As I retire from Rotary Club of Madras South on 30th June, 2024, after 47 memorable years as a Southerner, some thoughts on my journey as a Rotarian
I have mentioned in many forums that for a boy from the chawls of Bombay, Round Table India, a youth organization opened up a whole new world, and Rotary, considered the midwife of the Round Table movement, helped me enlarge my network of friends. I was introduced to both organizations by my good friend (late) R.Desikan, a well known consumer activist - a Past President of Round Table India and the Charter President of the Rotary Club of Madras Adyar.
I joined the Rotary Club of Madras South in December 1977, just a day before the Rotary District Conference held at the Anna University campus. Since the club had another member with the advertising classification, I was given the classification of Audio Visual. As I was extremely busy with the Round Table, I could not participate actively in Rotary between 1977 and 1984. However, I was happy to do simple assignments given to me by the then ruling Presidents of the club.
Silver Jubilee Secretary
When I retired from Round Table in 1984, I was roped in as the Secretary of the club during its Silver Jubilee year 1984-85 with Rtn. B. Gopalswamy as the Silver Jubilee President, I had the opportunity to display my capabilities in the execution of the ambitious programme drawn up by the President and his team for that year. Gopalaswamy was a great leader and motivator!
I remember being actively involved in not just bringing out a Silver Jubilee volume for the club but also producing a 15-minute audio-visual presentation on the 25 years of Rotary Club of Madras South.
The biggest event of the year was the RELF 85, a mega exhibition on Electrical and Electronics arranged at the Congress Grounds in Teynampet, masterminded by the dynamic Rtn.PP Imbichammad (who had just moved to Madras from Bangalore) and chaired by the charismatic Rtn.PP A.N. Srinivasa Rao (of Solidaire TV fame). I was totally involved in organizing the exhibition — an unforgettable learning experience that helped me conduct several exhibitions later. The master checklist which Rtn. Bicha had prepared for RELF 85, which became a manual on exhibitions for me. Like most events in any voluntary organization, RELF 85 also had its ups and downs before it became a resounding success and a trendsetter as a fundraising concept in the Rotary District 320. The club raised over Rs. 5 lakh from the event which was a big amount of money those days. Many other clubs later followed this trend of exhibitions as fundraisers!
Before the end of the Silver Jubilee year, the club decided to utilize the funds raised from RELF 85 by adopting the Tiruvidenthai village near Madras where a historical 2000-year-old Perumal temple is located. The next six years saw the club members, under the chairmanship of Rtn K. Gopalakrishnan, getting involved in several development activities like providing drinking water, building classrooms, a community hall, vocational training etc. All these activities culminated in the ‘Multiprojects Inauguration
Day’ during my year as the President in 1991-92.
Finding in me a willing worker, senior Rotarians in the district promptly roped me in to handle the publicity for the Pulse Polio Programme under the chairmanship of Rtn PP S.L. Chitale, who had initiated the Measles Immunization Programme of the Rotary Club of Madras during his Presidential year. This had snowballed into the massive Pulse Polio Programme of Rotary International, At the District Conference chaired by DG Chidambaram, I was the recipient of the “Paul Harris Fellowship” which the District conferred on me for my contribution to the publicity of the Pulse Polio Programme.
Two unfortunate episodes around this time involving highly respected Rotarians in the District made me lose my respect for them. I became disillusioned with the politics in the district then, ( I understand that it is no different even now) and decided to not accept any positions in the district because of my not-so-flexible value systems! Later when DG Viswam offered me the position of Governor`s Group Representative (GGR), considered a stepping stone to moving up the Rotary ladder then, I politely refused. However, that did not stop me from contributing whatever I could to the activities of the club utilizing my position as an adman and as an organizer.
Rotary One Centre
In 1988, I made a memorable trip to Chicago to visit the Rotary One Centre, the World Headquarters of Rotary International. Prabha and I were taken on a guided tour of the building with several floors and finally reached the office of the President. Unfortunately, the President was away on a tour but fortunately, it allowed me to sit in the President’s chair and take a photograph with Prabha standing behind me. It was a thrilling moment. I recommend that every committed Rotarian visit the headquarters and get to know how much effort the Secretariat puts in to make the jobs of the office bearers at different levels easy by providing relevant guidelines for each position.
At the Helm of RCMS
It was in 1990 that I was installed as the thirty-first President of Rotary Club of Madras South by PDG, Prof. S.R. Govindarajan, father-in-law of Rtn. (late) M.K. Kannan of our club. I took over from Rtn. R. Ramamurthy at a glittering function held at Hotel Ambassador Pallava. I had done my homework and not only made an AV presentation on the proposed activities during my year of office as President but also distributed two booklets produced at my cost. One was the Roster of members and another containing details of all the planned activities for the year indicating the dates and targets! This became a trend with other incoming Presidents merging the two books into one.
Apart from the routine activities, the highlight of the year was Ronex 91, an exhibition on environment-related topics held at Anna University helping our club launch the first-ever industry/academic joint activity. This fund-raising event had a seminar, an exhibition, a walkathon and an entertainment programme, all geared to raise awareness of the environment among the Chennai public. Rtn. K.S. Jayaraman, with his abiding interest in the subject, was a great help! Before the end of the year, the club announced a joint project with Anna University called Rotary-Danaberg Energy Centre. The centre was supposed to be a Zero Energy Centre to be run by non-conventional energy inside the campus.
I introduced the concept of Fellowship Basket, an idea that I had used during my Round Table days, where a basket containing fruits or gifts would be carried by a Rotarian and handed over to another at a pre-arranged tea or dinner get-together organized by the recipient.
During my Presidency, I also started a permanent secretariat in my office at L.R.Swamy Building, with a full-time assistant to manage the affairs of the club. The secretariat was to have an Archive to store records and old photographs collected from members. I also managed to get two cupboards sponsored by Rotarians and collected quite a few photographs and files. My office naturally became a beehive of activities, famous for the Bonda and coffee I served during committee meetings.
Unfortunately, this initiative was scuttled by the President who followed me.
Operation New Blood
While I was content with the role I was playing in Rotary, I was also beginning to feel that the Club was slowing down in terms of activities and there was no effort to rope in young blood, There was a crisis of leadership. The average age of the club was 65. It was the last straw when one year, due to a lack of potential leaders, a past President agreed to step in and function as the Treasurer of the club. As a proactive person, I felt I must do something, instead of simply grumbling about it. When Rtn. A.G. Shankar took over as the President with Rtn. Sriprakash as his Secretary, I volunteered to be the New Membership Convenor under the Club Service Director.
I chalked out a plan for inducting new members who were less than fifty of age to help the club in bringing down the average age of the club. I decided to target ex-tablers who I felt would be ideal material for the membership of a Rotary Club. As a marketing strategy, I called the whole project Operation New Blood and started aggressively promoting the same at all meetings, fellowship get-togethers, etc, Out of the 25 proposals I received I recommended the induction of only 10 candidates who were carefully chosen after I ascertained that they satisfied all the criteria laid down by me. I am glad to report that all the members inducted under Operation New Blood , in due course, became Presidents of the club.
The biggest and most memorable event in my life as a Southerner happened in 2010 when I volunteered to be the Chairman of the Golden Jubilee Committee, with Rtn Bowmick as the Golden Jubilee president of our club. The year witnessed multiple activities, meticulously planned by me and executed with help from talented Southerners. A Kickoff night, a mega fundraising event in association with Inner Wheel Club of Madras South held at the University Centenary hall, Fifty projects in the fiftieth year masterminded by Rtn. PP. B.B.Venkadesh, a coffee table book chronicling the first 50 years of RCMS edited by Rtn PP S.R.Madhu and a Grand Finale held at the then iconic Taj Coromandel hotel were the main highlights of the year.
For the first 30 years my advertising agency had the privilege of helping almost every President in all their publicity efforts.
Once I turned 70, I decided not to accept any statutory obligations which meant I did not accept any positions in any organization. However, I continued enjoying the fellowship of Southerners. How can I forget the love and affection showered on me in abundance by the families of Southerners? Many of my good friends in life today are Southerners or ex-Southerners. I am not naming names as the list is long.
As I will be leaving the Rotary Club of Madras South ( because of my shifting base to Coimbatore) on 30th June 2024, after 47 memorable years as a Southerner, I would like to convey my sincere thanks to every Southerner who has touched my life one way or the other.
(Photos attached taken at a meeting of RCMS on 8th June, where I was honoured with a memento for my long and eventful association with the club)
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