ROTARY CLUB OF MADRAS T.NAGAR – DOWN MEMORY LANE

                                                             By Rtn PP.Chella K.Srinivasan

The Rotary Club of Madras T.Nagar was inaugurated in the lawns of Hotel Savera on the 15^th of March, 1996 in the presence of the then Governor Dr.S.Sundar Raman. Our Club was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Madras South West. There were 25 signatories to the Charter  application, including yours faithfully. Today I am happy to see about 6 of us are still around.

Our club received its Charter on the 16^th of May,1986. I very vividly remember that day. It was at Hotel Park Sheraton (we called it No Park Sheraton as there was very little parking space.) and the Chief Guest was none other than the Chief Justice of Madras High Court Justice Chandrudu. His presence was possible since our Charter President R.Krishnamoorthy is a leading advocate and was then the Advocate General of Tamil Nadu. As our club’s charter was not ready the charter of Madras South West was gift-wrapped and presented to us. Mr.A.K.K. Rao was then acting as our office coordinator and he went into very “high spirits”. He made the leaning tower of Pisa proud. Perhaps that was a prelude of things to come for our club. Our club has never been lacking on fellowship. We conducted an Industrial Fair as a fund raising program. I cannot forget the way we persuaded a book seller to put a stall promising him 10 times the cost of the stall for his sales. We never went past his stall for the next 3 days.

Our second year was lead by our “gyan” I..Varkey, who, suddenly found himself without a club secretary. Rtn.Ganpat, the President-Elect wore 2 hats and helped Varkey. That was the year we had a major fund raising programme. It was a gala musical evening by Ilayaraja.

The 3^rd year of our club saw the ever dynamic Ganpat take over as the President. His favourite project of Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts got our Club the District’s best project award. It has since been abandoned !!!  It was also the 1^st year when our club started the Talent Contest for special children, which later came to be re-christened as the Rota Neeta Talent Contest.

When Rtn. Sanjay Bhandari became our club’s 5^th President we conducted several programs and our club won several awards. The seminar on “Challenges of International Trade” was reported in The Hindu as part of its editorial. We also adopted the Spastics Society of Tamil Nadu and equipped them with several facilities. Rtn.Narayanamurty of Premier Housing was our next President. The Rota House was a major fund raising programme. We also had an elocution competition for school children on the topic “Secularism is the bed rock of our Nationhood”. I am still wondering its significance to Rotary. It was the year when Jacob Rajkumar joined our club. Our 7^th President was as dazzling as the diamonds he was dealing in. Rtn.Vummidi Balaji gave a new dimension to our club.

The next Rotary year saw the author as the President when support was extended to SPASTN for an open air theatre and Bala Vihar for a children’s park. This was the year when the talent contest for special children began to be done on a larger scale at the state level.

Without any hesitation I can say that Butchu(B.L.Ratan), was a President (1997-98) who everyone found very difficult to handle. A man with a golden heart could shatter your aesthetic sense with his jokes. It was great year for our club. The Finance Minister, Mr. P.Chidambaram, was there to address an audience of more than 2000 chartered accountants and businessmen on the VDIS scheme under our club banner. It was the year when the Rotary Rajan Eye Bank was inaugurated and since then it has been a jewel in Rotary T.Nagar’s crown. The next year saw Ganpat being elected as the Governor nominee and the elections, which followed confirmed that Rotary Club of Madras T.Nagar was a club to be reckoned with. 

The year 2001/02 saw Ganpat as the Governor of our district and Dr.Mohan Rajan as the President of our club. A glorious year, which, no Rotarian would like to forget. Our District collected the maximum for the Foundation and also the highest membership during that year. Since then our Club members has always been at the District administration irrespective of the changing political scenario every year. A few of our MPs could take few tips from us.

An idea of our club’s conduct of the regular meetings could help green Rotarians. In Rotary all regular meetings are preceded by a light fellowship, which is for about 30 minutes. Accordingly our club starts its fellowship at 6.30pm and the President calls the meting to order at 7pm. Mostly the club’s regular business is completed in 10 to 15 minutes after which we have a good speaker for the next 20 minutes. A variety of speakers have addressed our club, ranging from Businessmen, bankers, Doctors, Sportsmen, film personalities and our own members talking of their vocations; eg. Gemini Ganesan, S.P.Balu, Anuradha Sriram, Krish Srikanth, Mr.S.Gopalakrishnan Chairman IOB, Mr Hari Baskar, Mr.P.Chidambaram, Dr.Ravi Subramaniam etc.

The term of Rtn N.Venkatesan as President witnessed emphasis on excellent & thematic fellowships including one at Yercaud, excellent speakers, bringing together M.S.Viswanathan & T.K. Ramamurthy in concert (with SPB) after a number of years, community activities such as annadanams throughout the year, project for the hearing impaired in association with Airtel, & assistance to the Panchayat School, Sundara Chozhavaram, inter-school quiz, double wicket cricket tournament for Rotarians under flood lights, etc. RC T.Nagar received accolades & won several prizes at the District level with the crowning achievement being adjudged the third best club in the district in its category (bronze in the Rotary Action Trophy). The interact club at PSBB was started and this club fittingly won the silver trophy in the very first year. The feature of the year was the prompt online reporting of meetings & a Rotary photo album on the internet by Secretary PP. Rtn. N.Ramakrishnan.

To conclude I could say that our club’s strength has been fellowship and projects. We have had several theme-based fellowships and most of them are well received by our members and their families. The members’ families have been playing a very important role in the cohesiveness of our club’s functioning. At this juncture it is very important that we increase our membership so that whatever little interference from the few active past presidents can further be reduced. The induction of 18 members by Pres TSN is a step in the right direction.