With a new day comes new strength and new thoughts. – Eleanor Roosevelt
Every year,
the installation of a new President at the Rotary Club of Bombay West ushers in
new vigor, new ideas and fresh optimism to reach out further for the
alleviation of human misery and improving the quality of life in the
neighboring communities.
On
Wednesday, the 25th June, 2014, our Club witnessed the Installation
Ceremony of President Mohan Joshi and his Board for the Rotary WOW Year 2014-15
which begins on 1st July in presence of the Chief Guest Rtn. Ajay
Gupta, District Governor (2014-15). A
meticulously planned event, attended by several Past District Governors (PDGs),
District dignitaries, WOW Presidents of other Clubs in District 3140 and
leaders from Partners in Service, began with an invocation song, seeking
blessings of the Almighty by the Past President of Inner Wheel Club of Bombay
West, R/Ann Prakruti Vasani.
President
Krishna Kejriwal welcomed the dignitaries and guests present, in particular PDG
Sajjan Goenka, PDG Prabhakar Store, PDG Bansi Dhurandar and PDG J.T.Vyas. He also extended a special welcome to the ex-Sheriff
of Mumbai and Past President Rtn. Mohanbhai Patel, Past President of
International Inner Wheel Club R/Ann Pallavi Shah, Inner Wheel Chair R/Ann
Himadri Nanavati and District Rotaract Representative Rtr.Hemang Jakhia.
President
Kejriwal recalled the publication of “Yatra
– the Journey”, a coffee table book during the Club’s Golden Jubilee Year
2004-05 under the then President Rtn. Saroj Rao. The current year saw the Club celebrating its
Diamond Jubilee and to commemorate the glorious event, a team led by PP Saroj
Rao was given the challenge to publish a sequel. The Yatra Team has designed and published yet
another masterpiece - “Yatra
– Hands of Hope” encompassing the Club’s contribution to society in the
decade since the golden jubilee celebrations and giving a glimpse of what we
aim to achieve in the coming years. The Yatra Team had the privilege of the DGE
Ajay Gupta to release the publication Yatra
– Hands of Hope amidst thunderous applause from those present.
The main highlights
of the Club’s activities during the year gone by included:
·
A donation of Rs.100 lakhs
in May 2014 Past President Rtn. Mohanbhai Patel with the objective of creating
a corpus under the Rotary Service Public Charitable Trust under the Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel Rotary Excellence
Award and utilizing the income (approx.Rs.9 lakhs per annum) for giving
cash awards to students from neighbouring schools / colleges for excelling in
their Board / University level exams. To
meet any gap in funding for the first awards to be announced shortly, PP Rtn. Mohanbhai
Patel has committed a further donation which was appreciated by all. President Kejriwal felicitated PP Rtn. Mohanbhai
Patel with a memento for his generous contribution to the cause of
education.
·
Another key event of the
year was the receipt of further donations of Rs.10 lacs from Rtn.Narendra
Parekh towards the Cochlear Implant programme which benefits less privileged
children with hearing impairment. President Kejriwal also felicitated
Rtn.Narendra Parekh for his generosity and continued commitment towards a noble
cause.
·
Another major initiative, the
brain child of our PP Rtn. Rajendra Ruia, our one man army on the RI peace
programme, was the start of a certificate course on Peace & Conflict
Resolution. A 4 day intensive course spread over 2 weekends, designed and
conducted by some of the outstanding Rotary Peace Centres Alumni of RI District
3140 and attended by over 20 participants, it now features in the list of
permanent projects of Bombay West.
·
The other notable projects
included the blood donation drives in partnership with the Inner Wheel club of
Bombay West and the Rtaract clubs – 4250 bottles of blood were collected for the
Rotary DG Goenka Blood Bank, the donation of a 25-seater school bus in
partnership with the Inner Wheel Club for tribal students of a school run by the
Srimad Rajchandra Aatma Tatva Research Centre at Parli village near
Khopoli.
·
Some other highlight
achievements of the Club included:
o
Meeting the TRF
commitment, thanks to a contribution of USD 10000 by Rtn.Madhu Narang,
o
making a contribution of Rs.7
lakhs towards the Uttarakhand Disaster Relief Fund,
o
providing mid-day meals at
schools and
o
helping build 5 Rotary
Kutirs under the District Project of Low Cost Housing for the rural poor.
The
incoming President Mohan Joshi, was described as an intelligent, analytical
mind with a golden heart - a right choice for leading this prestigious club by
outgoing President Rtn Krishna Kejriwal.
Holding a a bachelor’s degree in
Chemical Engineering from BITS, Pilani and a Management degree from the University
Business School, Chandigarh, Mohan is a hard core professional with
global experience of over 3 decades across diverse regions and business
environments. He has recently retired as President of German Multinational
SCHOTT Glass but continues his
association with the company as Strategic Advisor. Mohan is now engaged as an independent
Management Advisor in areas of Negotiation, Strategy, and Leadership to some
German and Indian companies. In his
acceptance speech, President Mohan Joshi reiterated his deep commitment to the
rotary values for serving humanity. In
his year as President, the Club would focus on identified areas under the LEAP
Programme viz. Literacy for all, Environment,
Water and Sanitation, Ability and
Challenges of the Disabled and Elderly and Poonar-nirman
(revisiting the earlier projects of the Club).
Pres. Mohan
Joshi identified 3 major challenges for bringing about improvements in the
literacy rate viz. water, infrastructure and e-communication. While the enrolment rate is quite high, there
is a problem about attendance at schools and the need to bring about reductions
in dropouts. These issues need to be
addressed in a holistic way to enable us to get desired results. The young population is our country’s
‘strength’ as well as ‘weakness’. Strength
because it means the availability of a young work-force with innovative
ideas. However, this strength turns into
a ‘weakness’ if they don’t receive adequate training for required skills to
enter their productive phase. Hence, the need to address the needs of the youth
in partnership with Rotaract Clubs. He
further mentioned that all the permanent and regular community service projects
of the Club will be continued with renewed zeal to take the achievements of the
Club to greater heights. Lastly, he
talked about the importance of Fellowship Events in Rotary which he compared
with team building and leadership development
events of the corporate world.
President Mohan
Joshi then introduced individually his team of Directors who were pinned by the
chief guest DGE Ajay Gupta. Rtn. Dr Usha
Jaychandran, Editor of the Flying Carpet had the privilege of having the DGE
release a special issue. Group Co-ordinator Vikas Upadhyay expressed his
happiness with the projects done by the Club and those envisaged by the new
team during the next Rotary year. Asst. Governor
Designate Dr. Raju Sahetya thanked DGE Ajay Gupta for appointing him as the AG
of our Club, which he described as a “shining jewel in his AG crown”. He assured his support in all the activities
of the Club and formally introduced DGE Ajay Gupta.
Rtn. Ajay
Gupta, DG (2014-15) expressed his complete amazement with the community service
projects being undertaken by our Club year after year, for the last six
decades. He saluted the founder members
of the Club whose vision has made this Club what it is, with one of the best
infrastructures in the form of the Rotary Service Centre in the heart of Mumbai
city. Expressing his confidence in the leadership of Rtn. Mohan, the DGE looked
forward to working closely working with him and his team in the ensuing Rotary
year. Lastly, he urged the Club to
enhance its goals for increases in membership as well as contributions to TRF. The
meeting ended with a vote of thanks from President Elect Rtn.Shirish Rege.
The installation programme appeared to have charged up our members and we
can look forward to another successful year ahead. As a member sitting in the audience, I was
reminded of a famous quote by St. Francis
of Assisi – “Start by
doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the
impossible.”
Here’s wishing President Mohan Joshi and his team a wonderful 2014-15
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