Club Celebrates 25 Years of Women in Rotary

Club Celebrates 25 Years of Women in Rotary

Since its inception in 1905, Rotary was a “male only” bastion.  In 1989, Rotary International’s Council of Legislation voted to eliminate the “male only” provision of Rotary's Constitution.  Since then, women have become members and leaders in the Rotary Clubs and Districts throughout the world.

To celebrate the 25 years of this landmark change, our Club organized a Fellowship Event hosted by the lady Rotarians on Wednesday, 26 September, 2014.  An evening of fun and enjoyment filled with the melodious voice of Ms. Rochana Dahanukar was the essence of the with a special dinner spread of Mexican cuisine and an evening of musical entertainment.

Starting off the evening with the national anthem being sung by all the lady Rotarians taking the stage followed by a welcome address by Past President Rtn.Maya Bhatt, the first female member inducted into the privileged echelons of our Club way back in 1991. Rtn Maya Bhatt welcomed all present on behalf of the 11 lady Rotarians of our Club and went on to introduce the highlight of the evening viz., Ms Rochana as a person with an inimitable style, melancholy voice and stunner looks, traditionally a ghazal singer with two albums to her credit and who explores her music in soul raga. Besides being a superb singer, Rochana is a voice training guru, a music composer and director, she is a link that connects classical music to love poems!

Rochana began the musical evening with us by saying that she was happy, nostalgic and proud to be with us that evening. Starting with the deeply melodious “tere nainon ne jaadu kiya”, the vintage of the songs rendered that evening dated back to 1949! Farid Khanum’s ‘aaj jaane ki zid na karo’ was greeted with wah-wahs and thunderous applause. A special dedication to rtn Kalpana was ‘babuji dheere chalna’ which was followed by Bollywood melodies like ‘kajara mohabbatwala’, ‘jabaan pe laaga re…’, ‘ae dil mujhe bata de, ‘jawaan hai mohabbat haseen hai zamana..’, ‘hoton se chulo tum’, ‘ishaaron ishaaron mein dil lene waale’. Each of the songs rendered were special in their own way, with the audience clapping in appreciation. The evening ended with ‘damadam mast kalandar’ with the audience freaking out completely and enjoying the rendition to their utmost!!

Kudos to the lady Rotarians of our Club for arranging such an entertaining and well enjoyed evening!!

Membership Seminar – RISE hosted by our Club

RISE - Retain and Induct for Service Excellence,

Membership growth is the life-blood of Rotary, as they say…  With a view to creating awareness amongst members about importance of membership retention and growth as well as apprising the newly joined Rotarians and prospective Rotarians of the immense potential of Rotary to enhance their lives – both professional as well as personal – a Seminar was organized by Zone III of District 3140 under the leadership of Avenue Chair Rtn.Chetan Desai on Friday, 19^th September, 2014 at Rotary Service Centre, Juhu, Mumbai.  The Seminar, which was hosted by our Club jointly with Rotary Club of Mumbai North Island with 15 other clubs from Zone III being the co-hosts, received overwhelming response from members and prospective members.

Forum Leader of the Seminar, PDG Bharat Pandya kicked-off the Seminar with his opening remarks followed by audio-visual presentations by Rtn.Chetan Desai.  This was followed by a slick presentation on the guiding principles and objects of Rotary by District Secretary & Convenor of the Seminar, Rtn.Virendra Widge. He also gave a glimpse of the various humanitarian projects being undertaken under the Rotary banner by various Rotary Clubs as well as its partner organizations viz. Inner Wheel Clubs, Rotaract Clubs and Interact Clubs.

Dist.Training Facilitator PP Rtn.Indumati Gopinathan spoke from her heart on how Rotary connects through everlasting friendships, fellowships and bonding while engaging in implementing sustainable projects in the community in the six common areas identified by Rotary International.  She gave personal examples from her life on how Rotary had positively shaped her persona and how unknown Rotarians from another country had come to her rescue to save the life of her nephew who had taken seriously ill at Bali in Indonesia. Apart from the global connect, Rotary also connects generations, families and communities through Interactors (rotary wing for school going kids), Rotaractors (for college students), Inner Wheel Clubs (for wives of Rotarians and women from the community), Senior Citizen Groups and Rotary Community Corps.

              

A few of the Rotarians shared their personal experience in Rotary.  Rtn.Vinod, a Rotarian since 19 years, had introduced as many as 56 members to the Rotary World.  Rtn.Saif Quereshi, a recent entrant to the prestigious Arch Klumph Society of The Rotary Foundation started his connect with Rotary as an Interactor and later was selected for Rotary Youth Exchange programme.  Rtn.Phanish Shetty spoke on how his Club – RC of Lokhandwala Complex Kandivli was transformed from a low membership to an enthusiastic and vibrant club with one of the best membership growth through involvement of members and prospective members in club projects.

Dist.Trainer PDG Rtn.Bansi Dhurandhar explained on importance of servicing the new Rotarians with an analogy of treating them as ‘our customers’.  As in the case of any business, existing customers need to be retained, so was the case with new Rotarians who need to be paid special attention by the senior Rotarians for effective assimilation and retention.

PDG Rtn.Bharat Pandya summed up the discussions with some very interesting and thought provoking slides and quotes. At the end, DG Rtn.Ajay Gupta thanked everyone for organizing the Seminar in a very professional way.  He was confident that the District would achieve its targeted growth of membership in the current Rotary Year.  He however cautioned the Clubs that the growth should not be achieved at the cost of quality of membership.

Our Club President Rtn.Mohan Joshi proposed a vote of thanks.  

Celebration of Youth Month with Rotaractors

As we all know, Rotaractors are a part of the global community of young adults taking action for positive change.  Rotaract Clubs bring together youth ages 18 – 30 to take action in their communities, develop their leadership and professional skills and have fun…

To celebrate the Youth Month in September, Rotaract Clubs sponsored by our Club were invited to showcase their talents in singing, dancing and drama in our regular meeting held on 10^th September, 2014…  Five of our Rotaract Clubs viz. Rotaract Clubs of Andheri, Mithibai College, N.M.College, Sathaye College and Usha Pravin Gandhi College accepted the invitation and performed to a full house of almost 150 in the audience.

The show began with two outstanding street plays by UPG College and N.M.College.  While UPG College play depicted atrocities and ills in our society, more particularly on the women, the play by N.M.College focused on child abuse in India.  Both the plays were enacted with very strong performances and well-written scripts conveying extremely powerful messages to the audience. If these are the concerns of the educated youth of today, we can be sure there is a ray of hope for a new India free of the present day evils and tribulations.

This was followed by hi-energy dance performances by N.M.College, Mithibai College and Sathaye College which were quite entertaining and applauded by the appreciative audience. Surely, the participants had put in a lot of hours practicing the steps as the groups were hip-hopping to the Bollywood numbers in perfect sync.

After the street plays and dances the rotaractors presented their singing talent.  Ritu Kapadia the sole representative from Rotaract Club of Andheri enthralled the audience by singing two numbers, one in English and the other one in Gujarati.  A group of participants representing UPG College performed ‘Accapella’ which is singing without accompanying musical instruments and using the beauty of human voice entirely for musical entertainment.  The performance was truly enjoyable.  Rotaractors from Sathaye College sang the soul-stirring Tujhe Sab Hai Pata Meri Maa…” accompanied by Guitar.  

The show ended with a trained classical singer, Devyani from Mithibai College, singing three melodious numbers to leave the audience asking for more.

Rotary Ann Neelima Raval, President of Inner Wheel Club of Bombay West and Rtn.Rajul Doshi adjudged Rotaract Club of UPG College as no.1 entertainers.  The no.2 position was shared by Rotaract Clubs of Sathaye College and Mithibai College.  The cash prizes to the winning Clubs were sponsored by Rtn.Apurva Nanavati.  Calvin Klein, well-known for its range of frangrances and co-sponsors of the event gave away free-gifts to each and every participant. The sponsorship was arranged by Ms.Poorna Doshi, daughter of Rtn.Rajul Doshi and Late Rtn.Satish Doshi.

Rtn.Chandramohan Saigal ably compeered the programme while Rtn.Harminder Patheja gave a hearty vote of thanks.

First Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel Rotary Excellence Awards Ceremony

The first Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel Rotary Excellence Awards Ceremony was held on Friday, 5th September, 2014 at Rotary Service Centre where over 100 students from neighborhood schools and institutions were felicitated and awarded cash prizes.

These awards  were instituted recently by Rotary Club of Bombay West (RCBW) with the help of donation of Rs.1 Crore by Past President Rtn.Mohanbhai Patel through his family trust to Rotary Service Public Charitable Trust (RSPCT). Earnings from the dedicated corpus created by RSPCT would be utilized every year to give away cash prizes of Rs.10000, Rs.5000 and Rs.3000 to students ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd in their respective schools / institutions at Board/University level examinations. Rtn.Mohanbhai Patel has also given a further donation of Rs.50 lacs to RSPCT for institution of educational excellence awards project for toppers at board exams at schools in the tribal belt of Dahanu-Talasari Talukas in Maharashtra.  They are being named as Supa Farms Rotary Excellence Awards.  Perhaps, this is the largest single donation received by any Rotary Club in India for a project aimed at encouraging academic excellence.

The cash awards and certificates of excellence were handed over to the students by Ex-Vice Chancellor of SNDT University, Rtn.Dr.Rupa Shah in presence of Past President Rtn.Mohanbhai Patel, President Rtn.Mohan Joshi and Past President Arvind Shah who also headed the Club Committee for the Awards.  Inspirational talks by Rtn.Mohanbhai Patel and Dr.Rupa Shah were the highlights of the evening which the students and parents will cherish for life.  Before the awardees left the venue, they were personally handed over framed picture of them receiving the awards which was a delightful surprise element planned and executed meticulously by the Club.

The ceremony was witnessed by jam-packed hall with several principal and teachers of the select schools, parents and family members of the awardees, specially invited guests, Inner Wheel President and members, Rotarians and Rotary/Anns.  Rtn.Shefali Shah ably compered the event while Rtn.Anand Gupta and R/Ann Kavita Rege respectively introduced Rtn.Mohanbhai Patel and Dr.Rupa Shah to the gathering. 

Teachers' Day@RCBW

Inner Wheel Club of Bombay West in association with Rotary Club of Bombay West celebrated Teachers' Day on Friday, 5th September, 2014 at Sheila Raheja Hall, Rotary Service Centre, Juhu, Mumbai.  A tradition established by the Club since over 20 years, outstanding Teachers from the neighborhood schools were felicitated by Ms.Neelima Raval, President of IWCBW and Rtn.Mohan Joshi, President of RCBW along with several members from both the Clubs.  Also invited at the function were children from select schools to perform at the event in honour of their teachers.  Motivational songs, poems, dances and skits were on display from the young ones which was appreciated by the audience.  The programme was followed by a brief demo of eLearning module from a well-known Pune-based social enterprise for the benefit of the teachers and students present at the function.