This Rotaract Club is in India, in the sylvan garden city of Bangalore in the southern state of Karnataka. It is a part of R.I. District 3190. This Club was started in the early 80s and has grown to be one of the best clubs in the district. During its life, the Club has weathered many vicissitudes, and has also had an abundance of good times. Over the years, the past presidents have shaped the future of this club in such a way that the job of the incoming presidents has grown easier over the years. The present board of directors would like to acknowledge these intrepid souls who strove selflessly to make this Club what it is today.
Our members are in the age group of 18-30. We are all mostly students, with some people who don't have to study anymore. Our club consists of a fair cross-section of humanity, with a budding computer professional, a qualified dentist, a lawyer and many management wizards. We pride ourselves on being dedicated and hardworking people, but we enjoy a spot of rough-housing and fun & games as much as anyone else. The hobbies of people in our club include a plethora of interests from music to magic.
XIII Anita Marar Memorial Hockey Tournament: This is a hockey tournament conducted for school girls in the city, and always draws a good response. This year it was held at the Corps of Military Police hockey field. The choice of this venue was due to the excellent field available. As always, this time too it was conducted under the auspices of the KSWHA (Karnataka State Womens Hockey Association). The BEL "A" team won, while the team from St. Euphrasia's school were the runners up.
INQUIZITION 96: This is an inter-school general knowledge quiz competition for school children from the 6th to the 12th Graders. Conducted under the auspices of the KQA (Karnataka Quiz Association), participation in this quiz enables participants to secure further points towards state and national level ranking. Sri Kumaran's School were the winners this year.
RANGEELA: The word "Rangeela" means colorful in our national language, Hindi. This is a truly colorful quiz, based on music. Conducted by us Rotaractors for the Rotarians, it is the first time that such an event has been conducted. Participation on the part of the Rotarians was quite enthusiastic, and it was quite a success. It did have its moments of mass confusion, though. It might be mentioned in passing that Rangeela was also the name of a movie which was a big hit here, and which had a very hummable and rhythmic soundtrack.
Visit to the Cheshire Home: We Rotaractors visited the Cheshire Home on the outskirts of the city. The aged inmates there were happy that we were there, especially as it was the christmas season. We spent some time there and brought some cheer into their lives. All in all, it was quite a satisfying experience.
DHARTI 97: This project is a painting competition for all children upto the age of 16. The theme is usually environmental or related to nature (the word "Dharti" means Earth). There are 4 different categories for different age groups. This year we had over 115 participants. The general standard of the paintings was quite high, and our judges had a difficult time deciding upon the winners in each category. There was even a cute 6 year old kid who made a really cute crayon sketch with a blue sun that we, at first, thought was a cockroach (the topic for that age group was "My Animal Friends", by the way).
Annettes Talent Contest: A district level Annettes Talent was conducted by another Rotary Club, and we Rotarians held a talent search for annettes of our Rotary Club. Annettes are what the kids of Rotarians are called.
We also took part in FUNDOO 97, a fun and games competition organized by the Rotaract Club of Bangalore Cantonment (South). There were a host of events, like "Pentakaal" ("kaal" means "leg" in another Indian language), a five legged race where the legs of four people are tied together and we have to race with a spoon and ball in the mouths of each of the end guys. Other interesting events were also conducted. Our club finished in second place, a not too bad showing considering that only three of us took part.
As a fund raiser, we brought out a Souvenir Edition* of our bulletin, the "NETWORK". The funds made were due to the advertisements that people put in it. It paid for itself, and also left a tidy sum left over to help finance future projects. This Souvenir Edition had a lot more articles than our usual edition of NETWORK, which is a half-yearly. Also check out our edition for the first half of 97-98*.
*Note: The two documents mentioned above are Microsoft Word documents. If you do not have Microsoft Word, you can view the text versions of the Souvenir and the half-yearly bulletin here.
President: Nandeesh Mathur
Vice President: Mohammed Suhail
Secretary: Pawan Kumar Agarwal
Treasurer: Sakhi Hyder Khatai
Director Club Service: Kartikeya Iyer
Director Community Service: Sudhir R. Nair
Director Professional Development: Harish R.
Director International Service: Prabhu Rajmane
Sergeant-at-arms: Arun
Co-opted Director: Meenakshi Iyer
Bulletin Editor: Kartikeya Iyer
The Rotaract year for 1997-98 promises to be a most eventful year. We have already commenced with 3 projects for this year and as a matter of fact, you're looking at one of them right now. It may be noticed that the number of projects this year is quite huge, more than those done previously.
Club Service - Kartikeya Iyer
Community Service - Sudhir R. Nair
Professional Development - Harish R.
International Service - Prabhu Rajmane
Of the projects mentioned above, we have already completed 3 of them, these being the release of our first quarterly edition of our bulletin, the donation of books to needy students of the Spastics Society of Karnataka, and the establishment of a web page for our Club.
As of 10 May 1998, we have completed some projects that we had envisaged. Sadly, most of our members being in the final year of their undergrad courses, the number of projects that we undertook was less. In Club Service, we managed to get two new members, who will be installed officially the following year. We conducted two joint meetings with our sister club, Rotaract Club of Bangalore Cantonment (South). We also attended the PET Seminar held sometime back. We shall be going on our annual picnic sometime next week (hoooray!!). The next edition of the bulletin as well as the Souvenir shall be out real soon now. Wait with bated breath for it....
In Community Service, we visited both the Cheshire home for the aged, as well as the orphanage, which we have more or less adopted. At the Cheshire home, we distributed cakes and sweets to the venerable inmates, and lent an ear to their outpourings of woe. At the orphanage, we distributed firecrackers to brighten up the lives of the children there. We came away from these projects with a nice warm glow in our hearts. DHARTI 98 was a grand success, as usual. We will be conducting a dental camp for the orphanage children.
As regards Professional Development, the XIV Anita Marar memorial hockey tournament was conducted with great pomp, raising many cheers. INQUIZITION 98 too was a big hit with our school kids. DHARTI 98 was a rage as usual, with more than 150 kids painting their hearts out. It was a nice experience.
The DRR (District Rotaract Representative) turned up for his annual inspection of our club.\ It was quite a grueling session that he put the poor hapless president and the rest of the board through. All our records were examined in minute detail, and we also got a few suggestions on how to make more money for our projects. After the grilling of the board, there was a General Body meeting in which the incoming DRR introduced himself to our club and put forth an offer of assistance anytime, anywhere. Rather Sweet. Our president gained himself many kudos for the way he resurrected our club from the brink of extinction.
Our major fund raiser this year was the sale of firecrackers during the festival of Diwali. The success of this scheme is evident from the fact that at the beginning of this year, the balance of our club's bank account was only 300 bucks, whereas right now the balance is at a healthy Rs 4000/-. Quite an economic coup, that.
Nandeesh Mathur
230/A, 6th Block
Koramangala
Bangalore - 560095
Karnataka
INDIA
Phone: 00-91-80-5533116
Email: nandeesh@hotmail.com
Kartikeya Iyer
#740, Indiranagar I Stage
Bangalore - 560038
Karnataka
INDIA
Phone: Being Transferred. Hang on till I get the new number!
Email: iyerk@usa.net
This page developed by Kartikeya Iyer
for the Rotaract Club of Bangalore, Indiranagar (R.I. Dist. 3190).
Last updated 12 May 1998.