Viji Iyengar- a legend in his life time

 I first met  A.V.Iyengar  popularly known as Viji , at my first ever RTI AGM in Delhi in 1969. I was a rookie Tabler having joined Bombay West Round Table No. 6 a few months earlier. Desikan from my Club had been proposed for President ship  of RTI against  the redoubtable Indu Chandhok . There was intense campaigning in which Viji was on our side though Indu was his good friend.  For the first time I witnessed Viji as a passionate speaker with a fighting spirit. I kept bumping into him in more AGMs in the following years. I found that not only was he excellent in debates but was also a fun guy with a great sense of humour. The fights between Viji and Deepak Banker ( a past Woco President) on the floors of the RTI AGMs , arguing on some issue or the other,  were  legendary. However during the Fellowship times  they were the  best of friends.

Viji  was as much a Fellowship man  as he was in his deep involvement with any service projects.  His close association with Mother Theresa  was  well known. He enjoyed people and parties, many of which he would host at his spacious home  in Calcutta. Viji & Shibani, the made for each other couple, were excellent hosts. I had the pleasure of staying with them on a couple of occasions thoroughly  enjoying their home hospitality. More than anything else he was a great friend,  ever ready to help any one  in need of any kind of help.

In any meetings or  get togethers  he was well known for his spontaneous responses, delivered with his customary zeal and force. With his boisterous nature, inimitable laughter  and friendly disposition  Viji  won the hearts of every one he came in contact with.  A very popular Tabler he was undoubtedly a pillar of the Round table movement in India in its initial years.

I got to know Viji closely when I became the National Extension Officer when he was the President of RTI in 1977. Viji  was a flamboyant tabler,  a bit disorganized but always very ambitious in his thinking. At a board meeting when I was questioning him about some seemingly impossible targets his response was `Let us aim for the sky. We will at least reach the top of the tree`. That was Viji for you. He was a great leader and motivator

I remember a Board meeting  we had in the train  travelling to attend  the charter of a new Table in some city in Gujarat  ( I forget the name of the city) . Viji conducted the meeting with aplomb.  We not only had a good meeting but also thoroughly enjoyed the trip with `Fellowsip` flowing right through the journey. Another incident that comes to my mind happened during the RTI  AGM he was presiding in Chennai. Based on my successful stint as the National Extension Officer, my club ( Madras West Round Table no 10) had proposed my name for the position of National Secretary of RTI. Standing against me was Ashok Dasgupta  of Alipore Club in Calcutta to which Viji belonged. Though I was a hot favourite, I had refused to campaign for votes. So  when the votes were counted there was a tie and Viji had to give his casting vote . He had no choice but to vote for  Ashok, his own Club member. Ashok who had already left for the airport thinking that he would not win had to be called back and made the National Secretary.  Viji was all apologies but I took it in good spirit and continued to do my bit as the Chairman of the National Secretariat of RTI located in my office.

Even after I ceased to be a tabler my association with Viji continued  as the Secretary of Round Table Foundation, a brain child of Bob Chandran. As one of the  trustees of the Foundation he would regularly attend the annual  board meetings and offer useful suggestions. Simultaneously he was also active as a 41er.

Viji Iyengar was one of the founder members of 41 Club No. 8 in Calcutta consisting of ex-

Tablers from Alipore Round Table. On a visit to Chennai in 1984, he went to attend a meeting

of Ex-Tablers in Madras Gymkhana.He found the ‘King & King Maker’ Indu Chandhok of 41 Club No. 1 in the process of persuading a reluctant S Raja of Bangalore to become the President of the Association, for the year 1984-85. The moment he saw Viji  walking in, he announced, ‘Here comes the next Vice President of the Association.’ And that was it. No election. No consultation. Since Viji was used to Indu’s style of functioning from his Round Table days, he agreed. Viji became

the President of the Association  only  in 1986 since Raja continued for a second term.

 

When I interviewed him at his home in Calcutta for the book  titled `44years of 41 Clubs In India`which I was editing, he claimed that during his term, he  had initiated the drafting of a more formal Constitution and Bylaws by Prakash Apte of Calcutta though it  would take another couple of years before the new constitution was formally adopted by the Association. It  paved  the way for the Ex-Tablers’ Association to become the National Association of 41 Clubs of India.

 

I  was touched when  he came  personally to receive me at the airport and take me to his home though he could have just sent his driver to pick me up. That was Viji for you.

 

The credit for starting the Fellowship magazine of the Association also goes to him. It was  started in 1987 with Alban Scolt of Calcutta as the first editor.( I was to be the editor of Fellowship for six terms in later years.) Viji was also responsible for taking the initiatives to extend the 41 Clubs to newer cities.

 

I continued to meet Viji in all the 41 Club AGMs. I remember  as a `Sergeant at Arms` at both the Round Table and 41Club AGMs he was in his elements making the audience roar with laughter with his  witty comments.

 

Though he had been suffering from cardiac issues for the last few years, he continued to be active. Attending meetings when required. However, after his wife Shibani was diagnosed with the dreaded Alzheimer disease, he was devastated. I  was told that he was lapsing into depression very often though his son and daughter were doing their best to look after their parents. I was surprised when I received a call from him a few weeks ago asking for some contacts in Vellore to help some friend. Amazing that he was service minded till his last breath.

 

Viji passed away of cardiac arrest  on the night of 28^th July,22 after suffering with septic shock at a hospital in Calcutta where he was admitted two days earlier. A legend not only in the world of Tablers & Ex Tablers but also in the social circles of Calcutta decided to go back to his maker.

 

I feel bad that I will never again hear his voice affectionately  calling me `Dei Iyengare` ( as I am also an Iyengar) or `Dei Raja`.

 

 I pray god to make his soul attain Satgathi. Om Shanthi!