Sometimes I feel that time has flown by. And sometimes I feel that it has been moving at its usual pace but it is the activities of our Club that
are so fast-paced that they give the feeling that time is flying by.

It has been a great year and a great honour to lead our Rotary Club and to each one of you I say a very big “Thank You” for all your love, support
and blessings. I am humbled by the instantaneous positive response from each and every one of you to every request from me. We went through the year with fun and laughter and also touched the lives of thousands of people who are less fortunate than us.

The Angels asked God if there was anything in the world stronger than rocks. Yes, God answered, stronger than rocks is iron, which can break a rock.

Is there anything stronger than iron? they asked. Of course, the Lord replied, fire, because iron can be melted in fire. But what is stronger than fire?
There’s water, which can quench fire, the Lord said.

What is stronger than water? the angels again asked. And the Lord answered that it is wind which can scatter water.

And what is stronger than the wind? the Angels wanted to know. And the Lord replied: “Sympathy is stronger. There is nothing stronger than
a compassionate heart.

– Sadhu T.L. Vaswani

My sincere thanks to my Officer- Bearer colleagues – IPP Dr. Rumi Jehangir, President-Elect Nandan Damani, Vice-President Pradeep Saxena, Hon. Secretary Nowroze Vazifdar, Joint Hon. Secretary Jacob Abraham and Hon. Treasurer Ishraq Contractor.

Rumi kept his promise and helped throughout the year attending each and every meeting of the Officer-Bearers. Nandan has been very supportive of every project and I wish him all the very best. Pradeep always lightened up our meetings.

Nowroze has been my pillar of strength, encouraging me and egging me on all the time and keeping minutes of each and every meeting and ensuring that they reach us even before we reach home. Our friendship has grown to such an extent that even my wife is jealous of him now! Jacob has also helped during the year.

This is our Club Roster. President Ashish presents Rotary material to the Governor after his installation. With him are PP Gul Kripalani and the Hon. Secretary. 'I mean it seriously. I feel honoured and privileged at having been made an Honorary member of your Club', the Governor of Maharashtra, Mr. S.C. Jamir, tells the Club team

Ishraq, as he has done for many years, helped to keep a check on the accounts, ensuring timely and appropriate compliance.

The Board of Directors has met consistently every month and there has been unanimity in each and every decision, with a healthy discussion on all issues. Farokh Balsara, Rita Dalal, Bipin Kapadia, Suhail Nathani, Vikram Daiya, Paul George, who has guided us right through, Zinia Lawyer and Jimmy Pochkhanawalla –
many thanks to all of you.

I must also thank the Trustees for keeping our trust in good financial strength. Under the guidance of Past Presidents Rahim Muljiani, Vithal Palekar, J.C. Kothari and Adi Dastur, our Club will continue to maintain high standards. Vithal, in particular, helped in completing important documentation regarding the Ajit Deshpande Medical Centre which was pending for some time.

My sincere thanks go out to all the Chairpersons and the Joint Chairs of our 50 Committees.

Membership & Classification: My sincere thanks to PP Sandip Agarwalla and PP Dr. Adi Dastur who have ensured the induction of some great candidates to our Rotary family. Assimilation: Dr. Sam Mahaluxmivala did a wonderful job of providing information to all our new members. Fellowship: Thanks to Khurshed Poonawala and Fali Mehta for taking Fellowship to the next level. We had Fellowship events at several places – at Clubs, members’ homes and even at Alibaug. And with Fali there, we were sure of being in good spirits.

Sports: Anand Dalal and Moy Biswas have clicked together and are ensuring that the energy of all the“Young” Rotarians of our Club remains forever high. They arranged some outstanding sporting events during the year.

Programme: Pranay Vakil brought in a breath of fresh air to a wide array of subjects and fantastic speakers throughout the year. Sergeant-at-Arms: Suresh Jagtiani, take a bow! You achieved your target of collecting Rs. 10,000 per week in great style. Congratulations on your stupendous success.

Attendance: PP Rajnikant Reshamwala ensured strict compliance with velvet gloves. Eventually, some hard decisions of membership termination were also implemented.

Open Minds: Shreelekha Damani held some very enjoyable meetings at her lovely home and played the perfect hostess to all of us. A precursor of things to follow! Thank you very much, Shreelekha.

Fund-Raising: Hats off to S.K. Mitra. He is a great fund-raiser. Thanks to his efforts, we had a successful year of raising funds.

You must work in the area of malnutrition among children in rural areas. Agreeing with the Governor are (from left) Bipin Kapadia, Paul George and Nandan Damani. 'We look forward to having you with us at the Taj Mahal Hotel on a Tuesday convenient to you,' President-Elect Nandan Damani offers the Club.s invitation to the Governor

Bulletin: Many thanks to Nowroze Vazifdar who, with his unerring eye for detail and flair for the language, has significantly helped Anmol Purohit who has done a marvellous job to bring out, every week, an issue which is the pride of our Club and the envy of other Clubs – and, this year, there have been 53 issues.

Public Relations: Sincere thanks to Dolly Thakore and Nanik Rupani. And a special thank you to Priyasri Patodia. Due to their efforts, our Club got a lot of publicity in the press throughout the year.

Hasanali Tobaccowala Eye Centre: Dr. Mitul Patel and Arin Master worked hard to ensure that this, our heritage project, continued to function without a hitch.

Ajit Deshpande Medical Centre: PP Dr. Kekoo Kavarana and Leela Deshpande worked hard to make sure that the centre, also located in Talwada, functioned smoothly throughout the year.

Oral Health: If there is one reason why the villagers in and around Talwada have such white, gleaming teeth, then it is thanks to the work of this Committee which was ably led by Dr. Soli Javeri.

Prevention of TB: Dr. Rohini Chowgule has made a difference in Talwada and helped in preventing the spread of tuberculosis. Heart Care: Many thanks to Dr. Anand Somaya for keeping our hearts beating with the support of the 1298 ambulance service. Polio, Hepatitis: Dr. Paresh Icchaporia played a key role in publicising the NIDs (National Immunisation Days), when children are immunised against polio and hepatitis. Cancer Aid: The Endowment created through Farokh Balsara by his spouse Dr. Soonnu’s family, did a commendable job of rendering financial assistance to the families of poor cancer patients.

Global Cool: It is thanks to PP Harry Singh Arora that the super-cool CFL bulbs are becoming such a hot success.

Rural Development & Organic Farming: Many thanks to the passionate Dilnavaz Variava who helped give a boost to organic farming in Talwada. And to Pradeep Gujarathifor the Cottap seeds that were sown at Chopda.

Rotary Community Corps: Sincere thanks to Ratan Tankha and Subash Gogia for the fantastic work that they have done for the underprivileged in the slums of Bombay. Every time an emergency arose, they were there to lend a helping hand. They arranged innumerable medical and health check-up camps throughout
the year.

Welfare of Animals: Hiren Kara and Dr. Mala Jagtiani went out of their way to identify and to work on projects for the welfare of man’s best friend.

Green Vision & Environment: Several tips on protecting and improving the environment were provided by Kiran Nanda and Jagdish Malkani. These were published in our bulletin, too.

Aid to the Challenged: Shyyamniwas Somani and Poonam Lalvani tried their best to make a difference to the lives of the physically challenged.

Senior Citizens: Naresh Kumar Jain and Roda Billimoria took up several initiatives during the year for the growing number of senior citizens. They also arranged parties, musical programmes, magic shows and distribution of articles of personal use to make them feel wanted and cared for. Women’s Empowerment: The
Committee, led by Shernaz Vakil and ably assisted by Preeti Mehta, made an effort to help indigent women learn new skills so that they could stand on their own feet.

Interact: Mehul Sampat, assisted by Ashwin Thakkar, succeeded in motivating all the 26 Interact Clubs sponsored by the Rotary Club of Bombay. Mrs. Pereira, our new Interact coordinator, did a very good job throughout the year. Many thanks to her.

Rotaract: Dipan Mehta managed our vibrant and enthusiastic Rotaract Clubs right through the year. Vocational Training Centres: The VTCs, functioning jointly with the YMCA, have been doing a very good job. Thanks to Vineet Bhatnagar and Bimal Mehta.

Night Study Centres: Another project which functions in coordination with the YMCA; this is a fantastic idea which benefits the children living in slum areas and provides them with a comfortable environment to study. They are also helped with their home work. Thank you, Sunny Pariyaram and Kirit Kamdar.

Educational Loans & Scholarships: Tarjani Vakil and Arjun Jolly take their work very seriously. They spend hours interviewing applicants for educational loans and ensuring that scholarships are given to the most deserving.

Management Education: Poonam Kumar organised a unique event at which students of management schools presented several interesting case studies.

Asmita, Child Welfare: One of the District Thrust Areas, it was well looked after by PP Kalpana Munshi. The Club had the honour of hosting an Inter-City District Forum on the Thrust Areas which Nowroze and I coordinated under the able leadership of PDG Aziz Visram.

Art: Girdharilal Vaid deserves kudos for arranging an excellent talk by Mr. Neville Tuli, the founder-chair-man of Osians Art, which is committed to creating a novel “art infrastructure ” for the country. Performing Arts: Many thanks to Sabira Merchant who organised an outstanding event featuring a skit on The Four-Way Test.

Rain Water Harvesting: Well done, Suresh Goklaney. He got the Governor of Maharashtra to inaugurate the rain water harvesting system that he had installed (through Eureka Forbes) at the Victoria Jubilee Memorial School for the Blind at Tardeo. Traffic Pollution: Deepak Kapadia arranged a massive painting
competition for school children on this subject. And it was a great success. Rotary Public Awards: My sincere thanks to PP Vithal Palekar and Nelum Gidwani for arranging so many grand functions to felicitate the winners. And for being so meticulous in selecting the awardees.

Legal Aid: As he does every year, Akil Hirani arranged a successful Moot Court competition this year, too. Four-Way Test: It is the TRUTH that Sitaram Shah and Manojj Patodia did a stupendous job of promoting the Four-Way Test. The icing on the cake was the hilarious skit on the Four-Way Test that was directed and presented by Sabira Merchant.

R.I. Programmes: Shanta Chatterji did a very good job as the liaison person for R.I. Projects. The Rotary Foundation: Congratulations and thanks to Nirav Shah
for achieving the Club’s target. In his own words, Jai Ho! Matching Grants: Thanks to the relentless efforts of the Rotary office, all pending matters regarding
Matching Grants were resolved.

Apart from the multifarious activities conducted by the 50 Committees of our Club with great success, we also had the opportunity to commence four major new projects.

New projects Junior College at Talwada A junior college was a dire need in Talwada, the village adopted by the Rotary Club of Bombay. Children passing out of school had to use their old school premises in a shift system. The Club has now commenced the construction of a junior college which will be completed in about 18 months.

Vocational Training Centre An independent Vocational Training Centre is about to be launched in Goregaon (West), the busy suburb of Bombay. The premises have been committed to the Club and the formalities for taking it over should be completed very soon. Old Age Home Care for senior citizens is the obligation
of every society and the Rotary Club of Bombay is not lagging in this regard. The Club is assisting in the addition of five self-contained rooms in an existing, well-run home for the aged in Ambarnath, another distant suburb of Bombay.

Bhavishya Yaan This pilot project has proved to be an eye-opening experience. The Club’s Committee for the Education for All started working on the idea of imparting free computer education to the students of the Ambedkar Municipal School at Worli. Little did it know that the experiment would turn out to be a big success. Walking an extra mile for the underprivileged students, the Committee members tried their hand at teaching them English (the students were from the Kannada medium section of the school). Next, someone came up with the brilliant idea of adding a little bit of grooming and counselling, too.

The results have been fantastic. The boys and girls have blossomed into such confident youngsters that the municipal authorities have pleaded with the Committee to undertake similar projects in many more of their schools. We at the Rotary Club of Bombay believe in doing things well and under proper supervision. This pilot project has been a stunning success and will certainly be taken to its next level in the years to come.

I am sure these new projects will give greater visibility to our Club and help us in meeting our objective of reaching out to those in most need of help.

I wish incoming President Nandan Damani and Rotaryann Shreelekha all the best. I am sure that under his leadership our Club will continue to rise to even greater heights and continue to be the pioneer Club of the District. Many thanks to Anmol Purohit who, week after week, brought out our wonderful bulletin, The Gateway, which is the envy of all in the Rotary world. A big thank you to Viraf Hansotia for making an outstanding movie on the Rotary Club of Bombay and all the hours of editing that went into it. And to Mrs. Cymbeline Pereira for excellent coordination of the Interact activities. Thank you, Mr. Lokhande, for the sound system and the screen arrangements right through the year and our regular photographers, Sunder and Vasant. My special and warm thanks to the management of the Taj Mahal Hotel who have always made us feel at home. This has been the most trying year for all of us what with the unfortunate events of 26/11.

They called me immediately after reopening the hotel on January 1, 2009, to tell me: “Come back to the Taj.” We were told that we could meet at the poolside till such time as the banquet rooms were ready. Sincere thanks to Mr. Kang, the General Manager, and to Renu Basu and the entire Taj team for their unmatched hospitality throughout the year. I am extremely grateful to the Rotary Office Staff and two social workers who have performed their duties diligently and have always risen to the occasion when called upon to do so. Mr. Eruch Irani, Mary, Suchita, Sawant, Ingawale, Vishnu and Chandrakant have done their work efficiently and turned our Club into a well-oiled engine. Eruch has always been only a phone call away at any time of the day or night and proficient with the correspondence and the emails.

A big thank you to my own office staff who handled everything so well; I specially mention Lizia, Helen and Pratibha for looking after all the Rotary work. Lastly, my family. Dad, Gopi, Avi and Arnav – thank you very much for being supportive at all times and for helping me throughout the year. Above all, I thank You, God, for helping me accomplish my task with Your Blessings. With warmest regards.

Yours in Rotary,
Ashish Vaid
President, 2008-2009