f o r p r ivat e c i r c u l at i o n o n ly
Vol. 5 6 I Is s ue No. 42 I Mum bai I April 14 – April 20, 2015 I Pages 8 I r 3/-
From the President’s Desk
Fellow Rotarians,
The last four meetings of your Board and Office Bearers were focused
on four strategic issues which I would like to share with you:
 After an immense amount of soul searching, we have had to let
five of our members go as they could not find the time to attend
our meetings. Respecting the Rotary International rules regarding
attendance, we took the difficult decision last week.
 We found that 18 of our members have not made our Club any part
of their giving in the last five years. 164 members have a chance to
open their giving account, for which we have the initial programme
load on. Please let us have a 100% record of at least some giving to
our Club.
 The most satisfying experience for me this year was the
outstanding engagement of Interact and Rotaract Clubs
associated with our Club. 500 underprivileged children received
their first possession in life – a Slumber Kit. Our old people’s home
is humming! Our Night Study Centres are shining and the Bhavishya
Yaan initiative is gaining great traction. I urge every Rotarian to get
involved in our Club projects.
In this last quarter of my term, I urge you all to rise and
give, serve, attend and light up Rotary with fellowship
and service.
bank holiday: no meeting
April 14 to April 20, 2015
The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay | www.rotaryclubofbombay.org
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The joy of small things
E
very day life showers us with
umpteen small pleasures,
joys and happiness which we
cherish but do not value like getting up early, going for a morning
walk, breathing in fresh air and
relishing a cup of tea or coffee.
While driving to your office,
halt your car before a pedestrian
crossing, giving way to an old
couple trying to cross the road.
Greet your staff with a smile to
make them feel valued. While
dictating letters to your suppliers
and customers, write an extra line
conveying your special thanks
and gratitude for their support
and patronage.
Life is full of small pleasures
and joys which bring us oceans of
happiness. Helping, sharing and
generosity in giving brings such a
joy. Help a blind person to cross
the road or help someone on the
road to pick up fallen things or
just hold the door for someone.
Expression of gratitude in the
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recipient’s eyes is your reward.
Life’s byword is help. Help others
for your own happiness.
Surely, you want to live
a healthier life. Cut down on
unhealthy food and add more
fruits and vegetables to your diet.
Change your dietary habits slowly
but change it all the same.
Take the stairs instead of the
lift wherever possible and start
your morning workout for ten minutes at the beginning and then
gradually for longer periods of
time. Increase your water intake
and cut down on the sugar by
decreasing the sugar in your tea
or coffee. In order to keep your
blood pressure in check, reduce
your salt intake. Wanting to stop
smoking, or those endless cups
of sweetened coffee or aerated
drinks? Follow the Five per cent
Rule. Bring in small changes (five
per cent) gradually and you get
used to a new routine.
Same is true of wealth.
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All big fortunes or people with
such fortunes were small at one
time. It is not necessary that one
inherits great wealth. You can
create wealth by working hard
and grabbing opportunities that
come your way. You should also
start saving early in life, even if it
is a small figure. Most great or big
businesses we see today were
created over a long period of time
and started small.
In order to save while you are
young, you must resist making
wasteful expenses wherever possible. Create inner values rather
than an outer prestige through
self-creation, self-improvement
or self-empowerment by bringing
in attitudinal changes. Spread
goodness in small measures.
Share your happiness with others
and happiness will come back
your way. Give more, expect less,
be yourself, do not compare, love
your work, be more patient, more
tolerant, kinder and courteous,
shun greed. Be a role model for
others to follow. Each step taken
towards that end will take you
closer to inner peace, contentment and emotional well-being.
Often, we feel hurt by someone’s derogatory or uncomplimentary remarks, comments or
views and feel offended.
Often, small things become
big for us and take us towards
negativity. Steer clear of negativity and make sure that you
can keep your friends and family
away from as much as you can.
Life is not about wasting our
precious time on small troubles
magnified by our ego into bigger
issues than they are; it is about
forgiveness and moving on. Since
we do not know if our life is going
to be short or long, start enjoying
all the day-to-day joys God has
gifted to each and every one of us
instead of focussing on what we
don't have, and happiness
will follow.
April 14 to April 20, 2015
“The Rotary Foundation is not to build monuments of brick and stone. If we work upon marble,
it will perish; if we work on brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into
dust; but if we work upon immortal minds, if we imbue them with the full meaning of the spirit
of Rotary as expressed in our Objects and with the just fear of God and love of our fellowmen,
we are engraving on those tablets something that will brighten all eternity.”
–The Rotary Foundation,
THE ROTARIAN, April 1929
Donors to the Rotary Club of Bombay
Charities Trust No. 3 (2014-15)
Name
Cause
Amount
Rotary Education A Foundation
(through Rtn. Madhu Narang of RC Bombay West)
Bhavishya Yaan
R5,00,000
Rtn. Ajit Surana
Bhavishya Yaan
R2,50,000
Rtn. Anil Harish
Birthday Donation
R7,500
Rtn. Subhash Gogia
Birthday Donation
R5,001
April 14 to April 20, 2015
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The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay | www.rotaryclubofbombay.org
April 14 to April 20, 2015
April 14 to April 20, 2015
The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay | www.rotaryclubofbombay.org
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Rotarians learn about
child development and disabilities
At last week’s meeting, Dr. Vibha Krishnamurthy discussed Early Childhood Development
D
r. Vibha Krishnamurthy has trained
in Developmental Paediatrics at
Children’s Hospital, Boston. She
founded Ummeed Child Development
Center in 2001 and is currently the
Executive Director. She has 15 years of
experience in India as a developmental
paediatrician and serves on expert
committees related to Early Childhood
Development and disability for the WHO
and Government of India.
Ummeed was set up with the
objective of helping children with
developmental disabilities such as
cerebral palsy, mental retardation,
learning disability, autism and attention
deficit disorder.
Dr. Krishnamurthy expressed her
pleasure at being invited by the Club
and at seeing many familiar faces in the
audience. She said, “I will begin by saying
that my talk is not going to be just about
disabilities; although child development
and disability is my main area of focus, I
want to place disability in the context of
Early Childhood Development in general
here today. When I talk about disabilities,
I see that only a few people are interested
in the subject and those are the ones with
a personal connect to the issue and the
others who have had no experience with
it believe that it does not concern them.
However, I hope that by the end of this
talk, I can convince all of you that each
and every one of us is deeply affected by
child development and disabilities. So I
am going to tell you Amol’s story, which
is his real name and he has given his
consent for this story to be told. Amol’s
father is a police constable working in
Nanded and he lives with his wife, Amol
and his sister. Even before Amol was
born, it was decided that he was going to
be the future breadwinner of the family
and work at a position much higher than
that of his father. Amol however, was
born with hyper-thyroidism that went
undetected till he was 10 months old.
Those of you in the medical field know
how much the thyroid hormone affects
brain development. Today, Amol takes his
supplements and comes to see me but
he is a slow learner. His father’s question
to me the last time I met him was what
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Guest Speaker Vibha Krishnamurthy at last week's meeting
The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay | www.rotaryclubofbombay.org
April 14 to April 20, 2015
kind of a job I thought Amol
would get.”
She then discussed where the
workforce pipeline for people with
disabilities begin. “One option
would be livelihood training and
lots of wonderful NGOs do that
today, but, perhaps, we should
begin a little earlier, at learning
institutions starting from a good
school. Everybody talks about
how we need to invest in school
kids today to ensure a vibrant
workforce for the future.
"Ninety per cent of your
brain has developed by the time
you are three years old and the
rate at which the brain acquires
neuronal connections in these
first three years is unmatched
in the rest of your life. You are
going to keep learning well into
your 60s and 70s, but the fact
April 14 to April 20, 2015
is that the maximum return on
investment you get is when you
invest in a rapidly growing brain
in the first three years of your
life. So the difference you make
in a child’s life by investing early
is dramatic. It often misleads
people into thinking this implies
that you need to cram as much
knowledge as possible into
a child’s brain in those three
years but the fact of the matter
is brains are not sponges. In
fact, a child’s brain could not be
less like a sponge. Much like
a tennis match, a child's brain
works on a serve and response
basis. What you serve, the child
picks up and responds to in the
same manner. This is what we
need to remember when we
are investing in Early Childhood
Development," she explained.
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Published on Tuesday, April 14, 2015. Regd. No. MCS/091/2015-17; R.N.I. No. 14015/60, WPP license No. MR / TECH / WPP-89/South 2015
License to post without prepayment. Posted at Mumbai Patrika Channel Sorting Office, Mumbai 400 001, on Wednesday, April 15, 2015
rotary club of bombay
Founded 19 march, 1929
Charter No. 3128, Dated 08 May, 1929
97-B Mittal Tower, Nariman Point
Mumbai 400 021, India
Tel.: 91 22 22024089
Fax.: 91 22 22024509
[email protected]
Happy Birthday
Forthcoming Meetings
APRIL 21
Nasser Munjee will speak on
“Transforming India : Are we
missing an opportunity?"
Office Bearers 2014-15
President Immediate Past President President-Elect President-Nominee Honorary Secretary Joint Honorary Secretary Honorary Treasurer Dr. Darius Soonawalla
April 14
Shailesh Haribhakti
Nirav Shah
Dr. Sonya Mehta
Dr. Mukesh Batra
Nandan Maluste
Ritu Prakash Desai
Manish Reshamwala
Club Service: New Members
Director in charge
Dr. Sonya Mehta
Classifications and
Membership PP Arun Sanghi
Rotary Information PP Paul George
Membership Development
and District Conference Dr. Mukesh Batra
Sergeant-at-Arms and
Assimilation Tara Deshpande
Club Service: Programmes and Meetings
Director in charge Meera Alreja
Programmes Nanik Rupani
Fellowship PP Ashish Vaid
Attendance Arvind Agarwal
Bulletin and Website Dr. Prakriti Poddar
Fundraising Pradeep Chinai
Sports Hiranmay Biswas
Community Service: Medical
Director in charge
Dr. Nayna Dastur
Chairman Emeritus – Talwada PP Dr. Rahim Muljiani
Hasanali Tobaccowala Eye Centre PP Dr. Rumi Jehangir
Ajit Deshpande Medical Centre PP Nowroze Vazifdar
Medical and Cancer Aid Dr. Anand Shah
Differently Abled and Polio Plus PP Kalpana Munshi
Community Service: Non Medical
Director in charge
Alok Sekhsaria
Women Empowerment
Arin Master
Environment and Water
Sanitation Madhusudan Daga
Legal Aid
Sameer Tapia
Old Age Home (Ambarnath)
Ravi Fotedar
Vocational Service
Director in charge Rotary Public Awards Vocational Training and
Night Study Centres Vikram Daiya
Shernaz Vakil
Sunny Pariyaram
International Service
Director in charge Hiren Kara
The Rotary Foundaion and
TRF Grants PP Sandip Agarwalla
Corporate Social Responsibility Suresh Goklaney
Youth I – Education
Director in charge Preeti Mehta
Bhavishya Yaan Shivkumar Israni
Merit-cum-Means Scholarships Roda Billimoria
Youth II – Early Act
Director in charge Interact Rotaract District Thrust Areas
Director in charge Committees on
District Initiatives Freyaz Shroff
Sidharth Punshi
Gaurav Nevatia
Manoj Patodia
PP Pradeep Saxena
Vibhay Sinha
April16
Mukesh Ambani
April 19
Manish Reshamwala
April 18
The statistics for the
meeting held on Tuesday,
April 7, 2015 are
as under:
Suresh Agarwal
April 19
Vinod Juneja
April 20
Vijay Dhawan
April 20
April 28
Nilesh Shah, CEO, Kotak
Mahindra Asset Management
Company, will speak on "Non
intuitive insights"
Dr. J. C. Kothari
April 16
Dr. Sanjay Desai
April 16
Rotarians96
Guests02
Rotaryannes
04
Total attendance
102
Community Service Box
Collection - R3,700/-
Atit Agarwal
April 20
spouses
Manjula Sanghai
Rashmi Jolly
Silloo Engineer
April 14 Pervin Jehangir April 14 Rita Sagar
April 16
F orthcoming
speaker :
April 20
April 20
N asser
Service
Above
Self
M u njee
On April 21, Nasser Munjee will discuss “Transforming India : Are we missing an opportunity?"
E
ducated in the UK and the
US, Nasser Munjee's entire
career has spanned the creation of financial institutions
in India.
His career began with the
creation of the first mortgage
company in India — the Housing
Development Finance Corporation
(HDFC) — with which he was
associated for 20 years, rising to
be its Executive Director.
Munjee was appointed on the
executive committee of the International Union of Housing Finance
Institutions and was the editor of
its flagship journal Housing Finance International for five years.
He also formed the Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) in partnership with
viable infrastructure finance in
India. Its role was to develop a
policy framework which would
encourage Public Private
Partnership in the full continuum
of infrastructure investments
and it would invest in viable
projects thus leading other
investors to do so.
Editorial Consultant:
the government and both domestic
and international institutions. He
eventually took over as Managing
Director and CEO of the company.
IDFC was created to lend
private capital to commercially
Aditi Padiyar, Spenta Multimedia,
Peninsula Spenta, Mathuradas Mill
Compound, N.M. Joshi Marg,
Lower Parel, Mumbai 400 013.
Landline: 022-24811010
E-Mail: [email protected]
WPP license No. MR / TECH / WPP-89 / South
2015. License to post without prepayment
Regd. No. MCS/091/2015-17,
R.N.I. No. 14015/60
Posted on Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Printed, Published by Rtn. Ar jun Bulchandani on behalf of Rotary Club of Bombay and printed at Spenta Multimedia, Peninsula Spenta, Mathur adas Mill Compound,
N.M. Joshi Marg, Lower Parel (West), Mumbai 400 013 and Published at 97/B, Mit tal Tower, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021. Editor: Ar jun Bulchandani
8
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April 14 to April 20, 2015