

1,597

25

0

0

0

44,705

1,225

12,350

36,499

11,235

25

50

1,06,08960,43,306

0

0

2,800

3,000

0

0

0

1,627

4,000

11,690

1,829

29,825

0

0

0

0

3,73,104

0

99,964

18,076

0

0

6,000

12,621

0

0

0

0

9,966

3,000

105

0

0

39,508

6,17,116

500

0

(816)

0

1,000

500

6,18,30049,38,318

7,834

0

1,000

0

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

34,467

50

12,245

0

10,000

0

2,35,025

7,000

0

0

7,000

0

0

2,49,02546,56,256

74,892

9,489

24,802

32,068

1,545

(3,249)

13,119

16,263

6,726

49,506

14,946

85,306

19,849

23,551

35,807

12,976

4,46,745

7,168

4,77,264

75,567

1,873

10,031

69,568

1,19,680

16,639

21,996

39,111

15,829

95,001

46,135

1,32,686

4,244

39,643

40,835

20,77,612

99,166

14,765

45,595

98,261

5,527

10,912

23,51,8384,42,34,656

Sri Lanka

Pakistan

Nepal

Bangladesh

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

TRF Details.indd 66 11/28/2014 5:58:38 PM


by Kiran Zehra

Rotary Club Karur Wings, RI District 3000, conducted its first RYLA Agnikunjugal for children with special-needs. The programme, featur-

ing brain gym exercises, memory and concentration activities, was held on October 11–12 at Sri Meenakshi Matric Hr. Secondary School. The pilot initi-ative benefitted 110 students in the 14–15 age group, with mild autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy.

“Four hours of uninterrupted activity, in a maiden attempt made this event a surprising success.” said Supriya, (a Special needs teacher in Dyslexia) who organised the orientation session. The programme required “step by step instruc-tions and proper attention.” To ensure smooth execution she made sure “the children were divided into groups of six and a teacher helped them get along with each other through fun team building activities. Training in logical analysis, creativity and innovation abilities deveopment was also given,” she said.

RC Karur Wings partnered with Helikx Open School (a Helikx Organisa-tion initiative that imparts academic skills to students with learning disabilities) to conduct the two-day programme. The Helikx team, under the leadership of G Kumaraguru, administered the training and motivation sessions that included self analysis, self esteem, goal setting, leadership skill enhancement and emotion management.

Magic show by Rtn Sethupathy of RC Karur and cultural events by hear-ing-impaired students added to the entertainment quotient of the RYLA pro-gramme. Parents were allotted separate waiting space and “a side benefit was that it allowed parents to network while the programme was being conducted,” said Rtn MC Saanthosh, Chairman of the event.

Why a special needs RYLA? “Because clubs in the district already provide leadership programmes for regular students. These children deserve and require a lot of motivation. All we had to do was take the effort and we have received positive feedback and hope to continue the good work in the future,” he added.

Rotarians help enhance leadership qualities in special children.

Leadership programmes in progress.

Special RYLA.indd 67 11/28/2014 7:17:22 PM


XXXXXXXXX

Newborn screening is an important preventive public health programme of the 21st century. It is implemented

in majority of the developed countries. India is yet to start any publicly funded programme despite this having been established practice in many countries for over 50 years.

The purpose of newborn screening is to identify babies with biochemi-cal or enzymatic disorders, which are NOT obvious clinically even if examined by an experienced neona-tal paediatrician; and if present, can lead to lot of morbidity and mortality in the newborn. It can be described as a silent killer. Detection of a disorder must have clear benefit for the baby and be cost effective when compared to the cost associated with delayed treatment. These criteria have been put forth by International Society on Newborn Screening (ISNS), and are being followed by many countries for implementation of screening around the world.

Once a country decides to imple-ment screening — then what to screen for? This depends upon several fac-tors — epidemiology, incidence of the diseases and its severity on the affected person, and the cost of screen-ing along with facilities for the treat-ment. We don’t have enough data to

say which diseases we need to screen for? Each country has to make its own choice of which disorders they need to screen. Some of the European coun-tries screen for anywhere between 6 to 8 disorders. Australia and USA are on the top of the list with screening for nearly 50 disorders including Tan-dem Mass Spectrometry (TMS). The Asia-Pacific region has a long history in this too — the late Emeritus Pro-fessor Wong Hock Boon in 1965 initi-ated cord blood Glucose 6 Phosphatase Dehydrogenase (G6PD) screening in Singapore, which virtually eliminated kernicterus (brain damage due to high levels of jaundice in a newborn baby). Philippines screens for 4 common dis-orders in their country — hypothyroid-ism, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, G6PD and Galactosaemia. China has recently made it mandatory for all the obstetricians and paediatricians to pro-vide written information to all parents so that they can make informed choice.

In India, currently we have enough data to suggest that we can implement screening for 4 major diseases, which are either making our babies die or dis-abled for no fault of theirs or their fam-ilies. This is attributed to the ignorance and apathy from the Government. The four diseases which should probably be screened for in India are Congeni-tal Hypothyroidism (wherein the baby will become mentally retarded by one month of age), G6PD Deficiency (if the

enzyme is deficient in the baby, he/she would develop severe jaundice making the baby deaf, disabled and also per-manently retarded), Congenital Adre-nal Hyperplasia (CAH) — deficiency of an enzyme can make girls look like boys and boys can be deceivingly nor-mal, until they die! Galactosaemia is comparable to diabetes in adults — a baby who is deficient in the enzyme Galactose Phosphatase will not digest the sugar called Galactose (present in breast and other milks in large quan-tities), leading to high levels of the sugar, causing brain damage and also predisposes the baby for severe infec-tions leading to disability or death.

The incidence of these diseases in India is much more than in the rest of the world. The cost of their screen-ing should not be more than Rs 500; sadly, the industry is pegging up the cost with a huge profit margin when they offer screening for these diseases and therefore it is being rejected by many people.

Newborn Screening in India

Parsis 11 to 15%Higher castes 1 to 5% Schedule castes 10 to 20% Tribes 10 to 20 % Cutchi bhanushalis 13% Sindhis 7%Punjabi khatris 18% U.P. 6%

G6PD Deficiency

We Found 384 cases of G6PD deficiency in 6 years Incidence in Bangalore/South India = 3.34%

NEW BORN.indd 68 11/28/2014 7:14:47 PM


Though systematic neonatal screening for congenital hypothy-roidism was introduced in the early 1970s in many countries, in India an estimated 10,000 babies are born with congenitial hypothyroidism every year; yet there is no screening programme for it.

Other screenings include New-born Hearing Screening — which has virtually eliminated the “dumb” in the world, as people become impaired of speech only if they are

hearing-impaired and if deafness can be identified within three months of birth, babies can be effectively treated.

Congenital Heart Screening is another simple area, which costs less than Rs 100 per baby, but has virtu-ally eliminated deaths due to severe cyanotic congenital heart diseases in the last few years.

The list is growing each year, but we have to make the right decision to save our future generation. Rotary

clubs along with Rotary International probably can address this challenge to save the babies.

Prof Dr R Kishore Kumar RC Bangalore South, RID 3190

(The author is a Neonatologist & Paediatrician, working in Cloudnine Hospitals, Bangalore and an Adjunct Professor of Neonatology at Notre Dame University, Perth, Australia. Contact Dr. Kishore Kumar at drkishore@ cloudninecare.com.)

A Head-Turner Event

World Polio Day on October 24 was a D-day for the Rotarians of RC Shertallay Town, RI District 3211. Right from flag off for the town-wide rally of cars and motorbikes bearing

the ‘End Polio Now’ and ‘Thank You Rotary India is Polio-free’ banners, the event was a sure crowd-turner.

Assistant Governor A C Santhakumar and Club President A C Vinod Kumar along with Rotarians and a few government officials participated in this event.

Rotarians in cars and two-wheelers rode through the town to celebrate India’s polio-free status.

It is two years since India has been certified as ‘Polio-free’ by WHO. Such initiatives would keep up the momentum and prevent the deadly virus from seep-ing into our borders. They generate awareness among the people to promptly take their child to the booths on NIDs to immunise them against polio.

The line up of the vehicles drew the attention of the people to Rotary International’s significant role in polio eradication.

Team Rotary News

NEW BORN.indd 69 11/28/2014 7:14:48 PM


very time I return to the Vembanad lake in Kerala, its charm and tranquil-lity, sheer bliss and magic hit me all over again.

As our well-appointed two- bedroom houseboat takes off from the Rainbow jetty near Kumarakom, and glides over the lake, the longest in India and the largest in Kerala, stretch-ing over several districts, our boatman

points out the various charms of the lake… paddy fields stretching over vast acres, cormorants, sea gulls and paddy birds darting in and out of the water, looking for their food in the shimmering waters so rich in marine wealth.

The unique charm of Vembanad is that one moment your houseboat moves over a vast expanse of water, the next it is negotiating a narrow passageway. Many rivers and canals empty their waters into Vembanad’s vast expanse. As you negotiate narrower passageways, the daily activities of peo-ple living along the shores are on display. While kids dive into its water and have a frolicking time, the women carry out household chores. The sight of them washing clothes and utensils is a little disturbing from the environmental point of view, but then you have to remember that they are the inhabitants and have original rights on this lake’s waters.

And then, as a tourist, aren’t your motorised boats also adding to the pollution?

Suman Billa, former Secretary, Kerala Tourism, now with Incredible India, had told me in a recent chat, “after all, they’ve been following this lifestyle for decades, so we can’t suddenly tell them you can’t do this.”

But a process of education and encouragement has begun for the community living around this beautiful lake against disposing garbage, polythene bags, etc into the lake. In many tourist destinations Kerala Tourism has started biogas plants in homes to transform bio-degradable garbage into cooking gas. The other laudable venture is “responsible tourism” through which the local community’s livelihoods are enhanced. Through this local artisans — craftspersons, dancers, artistes, etc — are linked with local hotels and resorts to ensure a partnership. Packages are

For those tourists enchanted by Kerala’s backwaters and delicious sea food, now there is more on offer. The cultural

headiness of the 108-day Kochi Biennale awaits you.

Backwaters Magic and Cultural Bonanza

by Rasheeda Bhagat

Kerala Tourism_Backwaters magic and cultural Bonanza.indd 2 28-Nov-14 4:54:13 PM


also available where tourists can enjoy a village life expe-rience by visiting local farms and enjoying coconut tree climbing, coir making, net fishing. This income helps more harmonious relations between the local community and the tourism industry.

Anupama A V, Additional Director, Kerala Tourism, says that in 2013–14, Kerala welcomed 8.58 lakh foreign tourists, a growth of 8 per cent over the previous year. Domestic tourists crossed the one crore mark. On the big-gest attraction, she says, “Kerala has never been a one place/one product destination. We have our beaches, backwa-ters, hill stations, tea plantations, etc. And then there is Ayurveda, which is most popular among the Germans.”

Among foreign nationals the largest numbers are from Germany, followed by UK, France and US, she added.

Magic of the houseboatThere are around 1,000 houseboats plying in these waters, and they offer facilities ranging from 1-6 bedrooms, with attached washrooms and a sitting room in the front, which is the best place to relax with a book, a bottle of wine/chilled beer or a cup of chai. Or just do nothing and simply watch the world go by. A better tension buster will be difficult to find.

The price per night varies from Rs 6,000–25,000, depending on the number of rooms and the package comes with meals. With Kerala Tourism not looking back in its marketing endeavours after the coining of its famous ‘God’s own country’ tag, Vembanad is also emerging as a popular venue for conferences. Some houseboats offer conference facilities for over 100 passengers.

The first houseboats in India were built at Alumkadavu, north of Kollam district and 95 km from the Trivandrum airport, says a Kerala tourism spokesman. This being a major centre for making the traditional kettuvalloms (rice barges), the upgrade to the plush and luxurious houseboats of today was only natural. Skilled craftsmen put together these houseboats by using local, eco-friendly material like wood, bamboo poles and coconut fibre.

A delectable mealIn Kerala, food forms a very big part of any holiday… and nothing can beat a freshly prepared meal that comes from the kitchen of your houseboat to your table. After a delicious mix of aromas has been wafting from the houseboat kitchen, finally Unnikrishnan, our chef, invites us to the table for lunch. The piece de resistance is of course Kerala’s famous karimeen (pearl spot), which is fresh and delicious, gently spiced with a marinate of a little vinegar, turmeric, chilli powder and salt. The usual fare of Kerala — rice, sambar, rasam and two vegetable dishes is on offer, of course.

But a total surprise is a delicious offering of karela (bit-ter gourd) that doesn’t taste bitter at all. Actually it is delec-table and Unni tells us the trick to remove the bitterness… marinate thin slices of the karela in half a cup of vinegar for two hours, fry it, and garnish with finely chopped onions, chillies, fresh coconut... and you have a crunchy salad.

Kochi Biennale But then Kerala has much more than Vembanad and its backwaters. The Kochi Muziris Biennale (KMB), features from December, a four-month-long performing-arts festival showcasing the country’s rich heritage across region and centuries, showcasing 650 artistes and collaborating with 25 cultural groups.

Competing with Chennai’s dance and music bonanza, also in December, the KMB’s second edition will have an array of theatre, dance, music, percussion and literary pro-grammes cutting from different cultural genres of India — from south and north, from ancient to medieval to modern times.

So for music and dance rasikas there will be a feast of Kathakali, Nangiarkoothu, Chavittu Natakam, ghazals and a Mappila Festival from Kerala besides Yakshagana of Karnataka and Chhau dance from Jharkhand, at 10 top venues.

Says Komu, KMB Director of Programmes, “No other biennales of the world gives prominence to performing arts as we do at Kochi-Muziris.”

Pictures by Parvez Bhagat

Kerala Tourism_Backwaters magic and cultural Bonanza.indd 3 28-Nov-14 4:54:29 PM

LITERACYfor

Your club’s literacy project could win $2,500. How? The Pearson Foundation is awarding two cash prizes

worth $2,500 each to support literacy projects that are created jointly by Rotary clubs

and International Reading Association councils. Apply by 15 June. To learn more, email

[email protected].

Adv_Cash for Literacy.indd 72Adv_Cash for Literacy.indd 72 11/28/2014 8:55:45 PM11/28/2014 8:55:45 PM


Christmas marks the celebration of the birth of Jesus. The English word “ Christmas” derives from the old English Christes maesse, or “Christ’s mass.”

The name Jesus is spelled IESUS in the 1611 King James Version of the Bible. Yeshua, in Hebrew was a common name among Jews of the Second Temple Period, and is thought to be the Hebrew or Aramaic name for Jesus. In modern Hebrew, Yeshu and Yeshua are in fact the common transcriptions for Jesus.

Christian views of Jesus say that Jesus is divine, that he is the Messiah whose coming was prophesied in the Old Testament, and that he was resurrected after his crucifixion. Many Christians do believe that Jesus is the “Son of God” (generally meaning that he is God the Son, the second person in the Trinity) who came to provide salvation and reconciliation with God by his death for their sins. Other Christian beliefs include Jesus’ birth through Immaculate Conception (virgin birth), performance of miracles, ascension into Heaven, and a future Second Coming. While the doctrine of the Trinity is accepted by most Christians, a few groups reject the doctrine of the Trinity, wholly or partly, as non-scriptural.

Jesus’s teachings stirred the hearts of the masses. Jesus emphasised humility above all else. Once the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little chil-dren, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” And again, “He who is greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” [Matthew 23:11-12]

Jesus also tells us: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” Significantly, he adds, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

This day, I meditated a little on the three-fold teaching of the Master to his dear disciple, Peter, as they were sailing in a boat. In this teaching of Jesus is summed up the secret of the practice of silence and meditation.

• “Peter, thrust out a little from the Land!” That is, be not of the earth, earthy. Be detached. Let not the earth—its pleasures and possessions and power— hold you captive. Leave the earth for a while, and know that you are the child of the Spirit.

• “Launch out into the Deep!” That is, enter into the depths within you. In the depths within is he, Thy Master and Thy Lord. Enter into the depths and consider His love, His Wisdom, His Strength, His Joy and His Peace. In the depths within, be alone With the Alone and let his love and com-passion fill your entire being.

• “Let down your nets for a draught!” That is, open your hearts to receive the rich treasures which the Lord giveth in abundance to him who ventures into the depths within to meet him.

Receive—and then come and spend them in the service of those who suffer and are in pain. Be a channel of God’s mercy to a broken world!

What Jesus Said Dada J.P. Vaswani

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.

Vaswani.indd 73 11/28/2014 7:15:35 PM


Three days of fun, frolic, extraor-dinary entertainment and of

course, Rotary — Bangalore came alive to the vibrancy and celebration of Rotary during September 26–28. Rotary Habba was District 3190’s answer to RI President Gary Huang’s call to Rotarians world-over to observe Rotary Days as an effective PR exer-cise to help reach Rotary’s good work to the public.

District Governor Manjunath Shetty and his team comprising a core committee of 10 Rotarians drawn from Rotary clubs across the district and several other Rotarians pitched in to organise this massive Rotary festival.

The Koramangala Indoor Sports Stadium was packed to capacity as non-Rotarians too poured in to have a peek of what the organisers had on offer. Narayana Health, the heart-care hospital and the State Bank of India also extended their support; wide pub-licity was provided through hoardings across the city, press conference and radio and television channels. The result — a footfall of around 6,000 vis-itors, despite rain playing spoilsport!

The festivities began after the cer-emonial inauguration by the District Governor. Ladies had a field-day adorn-ing the floors with Rangoli, mehndi, hair styling, nail art, bindi-designing,

cookery, and self-defence through Karate. The omnipresent food stalls took care of the gastronomic cravings of the guests, on all three days and the array of shops with their limit-less wares helped people indulge in a spending spree.

September being the designated New Generations Month in Rotary, Inter City General Forum (ICGF) on Youth Service was held in the after-noon. The event was hosted by Rotary JP Nagar; the chief guests being PDG Kamal Sanghvi and Karnataka Min-ister for Sports and Youth Affairs Abhayachandra.

The grand finale — Disco Dandiya.

A Rotary stall.

Celebrating Fellowship and Serviceby Jaishree

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The evenings, on all the days, had the crowd enthralled with spectacular classical dance performances, exclu-sive to each region of our country, by the students of Dr Mohan Alva’s Alva Educational Foundation, Moodbidri. The show was extra special because most of these students hail from eco-nomically weak backgrounds and come from remote hamlets and Alva Foundation educates the deserving students in different streams through scholarship programmes.

Rotafest, held on the second day, was a huge hit. Seventy teams of youngsters from colleges and corporate

houses lit up the day-long session with a variety of programmes such as mad ads, fashion shows, music and dance.

The concluding day, aptly titled Hrudyotsava, saw a flurry of activities from early morning with events such as a cyclathon, spreading various social messages across the city, an all-women treasure hunt, walkathon organised by Narayana Health to promote healthy heart. This had a whopping 1,500 partic-ipants, followed by a medical workshop on health issues. Fitness thru Dance was a mega hit as participants jived to Bolly-wood numbers. Yoga demonstration by Yogakshema group had people flexing their bodies to the various asanas. The

Bharathanatyam rendition by Mithila (daughter of Rtn Harikrishna Holla) and her troupe, Nritya Bhava, delighted the audience. The mobile planetarium by Aryabhatta had a serpentine queue of adults and children, to view and under-stand what lies beyond our planet.

Energy was just not lacking even at the grand finale — the Disco Dandiya; the ticketed event, attracted a huge crowd — Rotarians and the public — one thousand in all, dressed in vibrant costumes and making gracious garba moves.

Stalls depicting Rotary’s focus areas such as Avoidable Blindness, Water & Sanitation, paediatric heart surgery and other service projects took care of edu-cating the visitors about what Rotary can do for the welfare of the society.

The highlight of this entire PR job as several Rotarians view it is that “the festival had two-thirds non-Rotarian visitors.” To sum up, Rotary Habba of Bangalore projected an exciting Rotary through its potent combina-tion of fun and serious business for the overall health of mankind.

Cultural Performances.

DG Manjunath Shetty flagging off the Treasure hunt.

Celebrating Fellowship and Service.indd 75 11/28/2014 6:00:56 PM


and Tarragona in September. The main reason is that like most women, we too were more inter-ested in photo-graphing the food as soon as it arrived, than consuming it!

Spain is huge on Tapas or starters, and all major Spanish cities have Tapas bars. Just as happens in pub crawls, which is a hugely popular activity in this European country too, it is not uncommon for the Spanish people to go from one Tapas bar to another in the course of an evening. And a local guide in Madrid had once told me: “The true test of the quality and pop-ularity of a Tapas bar is that its floor should be littered with pieces of tissues or hand napkins and toothpicks which are carelessly thrown away after the Tapas disappears in your mouth.”

The number of delicious entrées that are served at these Tapas bars are often sufficient to form a meal

Tapas and Horchata in SpainText and pictures by Rasheeda Bhagat

hen a group of five Indian journal-ists hosted by Spanish Tourism are on a familiarisation trip to Spain, and include four women, the gourmet experience becomes doubly enjoya-ble. But not for the poor lone man and other men from the tourism authority who took us around Valencia, Ibiza

Tapas and Horchata in Spain.indd 76 11/28/2014 6:01:52 PM


by itself, particularly when washed down by the Spanish speciality San-gria, made with red wine, fruits and either orange

juice or a fizzy soda. Among Spanish

Tapas, I find alioli the most irresistible. It is tradi-

tionally made just with only garlic and olive oil, with a little salt, but often embellished with mayonnaise and served with boiled or roasted pota-toes. With freshly baked bread, it is so delicious, that once it appears on your table as an entrée, along with bread, it is difficult to stop devouring it!

Croquetas, which are mainly made with potatoes, but can have ham or other meat too, are often considered by many as the last word on Spanish tapas. Crunchy and delicious, you’ll almost never go wrong with a cro-queta in Spain. Like Greece and some other Mediterranean countries, Spain too is big on potatoes and patatas

bravas, made from fried potatoes, which are often parboiled before frying is another delicious entree here. Another popular tapas is Tortia, a Spanish omelette with chunks of potatoes and onions.

In the summer the Hor-chata bars are very popu-lar in most Spanish cities. In Valencia we walk into a traditional Horchata bar. The drink looks milky but has no milk in it; it is made of tigernuts — a plant grown locally, but originally brought from Arabian influence in Spain. Low in fat content and high in antioxidants, the cool drink is delicious and relaxing. It is also the ideal refresh-ing drink for vegetarians and vegans and those with nut allergies.

The locals have it with churros, a very popular fried pastry made from

dough. The trick is in choosing the bar which gives you the tastiest of Horchata with churros that are not oily but fresh, light and crunchy. During winters these bars serve churros with hot chocolate.

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DISTRICT SCORES

One hundred and thirty school and college students from across Odisha had a whale of a time as they absorbed the various

leadership skills imparted at the RYLA programme at Gopalpur-on-sea, 16 km from Berhampur, on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. The three-day pro-gramme was hosted by RC Berhampur, RI District 3262. The curriculum, a balanced mix of activities and training sessions, was designed by the facul-ties of KIIT School of Management, Odisha.

The participants learnt group dynam-ics and leadership challenges through activities such as furniture-making using raw bamboos and sand art competition. Yoga on the beach and trekking empha-sised the concept of physical fitness and its positive effect on mental health. Cul-tural performances gave a boost to their confidence and ignited their interest in extra-curricular activities.

The beach cleaning activity, Swa-chh Bharat Challenge and the joys, exposed the participants to the chal-lenges of keeping our environment clean. The team collected around 500 kg of garbage at the beach! They

would think twice before littering the beach any time they visit one and this hands-on participation would inspire the youngsters to discourage others from doing so too. It was a lesson in Swachh Bharat, Swasth Bharat — Clean India, Healthy India!

“Hats off to Rotary! RYLA has transformed us so much. We have re- invented ourselves in these three days of high energy and learning and more than anything, the ‘team work.’ We now go back with such fond memories and friends for a life time,” commented a participant to a question about his RYLA experience.

Clean Beaches and Leadership TrainingTeam Rotary News

RYLA Berhampur.indd 78 11/28/2014 6:06:08 PM


Across 1 Wide-spouted pitcher

5 ___ in (do a

perfunctory job)

11 Stomach muscles, briefly

14 What one

little piggy had

15 ___-Lorraine (French region)

16 Tiny point to argue

17 Baptized child, vis-à-vis one

promising to mentor her

19 Tip for a ballerina

20 Planting

season (abbr.)

21 Beer-festival mo.

22 First Greek consonant

23 Main caregiver of chil-

dren, perhaps

26 Artist known for his

Blue Period

28 Complain too often

29 ERA and saves

30 Grazing area

33 Readers of MRI results

36 Partner of ready and willing

37 Greek

strongman

38 Have the nerve (to)

39 Item in a golfer’s pocket

40 A bit up front?

41 Lebanon tree

42 Beetle Bailey,

e.g. (abbr.)

43 Not comply with, as a law

45 She pays extremely

close attention to her children

50 Nature’s burn remedy

51 Oft-licked extremity

52 Atmosphere word form

53 Swimming unit

54 Candidate popular with

voters back home

59 When France heats up

60 Fight venues

61 Vital glow

62 What a nod might mean

63 Walked with long steps

64 Twice-a-month tide

Down

1 High sch. course

2 It might be pitched

3 Hindquarters

4 Republican region, on

a political map

5 Povich’s namesakes

6 High sch. course

7 “___ an arrow into ...”

8 Gate holder

9 Mixologist’s device

10 Three times, in an Rx

11 Put your two cents in, maybe

12 Regional animal life

13 Home finish?

18 Make ___ at

22 Command to canines

23 Measuring mechanism

24 Main line

25 West of Hollywood

26 Sophomore’s exam, for short

27 “What’ll ___?”

31 Capone and Capp

32 Innocent

33 Term of respect

34 “Pish!”

35 Desert-like

37 Clutch, e.g.

38 Back to the Future car 40 Home Shopping Network rival

41 Streaker in the night sky

42 Lemon meringue,

for one

44 Poker declaration

45 Lead singer with the Comets

46 Give a lift to

47 Runs like a gazelle

48 Road crew worker

49 Bridge bid, briefly

54 Notes after mis

55 Excellent, slangily

56 Take to court

57 ___ pro nobis

58 Grab a few z’s

FA M I LY M O N T H

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

Solution in the January issue


CONVENTION

Get your visa

Are you already planning which restaurants you’ll try and which

museums you’ll visit when you’re in São Paulo for the 2015 Rotary conven-tion, 6–9 June? Now is a good time to take care of some logistical details too.

U.S. and Canadian citizens need visas to visit Brazil, and should apply for them well in advance.

Brazilian visa requirements are based on the principle of reciprocity: Citizens of countries that require visas for Brazilians will need visas to visit Brazil. U.S. and Canadian citizens must apply through the embassy or consulate serving the jurisdiction where they live. Find details at www.riconvention.org (click “Plan Your Visit”), or check the websites of Brazil’s Washington, D.C., or Ottawa embassies.

Visa processing may take several months, so contact the appropriate embassy or consulate as early as pos-sible. Applicants may need to take part in an interview at the embassy or consulate. Citizens of some countries may also need a letter of invitation; when you register for the convention, Rotary will provide that document to those who need it.

People travelling to the con-vention who are residents of the United States and Canada can take advantage of reduced service fees from Travisa, a visa agency that can facilitate the application process. Learn more at tours.travisa.com /A9FJ7HWO.

Register for the convention by 15 December for the best rate.

Visit www.riconvention.org.

Convention_Get your visa.indd 79 11/28/2014 6:02:48 PM

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Changing your address? Please write to us before you move, two months in advance. Mention your Club name, RI District Number and Rotary News Account Number from your magazine address label or simply attach the label itself.

Your Rotary NewsAccount Number

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Views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the Editor, trustees of the Rotary News Trust, or Rotary International. Every effort is made to ensure that the magazine’s content is accurate. Information is published in good faith but no liability can be accepted for loss or inconvenience arising from errors or omission. Advertisements are accepted at face value and no liability can be accepted for the action of advertisers. The Editor welcomes contribution of articles, news items, photographs and letters, but is under no obligation to publish unsolicited material. The Editor reserves the right to edit for clarity or length. Contributors must ensure that all material submitted is not in breach of copyright or that if such material is submitted, they have obtained necessary permission, in writing, for its reproduction. Photographs in this publication may not be reproduced, whether in part or in whole, without the consent of Rotary News Trust.

Adv_ Moving.indd 81 11/28/2014 6:54:27 PM


Very Brief ly

Mr Namasivayam Reguraj (centre), Managing Director NTTF (Nettur Technical Training Foun-dation), was honoured with Dronacharya Award for his distinguished services in the field of voca-tional education. This award was presented by RC Madras East, RI District 3230.

RC IT Corridor, RI District 3190 felicitated Olym-pian Boxer Mary Kom for winning Gold in the Asian Games. She was honoured by DG Manjunath Shetty and club President Rajiv Unni at the curtain raiser for the ‘Mid Night Marathon’ to be held on December 21, 2014 at Bangalore.

Vocational Service Awards were presented by RC Patan, RI District 3292, to Rita Thapa, founder of TEWA, Nepal which works for women empower-ment, Dil Kumari Chaudhary for her untiring work for the welfare of Kamlari girls and Gita Banjara for her humanitarian services to mentally-challenged patients.

Rtn Padam Dugar, RC Madras Southwest, RI Dis-trict 3230, won the prestigious Asian Leadership Award under the category: ‘The most enterpris-ing CEO of the year in real estate.’ He received this award from His Highness Khaled Al Kamada, Director General, Government of UAE in Dubai. His organisation, Dugar Housing Ltd., won the ‘Developer of the Year - Residential’ award.

Very Briefly_2.indd 82 11/28/2014 6:03:31 PM

This is an unnamed gypsy woman, photographed during my drive through some of the villages in

the Alwar district of Rajasthan I visited in November to look at the impressive check dam project

being executed by the Rotary India Water Conservation Trust. In a long time, I haven’t come

across a happier or more free-spirited woman.

Gypsies, we all know, have very few material possessions and wander around in search of a

living. Her home, hearth and belongings were under the sky, and yet she smiled, laughed, danced

and teased her husband who was working with his tools.

A valuable lesson for many of us who just can’t stop cribbing!

Rasheeda Bhagat

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