The Gateway DISTRICT 3141 BULLETIN of the ROTARY CLUB of BOMBAY | for PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY | VOLUME NO

Rotary Club of Bombay The Gateway DISTRICT 3141 BULLETIN OF THE ROTARY CLUB OF BOMBAY | FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY | WWW.ROTARYCLUBOFBOMBAY.ORG VOLUME NO. 62 ISSUE NO. 28 FEBRUARY 02, 2021 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE FEED THE HUNGRY We are taught from True Hunger is a condition where one does not just give up on life and accept it as fate. But a very young age get one’s basic nutritional needs. We see so give them a simple meal or even just a small that Food is a Basic much of it around us that it’s become part of snack and see the smiles radiate from their Human Right. Words our daily lives and unfortunately we ignore it faces and I guarantee that a feel-good shiver that we just parrot completely and we become immunised to it. will run through your body and your heart will in school and then swell with joy. accept as adults to But when one sees close-up a hungry human be true. We have no – man, woman or child – the desperation so The recent District Food Distribution Drive actual appreciation deeply etched in their eyes (as I did a couple has been an experience that has added as for the privilege of never knowing true of weekends ago at the Khadi slum, in the much value to my life, as it has helped feed hunger. upscale Cuffe Parade area), it is but natural the hungry. to feel sympathy (we can never feel true Hunger, if we skip a meal, makes us cranky empathy having never been in their place). or fussy or angry or makes us unable to concentrate. These are all symptoms of Along with hunger, the living conditions are privilege. so pathetic and miserable that one seems to President Framroze Mehta #tuesdaythoughts “There’s enough on this RENOWNED SPORTS JOURNALIST, planet for everyone’s needs but not for everyone’s COMMENTATOR AND AUTHOR, AYAZ greed.” Mahatma Gandhi MEMON DEBATES WHETHER INDIA CAN #numbercrunching BE A TOP SPORTING NATION OR IS A 690 million The number of people who ONE-SPORT COUNTRY go to bed hungry every day. In India alone, the most It is important to understand To take you back seven decades, great incentive to be a cricketer recent data shows that the sense of actualization of there is a lot of data available, except one thing, which is quite 189.2 million people, about potential that this country there were, perhaps, more remarkable in the Indian context 14% of the population, has in terms of sports. registered footballers in India that in terms of proving to our remain undernourished. In Demographic advantage can than cricketers. There were colonial masters, the British, many other countries, the be of great help in multi- enough first-class teams but then, cricket was seen as a far income gap between the discipline sports and events, there were more footballers better platform to prove a point. haves and have-nots has provided things are done right in India, perhaps even more Indians are dextrous and we widened. which is actually happening hockey players. That was for were good at thinking up lines in cricket. I’ll continue to two reasons, football is an and angles and therefore we #caughtintheweb draw parallels between cricket inexpensive game played across produced some great spinners because I think it is crucial to all schools and institutions, as and not much fast bowlers understand why cricket has was hockey, which was a little because constitutionally become such a huge game more expensive since you had to we weren’t very strong and in India and why India is in buy hockey sticks and you had therefore, what you see in the vanguard of popularising to buy a pair of shoes. Certainly, Lagaan, in a sense it is allegorical cricket all over the world. this was more expensive than to the Indian sentiment at that Without India, the world athletics in which you could just time. Agar angrez ko sabak would be poorer not just in run in canvas shoes. Cricket, sikhana hai toh kahaan sikha terms of the money that India too, was a slightly expensive sakte hain? It emerged more, generates but also in terms game because you had to get firstly in the Parsis because of talent. Then, of course, to gear, you needed a bat, pads, they were closer to the British see how we can expand our gloves, ball, you needed a politically and for business horizons to other scopes. pitch. And, therefore, it wasn’t a reasons. But through them and TODAY: IQBAL SINGH CHAHAL, MUNICIPAL COMMISSIONER OF MUMBAI 2 THE WEEKLY MEET February 02, 2021 THE WEEKLY MEET 3 IPP Preeti Mehta PE Shernaz Vakil PP Dr. Mukesh Batra President Framroze Rtn. Dr. Aashish Rtn. Anand Parikh Mehta Contractor later from other people, cricket miserably and then they went World Cup in Cricket which gave in medal wins in 2008, 2012. There became popular. The exploits back behind the bamboo curtain, cricket a massive steroid boost, are other countries like Germany of the very early cricketers who didn’t participate in international with people saying, ‘If we do as well which are again mix and match. didn’t actually play for India such events at all till they had fortified as cricketers, maybe we will get But in India, what has happened as Ranjitsinhji and Duleepsinhji themselves and their talent through enough bhaav and money’. is that it has been a complex issue: showed that the Indians’ talent government support. And, when there has been a government grant, quotient was high. they emerged in the 1980s from I think livelihood is crucial in as I understand it, the last grant behind the bamboo curtain, they achieving sporting experience. You disbursed to federations was about The defining push that cricket were a nation of champions: look at all the countries, US which Rs 450-500 crore by Mr Jaitley, got vis-à-vis the other sports was badminton champions, swimming is a free country or China being when he was the Finance Minister. royal patronage in feudal India, champions, diving champions, totalitarian and State-sponsored, This is one aspect; the other aspect before Independence, from almost gymnastics champions and you find but unless there is incentive of is what you do after giving money? all the principalities and small now that they are competing with livelihood, sustenance and security, How good is our understanding kingdoms because again they the US in most Olympic medals and you will not get sporting excellence about sports? wanted proximity to the British only in recent years has India been clearly. I think that has been one of and sort-of show them that they able to challenge the hegemony of the biggest issues in India because In real terms, despite globalisation were also involved with what the Chinese in badminton. You can even now we fall between two and showing an upward trend, the English were doing. They see their excellence across sports. stools. In US, there is no sports there was one Sports Minister patronized cricket more than any ministry, the sports federations about 20 years back who publicly other sport. The only exception was The point I am trying to make is have to fend for themselves, as proclaimed that this was a squash because it was more or less that when India was emerging also the athletes. I did a session punishment posting, and if they a fitness regimen for the raja and from a mixed economy, post- with Michael Phelps, the greatest had made him a sports minister, maharajas. Therefore, it (squash) Independence, maybe the priority Olympian of all time, perhaps, he it meant they had not found him was adopted more readily by the was not sport at all as it was a poor has won more medals than India good for any other posting. If that defence forces than the aam janta. country. Therefore, resources had has won in total in Olympic history. is the mindset of a Sports Minister, to be allocated for other things, He says, when he started out and then there is no accountability of Gradually, you could see the government support was meagre in when he was very promising, the the federations. That was reflected wearing down of interest in football fact even the amount of grant given swimming federation backed him in how the feds worked. I’ll give you and hockey at the elite level. If to sports institutions was poor. So, but not the US Government. They an example of hockey around late you look at what happened in you have instances of Khashaba said you will have to find your own 1980s. I was sitting in Professional hockey, we won Olympic golds in Jadhav who won our first-ever money, and he went personally to Management Group, a company 1928, 1932 and 1936, 1948, 1952, Olympic medal, a bronze medal, if patrons who could support them floated by Sunil Gavaskar because it 1956, 1964, 1980. Why didn’t we you read his story, you’d know all in his quest to become a world was next to my office in Mid-Day. I cash into that? We could have the hardships that he had to do to class swimmer. Then there is China, used to go in around noon but they built a super structure on which get into the Olympics. Dhyan Chand once they start focusing on sports, had got a sponsorship from ITC, I Indian hockey would survive. In playing barefoot in Germany in they put their might behind it.

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