ROTARY CLUB OF CHENNAI TOWERS - January 2019 Bulletin of Volume 21 Issue 7 - Vedam

Bulletin of

ROTARY CLUB OF CHENNAI TOWERS
         Volume 21 Issue 7

        January 2019

Bulletin of

ROTARY CLUB OF CHENNAI TOWERS
         Volume 21 Issue 7

        January 2019

Thiruvannamalai Medical camp-5,6/1/19

The joint eye camp project by RCCT and Rotary Moon City Thiruvannamalai under the aegis of Project RADAR by Radhathri
Nethralaya, was conducted in Thiruvannamalai on the 5th of January. The plan was to conduct the camp followed by temple
visit and Girivalam. Breaking the fast at “99 km”, a restaurant which serves organic food with fine taste. It was highly
recommended by the First Lady of the Club.

 Rtn. Karthikeyan, President of Moon City welcomed us with a warm smile at the eye camp. All the arrangements for the eye
camp were perfectly organised. With the customary speeches of the Presidents from both the clubs, eye camp was
inaugurated. Overall 62 patients with average age of 60 were screened out of which 20 patients were identified with cataract
ailments. These 20 patients will be further treated at Radhathri Nethrayalaya at Chennai. One patient needed retina surgery
in both eyes and another patient needed orbital surgery. Rtn. Dr. Vasumathy and her team did a commendable job in giving
personal attention to every patient and giving them advice upon diagnosis. It was very evident in the love and affection of the
salutations people had for Dr. Vasumathy and her team.

Dr. Praveen had arranged the temple visit. We had the privilege of worshipping the deities sitting at a short distance to their
Garbhagriha’s. With the successful eye camp and a fantastic darshan, we had an excellent fellowship in the night after
checking in to the hotel. The hotel prepared their lovely lawn for us for the fellowship. With the chill breeze setting in and
cooling us down, we were entertained by Rtn. Rajesh Narang and Rtn. Prasad, each of them dancing perhaps thinking the
other person is their dream girl. When we called it a day, all our hearts were filled with pride of what we accomplished as a
team and the memories of wonderful moments. It was an experience which will stay in our memories forever.

RTN. KRISHNAMOORTHY

Speaker Meet- 10/1/19

“You get more than what you give” 10th January 2019 was a historic homecoming for Rtn. Suchitra Sagar who successfully
completes his 3 year tenure as DRFC in June 2019. PP Rtn. Umapathy collared Pres Rtn. Dr. Urmish Mehta and the meeting
began with an invocation song by Rtn. Rajendra kumar. President Urmish spoke about the activities last fortnight and the
upcoming Pongal vizha celebrations at Anbagam and DG visit on 25th January. Pres Nominee Rtn. R M Suresh introduced Sagar
in a way that many of us got to know about the professional and rotary achievements of Rtn. Sagar.

Rtn. Sagar highlighted the background of the Rotary Foundation, the corpus collected till date and the effective way in which
this money is being spent. Rotary Foundation has been the backbone of the polio eradication program. A nice video highlighting
the several projects sponsored through the Global grants supported by the Rotary Foundation was shared. He differentiated
between help, charity, donation and contribution for causes to known and unknown person.

How much every small contribution to Foundation can change the life of a recipient to have a good meal/education/health/
drinking water/peace was explained. This speech will surely motivate all RCCTians to open their hearts and wallets and ensure
we become a 100% PHF club. The strength of the Global grant model was explained. RCCT did a GG of $94000 with a
contribution of $29400 last year. Sagar shared his knowledge of how clubs do big projects with GG with minimum contribution,
if they are successful in getting good project partners. Foundation Chair Rtn. Sanjey Ahuja took this opportunity of appealing to
the members for TRF contributions.

 Rtn Vinita Venkatesh handed over a cheque from RCCT for Rs.1 lakh to Mr. Shravan krishnan. They are building an animal care
shelter at Theosophical society premises and we have contributed towards building the wall for the shelter. Rtn Krishnachander,
standing in for Secretary Rtn. Mani who was travelling, made the secretary announcements and Rtn. Venkatesh proposed the
vote of thanks. Overall satisfying evening with a lot of information gathered.

RTN. KRISHNACHANDER

Mylapore Festival- 12/1/19

Margazhi means festival of music, dance, kolam and of course our own Mylapore fest. On Jan 12th few of our Anns Alpana,
Ektha, Reena, Hamsa, Gita, Shobha, Anitta and Nirmala and our one and only Rtn. Gopal went around exploring the streets of
Mylapore. The festival walk began with a hot coffee at hotel Saravana bhavan.

 As they say, “There is no age or gender for passion”, women of all ages, kids and few men participated in the kolam
competition. It was amazing to see so much talent. The whole street was cordoned off with a lot of security and the tar road
became the canvas for the contestants to showcase their talent in pulli kolam. It was exciting to watch so many intricate master
pieces of kolam. We did some fun shopping at the flee markets, had hot traditional snacks from live counters, not to miss the
very famous Kalathi rose milk and piping hot Jannal kadai bajji.

All the four streets around the Kabali temple wore a carnival like festive look. Could see lot of international visitors amused and
excited. The crowd was busy photographing the designs and there was a drone over our heads covering the entire festival. It
was a great way to showcase our culture and tradition to the younger generation. There was an interesting social media
campaign as a part of CSR activity of Sundaram finance, promoting the use of cloth bags and it was given as a compliment to
everyone who hash tagged the picture in the social media. Thanks to RCCT kolamavu Kokilas for making this happen. Looking
forward for next Margazhi.

ANN NIRMALA GOPAL

Pongal Celebrations at Anbagam - 13/1/19

For a long time now it has been the tradition at RCCT to celebrate Diwali with kids of Seva Sadan, a ritual that now has the kids
there looking forward to the event. Being a small part of their lives that one time in a year gives them something to look forward
to a joyous occasion. When the call came to do something similar at Anbagam for Pongal, members of RCCT rallied to be there
to celebrate with members of Anbagam and have breakfast with them.

Dressed in traditional gear women in sarees and the men in veshtis members of RCCT arrived at Anbagam. The residents of
Anbagam had arranged for Pongal festivities and were waiting for us. Kolam, lighting up the fire for pongal and the cry of Pongal
O pongal set off the celebrations at Anbagam.

Members of RCCT distributed mattresses to the residents and spent some time with them. While interacting with the residents,
one of the enthusiastic men rendered suprabhatham. Rtn Rajesh Narang had organised breakfast for all. We had very tasty
Pongal, Sakkara pongal and idli, sambar and chutney. Finished off with some great coffee.

This will also be remembered specially as it was the last Project Dr. Urmish Mehta our late President attended.

RTN JAYASHREE PRITHVI

Memorial Service For Our Beloved Urmish Mehta- 25/1/19

25th of January 2019 a date marked for the Governor's visit had to be rescheduled as a date to mark a memorial service for Rtn.
Urmish Mehta our serving President. The Governor Rtn. Babu Peram was in attendance but to mark a different kind of a
milestone. Rtn. Sanjay Dattatri addressed a gathering of large number of members of RCCT, Rotarians from other clubs and
members of Dr. Urmish’s family. He reminded the audience that the memorial service ought to be seen as an event to celebrate
the life of Dr. Urmish.

Rtn. Krishnachander played the MC stringing together the sequence which started with a musical eulogy performed by
Mandolin Rajesh and ensemble a rather nice way to pay tribute to a man who deeply enjoyed music. The rendition of Rajaji’s
“Kurai ondrum illai” seemed apt to describe the man. Members of wished to say a few words were asked to pay tributes. The
members who spoke included Ann Shoba, Rtn. Sabu, Rtn. Gopal, Aarthi Varanasi, Rtn. Jayashree, Rtn. Eashwar, Ann Radha, Ann
Gita, Annets Dhaval, Sagar and Sahil from RCCT, Rtn. Babu Peram District Governor, Rtn. Gopal Asst. Governor, Rtn. Rajaram RC
Midtown, Rtn. Narayanan RC East, Rtn. Brinda of RC Annanagar.

To sum up, what seemed to stand out was a warm, caring, and cheerful, brave human who seems to have deeply touched every
person he knew. The memorial was an anthem to a man whose passing away shook the club and a much loved friend and an
essential part of the RCCT DNA, who will be missed by everyone who knew him.

Rotarian Narayan spoke about a joint project for Porur girls school to fulfill a dream of Dr. Urmish Mehta. If there be an epitaph
Ann Radha's line would fit in fine “Jeena isi ka Naam hai” if you understand Hindi and if you don’t, it roughly translates to “ This
is the way to live life” (or something close)

MR. PRITHVI (SPOUSE OF RTN. JAYASHREE)

           “Through today's memorial service I felt that a little bit of Urmish shall live on with us”
                                           – Ann Della Mehta.

Republic Day Celebrations - 26/1/19

It was a pleasure to see the young kids so enthusiastic and well dressed for the fancy dress competition and some lovely
speeches on freedom struggle. The event was very well organised by the Principal of Anjugam School, Ms. Uma. About 85
children along with their parents and teachers were present for the event.

Thanks to Rtn. Gopal, Rtn. Rajesh Narang and Ann Parul to be part of the Republic Day celebration. We also had the
opportunity to see the work done on the electrical room and painting the walls of the nursery class room done by Ann Vidya
Sagar. The event concluded with the prize distribution and serving snacks to the children.

RTN. HITESH SHAH

Biography Of President Dr. Urmish Mehta
                               1958- 2019

He was born on 20th of May 1958 in Ahmedabad, and hails from a successful Gujarathi family that was in the yarn business.
Legend has it that a young man named Dhirubai Ambani used to come to them to buy their yarn, long before he made his
millions.

After 3 months in Ahmedabad, the family moved to Kerala where his father worked as a doctor at the Missionary hospital. So
the first language that Dr. Urmish learnt was Malayalam. Their family had long been connected to Madras, so it is no surprise
that they moved to Madras a year later.

His educational history is a long one. He studied in Adarsh till his 5th Standard. Then for a year in Besant Theosophical school.
After that he joined DAV till he completed schooling. PUC was in DG Vaishnav. Then Bsc. Microbiology in a college in
Ahmedabad, before moving back south to do MBBS at Ramaiah College in Bangalore. From 1986-2003 he was the managing
partner in H M Hospital started by his father in 1970. He met Della in 1986 and they were married in 1987. The wedding was
in Bombay and the reception was in Chennai.

They are wonderful parents to six children now and looking forward to two more in the near future. Sahil, Dhaval, Sagar, and
Pooja have added a lot of love, fun and laughter to our club over the years and Koushika and Yukthi are continuing that
tradition.

It has not all been smooth sailing though. In 1995 Dr. Urmish suffered his first heart attack at a young age of 37. He recovered
only to have another, worse attack in 2003. He was given very little chance of survival, but being a resilient individual, he
recovered fully under Della's tender care. Unfortunately, after that he was asked to stop his medical practice for health
reasons.

Thankfully, he had always had an interest in hypnotherapy. So he underwent the necessary training and started his practice,
concentrating on helping young adults through difficult times. Gita and I have referred several troubled people to him over
the years and all of them are uniformly full of praise for the kind doctor who helped them through difficult periods.

On the rotary front, he Joined RCCT in 2007 in Rtn Murugan's period, introduced by Sridevi. While he held many club posts, he
had largely kept himself away from the lime light. So becoming a President was a huge step for him, just like it was for many of
us past presidents.

Having taken over, he led the club with distinction in his usual quiet and calm manner. After a resoundingly successful fund
raiser, he was spearheading a project to provide smart classrooms for several corporation schools in Chennai. Along with his
zonal presidents, he was also working on a project providing new benches for the Porur Girls Higher Secondary School. These
projects will be continued and completed.

RTN. SANJAY DATTATRI

Members visit to our Medical centre

Rtn. Ajoy Kumar received 550 numbers of 35gms Medimix soap from Cholayil
                  Company for the inmates of Anbhagam

Ongoing Projects

Number of patients given free treatment and medicines at our medical centers are given below

   Manali Centre                  Periyasekkadu                                                 Retteri Dialysis
                                                                 Thirunilai Centre                  Centre
                                      Centre

                                                                                               Number of Dialysis
Number of Patients              Number of Patients              Number of Patients                done - 257
 attended - 1763                 attended - 1648                 attended - 2947
                                                                                               Number of Patients
                                                                                                     - 30

      Source credit: Medical Director Rtn.Rajesh Narang & doctors team

                                                 Anbagam Donors

                                        Number of Contribution towards
                                         the purchase of 750 kgs Rice .

                                                 Rtn. R. M. Suresh,
                                              Rtn. Sanjay Dattatri &
                                            Ann. Deepa Krishnachander

Blast from the Past
An extract from July 1998 Volume 2 Issue 12 of Towers Times

Source credit: Ann. Anuradha Prasad

Achievements & Celebrations

                                                                                                 Annet Roshan Dattatri won the 1st prize
                                               Rtn. Satish Reddy playing for team
 Annet Dhiren Krishna Kumar won                                                                   in the "How things work" quiz and the
                                               Venfield blasters in PHCC 2019 got
the gold medal in 200 meters relay                                                                 2nd prize in the "Shaastra main quiz"
                                               the man of the match award against
     in APL School Sports day.                                                                      held during the IIT Madras techfest
                                               team Lanson Nights.
                                                                                                       Shaastra on 5-6 January 2019.

                                     Rtn Gopal playing for team GEP won the PHCC Cup for 2019.

2/2 – Rtn. Sriram & Shobha

                                 5/2 – Rtn. Muruganandham & Lakshmi

5/2 – Rtn. Krishnachander
                                 8/2 – Rtn Gopal & Nirmala,

7/2 – Rtn. Shalin Shah
                                 8/2 - Rtn. Dr. J.S. Rajkumar & Dr. Chitrakala

9/2 – Rtn. Dr. Nandakumar
                                 9/2 – Rtn. Dr. Sumedha & Rtn. Dr. Nandakumar

15/2 – Ann Radha Mani
                                 11/2- Rtn. Arthi & Rtn. Krishnamoorthy

20/2 – Annet Milind Shah
                                 11/2 - Rtn. Binoy & Sangeetha

21/2 – Rtn. Shyla Reddy
                                 11/2 - Rtn. Manoj & Alpana

21/2 – Rtn. Venkatesh
                                 15/2 – Rtn. Satish Kandimala & Sandhya

                                 25/2 – Rtn. Umapathy & Akther

                   Editor - Ann Ektha Ahuja
        Team - Ann Alpana Manoj & Ann Anitta Venkatesh