Monday, 26 May 2014

Mr. T V Balan addresses our members

May 13, 2014 saw our very oldest Rotarian couple, Rtns. Sita and TV Balan at our club meeting. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary last year and Mr Balan will be 85 later this year. We wish them a long and healthy life together!

Mr. Balan was the main speaker for the evening, and he complimented the club on having over 90 members! In a speech full of anecdotes and jokes, he stressed that humility was one of the values that would take a person very far in life. He recalled incidents from his long association with the Tatas during his career with ACC, where he rose from engineer to Vice-Chairman, before leaving them to take on international assignments in Kenya and Uganda in the cement industry. He has also been a pioneer of the IT and Communication industry.

He has also visited 11 Rotary clubs overseas where he has spoken on his favourite subject: "Information & Communication Technology in a Developing Economy".

The day after the meeting, Mr. Balan emailed me: 
Last evening when I left the Residence to get to RCJH Mtg I was only about 80% fit.  On reaching the Meeting Hall after some strenuous Walk the Fitness Quotient fell down to 70%, but I braved thru' the Evening, thanks to the understanding of your good self and President Champaka Rao. "Many Thanks".

It is we who have to thank Mr Balan for sharing his thoughts with us despite his low "Fitness Quotient"!

Mr. & Mrs. Balan each contributed $100 to the Rotary Foundation and handed over their cheques to President Champaka 



THIS AND THAT...
Many of our members may not be aware that we have a newly-elected Member of Parliament among our members! Mrs. Renuka Butta became our member on November 18, 2012, introduced by Rtn. Vasanth Kumar. Unfortunately, she has not been able to attend any of our meetings or fellowships this year. 
She was elected as Lok Sabha MP from Kurnool on the YSRCP ticket. Many congratulations to her!

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Club Assembly - April 29

Before the next meeting is upon us this evening, let me report on the Club Assembly we had a fortnight ago, on April 29.
STATUTORY WARNING: This will be along read for you, since it also serves as Minutes of teh Club Assembly!
The meeting opened with a short video of a play by a Rotary Club abroad enacting an impression of the first ever meeting of what is now the world-wide Rotary movement, on February 23, 1905 when Paul Harris and his three friends met at his office.Here's the video for those who were not there:
President Champaka then requested the club Directors to report to the members on the activities of the past few months.
Taking the floor first, Rtn. Amaresh enumerated teh club programmes held since January. Our speaker meetings included a talk on "Doing Projects in India" by PDG Val and Rtn. Terry Leivers of the UK; another on "Emergency Care" by Dr. Mahesh Joshi., etc. He also mentioned the programmes on the theme "Know Your City" - a talk on the Hyderabad MetroRail project and another on "Tales from the Nizams' Era". To dd interest, we also had a panel discussion on "A Teacher's Perspective" with teachers from a government and a private school.
Rtn. Amaresh also mentioned the excellent Public Meeting held during the official visit of DG Hari Krishna on Janaury 28 and the fact that over 20 of our members attended the District Conference in Guntur on February 15-16.
Rtn. PP Reddy next dealt with Membership. He recalled that we started the year 2013-14 with 82 members and had added 12 new and very active members till date. Two of our members left the club - one on a transfer to Vishakapatnam and the other due to business preoccupation. Our current strength is therefore 92. Rtn. Reddy said he had targeted to bring the membership up to 100 before the year end and told members there was till time for eight more to be inducted! A few proposals have been received from our members and we are moving towards the target!
Speaking on his area of responsibility of Public
Relations, Rtn. Vijay first profusely thanked Rtn. Ramesh Kandula, who is an editor at CVR News, for his constant support in covering our club occasions, such as the meeting addressed by ACP (Traffic) Mr. Amit Garg, and the one where Ms. Amala Akkineni spoke on Blue Cross and the Literacy Summit. The Vocational Awards Nite was covered by Andhra Jyothi and the DG's visit to the Govt. School at Filmnagar was also covered by CVR News. ABN TV covered the Life Skills programme inauguration by Ms. Amala Akkineni at the Film Nagar school. A surprise feature in Eenadu reported an interview with President Champaka, accompanied by pictures of our projects - that was a feather in our cap! To finish the year on a high, our club got excellent publicity through hoardings in the city and live coverage by ETV when we co-sponsored the Ghantashala Musical Nite a few days ago!
Rtn. Sharda then reported on the great fellowships events we had through the year:
  • Installation Nite where about 160 Rotarians and guests enjoyed cocktails and dinner
  • Vocational Awards Nite where we had Rotarians from the twin cities joining us for High Tea.
  • A great Divali Dhamaka on November 9, where we enjoyed cocktails and dinner to the strains of popular musical hits performed by the Rafi Foundation members.
  • A Rotary Quiz, followed by cocktails and dinner.
  • A lunch fellowship meet where Ms. Amala spoke on "Blue Cross".
  • The gala dinner on January 28 at Aditya Sarovar after the DG's Public Meeting.
  • The great Cricket Fellowship at Rtn. Abhishek's Mango resort.
  • And the laugh-a-minute Politicians' Nite on April 22 with cocktails and dinner.
Rtn. Chamala then reported on the club's Literacy Projects:
1.       Breakfast for 300 children of Manikonda Primary school @ Rs. 15,000 per month.
2.       Adoption of Govt. High School, Film Nagar:
a.       Renovation of  toilets and paving of toilets area.
b.      Setting up of Science Laboratory
c.       Repair of computers
d.      Construction of stage and paving of area
e.      Repair of 350 desks
f.        Refurbishing of school electric wiring
All of the above was achieved with club funds and funding from Shankar Rural Development Foundation.
g.       Activity Centre with funds from Dr. Vivekanand, brother of Rtn. Sharda, consisting of audio-visual equipment, almirahs, books and games, painting of the room and vinyl flooring. Unlikely that any government school has such a facility!
h.      We are also funding a lady to clean the school and the toilets and a teacher for computer classes costing a total of Rs.13,000 per month.
3.       75 school desks were donated out of funds given by club members.
4.       The BJR School toilets project is pending which will be taken up in June.
Including the expenditure incurred by SRDF and the donation for the Activity Centre, an estimated Rs.10 lakhs has been spent so far on our signature project!
Rtn. Raghav then listed the international projects undertaken this year. The Matching Grant Project at Shekinah
Foundation's school for the mentally handicapped is almost complete. The final stage is the installation of a solar hot water system which is under installation.
We have already gifted the majority of the Hearing Aids donated by RC of East Palo Alto Bayshore, with the help of the Govt. ENT Hospital at King Kothi. We have also received a further 30 Hearing Aids gifted by Rtns. Val and Terry Leivers and these will also be donated soon.
The Houses for Humanity Project, funded by Rotarians from the UK, is progressing and three of the 20 houses to be constructed are complete.
Rtn. Raghav also reported that our Club Trust had a balance
      of Rs. 6 lakhs for use in our community service projects. Also, our members have contributed $9,200 to TRF this year and he was hoping that the amount would go up to our committed figure of $10,000 before the year end. Rtn. Jyothi Gutta promptly volunteered a donation of $250, and her announcement was greeted with acclamation.
The meeting ended with thanks from President Champaka.




Wednesday, 7 May 2014

A fantastic art event!

May 4, 2014: Over 60 Rotarians from our club and from clubs in the city converged for a splendid and unique event - an exhibition of paintings by our eminent member, Rtn. Surya Prakash, who is a nationally famous artist, and an opportunity - for Rotarians only - to pick up signed, digitally-printed reproductions of ten of his paintings, while contributing to funding our Literacy Projects.

The LV Prasad Eye Institute auditorium was an excellent venue, with its spacious foyer which serves as a gallery for Rtn. Surya Prakash's lovely paintings. During the formal function, President Champaka made a presentation of the great work that our club has done this year for the Government High School, Film Nagar. With an outlay of about Rs.10 lakhs from
our Charitable Trust, the SRD Foundation of Rtn. Chamala, and Dr. Vivekanand, brother of Rtn. Sharda Rao, we are on the way to making this government school like no other, with a lovely open-air stage; a computer centre with over 15 computers and a computer teacher; a properly furnished science laboratory; toilets in good condition with proper water supply; an activity centre with audio-visual facilities, library books and games; the list goes on.... During Champaka's presentation, which showed "before-and-after" depictions of what we have done, the audience interrupted several times with applause in appreciation of what they were seeing!
Next to mount the podium was Rtn. Vasanth Kumar, to introduce Rtn. Surya Prakash, the focus of the day's event. Vasanth provided a detailed account of the life of the artist, his early training at the College of Fine Arts at Hyderabad, his studies of various Indian artists at New Delhi and Hyderabad, and his development of his own distinguished style of work, which is now easily recognisable. Rtn. Surya Prakash's paintings adorn the National Art Gallery, New Delhi, as well as several other notable galleries. One of his paintings is also at the PM's residence in New Delhi, as also in many Hotels and corporate HQs. In conclusion, Vasanth also revealed that he had known the artist ever since he was a small boy, since Rtn. Surya Prakash is his father's brother!

It was then time to show the video presentation - A Quest for Identity. This 19-minute video conceived and executed by Rtn. Surya Prakash in 2002, took the audience through Indian art from the earliest cave paintings, the remarkable wall paintings at Ajanta, and the works of all the great artists of the country across time and  genres.
The artist finally presented images of all the ten prints that have been digitally reproduced on canvas and framed and are for sale exclusively to Rotarians at a special price of Rs.25,000. He took the audience through the evolution of his art, which started with impressionist depiction of mangled motor parts, went on to leaves in various forms, and a nature series.
The gathering then adjourned to the foyer for a further viewing of the paintings and the prints, and it was gratifying that we received orders from a dozen Rotarians on the spot, with a few others wishing to get back after consulting their spouses/families. Everyone also enjoyed the sumptuous lunch, hosted by Rtn. Surya Prakash.
This is a good start to our fund-raising efforts and we need to give a huge THANK YOU to Rtn. Surya Prakash for coming forth with this idea and generously providing the paintings for reproduction!
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Cheers.

Raghav