Summiting Mt. Everest with Dr. Murad Lala Limbing a Mountain Is Different from Other Sports
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Vol. 57 No. 38 April 19 – April 25, 2016 Summiting Mt. Everest With Dr. Murad Lala limbing a mountain is different from other sports. The only opponents that you face are the demons in your mind. The only goals that you can score are the limits you set for yourself whether it be the top of the summit or anywhere else, in “Cbetween. There are no spectators to cheer you on and many a times it’s a lonely battle of you versus the elements and that is where your mental strength comes in,” explained Dr. Murad Lala, for whom summiting Mt. Everest had been a childhood dream. In a special Club address for RCB, aptly titled, ‘From Scalpel to Summit - My Tryst with Mount Everest’, Dr. Lala regaled everyone present with his story of the summit and by the end of it, had all of us in awe and inspired with his experiences that triggered and motivated this remarkable feat. Currently sharing his expertise as a Cancer surgeon at Mumbai’s PD Hinduja National Hospital & Research Centre for the past fourteen years, Dr. Lala became the first Indian civilian doctor to summit Mount Everest on 19th May, 2013. He strongly believes in getting out of his comfort zone and pushing the envelope because limitations exist only in the human mind. (Full Report on Pages 4 & 5) Dr. Murad Lala Entralls All With His Tale of Summiting Mt. Everest 5th Annual Tennis INSIDE THIS ISSUE FORTHCOMING EVENTS Fellowship The Sports Committee Pages 2 & 3: • April 19, 2016 will hold its last event of The ECHO of Success Club Address by Environmentalist the year, The 5th Annual Bittu Sahgal Tennis Fellowship, on Page 4 & 5 Sunday, the 24th of April, Summiting Mt. Everest • April 26, 2016 2016 at the Bombay Gym With Dr. Murad Lala RCB Awards Shabana Azmi Shri at 7:45am. Having achieved Pravin Chandra Gandhi Award great success in previous Page 6: for Excellence in Public Life Fellowships in Table Tennis, Slumber Kits for 500 Kids! Football, Golf and Cricket, • April 24, 2016 RCB invites all members Page 7: 5th Annual Tennis Fellowship to come and cheer for Freeze Your Dates for the the Tennis Fellowship. Iceland Fellowship! • September 30, 2016 9-Day Fellowship to Iceland April 19 to April 25, 2016 The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 1 The Echo of Success provided daily. The main goal of ECHO is to provide equal opportunity to every child and an experience that they wouldn’t encounter in the normal course of their lives. A faulty education system is one of the primary causes of India’s economic problems. This is a step in the right direction, to correct this fundamental flaw. Lack of knowledge, awareness or support should no longer be an excuse to keep a child away from the right to a bright future. As part of the programs, the popular ‘Gender Sensitisation’ session was conducted by Rtn. Nandan Maluste and R’anne Arnaz Soonawalla, and organized by R’anne Meher Poonawalla of the Women Judges Rtn. Preeti Mehta, Rtn. Hiren Kara and Bomi Framroze present Empowerment Committee. The ‘Health and Hygiene’ session was Bushra of Byculla with the Miss Echo prize organised by incoming President, Dr. Mukesh Batra and the session was roject Echo was initiated all students, regardless of where they conducted by Dr. Gaikar from Dr. with the aim of bridging the come from. Batra’s clinic. Rtn. Dr. Indu Shahani massive academic lacuna that generously sponsored the premise for exists between the public and The endeavor was to provide every all five days of the ECHO, of which 2 Pprivate education spheres in India. It child a safe and secure atmosphere, days were held at HR College and 3 enables both sides of the spectrum motivation and support and most days at the brand new beautiful ISME to understand each other as well as importantly, friends and values for a (Indian School of Management & introduce them to a whole new world. lifetime. Along with these essentials, Entrepreneurship) campus. The aim of ECHO is to provide equal three healthy meals and snacks were opportunity to all children so that they can initiate the needed change in our society. Under the passionate leadership of Rtn. Freyaz Shroff, Project ECHO, in its second year now, saw an even greater successful run this year, spread over five days, from the 3rd of April to its culmination into the grand finale on the 7th of April, 2016, at the KC College Auditorium, with active participation from a 106 students from Municipal Schools, 40 Rotaractors and 10 Echo alumni. The event aims at making good the deficiency in Indian public schooling, by providing students exposure via training in areas that would help in their personality development and assist them in their onward journey into college. Echo paves the way to a brighter and more sensitised future for Participants with the Organising Committee Page 2 The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay April 19 to April 25, 2016 ECHO’s vision is to touch as many lives as possible and increase that count yearly. The goal is to eventually transform the Indian Education System as a whole via the Indian youth, so we can collectively transform India into the country we want it to become, the power it is destined to be! To further ECHO’s success, support is needed in the form of inspirational personalities who can motivate students to achieve more and constantly raise the bar. Bringing together several Committees including Bhavishya Yaan, Night Study Centres, Women Empowerment and Rotaract, ECHO has had a unifying Rtn. Nandan Maluste and R’anne Rtn. Dr. Indu Shahani encourages effect in bringing together more Arnaz Soonawalla speak on the partcipants Gender Sensitisation The ECHO finale was attended by several Rotarians and Rotaryannes including President Rtn. Dr. Sonya Mehta. The judges included Rtn. Preeti Mehta, Rtn. Hiren Kara and our very own Bomi Framroze. Under the leadership of Rtr. Gotham Tikyani, President RCHR, and his ECHO 2016 team lead by Rtr. Keesha Keshkamat, 42 HR College Rotaractors served in various roles including school specific mentors, activities team, logistics committee. The team of Echo 2016 would like to give a special mention and thanks to President Rtn. Dr. Sonya Mehta and Rotaractor and Mentor Harshi with participants during the Finale task Jt. Secretary Rtn. Framroze Mehta for giving ECHO 2016 the much needed which evaluated the participants’ critical thinking ability impetus! Rotarians and their spouses! R’anne Rashna Cooper, President of the Inner Wheel Club of Bombay, who has served successfully as the Coordinator of the Worli BY program, has great faith in ECHO. She supported and encouraged the Rotaractors and participants from the inception. The generous donation made by The Inner Wheel Club of Bombay enabled providing breakfast, hot lunch and a snack to all participants for 3 days. Architect Hafeez Contractor and his wife Pearl Contractor, along with the ISME team, sponsored the meals on the remaining 2 days. What you see in others exists in you. We see love! April 19 to April 25, 2016 The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 3 Summiting Mt. Everest With Dr. Murad Lala (Cont’d from Page 1) urgical Oncologist, Dr. Murad Lala, has summited more than the mountainous field of medicine in life – he has Ssummited Mt. Everest itself! “I had no formal training in mountaineering prior to this crazy dream of mine. I approached the Himalayan Mountain Federation and told them I wanted to train to summit the peak. They told me I was too old, that I had to be younger than forty years of age to do the basic or advanced mountaineering course with them. I was fifty then! So I started scouting abroad and found this Canadian group called ‘Peak Freaks’ and they said if I wanted to climb with them, I must train with them. So I joined them in Nepal in 2012 and we summited three peaks together in the range of 20,000 feat. And it is while Dr. Murad regales all with a chilling account of conquering the snow- I climbed these peaks that I got to learn covered Everest peak everything about mountaineering. And if you are successful at this, then they invite 2012, in which he summited three 20,000 successfully summit it. It’s unlike climbing you to join them for the main summit. In feet peaks around Mount Everest. any other mountain where you simply order to prepare myself, I would train An extreme-sports enthusiast, he has start at the base and keep moving on up daily for an hour at a high-altitude gym also been the recipient of the Prime till you reach the top. It’s a very different in Juhu. Another part of my exercise was Minister’s Medal at NCC and the Duke of game with Mt. Everest – it’s a waiting that I climb up and down the 16 floors at Edinburgh’s Gold Medal. game. Many days there’s not much you work. I don’t use the lift.” can do except sit in your tent waiting for “So what’s the romance about summiting the blizzards to blow over so you can Towards realizing his childhood dream of Mt. Everest?” asked the extreme- continue your climb, comparatively safely summiting Mount Everest, he completed sports enthusiast, Dr. Murad Lala. “It again,” he explained as he went on to the “Triple Crown Expedition” in October, takes at least two months if you want to explain his awe-inspiring feat.