Day: June 25, 2025
Rotary magic at a Pune rural school
It was during a casual visit to a relative’s house at Ravadi village, near Pune, by a Rotarian that led to a much-needed makeover for the Krantiveer Vasudev Balwant Phadke Vidyalaya, a Marathi medium school in Bhor taluk. With no compound wall, broken toilet fittings and a rough, unusable playground, the school presented a decrepit look. As the morale of students and teachers was at its nadir, school principal Ravindra Pawar requested Alka Rode, a member of RC Pune Sports City, for urgent help to build a compound fence for the school to ward off anti-social elements freely entering the premises, and creating a nuisance.
Rotary gifts a state-of-the-art library for visually-challenged at Jadavpur University
When you push open the door of the accessible library’s main room, the first face that will catch your attention is that of Shubhojit — the most energetic young man, always wearing a smile. Ask him anything, and he will promptly spring into action. Welcome to the world of Shubhojit, Shubhodip, Bablu, Akash, Asikul, and many more visually-impaired students of Jadavpur University (JU), Kolkata, who are pursuing undergraduate, postgraduate, and even doctoral studies. Each day presents its own set of challenges, but their spirit is never daunted by the weight of those struggles. The accessible library at this varsity is their home away from home — a place where their needs are understood and their voices heard, and where they are equal stakeholders alongside the faculty and administration in shaping the future they deserve.
Women and dabbas
There is a classical saying in Hindi “Pran jaye per vachan na jaye.” It means a person will die before breaking a promise. For many Indian women, it’s more like “Pran jaye per dabba na jaye,” meaning if they have sent you something to eat in a box, they are very loath to forfeit the box, or dabba. They don’t care whether you liked the contents of the dabba; they care only about the dabba and absolutely insist on getting it back. I found this out to my cost nearly half a century ago. A friend’s mother had sent me some undhiyu, a Gujarati dish that is apparently cooked upside down underground slowly in an earthenware pot and comprises a lot of vegetables and ghee. It’s marvellously heavy to eat. I wrote to the lady thanking her for the thought and the delicacy and she wrote back immediately saying “I am glad you liked it. Please keep the container safely, I will collect it when I am next in Delhi.” Those days the postal department used to have a service called QMS, or quick mail service. Letters reached Bombay and Calcutta, as they were called then, in 24 hours. Madras took 36 hours. Much to my dismay, I had given the box away to the maid, who had grabbed it gleefully.
The magic of fresh air
An ounce of oxygen leads to the bounce in your body. As you inhale, your lungs pluck the oxygen from the air, which includes nitrogen and other gases like carbon dioxide. The lungs then circulate the oxygen through your body. The pure oxygen is absorbed by your red blood cells into your haemoglobin and these tiny sponges of oxygen bob in your bloodstream and feed the tissues (muscle, bone, nerves). A group of cells form a tissue, and a group of tissues form your organs — heart, lungs, stomach, etc. These sponges squeeze out the oxygen and absorb the waste carbon from your tissue. They then bob back to your lungs from where the waste gas is expelled as you exhale.
Tiny drops make mighty oceans
When you live in a coastal city like I do, you become deeply aware of the vast expanse of sea, its smells and sounds. The vast expanse of water impacts our life. Recently, we were enlightened about the sea and its linkage to humanity, animals and plants at an event in the Alliance Française of Madras, in collaboration with the French Institute in India and the French Embassy.
Driven by green dreams
It’s unusual to see a team sustain an initiative for seven years with unwavering commitment and purpose. But the Rotary Club of Chennai Meraki, RID 3233, an all-women’s club, has done just that: taking its environmental message across the country through an annual car expedition, now in its seventh year.
A Rotary project providing funeral management service
In a unique initiative, the Rotary Club of Kozhencherry, one of the oldest service clubs in RI District 3211, has expanded its 37-year-old ambulance service to a full-scale funeral management project titled Pranama, that was launched in Jan 2025.
A medical mission in Morena
Learn with passion, earn with integrity, return with compassion.” This is a doctor’s sacred oath, and it serves as a gentle reminder of a deeper, nobler purpose for those in the medical profession.