BULLETIN OF ROTARY CLUB OF CHENNAI TOWERS VOLUME 22 ISSUE 11 JUNE 2020 TOWERS TIMES Message from the President A year has gone by! First of all, I would like to thank RCCT for giving me the opportunity to be the President of our club. I once heard from a senior member, "The president is the servant of the club", I had this in my mind from day one. It has been a remarkable one year, and I am proud to say that I have done my best. I would like to take this platform to thank my advisor PP Rtn Sagar, my trainer PP Rtn Krishnachander, PP Rtn Gopal, and my "Lakshya Board". Our lakshya was—fun, fellowship, service and bonding. The first half of the year was equally filled with fellowship and projects. The global pandemic since March has restricted our bonding to virtual meetings, but we aced that too. We also contributed towards relief projects to the frontline workers and the migrant population in the best way possible, all the while maintaining social distancing. I am glad we had a record high fundraiser, yet another successful VOD, organised AVATAR, an event for our parents, initiated the Aminjikarai dialysis centre and successfully submitted our third Global grant application. Super big thanks to one and all in my RCCT family, Rotarians, Anns and Annets for your wishes and blessings. Special thanks to the District Governor Rtn Chandra Mohan, District Secretary Rtn Ganapathy Suresh and all the District officers for their continuous support and encouragement. Finally, I have mention my pondatee and my lovely family for standing beside me and giving me full support. Rtn Rajesh Narang President 2019–2020 Scan the QR code to know more about our activities in 2019‑20 2 Contributors Ravi Rajie Nirmala Sriram Spouse Ravi Varanasi speaks about our Charter Night celebrations. ...12 Rtn Rajie Vijayasarathy tells us how the club service team surprised us with the “Lock‑down ...14 master chefs”. Ann Nirmala Gopal narrates how much fun the ladies of RCCT had in a WhatsApp quiz event for ...15 over a week. rd Rtn Sriram writes about the 23 installation of RCCT and the coronation of our Manali King. ...17 On the cover: Sunrise at Rock beach, a 1.2‑kilometer‑long stretch in Pondicherry. Photograph by Rtn Rajesh Narang 3 Community Service 4 05/06/2020 As a part of our charter Distributionweek celebrations President ofRtn Rajesh provisionNarang and community kitsservice Director Rtn Satish Kandimalla distributed a provision kit comprising 28 items like rice, dal, atta, oil, soaps, masks, sanitary napkins, etc., to 50 migrant labourers. These workers had opted to stay back, and many haven't been paid salaries for months. The beneficiaries were sourced through Feed Chennai. RCCT also donated cattle food for 15 days to a Goshala in Nolambur which shelters 28 cows. Part of the contribution was from Annet Pavitra Reddy, who baked some yummy brownies and donated all the money from the bake sale towards this project. 5 05/06/2020 Marking the World Environment WorldDay, a tree plantation Environmentdrive was conducted in AGR Global dayschool campus in Velachery. A total of 16 trees were planted in and around the campus. Rtns President Rajesh Narang, Imtiaz, Ann Kavitha and Annett Armaan attended the project. 6 07/06/2020 WJointe distributed provision Projectkits to 80 deserving withpeople in RCMaduravoil. ofThis Chennaiwas a joint project with R otary RoyalsClub of Chennai Royals. Rtns President Rajesh Narang, Amudha, Dinesh and Ann Sapna participated in this project. 7 25/06/2020 The COVID‑19 global grant Jointapplication for Projectfunding to provide 7 withventilators, 4 RCMEmonitors, 1 portable bronchoscope, 1 chest ultrasound and Personal Protective Equipment to Government Hospital for Thoracic Medicine in Chennai, India, submitted by the Rotary Club of Madras East and the Rotary Club of Rio Claro‑Sul, was approved by Rotary Foundation (India) (RF(I)) and the Trustees of The Rotary Foundation (TRF). The grant was an amount of US$ 121,333. This project was approved in less than 4 hours of a working day. RCCT was a project partner and contributed US$ 5000/‑ towards this milestone project. This project was inaugurated by TN Health secretary Dr Radhakrishnan, IAS. The meeting was held in an open space with proper social distancing. The other participating Rotary clubs were North West, Coromandel, Mylapore Uptown and New Gen. 8 9 Our Manali and OngoingThirunillai centres remain closed following the government orders with respect to the Community Service ProjectsCOVID‑19 outbreak worldwide. But our dialysis centre is functional as it is a critical service. Retteri Dialysis Centre: 55 patients, 459 dialysis in two shifts. Anbagam rice donors (750 kgs): Rtns Amudha, Umapathy & Sunil Soni. When a request for a used laptop came in for a child to continue his studies online, President Rtn R M Suresh donated a new laptop for the child. May his tribe grow more! 10 Club Service 11 10/06/2020 nd Doc Daneeka, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé to Blood Orange, the number 22 has a special relevance. For RCCT this year is its 22 year of exemplary existence, a Rotary Club Chartercarefully nurtured over Nightthe years by her founder members to become a Rotary family. A family not of blood & genes, but of bonds & goodness. Every person who has observed RCCT has a nice word so much so that over the last 22 years, with every event, project, act or gesture, the thesaurus may have run out of adjectives but RCCT has never run out of its humility. RCCT is a Rotary Club where every member addresses the Club as “Dear RCCT Family“. We are the true ONIDA of our District 3232, a Club long awaited to be born, if we were to get to the origins of this Indian American name meaning, a blessing long awaited. The day started off with our Club Chronicler recounting the day RCCT was welcomed into the Rotary World of 28000 clubs, by the then RI President Glen W Kinross through a formal note. Rotary International is now 35000 clubs strong. She quickly added Charter President Sabu's note from his desk which was quite authentic of an anxious Charter President, who knew back then that his hope and wish for the club to have a whole heart and giving oneself come true in attracting only the best into the club. A club where children grew up together, graduated and then got married. A club where children became the reason why some tolerable acquaintances grew into tender friendships, a club where having fun was second nature given that sincerity of speech and purpose were first nature. This was a club akin to a home built brick by brick by every single member of the family (past & present)—Rotarians, spouses, Annets and family elders. Every experience was etched into its rooms of remembrance, every achievement decorated its hall of fame, every learning was archived in its library and every smile stocked away in its spirited bar. As would any birthday include some kind of charity to square up karma credits, RCCT too decided to be benevolent to the bovine. We supplied half a months' rations to a Goshala which houses 28 cows thanks to a sweet and generous donation by Annette Pavitra. Our incoming President Suresh did the honours with current President Rajesh. For me, the day was rather getting restless as I was eagerly awaiting the evening, Charter Day meant many things to many members who were present on that day, but for me it was a memorable one because it was in hindsight, a Family Day, a day where I met a few friends who went onto become family. So, with the preparations for the evening becoming more palpable, it was an endless wait to an evening of fun and fun it was. The programme commenced online with a short & sweet invocation by Rtn Raajendra Kumar, though I still can't figure out how he had same Tee shirt in different colours! It was a truly scientific evening for us, with all of us on a zoom call. Priya, Krish, Sabu, Aarthi, Deepa, Prasad, Imtiaz and Raaj entertained us with songs. Hamsa was as graceful as her soul bird in hosting the show amidst difficult circumstances of having to crowd control online. A cake & a champagne culminated the celebrations to an awesome evening. Adios Amigos, see you in better times. Stay in, stay safe. ‑ Spouse Ravi Varanasi 12 13 Cookbooks are passe. Zindabad LockYouTube! down Master chefs Socially distanced sans house help, the women of RCCT made the best use of the lockdown. Cooked, baked, sauteed, roasted, fried. You name it, it was on the plate! This would put any star chef out of the game! "Necessity is the mother of invention” but in this group, it was on a completely different level, on par with excellence!! Vera level!!! All this inspired others who never quite enjoyed cooking to put up some exotic looking dishes for the palate. Gourmet cooking was at its best! Cheers to all the ladies who turned out to be "Lockdown Masterchefs". This was endorsed with a lovely surprise by the Jupiters. The icing on the cake was the delicious homemade cupcakes along with the personalized apron. Dunzo'd or personally handed over.... this power couple, Hamsa & Satish, does everything in style, with a touch of class, that made each one of us feel like Michelin Star chefs! ‑ Rtn Rajie Vijayasarathy 14 Its Quiz Time! It was real fun on the women's group during the lockdown.....Ann Dr. Gita came up with the idea of a guessing game using the childhood pictures (age 3 to 5) of all the ladies of RCCT...OMG! It went on for 7 continuous days, with 6 pictures each day.