Minutes of Meeting held on
February 29, 2012

A Musical Marriage

Meeting was brought to order by President Rtn Udayakumar after Rtn Venkatadri sergeant in arms gave the ribbon to him.

Secretary Rtn Murugavel Selvan was present along with the president. Chief guests Ms Ujjaini and Edward De Genero were called on stage.

Rtn Rakesh read out the birthdays for the month of February.

President Elect Dr.Uma then gave a brief account of the PETS training in Singapore. She also spoke about the ambitious school project in Pallikaranai. A govt school with no benches, roofs and toilets for the students will be renovated and built using rotary grants.

Rtn.V.A. Ramesh made an appeal about funding for a photo journalist to travel and attend the Wisden prize giving ceremony in London.

Rtn Sreen Raghavan introduced Ms.Ujjaini and Mr.Edward Degenero.

Edward started off about how they got to know about each other. He was initially reluctant to mix work and relationship however Ujjaini prevailed. That has then taken them on a journey to where they are now trying to release a fusion album together. Edward was taken back initially by the cultural differences. Ujjaini was a perfectionist to the core due to her classical training in Hindustani and Carnatic music, whereas he was a poster boy for ADD (attention deficit disorder) and would accept any Indian sounding music to be added even without proper tuning. He was a typical western ‘happy go lucky ‘guy and would wait for a happy accident to happen and create music, whereas Ujjaini wanted to visualize the picture completely in her brain before even starting the painting, the same for music as well. They talked about the 72 melakartas and Edward’s interpretation using his strength in numbers and a mathematical way of approaching the ragas. Edwards was surprised that these ragas were made with computer like precision even few thousand years ago.

Ujjaini was requested to sing, she obliged by singing an AR Rahman hit number from Azhagiya Tamizh Magan – nee ­Marilyn Monroe cloningaa. She swiftly changed to a Bengali folk number with Edward accompanying in guitar.

A question answers session from Rotarians continued, Edward had classical western training till the age of 15. His father himself was a strict disciplinarian and classical musician. Ujjaini was a corporate high flyer who came to Chennai in search of music opportunities in Kollywood. It was interesting to note the contrasts between the west and east, where the teachers encourage the students to ask questions and to even question the teachers if the need arises. However in the Indian system, it would be seen as arrogant to question the teacher. Edward has found it difficult to teach our Indian students for the same reasons. “Give me roomful of arrogant students” he said.

Past president Rtn Gurumukh gave away the mementos.

Our secretary made announcements about the next meet. “Greatness of Ayurveda” by Ms Sheela Rani Chungath IAS next week.

Next week there is club assembly and governors meet in VHS and later in park Sheraton.

Rtn Babu Krishnamoorthy gave the vote of thanks.

Rtn. Dr. S Thiagarajamurthy

Minutes of Meeting held on
February 22, 2012

Miracles do happen

We had a dancer in our midst and a famous one at that, Srekala Bharath. Little did we know, her presence at our meeting was a miracle in itself.

President Uday was collared by PL Chidambaram after which he called the meeting to order. The guests of the evening, Vijayan and Ramamoorthi were recognized following which Balaji greeted the members celebrating their birthdays and anniversaries in the past week. Swaminathan fondly recollected his memories from the Pondy fellowship and the closeness he felt with the rotary family. Muthukumaran made an announcement about the participation of RCME in Polio Plus with immunizations being down in 4 health centers in North Madras. He also recognized the tireless efforts made by Firoze year after year in this effort and how we were very close to being Polio free in India.

Gnanesh spoke about the new program RCME has initiated called the Abdul Kalam Fellowship in conjunction with Winners Bakery, Hot Breads and the Chennai Corporation. The plan is to screen, select and coach 100 students from corporation schools to achieve success at IIT, Engineering and Medical entrance examinations. In addition, we also plan to use the surplus from Winners Bakery to contribute to the Thane Cyclone Relief fund as well as to help build toilers for Girl students in the Kanchipuram corporation schools. 

Rajsekar then had the honor of introducing our newest member, Dr. Vasudha. Dr. Vasudha is a distinguished doctor and is now a recognized expert in the field of hospital administration. She was a past member of Rotary Club of Indraprastha in New Delhi. Incidentally her spouse, Dr. Rajsekar, is also a doctor, a surgeon of high standing in the field of liver transplants. RCME warmly welcomes Vasudha and her family to our club.

The focus shifted to the speaker of the evening who was introduced by her good friend Balashanmugham. When the going gets tough, the tough get going is how he remembers Srekala. Srekala has been dancing from the tender age of 7 and has been trained by K. J. Sarasa. She married her husband, cricket player Bharath, at the young age of 18. She spoke about her passion, Bharathanatyam, which she called a divine dance form as very part of the body gets involved in this art form. She expounded on how a dance performance is very structured with up to 8 different parts. Her passion was very evident as was her devotion to dancing.

Shen then revealed a little known fact as to how she was diagnosed with Brain Meningioma in 1984 and had to go through an intense brain surgery to get the condition rectified. It did not end there! A few years later, she was then diagnosed with  Myasthenia Gravis, a neuromuscular disorder, which basically meant she could not dance any longer. Luckily, the condition was diagnosed properly and she had another surgery in 1992 to remove the thymus. All this before before she hit 30. It definitely is a big miracle that she moved on from her setbacks to become the highly celebrated dance she is today. She attributed her success to the 3 D’s, Determination, Dedication and Devotion coupled with destiny. A key learning to take away is that while miracles do happen, an unyielding passion is most important to make sure that they count.

President aptly quoted from Tolstoy, “Sound Mind in a Sound Body”. After announcements by Secretary Selvan, Surendra delivered the vote of thanks. Surendra, a trained Kuchipudi dancer, glorified Chennai and Tamilnadu, for their zealous support for music and dance, as the cultural capital of the country. The meeting was then adjourned.

Rtn. Ravi Venkataramani

Minutes of Meeting held on
February 15, 2012

The Journey of an Entrepreneur

The meeting on February 15 2012 promised to be an inspring one with a hugely successful entrepreneur as the guest of the evening. President Uday called the meeting to order and invited Surendra to deliver the birthday and anniversary greetings. Ballu then provided the final details for the Pondy fellowship which promsied to be a fun packed getaway.

Mr.Sarabeswar, Chairman and CEO of CCCL then gave a unique and motivating talk on “The Journey of an Entrepreneur“ . His words from heart are:

From the calm and serene village atmosphere of Mayialduarai , off Tanjore, the third son of a Teacher, was preached all along school days that pension job is the solution for comfortable living, studied in the safe heaven of Regional Engineering college, Trichy, worked in a leading construction company, worked as an executive in Middle East, the decision for Sarabeswar to change the career to the Hard World of Business was not by luck, but due to the “burning in belly” to achieve and do something great. Sarabeswar explained the insults and hardships he faced in the initial startup period of the company and due to his perseverance and passion to the Industry, he not only overcame difficulties but able to achieve the sweet success.

One example is, the way every Financial Institution refused to give Loan/Over draft , in 1997 and to the present scenario of a Joint M.D of a leading Nationalised Bank visiting his office for finalizing a large loan for CCCL’s project.

He also enthralled the audience about how adversities can be made success – the first job at Chindadirpet, which was refused by his peers , as being difficult, was completed against many odds, because of the hard work by entire team of CCL, which resulted GOODWILL as well as further works.

Similar case, is the first but complicated job at Infosys & with the timely and satisfactory completion now, yielding continuous works of millions of Sqft buildings from Infosys, year after year to CCCL

The unique business model he adopted was , Grab the jobs which peers say difficult, but put your soul to synthesise , delegate, find solutions, be of proper service to the clients, then automatically results will come.

Another highlight of his talk was Corporate Social Responsibility aspect that CCCL is doing

1. They take the lowest 10 rank students in Corporation schools & train them for betterment. (He informed that in one School, where the lowest rank student, after training became First in the class)
2. Skill development programme for construction labourers – CCCL is one of the early birds to establish Training centres, where stipend is given to the labourers during training & thereafter placement given in the company itself.

Mr.Sarabeswar also explained the features of Chennai Air port extension & Metro Rail project that they are doing, wherein contemporary technology, materials are used.

Past President Rajni Turakhia then presented the memento to the chief guest. After announcements by Secretary Selvan regarding the speaker for the next week, the floor turned to Srini (100) to deliver the vote of thanks recognising the inspiring body of achievement built by Mr. Sarabeswar. The inspiring meeting was then adjourned by President day.

Rtn. Nagaraj

Minutes of Meeting held on
February 8, 2012

Idayaganam at Bala Mandir - a report

Thanks a lot for the overwhelming response and your presence in large numbers at Bala Mandir. We even had visiting rotarians Rtn. Phelomena Davi and Rtn. Jim Davis of RC Bradley Sunrise participating in the project.

We had one of the finest Idayaganam program on February 8 2012 at Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust, T.Nagar. To see 350 children singing, dancing and thoroughly enjoying themselves was a moving sight. Chairman Ramana had planned every detail meticulously. We had sundal and kesari along with coffee served by smiling children at 5.45 PM. By 6 pm we had the children arriving neatly in batches and sitting down in rows. The FMLR Rotarians who have always supported the project viz., Rtn. Ilamkumaran, Rtn. Rajaram, Ann. Srimathi, Ann. ­Shanthi were ready with their tracks by around 6.15 and for the next one hour had the children dancing to their songs. Our own chief Ram, already a celebrity among the children, thanks to Ezam Arrivu, compered the program for a short while.

We had the formal announcements at 7.30 PM with President Uday, Secretary Selvan, Chairman Ramana and yours truly in the dias. RCME donated Rs.30,000 worth of vessels. The evening dinner for the day was also sponsored by RCME.

Thanks to all Rotarians, Anns and Annets who had visited in large numbers and supported the project with their presence and donations. We also thank the FMLR music team who even rehearsed for this project so that they can sing new songs which will be enjoyed by the children. Thanks to their passion for music and the rotary cause, this project has been a clear beneficiary.

Idayaganam is one of those programs which balances charity, social responsibility, entertainment, fellowship and a sense of satisfaction and yesterday›s project scored well on all these counts.

Rtn. Gopal

Minutes of Meeting held on
February 1, 2012

A Shining Star from Ceylon

Another star studded evening to several others this rotary year, RCME played host to Actor Radhika Sarathkumar on February 1 2012. We had a packed room with several rotarians and anns eager to hear Radhika speak. President Uday called the meeting to order following which Rakesh greeted the rotarians celebrating their birthdays and anniversaries in the past week. Sydney Murali then briefed the audience on the completion of the PHCC tournament with Mohandas XI taking the honors. He welcomed everyone to attend the Valedictory ceremony on February 4th at Rtn. CL Ranganthan’s house as is the norm every year. Ballu reminded everyone that the Pondy fellowship tour was near and encouraged the members to register quickly. The focus quickly shifted to the star of the evening with Chief Ram introducing Radhika to the members.

Radhika, as expected, vowed the audience with her charm and easy style. She talked about the benefits and challenges of growing up in an acting family. She was introduced to films at an early age by Bharatiraja in the movie Kizhake Pogum Rail . She recollected how people were very nice to her making for a very memorable debut film. She had a prolific film career for several years as a lead actress but broke the stereotype in the movie Jeans acting as a villain. She talked briefly about her husband Sarathkumar and how jealous she was that male actors can play lead roles well into their 60s but female actors need to move on to older roles as soon they hit their mid 30s.

Radhika however did not step aside quietly, she started a very successful media production company called Radaan Media. Her company has produced several top rated TV shows and she continues to star in many of them. In short, Radikaa Sarathkumar is a living example of how talent and hard work coupled with a vision to succeed can bring laurels that will sing her praises for eternity. The star from Ceylon is shining as bright as ever!

Sada delivered the vote of thanks and President adjourned the meeting.

Rtn. Siva

Minutes of Meeting held on
January 25, 2012

Meeting with Dr. Kannan Pugazhendi on Wednesday, 25th January 2012.

Minutes of Meeting held on
January 18, 2012

Row Row Row your scull?

The members of RCME made a bee line for the Hyatt Hotel by 6:30 PM to attend the weekly meeting on 18th January which, after the usual sumptuous snacks and hi-tea served there, started in right earnestness at 7:00 PM sharp.

President Uday called the meeting to order with Secretary Murugavel in attendance with a strength of about 30 members.

After the silent invocation, Rtn. Rakesh Chand announced names of Rotarians and members of their family, celebrating their birthday/anniversary during the week and a delicious cake was cut by those who were present at the meeting.

Rtn Babu announced the RYLA programs for the month and requested maximum presence from the members.

PP Rtn Balaraman was in his elements, as he enthusiastically explained with help of video clippings on the meticulous planning that was going into the fellowship tour to Pondy planned for Feb ’12; and the fact that every aspect of the trip had been clearly defined, was the highlight that made even Pres Uday to enthuse more members to join with their families and make this a memorable trip. That a nearby location should not be mistaken as an anytime-we-can-go event was emphasised by both Ballu and Uday.

Rtn. Babu again took the mike, this time to introduce the Speaker for the evening, Mr Farid A Husain. The subject of ROWING, seems to be a favourite for Mr Farid and he dwelt upon its various facets, as an exercise, as a sport, as an event, as a passion and how it is promoted in other countries, as well as how it goes through obstacles and difficulties in our country.

For instance, did you know that :

• This is one sport where you can constantly see your competition that is behind you, as you row backwards towards the finish line?
• The boat you ride is called a scull?
• If your happen to fall off the scull, you would invariably land head first into the water?
• You need a tetanus shot if you happen to fall into the contaminated and polluted Adyar river, which is the main river for rowing activity?
• This is considered a complete exercise activity as various parts of the body work in tandem for rowing?
• The scull you row weighs just 60 kgs and can be carried by you alone from one place to another?

Many such interesting points were brought out by Mr Farid in the course of his talk and his interest and involvement was noticeable by all present.

After the talk, the Pres handed over a memento to the Speaker and on completion of the Secretary’s announcements, Rtn. Sanjeevi thanked the speaker and visiting Rotarians and guests.

The meeting was then adjourned by the President Rtn. Uday in true and regular fashion.

Rtn. V A R.

Minutes of Meeting held on
January 4, 2012

M.J. Shriram - A Multifaceted Personality (Jan 4th, 2012)

President Uday called the meeting to order. After the customary cake cutting, President Uday then invited PHCC Chairman Sudhakar for his announcement on Paul Harris Cricket Carnival (PHCC). Sudhakar informed members that the inauguration of the much awaited carnival will happen on the 8th of January 2012 at Loyola College grounds and asked the members to be present in large numbers.

Gopal asked members to attend the Cancer Awareness Event at Cancer Hospital on January 7th. Siva was called on to introduce new member Dr. Thiagarajamurthy following which he was pinned by Past President Balaram.

President then called on Babu Krishnamoorthy to introduce Mr. M.J. Shriram to the audience. M.J. Shriram started singing at an early age and is a very accomplished singer. He is a diehard Illayaraja fan and has performed in his cinema choruses on numerus occasions.

He formed the group called SHRIRAhaM, in the year 1996, since then it’s been moving places. So far he has completed around 5500 stage shows as a Singer, crossed around 750 shows as a group.

He sings regularly at the Residency hotel every week where he sings Illayaraja hits. He felt that songs like “Kolaveri” have a very short shelf life unlike eternal numbers composed by Illayaraja.

He rendered a couple of memorable songs for the audience which was appreciated by all.This was followed by an interactive Q & A session.

Ann Deepa Thiagarajamurthy presented the memento to the speaker and our inhouse professional singer Sada delivered the vote of thanks.

The meeting was then adjourned by President Uday.

Rtn. Siva

Minutes of Meeting held on
December 21, 2011

Proceedings of the meeting held on 21st Dec 2011 at Hyatt Regency.

The meeting called to order by President Uday and laying the agenda for the evening and welcoming the guests and visiting Rotarians, guests and visitors.

Announcements:

Rtn. Ramakrishnan, representing the hosts for the Saturday “DIRTY RETREAT”, fellowship gave an exciting account of what was in store for the Saturday noon time fellowship between 11am and 2.30pm off ECR. Sand bikes and beach events had been planned to make the event an out of ordinary experience.

Rtn. Hema Sheth invited one and all to her daughters wedding on 29th Dec (Thursday) which is the venue of the next weekly meeting of the club.

Pres Uday gave a brief account of the past 6 months of action namely stressing on the Family participation theme that the weekly meetings were well attended by Rtns. and families as well. The important events in the past 6 months were apart from the fellowships, various awards and their coverage, were Membership Development, Service projects , RYLA, donations to TSN college, Terry fox run among others. He was confident that the next six months would continue to be as exciting and meaningful Rotary work that his team will deliver with the support of all the members of the Club.

Next it was the turn of the returning officer PP Rajendran, announce details of the incoming Board members for the Rotary year 2012-13, lead by Rtn. Uma Maheswari. Board members and their avenue of service is enclosed below. As each member was called they reach the dias and then there was photo op that was executed to finesse by our Dr P Srinivasan, from his phone camera.

Amendments to the club bylaws proposed by Rtn. P L Chidambaram and Seconded by Rtn. Sydney Murali were discussed and accepted.

Rtn. P L Chidambaram then made a fervent appeal to one and all to suggest meaningful projects encompassing the corporation schools or any other corporation related project for public good where the funds accumulated by WINNERS project could be put to meaningful use. A committee comprising of PPShivram, PP Ganesan, PP Gyaneswar, Rtn. Gopal, PP PL Chidambaram, and Rtn. Sudhakar was announced to mull over various ideas and the best ones could be chosen for implementation. The deadline for the ideas to be submitted in softcopy is 31st Dec 2011, and the committee will come up with its report for implementation by 15th Jan 2012.

Rtn. Shivaram appealed to Rotarians to ensure that they responded to all common mails individually instead of REPLY ALL, since it was choking the mail boxes.

With no more ado, the meeting was adjourned.

Rtn. T. Muthukumaran

Minutes of Meeting held on
December 14, 2011

PP Rajendran collared President Uday who then called the meeting to order. After the customary cake cutting, Pres Uday then invited Krishna Prasad for his announcement on Paul Harris Cricket Carnival (PHCC). KP informed members that the inauguration of the much awaited carnival will happen on the 8th of January 2012 at Loyola College grounds.

PP Ramakrishnan asked members to get ready for “Dirty Partying”, a fellowship event to be hosted by a group of Rotarians on 24th December.

It was then time for Gopal to brief members about Lakhmi Chidambaram, a chess player who is being supported by our club. It was indeed very gratifying to listen to her father giving an account of how this little girl is doing wonders in the national and international arena, with very limited resources.

President then called upon Sada to introduce Mr. K Bhaskaran to the audience.

Mr Bhaskaran spoke on music & mind. He said music lets one think “out of the box”, trigger right-brain thinking, creativity etc. He, in fact stated that the brain is like the “hardware’ whereas the mind is the “software”…….

Being an accomplished flautist, Mr Bhaskaran did keep the audience spellbound with some short compositions. This was followed by an interactive Q & A session .

Secretary Selvan reminded members to be present at Hyatt for the General Body Meeting ( closed door meeting) on 21st December.

This was followed by an interactive Q & A session .

The meeting was then adjourned by President Uday.

Rtn. Shivaram

Minutes of Meeting held on
December 7, 2011

Efforts towards literate india. Rtn. Uma was collared to act as President. She called the evening meet to order with a silent invocation. Rtn. Rakesh ensured the cash register was ringing through a sunshine pour, as birthdays and wedding anniversaries were announced. Rtn. R M Narayan introduced the speakers. Teach for India, as we were told appears to be a maverick endeavour. Stringent criteria were deployed to select young aspirants who had aptitude and enthusiasm to transform the current deplorable literacy state. Investing in them quality teaching skills, they are expected to work in very less privileged schools along with regular staff. In the question answer session, members expressed inclusive methods with which they too can reach out. Sustainability was another concern. However the thought and efforts in “Teach for India” was adjudged as noble and a brave bold step. Rtn. W A Ramash read out the memento designed for the occasion before presenting them to the Good Samaritan Guests. Rtn. Murugavel Selvan wound yet another memorable meet with secretary’s announcement.

Rtn. Ramesh Kannan

Minutes of Meeting held on
November 30, 2011

Winning ways as told by RI Director Nominee PDG PT.PRABHAKAR

It is not that winners are different, but they do things differently is what PTP was trying to tell us during our weekly meeting as a Guest Speaker. As a leader who has successfully managed the affairs of our District 3230 during his Governorship, he had many wonderful suggestions for being a successful leader. The fact that Rotary International has managed to almost wipe out the dreaded polio virus from the face of the earth is proof enough that Rotary as an organisation has the power, vision and the knowhow to carry out any campaign successfully. Polio will be the only second disease to be conquered in the entire history of human kind so far after small pox, as and when it happens and we are pretty close to it. There are only four countries (PAIN – Pakistan,Afghanistan,India and Nigeria) where polio is still active and in India so far this year we have had only one case detected. Thanks to the efforts of we Rotarians most of the youngsters including those within our family are polio free. But in these days of hectic international travel, no country is safe until every country is safe.

On the Rotary Foundation month ie November, it is only relevant that we Rotarians rededicate ourselves for the cause of eradicating polio, and open up our purse to contribute liberally towards this most noble cause, he appealed.

Earlier after the meeting was called to order by PP Srinivasan who conducted the meeting in place of President Uday we had the pleasant task of inducting two new members into our fold. Mr. Sundaresan & Mr. Raju who were introduced to our club by Rtn.Skandaraj and Rtn.PP.Gnaneshwar respectively.

After the Guest Speaker’s speech and the secretary’s announcement, Rtn.PP Ganesan proposed the formal vote of thanks before the meeting was formally adjourned.

Rtn. Ganesan

Minutes of Meeting held on
November 23, 2011

Young Achiever Award

As I settle to encapsulate the meeting that happened on the 23rd Nov. at Hyatt, the first thing that springs to my mind is the expeditious and brisk conduct of the meeting. President Uday enjoys being on the fast track, and fast it was... meeting completed in half an hour! and no mean task this, considering that it was the Young Achievers Award presentation.

A lot of hard work obviously goes into the selection of the Awardees, Rtn. Ramachandran and Rtn. Babu Krishnamurthy by their own admission had to scrutinise quite q few achievers before zeroing in on-

*Balaji Arumugam- a deceptively dimunitive IX Std boy, a knife fighter, having won over 25 State and 30 District level awards- aspiring to participate in the Olympics.

*Lokesh- a prodigy, who started painting when he was just 2 years old. He is all set to receive a award from the President of India on Dec 3rd in recognition of his amazing talent.

*Isai Arasan- identified through the Nethrodaya Trust, overcoming his disability to hone not just academics but the keyboard, singing, acting, and even chess.

Who better to present the award to these deserving candidates, than squash champion, Asian Junior Champion (Under14, Under19),Winner of the Australian Open, endorsing leading sports brands, attractive and smart- Deepika Pallakal. As she presented the awards Deepika admitted that she was over awed by the achievements of the recipients and wished them well in their endeavours.

The Awards came with a handsome cash prize this year. The reason being, over the years it was discovered that some candidates were not able to pay even their fare to the venue of the awards function. Rtn.Murugavel Selvan stepped in to bridge this lacuna and instituted a cash prize in the name of his late father, Sivan Arul Selvan, making this a coveted award.

Thanking their parents seemed to be the common thread of thought, not just of the recipients, but also of the chief guest. This was highlighted by Past President Rtn. Gnanesh, in his vote of thanks, when he outlined the importance of the family as a support group.

The meeting was adjourned with the Secy. Rtn. Murugavel Selvan’s announcements, that the speaker for the next meeting would be Rtn. P.T. Prabhakar on the Rotary Foundation.

Rtn. Viji

Minutes of Meeting held on
November 16, 2011

IDAYA GANAM at Vishranthi – Old Age Home

What a serene way to start the IDAYA GANAM for the year 2011 to 2012. It is one of premier event of RCME and speaks volumes of enthusiast interest in Rtn.Ramana , Rtn.Gopal and President Uday on this project. All of us have been waiting for this to kick off after multiple events , fellowship tours and fireside chats. We had start this year IDAYA GANAM at Vishranthi Old Age home, in Palavakkam

Honoring and respecting our mothers come first before any one else – as the age old powerful saying - Matha, Pitha, Guru and Deivam. Like the saying goes, it is perfect start to IDAYA GANAM this year. Role played by mothers in shaping ones life is very important and RCME did our little part to be with them on Wednesday to recognize them.

I read about a discussion between sage and a pupil about the role played by mothers and equating them to Goddess. Pupil was lamenting about how his/her prayers unanswered by a certain Goddess, and Sage replied :

“Never suspect your mother’s intentions. When you were newborn, did she feed you, keep you clean and healthy because you asked her to do such things? No. Till you became old enough to think for yourself and make demands on her, you had completely entrusted yourself to her care. And when you started making demands as a grown up child, she conceded only such demands which in her Judgment were good for you and declined the rest. You even got angry with her and hated her whenever she declined your demands though such feelings were momentary. To our Goddess we are all children in a cradle. Leave yourself completely in Her. She knows what to give and when to give. This is just one of the examples equating a mother to a Goddess”

Rtn. Ramana’s (Call of duty) has been gearing up for this for some time and he was the first one receive us along with President Uday. Rtn. Ramana made perfect arrangements and everything was in place for the evening.

We had two full hour singing sessions with mixture of semi-classical and old film songs by Ms. Srimathi, Rtn. Ilamkumaran, Rtn. Rajaram from FMLR participated along with our own PP Ganesan, Sada, Ann Sujatha, Annet Mansvini and Skanda Vyas. We had two inmates singing and children inmates dancing to tunes of singers.

RCME donated a 42” LCD TV, One water heater, 25 Tube lights apart from donating towards the dinner expense of the evening. Rotarians Surendra Kumar, Papa Rao, Srini 100, President Uday contributed towards the cost.

There were around 172 inmates including Old age women, children .It is run by Ms.Savithri Hari who is 81 years old (!). They have nursing facility with doctors including Ayurvedic and Homeopathic doctors making frequent visits.

The project was attended by about 20 Rotarians and families. The Vishranthi management and inmates thanked RCME for its gesture and we all returned home with their blessings.

Rtn. Srinivasan

Minutes of Meeting held on
November 9, 2011

Social Media Trumps All!

The adage” the pen is mightier than the sword” is apparently passe: the Social Network media, exemplified by the likes of twitter, facebook and youtube, has supplanted the pen, making it more powerful and potent - whether in the overthrow of Middle Eastern despots or in the building (or destruction) of a product’s brand images, especially with the GenY set, than either the written word or the sword.

That seemed to be the gist of an interesting and informative talk by Sourav Jain, whose work is in this field. The talk primarily focused on how such media can be intelligently, cost-effectively and productively used to market a firm’s products or services, through a number of real life examples such as Fastrack watches. Mr Jain also pointed out that the Social Network could be a double-edged sword, especially if your product/ service was poor or faulty, as this would be mercilessly highlighted in the fora. He shared the recent case of the delays in Kingfisher airlines and another case of a bakery, whose products were perceived to be of poor quality, both of which were “tweeted” extensively, resulting in diminishing the brand image, with the latter outfit deciding to withdraw itself from the space, as a result of the negative publicity. At any rate, Mr Jain warned, there was no option to ignore this powerful medium, except at your peril: the Network was growing very rapidly, @ 8% p.a., and is expected to play a major role in marketing strategies of firms. The Social Network is quite pervasive, touching all of us in different capacities: as individuals sharing personal info or searching for answers, as consumers sharing our experiences - good or bad, or as producers marketing our services/ products.

Earlier the meeting began with the Greetings List read out by PP Ganesan; PP Balaraman spoke about an upcoming Fellowship at Pondicherry Feb 17-19th; Rtn. Ramana shared with members details re the first Idhaya Ganam program next Wednesday (Feb 16) at Vishranthi and solicited funds towards purchase of a new and larger TV set for the inmates as the existing one was very old; President Uday volunteered to sponsor 25 tubelights and PP ganesan, a geyser for the facility. Rtn. Sudhakar briefed about the plans being made for the PHCC in Jan 2012. He also indicated that PP PLC, Dr MS Ravi, and Rtn. Surendar had come forward to donate Rs 10,000 each toward this flagship event of RCME (and that more would be welcome). Rtn. Ramana also informed the members that a city-based fellowship at Hotel Marriott is scheduled for December 19th.

The meeting concluded past 8pm after the speaker took a number of questions on the contentious nature of this topic, providing unintended amusement for members, and a Vote of Thanks by Rtn. Shreen Raghavan.

Rtn. Shreen Raghavan

Minutes of Meeting held on
November 9, 2011

Rohini Shines Brighter than Ever!

The weekly Wednesday meeting had an aura of glamour with Actress Rohini being the main speaker. However as always in Rotary, it was not the aura of the star but the topic she chose, “Children & Adolescence”, that everyone was intrigued about. The meeting was first off to its customary start with President Uday inviting Rotarians, Anns and their guests. Then it was onto the birthday and wedding anniversary announcments by Rtn. Ramesh Kannan. Rtn. RMN Narayanan then gladly announced the successful fund raising done for the VHS project with the pleasant surprise that our funds would be matched by matching grants from Rotary Foundation.

It was then the turn of Ann.Veena to give a wonderful introduction of the speaker Rohini. It turns out that she has been a star right from her childhood days and has also won accolades of Best Actress for “Stree” in Telugu and the more recently the “Kalaimamani” from Tamilnadu Government for the year 2010. Rohini started her talk by emphasising that she was very interested in this topic as that was something near and dear to her. Even though she was only 5, she felt she had no choice and that she was made to be a movie star. She cautioned parents on being very open especially with children and having close dialogues with them all the time. Children she felt require that comfort and will not openly express themselves otherwise. They may act in various ways like being distracted or irritated and those are signals that parents should pick up. Especially when it comes to adolescents, it is very important to explain to them about hormonal changes in the child’s body and the effects of these. In all she was for open dialog and not brushing the truth under the carpet as many in society especially ours tend to do. In fact this motivated her to make a documentary on child actors titled “Silent Hues” which even won her international recognition. As she was ending her speech, Rohini stressed again that addressing unpleasant topics like puberty in teens etc. should be boldly addressed and discussed by parents with their teenage children. She feels that these days even women have platforms to express themselves freely but still children seem to be not having the freedom to do so. After a few Q&A from audience, her talk concluded with a thunderous ovation.

It was then onto announcements from Secretary Rtn. Selvan and the evening ended with a warm vote of thanks from Rtn.Ravi Venkataramani. In all an informative evening where real topics of teens today was discussed by an Actress and for a change not the usual film/movies oriented discussion that we expect from film stars.

Rtn. Murugavel Selvan

Minutes of Meeting held on
October 19, 2011

AWARD IN THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR OF MEDICINE PRESENTED TO THE CINDERALLA OF MEDICINE.

This was the theme of our weekly meeting on 19 October 2011 at the Hyatt Regency.

As the dignitaries walked up to occupy their chairs, it looked like a dream come true.

Dr. KV Tiruvengadam, Dr. Sarada Menon, Mr N Kumar along with our President Rtn. Uday, Secretary Rtn. Murugavel, Co-sponsor for the function, Dr. MS Ravi and chairman for the program, Rtn. Srinivasan made a beautiful sight and this was immediately confirmed by the lensmen, clicking away to glory.

The meeting started at 7:00 PM sharp, with a solemn invocation song rendered by Ann. Veena Ramaswamy, followed by welcome address by the President and then cake cutting, on the occasion of Dr. KVT’s birthday a few days ago.

Rtn. Srinivasan highlighted the salient features of the award and the citation,prepared by Rtn. Gyaneshwar was also read out by him.

The award was thereafter presented to the recipient, Dr. M Sarada Menon for her meritorious services to the needy and under privileged in affordable health care services, by the chief guest, Mr. N Kumar, Vice-Chairman, Sanmar group.

In her acceptance speech, Dr. Sharada Menon spoke very passionately about this field of medicine, which has had dominance throughout her life, Schizophrenia or mental illness. With all the achievements and milestones that she has crossed in her profession, her mentioning that she has many more goals to achieve in her preferred speciality, was an eye opener to the audience.

Co-sponsor for the event, Dr. MS Ravi mentioned that he was very proud to be associated with this award function and in the presence of such great luminaries as Dr. KV Tiruvengadam and Dr. Sarada Menon, he felt humbled. It was very gratifying to hear his commitment to support this function for many more years.

In his trademark smooth and calm manner, Dr. KV Thiruvengadam elucidated the excellent work done by Dr. Sarada Menon, over the past many decades. It was very interesting to listen to his mention of his professional association with the recipient over more than 40 years. With satisfaction and joy, he turned to the recipient and anointed her as the ‘Cinderella of Medicine’.

With Rtn. Shreen Raghavan introducing the chief guest, Mr N Kumar in his inimitable and relaxed manner recalled his family’s Association with Dr. KVT over the generations and mentioned it was a privilege to be present when a veteran such as Dr. Sarada Menon was being recognised for her unparalleled service to the medical profession.

He made particular reference to the excellent work being turned out by Rotary Club of Madras East and expressed that he has some interesting projects in mind to be considered and implemented by our Club.

Mementos were then handed over to the dignitaries and after Rtn. Surendra touched upon the recent successful fellowship visit to Dubai, the secretary made the customary announcements about the next meeting.

Rtn. Umamaheshwari, the incoming president, proposed the vote of thanks in her customary fluent style and the President adjourned the meeting after the national anthem was sung in unison.

Rtn. V A R

Minutes of Meeting held on
October 12, 2011

Hey Dubai Tour Team...

The journey began on Wednesday night at 11.30 with the drive to the airport to have Rtn. Kumar and Kruthika welcoming us at the airport with all our visas. We checked in and loitered around till the flight started off by 3.15 am. We were educated by Rtn.Rakesh Chand on how to stay/eat/drink free in chennai airport. If you have a Mastercard, I guess everything is free inside the lounge! We reached Sharjah 10 minutes ahead of schedule and then 2 luxury buses took us on a lovely drive to the city of Dubai landing at The Rolla Residency in 45 minutes’ time. A special mention must be made that Mr and Mrs Rtn.Ravidas left Chennai early for Dubai just to receive us at the Hotel when we arrived.

We headed straight to the restaurant to devour a sumptuous breakfast at compu speed !!!!!!. Hot idlis, chutney, noodles, potatoes, fruits, Cereals, breads juices etc. We then checked into our rooms and went straight to bed. We all had spacious suites while some of the Rotarians even had a double bed room suite. We rested for a couple of hours and by 12.30 started off to The Aryas to have our lunch. Our lunch was sponsored by Rtn. Muthu Kumar. Every item was cooked with love as ingredient, the highlights being the kara kozhambu and Ada prathaman.

After lunch, we set off to see The Dubai Mall, the biggest mall in the world attached to the Tallest structure in the world “The Burj Khalifa”. Here we spent time shopping, and seeing the biggest Aquarium and the waterfall. We then assembled at “At the top” at the bottom most part (paradox) of the building! (kindly sponsored by president). Exactly at 6 pm we entered the lift at The Burj khalifa and reached the 124th floor in just a minute. The lift is indeed the fastest we have experienced. They could also be just changing numbers in the display!. We had a lot of photos taken and collected lots of information about the place. The structure is about 828 meters long, built with 35000 metric tons of iron. From the top-most floor, we can see as far as 98 kms. We then returned to the mall and saw the musical fountain, which splashes water upto 100 feet high with a Hindi song as an accompaniment. This is very similar to the one at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

On Day 2, we spent about 2 hours at the electronics mall called Plug-inns and at IKEA furniture mart. Lots of money was spent with heavy shopping at IKEA from fellow Rotarians. After lunch and shopping at the Emirates mall, we headed back to our rooms. In the evening, at around 6 pm, we headed out for the Cruise. We had a red carpet welcome by Uday and gang with the cruise ship fully lit giving us an Arabic flavour. The ship had 2 decks with the top deck arranged as a party hall, and the one below arranged as a dining hall. The whole dining hall had more dishes than the table/chairs. We had a Lebanese/Arabic singer singing Arabic songs. Some Rotarians even taught him how to sing a hindi song. We had a gala time there singing, dancing and helping ourselves to a well spread dinner. Some of our Rotarians tried Indian/Arabic singing and belly dancing too. The route chosen was scenic/beautiful with lots of sky scrapers in the background. Our dinner and the cruise was sponsored by our dear president Uday. We returned to our hotel reluctantly by 11pm.

On the morning of Day 3, we were left on our own and so a few of us visited their relatives, a few went to Meena Bazaar and the others went to the Gold Souk. Whatever little was left in Gold Souk was purchased by us as the earlier batch swiped off most the gold in the Gold Souk! By 3pm, all of us assembled and started off to our desert safari in 13 Land cruisers. It was a lovely drive. We stopped to have our tyres deflated and then on to our exciting rides which went on for about half an hour. It was similar to a roller coaster ride with the Land Cruiser zipping, skidding and dropping. We stopped for a photo session and also at a Camel farm. We also had pictures taken with the Falcons and by 6 arrived at cute little tents (more than 30) set up right in the middle of the desert. Here we had camel rides, runs on a sand slide, good drinks and a mouth watering dinner finally followed by the grand finale “ The belly dance “. The belly dancer was graceful and quite a professional dancing to foot tapping Arabian music. Rotarians did try their hands on a Hookah as well and then we started off to our hotel.

On Sunday morning, we had a good breakfast and started checking out by 9 am. With all our luggage in the bus, we went on a City tour. It was a guided tour giving a chance to learn about the UAE and its people. 7 families rule the 7 states which combine to make the UAE. About 195 nationalities live in Dubai. The main income for the UAE is from the 2.4 million barrels of oil they drill out every day and is about 185 million USD per day. Water is more expensive than oil in the UAE!. We went around the Jumeriah mosque built in the Egyptian style, Burj Al Arabhotel, Armani Dubai hotel, The Atlantis and Palm Jumeriah. We heard that Shah Rukh Khan has a villa in the Palm Jumeriah. By 1 pm we reached the Dragon mart, the last mall for this visit. This stretches for about a kilometer having all Chinese products. By 4.45pm, we set off to Sharjah airport. We were all checked in by 6.30 and in our flight by 9pm. We all had a lovely dinner very well packed by organizers.

The entire trip was very well organized by Kumar Ashirvadam, Srini Rao and team. Hats off to their efforts and we would like to thank our president Uday for making it a very memorable and enjoyable trip.

Ann Veena and Rtn. Srini (100)

Minutes of Meeting held on
October 6, 2011

It was a high tea meeting at the Bheemannapet Community College (BCC) premises on the auspicious Vijayadasamy day, the day Goddesses Saraswathi is worshiped.. Guest were greeted with hot puffs, chocolate cake and masala tea at 4.30 in the evening. In the absence of President Uday, Rtn. Umamaheshwari, President Elect called the meeting to order followed by a melodious rendering of the Tamil thai vazhuthu by the students of BCC. Rtn. Uma then welcomed the gathering comprising of Rotarians, students of BCC and Winners, faculty members and the print media. We had two visiting rotarians from RC Madras Coromandel, President Bala and Rtn. Subbu.

BCC Project chairman, PP Rtn. Venkat addressed the students on the importance of computer awareness and the relevance of the project. Winners Project Chairman PP Rtn. PL Chidambaram then talked about the beginning the BCC project had in the earlier days and the need to enroll more number of students currently.

The certificates were then distributed to about 15 students of BCC and 6 of Winners. Hot Breads founder Mr. M. Mahadevan, who was the guest of honour then joined us in congratulating the students and posed for photos with the students.

Rtn. Natarajan welcomed everyone to a program by singer Suda Raghunathan at the corporation school at Thiruvanmiyur on Monday, 10th October 2011 @ 10.00 am as part of the Joy of Giving week celebration.

As part of the Joy of Giving week and in support of the “A Tribute to Tamil Cinema – longest cake project”, RCME donated a sum of Rs. 5,000 to Mahesh Memorial Trust in support of its fight against paediatric cancer. This was handed over to Mr. Mahadevan by PP PL Chidambaram. The meeting ended with Secretary Rtn. Murgavel proposing  the formal vote of thanks.

Post event, media persons were briefed by Service Project Director Rtn. Gopal and press notes were also distributed. The meeting was well attended by about 25 members in-spite of the changes in venue, timing and day of our regular weekly meeting and thanks goes to all of them for their support.

Rtn. Gopal

Minutes of Meeting held on
September 28, 2011

The Sergeant at arms collared the President and the meeting was called to order. Birthdays and Wedding Anniversaries were announced by Rtn. Sridhar. After the project announcements the chief guest of the evening (Rtn. Balaraman) was introduced by Rtn. Ananth.

Balu’s topic was “Around the US in 45 days”. It was a dream trip for Ballu, Vineetha and the kids. They covered 12000 miles across 29 states and they combined sight seeing together with, spending quality time with each other. According to him, it was an unforgettable experience

The entire trip required meticulous planning and AAA (Automobile Association of America) provided them with maps, distances and pit stops as well. Ballu and Vineetha decided that between themselves they would alternate during the day (not more than 3 hours at a stretch) on the steering wheel and that they would not drive beyond 5 PM everyday. They had a Toyota Previa with 100,000 miles on it and they got themselves a portable VCR with lots and lots of Disney movies for the kids.

Some of the memorable moments during their road trip were :

• A Hungarian who was singing ‘Awara Hoon’ in a small town in South Carolina

• Seeing more than half a million motorcycles in Sturgis, ND

• A wild wolf crossing their path in Yellowstone National Park

• Bignets at Café Au Lait in New Orleans

Ballu also shared with us some pictures of his trip that covered the Caverns of New Mexico, Riverside Walk in San Antonio, the window from where Oswald shot Kennedy, Epcot Center, Orlando, Daytona Beach Florida, Virginia Beach and Mount Rushmore (which has the faces of the presidents sculpted on it.)

A lively Q&A session followed after which, Rtn. Ramesh Kannan gave the vote of thanks. The meeting was adjourned by the President

Rtn. Ananth

Minutes of Meeting held on
September 14, 2011

“Madras String Quartet”

The weekly Wednesday meeting had a special air to it, the speakers had come bringing along musical instruments along with them. So every member was anticipating to hear soothing music instead of merely listening to words for a change!! However the meeting was first off to its customary start with President Uday inviting Rotarians, Anns and their guests. Then it was onto birthday and wedding celebrations. This week a new member S. Sridhar was brought into the RCME family. He and his wife Lakshmi Sridhar run a very successful air-conditioning business. They are blessed with two children Nivetha and Vishaal. A very warm welcome to them into our RCME family!!

It was then the turn of the Madras String Quartet to enthrall the audience with lovely renditions. These included 1st Movement of Eine Kleine Nacht Musik by Mozart, Petals in the Mist by Karikudi Mani, Krishna Nee Bagane Baro by Vysaraj and finally The Entertainer by Scott Joplin. The four artistes V S Narasimhan (violin), Heman- thraj Muliyil (violin), B J Chandran (viola) and V.R. Sekar on the Cello did an outstanding job playing their respective instruments. The hall was filled with melodious music and you could see and feel the members enjoying the music in pin drop silence. Although everyone was an accomplished veteran in the film/music industry, it was nice to see that they formed this quartet out of pure love of bringing Western and Indian Music systems closer together. It was such a technically outstanding performance that Ann Rajalakshmi an accomplished singer herself made it a point to thank all of them in a brief message at the end. Of course all good things also have to come to an end and it was on that note that Rtn. Sada signed with his Vote of Thanks. A request was however made to the Quartet that in future it will be great to have them play at one of our other events and we would definitely be welcoming them again to RCME !!!

Rtn. Murugavel Selvan

Minutes of Meeting held on
September 7, 2011

September 7, 2011, marked a very special day in the events calendar of RCME. The annual presentation of Dronacharya Awards to noteworthy teachers and coaches was held at our usual venue at The Hyatt. This year, we had two very deserving candidates – Mrs Alamelu Mani, a Carnatic Music teacher from Mumbai and Mr D. Sreekumar a roller skating coach from Tamil nadu Roller Skating Association and Besant Nagar Roller Skating Club, Chennai. The award function was sponsored by La Ambience Interior Decorators and Consultants.

After the President Uday called the meeting to order, the evening started with a mellifluous prayer song of the Carnatic genre by Ms Alamelu Mani’s Student and the younger sister of our own Rotarian Jayanthi Govindan. Rtn. Praveen then read out the Birthday and Wedding Anniversary Greetings. President Uday then welcomed the gathering which had amongst it several students of Ms Mani over the years and the family members of both the recipients. Uday spoke about the noble profession that teaching is, and how all of us really owe our success to the seeds sown by our own teachers during our formative years. He also said it was RCME’s privilege that we were able to do our bit in recognising the efforts of some of these unsung teachers and coaches and talked about how deserving each of the chosen candidates that evening were in their respective areas.

The evening then moved on to the reading of the citation and presentation of the awards. Rtn. Ananth read out the citation for Ms Alamelu Mani and the award was presented by the Chief Guest Father Dr P Christie, S J, Director of the illustrious Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA). Ms Mani then gave a short and sweet acceptance speech. It was very obvious that she was emotionally overcome by the occasion and the fact that one of her very early students, Rtn. Jayanthi, had remembered her and sponsored the award literally made her shed tears. Ms Mani’s very first student, Ms Sarayu Srinivasan, offered to say a few words about her teacher and she stepped up to the mike and gave the audience some insight into the selfless nature of the awardee. Ms Sarayu went on to talk about how Ms Mani was humility personified and how, in spite of being the constant source of inspiration for her own famous son (yes, Ms Mani’s son is none other than the famous ghazal and film playback singer Hariharan), she remains the same old simple person.

Rtn. Siva then read out the citation for Mr Sreekumar and the award was presented by Fr Christie. Mr Sreekumar, in his acceptance speech, recalled the days several years ago when he started in a small way with a couple of young children and how, over the years, that stretch of Besant Nagar area has now come to be identified with roller skating. He has been the coach and mentor to several hundred children over the years and Mr Sreekumar said that being chosen for the award gave him immense satisfaction.

The eloquent Chief Guest, Fr Christie, then took over the evening with an inspirational talk facilitating the two recipients of the Dronacharya Award. Being from the teaching profession himself, he talked about how there are two different generations of of students – today’s generation is inattentive and obsessed with gadgets and SMS etc, while during the older days, they were very devoted to their teachers and very obedient. He also mentioned that the dedication of the teachers of the older days also stood as a great example to the current crop of teachers. Today’s teachers also have to be on their toes because the students are sometimes better informed because of the information overload and access through the internet. He did dwell on the fact that teaching is one of the noblest and selfless professions and it is a great gesture by the Rotary Club Of Madras East that they have chosen to recognise deserving teachers year after year. He saluted the two awardes of the evening and confirmed that RCME could not have found better candidates.

The evening ended with a Vote of Thanks by Past President Dr M S Ravi.

For members of RCME, it was one more occasion to savour the excellent causes that the club has been supporting over the years and one could sense the glow of satisfaction not only among the award recipients and their families and students, but also all the Rotarians who had gathered there. Kudos to Rtn. Ramachandran for a wonderful execution of the function, and thanks to Rtn. Jayanthi and Mr Govindan for having sponsored such an excellent function. We all felt proud to be part of RCME that evening!

Rtn. Bala J. Raman

Minutes of Meeting held on
August 31, 2011

The meeting was chaired by Pres. Uday and Rtn. Siva standing in as Secretary in the absence of Rtn. Murugavel Selvan. After the invocation, Pres. Uday announced about the demise of Rtn. Govind’s father and the members stood up in a minute’s silence as a mark of respect to the departed soul.

Rtn. Balashanmugham greeted the members on their birthdays and wedding anniversaries and the cake was cut by the Rotarians who celebrated this week.

Rtn. Badri gave a detailed account of Terry Fox run which attracted around 12000 people participating in the run. The committed collection so far is around Rs.14 lakhs and Rtn. Badri is hopeful of making it to above Rs.20 lakhs. Rtn. Badri also thanked all the sponsors and the team that made the run so successful. Kudos to Chairman Badri and his committed team for making this a grand success for the third time.

Rt. Siva once again announced about the RYLA that will be held at Tiruvannamalai on the 9th, 10th and 11th of September and urged all the members to be part of the trip arranged by the Fellowship committee. The members and families can use this opportunity to visit Tiruvannamali to encourage the students and also visit the temple and ashrams. Rtn. Siva further announced that the pricing for this trip is Rs.1500 which included travel by AC coach/Stay in a luxury resort and all meals.

Rtn R.M. Narayanan announced about the completion of documentation for applying for matching grant from Rotary Foundation for some critical equipments in VHS, Chennai. The matching grant committee headed by RMN has made sure to get commitments from our sister club and also from a Rotary Club from Austin USA for their contributions. He also thanked the DG for allocating a good sum from the District designated fund towards this project.

Rtn. Gopal announced about the ongoing blood donation programs and also announced about the Dronacharya Awards next week and requested the members to come with their spouse and Annette’s. This award is sponsored by Rtn. Jayanthi Govindan.

Rtn. Gopal recognized the presence of Mr. Parasuraman who runs a night school at Velacherry. He further announced about our club’s contribution of Rs.25000 towards this worthwhile project. Rtn.M. Srini handed over the cheque to Mr. Parasuraman.

Pre.Uday then invited Rtn.IPP. Rajendran for presenting the accounts for the year 2010-11. Rtn. Rajendren announced that he would be transferring a sizable amount to the current year Board from his year’s admin account. The presented accounts being so crystal clear, there were no questions and the same was passed unanimously.

Pres. Uday announced about the fellowship tour to Dubai from 13th Oct to 16th Oct and requested members to join and send in their payments directly to Rtn. Kumar’s office.

There being no other agenda the meeting was concluded.

Rtn. M Srinivasan

Minutes of Meeting held on
August 24, 2011

Our club met in a larger hall on Wednesday, 24th August 2011, at the Hyatt Regency. It was to accommodate our own Rtn. Lanka Lingam to address us and to allow Rotarians to engage in an interesting session of "out of the box" thinking. The topic Lanka spoke to us was on “Innovation and Inner Vision.”

P.P.Ballu at first briefed us on the successful Terry Fox run with which RCME is associated. A tremendous enthusisam had brought in a huge crowd of more than 10000 people of all age groups and lifestyles towards awareness of Cancer treatment and cure. This is one cause that surely has no controversies and the run took place in the IIT campus on Sunday last.

Siva spoke to us on the Thivannamalai tour RCME is taking to combine RYLA and divine pursuits. It is to be on the 10th and 11th of September a Saturday and Sunday. The details of the tour have been mailed to all Rotarians.

A representative of Sakthi Travels spoke about the arrangements for the travel made to visit the R.I. Convention to be held in Bangkok next year. Lanka in his talk conveyed that Innovation is not a single event or discovery but a series of steps taken that leads to improvement in product, process, people and values. For this an organisation needs to constantly think out of the box and not be restricted to established mindsets and ways of doing things.

He brought home the point in a game that all Rotarians were asked to take part which involved two teams making an attempt to reach from one end of the grid laid on the floor to the other end. Each team member was asked to take one step at a time in the grid in which were hidden mines that could blow up by stepping on them thereby terminating his or her movement. Both teams tried hard and came across a point where they could not proceed further and to do so they needed to step outside the grid. This was what Lanka called "out of the box" thinking.

Now, one could claim that this was not according to the rules though it was not specifically prohibited. One would be right in claiming so. But one would have learnt the lesson that one does need to think outside his/her mindset to move ahead in life.

Lanka then showed some video data to show how things could be done in better ways and spoke about his inventory holding idea of ships that would go slow and charge less and thereby provide storage space and savings in inventory costs.

I believe it was a lesson well learnt.

P.P.Gurmukh proposed vote of thanks and said in his twenty years in RCME this was a first time he had such an interactive role playing session.

The Secretary made his announcements and the President adjourned the meeting which had an intresting and valuable take home for all of us.

Rtn. Gnanesh

Minutes of Meeting held on
August 17, 2011

Did you know Chennai has 16000 cops on a 1:500 Cop to Chennaite ratio?

(Well, in Delhi it is 1:200)!!!

Have you realised there are 6 police controlled locations along the sea shore for Ganesha idols’ immersion after the festivities?

That Chennai has 1800 kms of roads of which only 800 kms is densely used?

Interesting statistics about our city seemed to be second nature to Mr. Natarajan IPS Retd. and former Commisioner of Police, who kept our members glued to their seats with facts and details about our great city, laced with his subtle humour.

He says, “EVERY CITIZEN IS A COP, THOUGH NOT IN UNIFORM”.

Having seen the changing and ever increasing population of this city over the past 4 decades, he stated that the act of policing in this city, has undergone a radical change. In those days, the police were the first to get information on any burglary or breach of law and could act accordingly. Nowadays, thanks to the TV channels’ coverage, as well as the proliferation of mobile phones, the public know about happenings much before the cops do. So, the manner of their handling law and order has also changed and adapted accordingly.

They have a large Police Training Academy in the outskirts of the city and the training given to young cadets is very systematically and professionally drawn out.

It was a pleasure to see all our Rotarians sitting through the meeting, though extended by 15 minutes, due to various announcements and the narrative capacity of the speaker for the evening.

Earlier, the meeting was called to order by President Rtn. Uday, with the customary birthday/wedding announcements following. Quite a few were encircling the cake to be cut, but it was Rtn. Chandrasekhar who was first and thereby literally ‘had the cake and ate it too.’

Announcement on RYLA fellowship program to Tiruvannamalai by Rtn. Shiva, a light hearted narration about the previous week-end fellowship dinner by Rtn. Swamy, a plea by our Treasurer Rtn. Rakesh Chand on subscription payments, update on Rotaract by Rtn. Gopal was then followed by the entry and participation of Mr. Akash Dubey when a short and heart touching film on Terry Fox run was shown to the members. This was followed by a ‘direct from the heart’ appeal by Akash and then by Rtn. Badri detailing the program for the run on Sunday, 21st August 11 at IIT campus. The by-now folklore gesture from RCMEians was seen again that evening, with spontaneous contributions flowing from those present which was heart warming.

With Rtn. PE Ram taking care of the speaker introduction, the last couple of activities were the Secretary’s announcements and Vote of Thanks that was rendered by Rtn. K R Chandrasekaran.

Rtn. V A R.

Minutes of Meeting held on
August 6, 2011

The meeting on 6th August was significant for more than one reason. First for choosing, aptly, Mr. Seshasayee of Ashok Leyland to receive the “M S Swaminathan Environmental Protection Award” and for celebrating the birthday of Dr. Prof. M S Swaminathan a day before others could do at other forums (Prof. M S Swaminathan’s birthday was on the 7th of August). The meeting was called to order at 5.30 P.M by President N S Udaykumar and he also briefed the gathering about the importance of the award and the numerous service activities carried out by our own Rtn. CKR, and his company Cavinkare the sponsor for this program.

This was followed by the introduction of the award recipient by Rtn. Ravi Venkatramani and the glowing citation which was read very stylishly by Rtn. Shreen. The awardee, Mr. Seshasayee, in his acceptance speech insisted on personal discipline and sacrifice as part of saving the mother earth in so many ways apart from rotary clubs setting an example by choosing Energy Saving Programmes at District level. He also encouraged our club to adopt a model project in a middle class area as well as it would be more difficult to show significant progress and any resulting success would be more rewarding. Dr. M S Swaminathan spoke about how much he respected Ashok Leyland and Mr. Seshasayee for their efforts especially considering that their industry was top on the list of the biggest contributors to global warming.

The Chief Guest of the evening Mrs. Lele spoke, that for two reasons she accepted to be the Chief Guest for the evening. One was that the recipient of the award is Mr. Seshasayee whose work was appreciated and acknowledged at global level on Energy saving and the other was that the award is instituted in the name of Dr. Prof. M S Swaminathan. She added the problem of global warming was real and the world had to come together to cut down on greenhouse gases and adopt green practices.

Rtn. Murugavel Selvan proposed the vote of thanks and the evening ended with the national anthem.

Rtn. Sadhasivan

Minutes of Meeting held on
August 3, 2011

“CHINMAYI UNPLUGGED”

It is indeed rare to meet someone who you instantly connect with, rarer to hear a candid voice with a mindful view, and perhaps the rarest of instances when one sees a young yet firm head resting on ever so delicate shoulders, deliver an evening that was refreshingly different.

The meeting of August 3 commenced with the weekly string of birthdays and anniversaries followed by singing and cake cutting, and then it was time to tune in tothe speaker of the day, Chinmayi Sripada.Speaking on the topic of “Follow your Dream,” Chinmayi shared with us, a very personal journey, which she relived animatedly as she spoke in an almost casual manner, not mincing words, keeping it real and ‘as is.’ Her talk was infused with satire, her struggle with ‘free advice’ and a tinge of bitterness; she only glowed when she spoke of her ‘dreams’ and her mother who is also her ‘guru.’ One felt like wiping away the frown on her young brow, and perhaps no one had given her this bit of tested advice that “This too shall pass.”

Blessed with a voice to die for, an attitude to kill for and above all a feistiness that one can only watch and envy, Chinmayi has crafted a career that spans diverse domains like music, entrepreneurship and is the CEO of a translation services company, that goes by the name “Blue Elephant.” Not surprising, as the first time you meet her, you can feel it in your bones that ‘this babe is diff’rent!” Doing true justice to her personality, Chinmayi peppered her talk with a few of her popular numbers - the recent and melodious ‘Nenjil Nenjil” and the timeless and heart wrenching ‘Oru Deivam thantha poove,’ adding musical sheen to our evening. She then spoke about her passion for music, how she knew her mind at 11 years and made the switch ‘overnight’ from traditional Carnatic classical to the then lesser-preferred Hindustani music! [In South India, in Madras!!] Imagine the eyeballs it would have gotten her! In this case, ‘free advice!!’ Undeterred by all, Chinmayi recounted with verve, how she stuck to her guns and waited with conviction for her musical break with Rahman, and the memorable ‘kannathil muthamittal’ happened when she was just 15! From then on, there was only one way to go; not just forward, but a path that touched a zenith with Playback singing, Radio Jockeying, Television hosting and finally ‘Blue Elephant.’

Now, this is not all. As I am writing this, Chinmayi Sripada has her own ‘App’ on iTunes, the first ever for a woman of music in India, we are told and her precious head is buzzing with ideas, plans, projects and ‘dreams.’ In her words, ‘there is room for all of this and more. Who says that you can ride only one horse at a time? If it is a chariot drawn by twenty horses and you are in the driver’s seat, think about it. It is possible, no?”

Julie Andrews’ lilting melody in ‘Sound of Music’ is perhaps the best ode to this gen next tweeter, who has over 25000 tweets, reaching out to all out there, saying her story, speaking her mind, sharing her music.

Live on, Dream on and Rock on, Chinmayi!

“Climb every mountain, Ford every stream, Follow every rainbow,

Till you find your dream.”

Rtn Janaka Pushpanathan

Minutes of Meeting held on
July 27, 2011

This meeting promised to be a blockbuster due to the presence of action hero and political heavyweight Sarath Kumar and it did not disappoint. We had a record attendance of over 80 members, anns and annettes who eagerly showed up to savour the action (and the fantastic spread). PE Ram made the announcements for birthdays and anniversaries and Sarath Kumar happily pointed out that he was also celebrating his birthday this month. Rtn. Uma Maheswari graciously donated Rs 30,000 to the Jeevan Stem Cell Bank on the occasion of Annette Hasini’s 21st birthday which was happily received by Rtn. Tarachand Dugar. Vaishnavi (niece of Rtn. Shivram) spoke about the Terry Fox Run and requested help with spreading the word and soliciting sponsorships. Rtn. Babu informed the club about the interact installation at National Public School and also made a mention of the Green Kalam Project and how well it has been received. Rtn. Sydney Murali advised the members about the M.S.Swamination Environment Protection Award to be presented to Mr. R. Seshasayee, Executive Vice Chairman of Ashok Leyland on Saturday, August 6th. President Uday Kumar then set the stage for the highlight of the evening with a statement “Sound Mind in a Sound Body” and pointed to a former Mr. Madras and one of our fittest chief guests ever.

After Rtn. Ganesan’s warm introduction, Sarath Kumar proceeded to impress the audience with his charm, wit and articulate thoughts about politics and government. He pointed to his long standing friendship and association with Rtn. Jayaraman and his family. He talked about his association with the Rotary and even pointed out that renowned Unesco was conceived of at a Rotary Conference! He is currently working on a project with the Rotary Club of Tenkasi to build a model village that will help stem the migration of the rural population to the cities. He talked about his schooling at Raja Muthiah School and Anglo Indian School following which he joined Loyola where he participated in the first ever strike! He spoke about how he was (and still is) a fitness freak and sports lover and how his entry into films was accidental. He is married to Actress Radhika and has 3 daughters and a seven year old son. He joked about how Radhika played both his mother and his wife in the movie, Suryavamsham.

The floor was then open to one of the longest and most interesting Q&A sessions I have ever seen at RCME. He handled the various questions like a pro and drew the audience closer to him with every answer. Moving onto a topic close to his heart, he strongly stated that the political system in India needs a blood transfusion. He talked about his time as MP, where parliament behaved like a big social club and no serious business got done. He commented about how it was important for educated people to enter politics to change the system in the long term. He alluded to the story of a person spent his whole life building a tunnel through a mountain just so that future generations could benefit. He stressed the need for an iconic leader to emerge from the educated people to cure the political system of its ills.

Secretary Selvan introduced Rtn. Balaji Sreenivasan as the chairman of the attendance sub committee who then pointed out how easy it was to make up ones absences. Rtn. Srinivasan (100) then proposed the vote of thanks and expressed his admiration for Sarath Kumar’s efforts in the empowerment and education of people.

Rtn. Ravi Venkataramani

Minutes of Meeting held on
July 20, 2011

The meeting was attended by a group of over fifty rotarians eager to get expert insights on Real Estate from the eminent realtors of RCME. The meeting began briskly with Rtn. Mohan Rao announcing the birthday and anniversary greetings. A cake was cut by Rtn. Sudhir on behalf of all the rotarians announced. Rtn. M Srinivasan spoke briefly on RI President Kalyan Banerjee’s inspiring speech during his visit to Chennai last week. Rtn. Siva spoke of the fireside meetings held during the previous week. Announcements were also made about the tree planting event at Valasaravakkam under the aegis of RCME and American Eye Care Centre on 17th July. Rtn. PLC urged members to refer students for the Bheemanapet Community College. Also an appeal was made to refer Corporate Donations/ Sponsors for the Terry Fox Run to be held on 21st August.

With no more ado, the scene shifted to the event of the evening, “A Panel Discussion on Real Estate”. The panelists were V A Ramash, T V Ramkumar, Sudhakar, Surendra (off the dais) and the panel was moderated by PP Ganesan. The discussions ranged from the do’s and don’ts in Real Estate Investing to the dilemmas of investing within the city to investing in the outskirts, investing in land or building, is low cost housing a myth and many more. All the questions were analysed and expert insights were provided by the panel. While the questions were innumerable, the time being a limiting factor, the discussions had to be unfortunately wound down. The first classification talk of the year was a success and spelt a good start for many more to follow in the months to come.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks by Rtn. Surendra thanking the panelists and the moderator.

Rtn. Babu Krishnamoorthy

Minutes of Meeting held on
July 13, 2011

The second meeting of the rotary year played host to another great speaker, Divya Vijayagopal, Host of Airtel Super Singer on Vijay TV. It promised to be a great meeting and several Anns and Annettes eagerly showed up.

The meeting started with the birthday and anniversary announcements followed by another great cake from our very own Winners Bakery. New Generation Director Babu talked about the recent rotoract and interact installations at TSN College and PS Matriculation School. Service Projects Director Gopal advised the club about the upcoming Terry Fox run and the various activities that have already begun. Rtn. Doc Srini briefed the club about his one-on-one meeting with RI President Kalyan Banerjee and his promised support from Rotary International in making the Cord Blood Bank a global project. Rtn. Prabhu seized the occasion and graciously donated Rs 30,000 towards the Cord Blood Bank project which was received by Rtn. Guptaji.

Idaya Ganam Chairman Ramana recognized the contribution of Rs 40,000 made by Rtn. Papa Rao towards the project. Rtn. Harish advised about the various blood donation camps conducted thus far and was optimistic about hitting our goals for the year. RCME has definitely made a busy start to the new rotary year as always!

The focus then turned to the feature of the evening with Annette Sindhu doing a great job of introducing Divya to the audience. As expected, Divya gave a very entertaining account of her road to becoming the host of Airtel Super Singer. She mentioned that she was a very good student while at Church Park and graduated near the top of her class. However, when she joined MOP Vaishnav for her B.Com she discovered her passion for the stage. While she had been learning carnatic music since the age of 5, college provided her the opportunity to explore new horizons and discover herself as an entertainer and model. She was also very active in the student union and enjoyed being the focus of everybody’s attention. When the time came to think of an MBA, Divya felt that she was not good at marketing or finance and preferred instead to choose HR as her specialty at the School of Social Work as she loved interacting with people.

Divya talked about her first big break as a playback singer for a Telugu movie and how easy it came to her. She shared her experiences hosting her first TV show in Malayalam and then onto Super Singer Junior and how she almost walked away from it all. It was quite clear that Divya has achieved the success that she has because of her immense confidence in her abilities, determination and her unique quality of taking both success and failure in her stride. She encouraged the audience to seriously consider a career in media as it was a fun place to be in but warned that very few people make it to the top. She added that as long as enjoyed the journey and remembered to “make hay while the sun shined” they would have no regrets.

Secretary Selvan made his club announcements and reminded the members about the visit by RI President Kalyan Banerjee requesting a large turnout from RCME. It was then the turn of Ann Veena Ramaswamy to give an eloquent vote of thanks. She pointed out that Divya, despite her supposed inability to market and sell, had done a fantastic job of selling herself and Airtel Super Singer to the audience.

Rtn. Ravi Venkataramani

Minutes of Meeting held on
July 6, 2011

RCME 2011-12 Rotary Year First Weekly Meeting

The first weekly meeting of the Rotary year 2011-12 got off to a great start at RCME’s new venue “The Hyatt”, last Wednesday the 6th of July’11. President Udaykumar briefly welcomed all Rotarians and then as a sign of things to come, he proposed that this year Birthdays/Wedding anniversaries would be celebrated a little differently from before. All the celebrating Rotarians were called up front to join together in a wonderful cake cutting ceremony. Of course as Secretary Selvan pointed out, something’s still remain the same as he proceeded to collect “Sunshine” from the celebrating Rotarians. Following these, club announcements on blood camp was made by Club Services Director Gopal. Then IPP Rajendran updated everyone on the Kannagi Nagar project.

It was then the turn of Rtn. Venkat to introduce the speaker of the day Mr. Stanley Evans. The topic being “Indigenous languages of the British Isles”. Stan started off by letting everyone know that there are at least 17 different Accents and Dialects that are present in the British Isles. He then went on to say a few words in many of them and did an excellent job of showing the variations. The audience were taken aback at, how complicated even pronunciation of certain simple words could be. Stan explained to the audience that how depending on the geography a lot them could be Scottish, Gaelic, Irish, Welsh, Cornish etc… After his explanation of the origins and how these accents have evolved and merged, he concluded by saying that the few major accents mentioned above he feels will stand for a long time. It was then onto a vibrant question and answers session.

Secretary Selvan then made his club announcements, including an important one about this year’s RI President Kalyan Banerjee addressing a joint Inter City Meet on Thursday July 14th. It was then the turn of Rotarian Sadasivam to give an entertaining vote of thanks. He talked about how, even though while growing up his English teacher was the most feared, he gladly still accepted to do the Vote of Thanks for this speaker even though topic for the day was related to it. In all the first meeting got off to an excellent start and there was an overall appreciation from many Rotarians not just on the speaker/topic but also on the food being served at the Hyatt!!

Rtn. Murugavel Selvan

Minutes of Meeting held on
June 29, 2011

New Address. New President. New Rotary Year!

RCME’s IP address now reads 600018.27.2011.12

It was an evening of change. Change of guard from the 26th President to the 27th, change of venue from the familiar brand ITC to the nouvelle Hyatt, change of setting from the ubiquitous banquet hall to the ‘atrium in the lobby!’ But for those sturdy pillars in the line of vision, it seemed like a nice idea, to start with.

It was also an evening of many firsts. Anchored in true ‘bollywood ishytle,’ Sydney Murali and Ann Uma Ramesh lent sparkle to the flow of events, scripted with crisp prose and interspersed with a sprinkling of some headily yet apt music (chosen carefully by Rtn. Sanjay and Ann Raji) which gave a new dimension to the customary introduction of N S Udayakumar and his new board.

Another poignant first was that Annette Shruthi represented her mother and secretary Rtn. Jayanthi Govindan and took us through the year gone by, presenting the report from her mother’s desk, and in her words. We wish Jayanthi a speedy recovery and cannot wait to welcome her back into the warm folds of weekly Wednesdays!

The ‘last first’ was the choice of First Lady Rtn. Dr Sai Prasanna as Chief Guest and she touched us with her feisty speech on Rotary, the movement, its objectives, and what a club like ours could do, to create that difference. We particularly related to her articulation of a Rotary club being Viable, Vibrant and Visible and the 17awards that we bagged at Kireedam in the last Rotary year stands a tall testimony to this!

“Installation Night,” read the tastefully done invitation and the evening kicked off with a serene rendition of a hymn invoking the blessings of Sri Raghavendra, sung beautifully by Ann Aruna Sivasubramaniam. It was a proud moment for many as President Rajendran outlined the various activities of the club and thanked all the people behind the scenes for the wonderful presidential year that he and the club enjoyed. Rtn. PP R Venkatakrishnan’s introduction of the incoming President was laced with the trademark ‘Venki’ humor and drew quite a few laughs, at the same time, gave us all insight into the real person that Uday is! Both the roster and bulletin were released after which AG Rtn. Palaniappan and District Secretary Rtn. Babu Peram addressed club members. President Uday’s acceptance speech was short and to the point; again it was a reminder of his personality, “Do More, Say Less.”

Ann Vineeta Balaraman then introduced Rtn. Dr Sai Prasanna and invited her to address the RCME gathering. Dr Sai’s address was filled with many Rotary anecdotes that were both thought provoking and action oriented. There are many leaves that one can take from Dr Sai’s book, one of which is her commitment to know more about Rotary, which she shared with us, saying, “When I said I was going to Madras East as the Chief Guest, everyone warned me that it is one of ‘the’ clubs! So I read more and prepared well, as I am not an accomplished speaker like most of you!” We were touched by her humility, as she charged us with her honesty and perhaps this is what R I President Rtn. Kalyan Banerjee meant when he culled out this year’s Rotary theme of “Reaching Within to Embrace Humanity.”

Rtn. Janaka Pushpanathan

Minutes of Meeting held on
June 22, 2011

Himalayan Trek by Krishnan Naganathan and M. Srinivasan

It was an emotion filled evening for our club members when we met at Park Sheraton for the last time this year before we move to Hyatt Regency. We have decades of pleasant memories at this venue and our members turned up in large numbers to reminisce the evening. President Rajendran started by thanking VA Ramash and Ramachandran for their excellent contribution in bringing speaker after speaker, every week this year. Ann. Viji Shivram announced birthdays and holidays in her usual style. Dr. Rebecca spoke highly of RCME’s support for palliative care education project and Ann Ramaa Venkatadri issued certificates to the students of the palliative care program. Shreen Raghavan updated the club with the progress of our Secretary Jayanthi’s health after the surgery and said, “she is recovering well.” The final episode of Idayaganam project at Russian Cultural Centre was announced by Ramana, which will be a tribute to the legendary singer PB Srinivas on Sunday, 26th July at 10 am. RAINS, the Indoor Sports Fellowship hosted by Bala and Ann. Usha was dubbed as a major success with PE Ram providing a succinct update on the winners of the tournaments. The stage was then set for M. Srinivasan and Krishnan Naganathan to showcase their trek to the Himalayas. It was a laugh riot for the audience with M. Srini holding the mike and responding to the comments and jokes from other members. Krishnan spoke in detail about their 9 day trek of the Rupin and Supin Valley. The pictures of the Himalayan Glaciers, beautiful flowers, pristine forests, lively streams and fabulous views made everyone turn green with envy. The audience must have surely felt as though they made the trip as well. Incidents of snakes in the tent and slips on the snow certainly made things dramatic. Members were assured by Krishnan that there will be more treks and we could join him. Another highlight of the evening was the talk given by our Annet. Anirudh Ravi who visited NASA and bagged an award. He shared his experiences on space walking, G-Force Gravity, meeting with Astronauts, etc. Muragavel Selvan announced that the next meeting will be held at Hyatt Regency on Anna Salai and welcomed everyone for the installation of the new board members. All in all, it was another wonderful and memorable evening for the RCME members, guests and visitors.

Rtn. T Sivasubramanian