Rotary Club of Bombay North - Rotary India

NEW RAINBOW IN THE ROTARY SKY

Rotary entered the great city of Mumbai (Bombay in those days) in the year 1929, through the new enterprise ROTARY CLUB OF BOMBAY , meeting every Tuesday at 1.00 pm, first at Green’s Hotel and later till now at the Taj. It soon grew into a membership of over 300 and so it was decided in the year 1960 to carve North Bombay from Haji Ali to Mahim into a new territory, with the Club to be called THE ROTARY CLUB OF BOMBAY NORTH, the very first such ceding of territory. North of Mahim was not considered a part of Mumbai in the early sixties!

The minimum requirement was 25 to start a new club, and with recommendations from existing Rotarians, we met for the first time as a provisional club in February 1961 in the spacious National Sports Club of India (NSCI). Rtn SOLI PAVRI , a distinguished Rotarian of the Rotary Club of Bombay already, and former Principal of Boys Town, Nashik, was loaned by RC of Bombay to put the new Club on track. The much loved and dynamic Soli soon established himself as an outstanding leader, and since those early days has been affectionately recognized as the "Father" of our Club. The club finally received its charter in August 1962.

RCBN gathered momentum from year to year, and membership soon crossed over a 100, making us one of the largest Clubs in the India of those days. We had many eminent personalities of all India fame as members: Dr B. N. Purandare , gynaecologist, Dr K. K. Datey, Cardiologist; Nariman Sahukar from Godrej group, solid as a rock in ethical values; and many others to be welded into a dedicated team by"Father" Soli.

Naturally, with such a collection of leaders, RCBN rapidly ventured into new and needed fields of service -- annual blood donations from members; family planning camps in rural areas -- we introduced the sale of condoms at local railway stations, overcoming objections from a puritan society, seminars on topics of public interest, immunization camps including polio in rural areas (long before RI took it up as a thrust area), eye camps, dental camps etc. Then in 1971 our President, the quiet but effective Huseini Khorakiwalla, from the Akbarally/Monginis group, conceived the idea of adopting the Worli BDD Chawls as an ongoing project. A full time social worker, Usha Shah, was employed to implement projects, involve participation by local residents, reach out to the women folk, and cultivate an attitude of self-help in the area. Today, after over 40 years, and some expansion in the Centre, it is the focus of much good for all the over 80 buildings in the area with a combined population of almost a lac.

The reputation for friendliness combined with service helped to attract talent and leadership every year. New members included Dr Badar Maskati, (joined in 1964) ophthalmologist, whose sense of humour enlivened many an occasion, and personal example of over 50,000 free cataract operations inspired our Club towards pride of place in Community Service. We contributed five District Governors, each adding luster to our reputation:Soli Pavri himself, who later became a Director of Rotary at the International level; Surendra Mehta, Dr Badar Maskati, M. P. Apte and Vijay Jalan.

On each occasion, hosting the District Conference was a challenge well handled. We were successful with the help of Inner Wheel member Rehmat Fazelbhoy, herself an active worker in the field of blind welfare, to have Mother Teresa as the Chief Guest for DG Badar’s Conference. Unlike most main speakers, she restricted herself to just seven minutes, but at the end of her speech there were tears in many eyes and new determination in many a Rotary heart. Her theme was simple: you Rotarians belong to the elite of society, and are all leaders in your profession or business. You have a reputation for generosity with handsome donations to support and encourage your projects. Let this continue. But remember, that is not the end of your career in service, for true poverty is not of money, but loneliness of hearts at all levels of society. Therefore find the time to participate with warmth and enthusiasm in all your projects -- your personal presence is the bonus value you can bring to your activities and earn countless blessings.

The legacy of those simple words continues to be the foundation of our adventures in service in the various avenues.

International Service was a field in which members provided home hospitality to incoming students and sent many of our own children overseas on long term International Youth exchange (now known as Rotary Youth Exchange or RYE). Group Study Exchange (GSE) teams have often included young men and women recommended by our club. Our PP Sultan Fazelbhoy was a popular GSE Team Leader to USA in 1981. Our club has sent medicines and personnel to conduct mega health camps in distant Mozambique, besides contributing a huge collection of traditional dolls for an International doll museum in Kobe, Japan. Currently RCBN is involved is the recipient of a large Rotary International Grant to examine the eyes of 60,000 underprivileged children in the schools of Dharavi slums and adjoining areas. By January 2015, we have completed seeing over 40,000 children; almost 2000 have been provided free spectacles, several hundereds have been taken to the Bachooali Hospital (our partner for this project “Nanhe” ) for a comprehensive eye examination and many have undergone vision restorative surgery

In the avenue of Vocational Service: There have been regular and steady efforts to promote the Four Way Test and ethical values. We had a rare public performance with all the stars (except one) being Rotarians and Rotaryannes of the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) play THE FORGOTTEN FACTOR, the solution to conflicts between employers and employees. There were two well attended shows in Bombay and one in Pune. We published regular bulletins called EER (Employer-Employee Relations) and “Think” on vocational service; had many vocational visits for members to places like the Bombay Stock Exchange, Indian Express etc. Rotarians PP Raman Patel (charter member and now our Honorary Rotarian) and Walter Vieira devised many scenarios where dilemmas of ethics in the workplace were presented in the form of case studies. These were read out at weekly meetings and always provoked excellent debates on the 4 way test. Under Ashok Kanwar’s leadership, an ‘ethics’ seminar was organized at the Oberoi, where speakers included the late Swami Chinmayananda, Dr. P.N.Singh etc.

Youth Service: RCBN has always been young at heart. We have nurtured several Interact Clubs in schools, and Rotaract Clubs at Colleges as well as community based. It is heartwarming to come across young boys and girls responding to the call of service above self and emphasis on ethical values. In our own way we have nurtured future leaders in many directions. Our most recent effort has seen the establishing of an Interact club in the National Girls School at Bandra East and one in Shradhashram. The children attending these schools all belong to the underprivileged section of society. Nevertheless they will do their bit to improve the community they live in as well as get valuable lessons in leadership skills. Our club has contributed several district chairmen for Youth Service such as Vijay Jalan and Jagdish Toprani. We have been the lead club in organizing many RYLAs (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards). These are 1-2 day training programmes for youth.

Community Service: This has been the strength of our club. Numerous cataract camps – many at the factory premises of our late member Anna Dhamankar at Khopoli; squint camps since almost 2 decades at Devlali; annual medical camps at our adopted Worli BDD chawls; and since the last few years at the Girls School at Bandra East; repairing and refurbishing of a well at the Worli Village; running computer classes and English classes at our Worli Welfare Centre; de-addiction camps, child counseling (courtesy Sajeda Maskati) sponsoring of vocational training for the youth of Worli BDD chawls in car driving, air-condition repair (courtesy Saifuddin Saria) are just some of the projects that come to mind.

Innovation and uniqueness has been a characteristic of many a project. The most recent achievement in the year 2009-10 under the leadership of PP Dr Satya Agarwal is the SKIN BANK, at the National Burns Centre at Airoli near New Mumbai. It is the very first to be set up under a matching grant project. It is planned to start at least 5 more on our state in the near future.

At District level Bombay North has been very active in the past

PP Raman Patel has been Dist conference treasurer during Soli Pavri’s year, District conference secretary during Surendra Mehta’s year and District Conference Chairman during Badar Maskati’s year. Beside this he was Dist Chairman of Employer Employee Relations Comm. during Shirish Sheth’s year and District Chairman Community Service during Jyotindra Vakil’s year. He was also GSR during Prabhakar Store’s year and started the Rotary Club of Midcity. Besides Ramanbhai, several others like Babu Todi, Sultan, Quresh, Jagdish Toprani, Keki Mistry, Habil Khorakiwala the late Venkappa Agadi, Abbas Arsiwala have served the district in various capacities for many years.

Our silver jubilee year under the President ship of Vijay Lazarus set a new benchmark. With the help of PP Hakubhai Kapadia and PP Harshad Barot the club collected a record amount to swell both club and charity trust coffers. Not content with that, we responded to the appeal of late PDG Jagdish Khanna and topped the district in our collection for the Rotary Foundation as well.

Our Golden Jubilee Year was equally a landmark. The RI President was an Indian, Kalyan Bannerjee, our DG was from our club, Vijay Jalan. We hosted the Golden Jubilee District Conference with a difference, courtesy the conceptualizing by Vijay Lazarus and aided by a great team that included more than half the club strength! Ajet Arenja as club President rose to the occasion and made it a year to remember!

Some incidents from the past remain firmly etched in memory. Kakubhai Toprani and Jagdish Mittra incoming presidents suddenly dying just before assuming office; the flash floods during Ram Batra’s installation at the NSCI, which forced many members to spend the entire night in their parked vehicles. Ram of course later went on to become sheriff of Bombay (as it was then called).

We have changed many venues for our regular weekly meetings in these 53 years. The Worli Dairy, the Nehru Planetarium, Nehru Centre, Jade garden, Poonam Hotel (now defunct), Ambassador Hotel, a variety of clubs, such as the NSCI, Garware Club House, Bombay Cricket Association, WIAA, CCI , Willingdon are some of the venues. Many a meeting has been had at the Victoria Memorial School for the Blind and our own Worli Welfare Centre as well. Since the past few months we have been made comfortable at the Mini Turf club house at the race course. However, the search for the perfect venue remains like the quest for the Holy Grail!

An article such as this must always feel incomplete because it is impossible to encapsulate the 50 plus year journey of a club such as ours into a few pages of written text. The authors apologise for leaving out many an event or many a name in this rambling, anecdotal piece. We are sure, with more inputs from members present and past, we will add on to this article in the near future on our very own club website.

In conclusion, suffice it to say that the club is vibrant, pulsating and looks forward to another 50 years of service to the community. The Rotary wheel will move on and on and on with the Rotary Club of Bombay North always ready to lend a shoulder to the wheel. Long live RCBN!