3rd Aug,2023 will go down as one more memorable day in my life. The day I was honoured as a Founder Trustee of Round Table Foundation(RTF) and for being one of the three architects of the Round Table House housing the Permanent Secretariat of Round Table India (RTI) located in Nungambakkam. The project was born from a vision of one man R. Jagdish (Bob) Chandran, Chairman of Premier Mills of Coimbatore, and his generous contribution of Rs 20,00,000 in 1981. As one Round Tabler quipped the building was `the vision of Bob, professional input as an architect by Krish Chitale, and R.V. Rajan`s sweat and blood`. While Bob contributed the money, Krish provided his services free as an architect, I did all the running around to get the papers processed in the corridors of power.
Krish
was the Chairman of RTF for the first 5 years and I was the
Secretary for the first 8 years. Simultaneously I was also performing the
role of the Chairman of the National Secretariat located in my office before it
moved to the Round Table House. My deep involvement with Round Table
almost cost me my job as the Senior Vice President of Grant Kenyon Eckardt advertising.
The
building was inaugurated in 1984 to coincide with the Round Table India AGM in
Madras. Today the building also houses the secretariat of Ladies Circle
India (ladies wing of Round Table India), 41 Clubs of India(ex-Tablers),
and Tangent Clubs of India (Ladies wing of 41 Clubs). The Foundation today has
a corpus of Rs. 12.5 crores the interest from which is distributed as donations
to the clubs of all the four institutions for their deserving projects
The
event appropriately titled `Honouring the Knights of the Round Tables` also
honoured the second founder trustee Suresh Gokuldas and eight major donors**
whose contribution to the Corpus over the years, ranged from Rs 10 lakhs
to Rs 50 lakhs. The special honour- King Arthurs Medal - was
reserved for Bob Chandran who has donated over Rs Two crores so far and
still counting. I missed my good friend Krish Chitale at the event. He passed
away two years ago.
The
Award part of the event was followed by felicitations from Heads of all the
national associations connected with RTF. It was a grand & classy event
attended by the who`s who of the Round Table Community ( both current and
ex-Tablers), meticulously planned and executed by K.Ilango, the current
Chairman of RTF, and his team including the ever enthusiastic Ashvin Kumar,
Secretary of RTF.
I
was very happy to meet a lot of old friends and make a few new friends from the
next generation. It felt as if I was attending another RTI AGM. Among the
awardees, I was one of the four who was given a few minutes to speak. Though I
had already received the Distinguished Service Award ( DSA) in 1984 for my
services to RTI, I was pleasantly surprised to be honoured again with a
beautifully worded `Certificate of Gratitude` (attached) after almost 4
decades. As I mentioned in my talk, Round Table opened up a whole new
world to me, a boy from the Chawls of Bombay. Whatever I am today I owe a big
thanks to the Round Table community
It
was nice to be in the limelight at a Round Table event after almost four
decades.
List
of major donors:
1.
Ganesh Ananthakrishnan - Knight of Round Table
2.
V.S.Surendar - Knight of Round Table
3.
Sumanth Ramamurthi - Knight of Round Table
4.
C.S.Vigneshwar - Knight of Round Table
5. K
Premanathan - Silver Knight of Round Table
6.
K.Ilango - Silver Knight of Round Table
7.
Vagish Dixit - Golden Knight of Round Table
8.
B.V.Ramanan - Golden Knight of Round Table
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