'Projecting' Thoughts

Hello Rotarians,

Welcome,

Let me welcome Dhananjay Kulkarni with his family and Sridhar Bharadwaj with his family. They are going to be inducted as members today. Dhananjay is a techie and Sridhar is HR professional – so it is a techie + touchie combination today. 

And I welcome all Rotarians, their family members and other guests.

My thoughts

I am presenting some thoughts for your consideration. I have been a Rotarian and I have also interacted with other Rotarians. It was with a sense of pride that I accepted the position of President of our club.

I have been watching the work of our club as also that of other clubs. I read with interest the quick posts on WhatsApp groups of Rotarians. A question that remained at the top of my mind was: How should Rotarians invest time, energy and money in various types of what is called ‘projects?’ How should we prioritise these projects?

I am taking opportunity to share my thoughts. I am placing my thoughts before you so that we can generate a healthy discussion, and find a strategy for our Club.

I reviewed the projects we have done in recent past. We do some projects regularly: Medical camps, RYLA, Vocational Excellence Awards, Rangoli competition for Balakashram at Angaon, Some project for the Old Age home there, We also have interaction with Nirmala Niketan in every Navaratri, We organise a day out for senior citizens in the winter.

This year we have done a major project which is of gifting an e-learning product.

Let me now return to the question I raised: How should Rotarians invest time, energy and money in various types of what is called ‘projects?’ How should we prioritise these projects?

If we look at the projects which I just counted, they fall in two different areas:

1.    The People Projects: In these projects people or a group of people is the focus of our projects. To my mind projects like Narmada Niketan, Senior Citizen picnic, RYLA fall in this category

2.    The Institutions Projects: In these projects institutions for example schools, are the focus of our projects. Falling in this category will be e-learning project.

When we look at the impact short or long term we see that four types emerge:

	Short Term	Long Term
People	Celebrations, Lunch, Giving shawls or bags to senior citizens, Medical camps,	Providing tools or vehicles, appliances, Skill building, Prolonged counselling, RYLA, Free surgeries, Check dams, Bore well
Institutions	Sponsoring Games, Arranging Rangoli competition, Essay competition	Solar Power, Closed Circuit TV, E-learning solutions,

We must understand that the time required to execute these projects, Number of people benefited, Degree of difficulty involved and Funds required are four factors which can help us understand the differences and help us prioritise.

People/Short Term: Time Short, Money not very sizeable, Degree of difficulty in arranging is low

People/Long Term: Planning required- Long time, Good amount of funds, High degree of difficulty – Govt permissions etc.

Institutions/Short Term: Time Short, Money not very sizeable, Degree of difficulty in arranging is low

Institutions/Long Term: Planning required- Long time, Good amount of funds, High degree of difficulty – Govt permissions etc.

The issue is what should be focus of our club?

Shall we manage within available resources or shall we garner resources to do the dream projects?

Shall we go for maximum impact in terms of number of people touched like holding painting competitions OR shall we go for in-depth impact like offering parent-child relations counselling?

These are the dilemmas. There is no easy answer. Perhaps the answer is that we should do projects in all areas, and raise funds to do it - not decide projects based on funds available.

My point is that every Board must debate these issues and arrive at the plan for the year. In final analysis such conversations add to richness of Rotary experience.

Best wishes to the new members and welcome again,

Vivek S Patwardhan

When School Teaches a Lesson

We went to Angaon School today. The weather was unusually unfriendly. It was raining incessantly.

We had decided to assemble at Korum Mall and then proceed together. Before I could reach, Sridhar had already arrived. I looked for him. He was standing under a canopy to protect himself from the rain. There is something about Mumbai’s culture – it teaches you to value punctuality.
As we chatted Pooja called up to say that Sandeep and she would arrive in three minutes. They did. Sandeep turned and reversed his car so that we can get in to it without getting wet. Then came Gopal, and Mondkars. Kulkarnis followed in their red M&M car.

I hopped in Kulkarni’s car. The road was not bad. We reached Angaon.
The school trustees were waiting for us.

Rotary Club of Thane Metro gifted an e-Learning product to the school. It is one of the best products, if not the best. It is also expensive – it costs over Rs 2 Lakhs.

In my brief speech I also announced that we were giving the contract for fitting two Solar Power Systems to Powermax Ltd. It is a contract worth Rs 15 Lakhs.

I mentioned that any Rotary Club will give you such products, and we had really done nothing different from other clubs. Our distinction lied in our approach. We are looking at partnering with the school to develop the character of students and not providing teaching aids or amenities.

This thought clicked with the trustees. Within our club we have a wealth of talent which can be utilised by the school in increasing the effectiveness of learning, or in educating the students. The trustees said they looked forward to long term association with us.

We have also learnt some important lessons. Firstly, there is no dearth of money if you wish to do good work – good selfless work. Secondly, things work well if you spend sufficient time planning it. Thirdly, listening to the ‘customer’ tells you what needs to be done.
 
We know these lessons. It is just that when everything works well, you rediscover them!

Vivek Patwardhan

When Poetry [Re] Enters Your Life

I casually suggested Surekha Mondkar to hold one session on poetry. We called it ‘Kavi Sammelan’ initially then changed it to ‘Kavya-Vachan’. Surekha readily accepted.

 

“Don’t read out your Limericks or Vatratika” my DW [Darling Wife] said, “It does not go with your age.” This is what happens to aspiring poets. They are brought down to terra firma with a thud!

“I am not reading my poems, Surekha is making her choice. She will decide.”

Surekha was completely engrossed in this assignment which she had enthusiastically accepted. She planned the program comprehensively.

She asked me to make announcements on WhatsApp and FB page. She discussed the seating arrangements, the way microphones were to be placed. And even when the snacks were to be served. Snacks and Coffee were served before start of the program to ensure that the poets in the audience did not write angry poems on the event. Smart trick!

Surekha is a total poetry person. Her study of Marathi poetry is deep and insightful. She covered who wrote the first poetry in this world. [Do you know? If you don’t, start attending Rotary Meetings, friend!]. She also talked about the first poetry in Marathi.

Then about various poets and their hallmark – Acharya Atre’s parody -‘Zhenduchi Phule’ for instance. That reminds me we also have a parody writer among us. Who’s that? Hemant Mondkar. He wrote it on demand! Way to go, man!

I expected him to write parody on a love song. His parody talked about his ‘Khane – Pine’, Dine and Wine in other words. Sir ji, what you did was interesting. And I understand you; I mean how you could have sung a song on beautiful persons in the presence of your DW who was chairing the show. That’s unthinkable!

Ajit Apte was a Chupa Rustom. He sang a ghazal, and sang it well. We never knew this soft and sensitive aspect of Ajit. Your image in our eyes has soared sky high Ajit. As they say, once a romantic, always a romantic!

We deeply suspect you must have written interesting poetry in your younger days. It is time to do some fact finding. Come Clean Ajit!

What amazed me was the number of persons who wrote poetry. And the variety of expressions. The choice of poetry, when they recited poems written by others also showed a rich appreciation of the finer points of ‘life and letters.’ Thane will soon be declared as the City of Poets.

Mrs Dhuru also read out her poems. She covered every day experience so well, and the metaphor of carom game was so well used.

The star was Ashwini. She read out her poems. Simple, metered, conveying feelings and using imagery so well. Pravinbhai pointed out that Marathi is her ‘mother tongue’ with a tongue-in-cheek comment he is known to make. No dispute there, Sir ji.

Mangala ended the show by reciting humorous one on the typical behaviour of various zodiac signs. Enjoyed!

And how we missed our kind hearted, sensitive Rotarian. Sandeep, I mean. Sandeep and I share a common feeling. Poetry not sung well drives us nuts literally [which goes well with Beer]. Well, more about it some other time.

Vivek S Patwardhan