Things to know about Mario Meet your 2025–26 Rotary President Mario Cesar Martins de Camargo.

After a day of interviews with the committee vetting candidates for 2025–26 Rotary International president, Mario Cesar Martins de Camargo returned to his hotel and waited. And waited. “It’s an elimination process,” he says. “The anxiety level reaches sky high.” When he got a call asking him to return to Rotary headquarters in Evanston, his first thought was that he’d made some sort of mistake. As he walked the few blocks to the building, he mentally reviewed everything he’d said. When he finally realised why he’d been called back, it was an emotional moment, he says. “The nominating committee stands up and applauds you, and you are invited to say your first words as president. Mine were, ‘Are you guys sure?’”

Things to know about Mario Meet your 2025–26 Rotary President Mario Cesar Martins de Camargo." href="https://rotarynewsonline.org/things-to-know-about-mario/">Read more

The things we hold on to

Last month, while looking for something on a high shelf, a carton fell on my foot. Fortunately it wasn’t very heavy. When I looked inside I found half a dozen photo albums. We had forgotten about them entirely. Much excitement ensued as we flipped through the photographs, a few of which were from the late 1940s. Some of the people in those photos are dressed in European clothes, hats and sticks including. Others are in Indian clothes, sherwanis, churidars and all. The ladies are all in saris. Some of those photos were taken in large halls that had animal heads on the wall. I am pretty certain that the photos weren’t taken at our house. My father was a civil servant and never lived in such a big house and there was no question of animal heads on walls.

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Kolkata Rotarians take up the battle to prevent cervical cancer in girls

One Rotarian in Kolkata losing his wife to cancer some 15 years ago has resulted in an impressive programme to vaccinate a few thousand girls against cervical cancer in West Bengal. In an initiative powered by the Rotary Club of Belur, West ­Bengal, RI District 3291. And supported by some other clubs in the Howrah region, Rotarians are reaching out to protect school girls from the scourge of cervical cancer.

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Reducing your plastic footprint It’s time to wean away from single-use.

The world is too plastic-dependent to expect a complete ban on the mouldable ‘wonder’ polymer. Indeed, any government would think twice before making such a rash decision. This is because plastic has varied uses, including in medical devices, automobile spare parts, plumbing, sewage systems, packaging, construction material, furniture, toys, shopping bags, clothes, cosmetics and much more. And since a cheaper and viable alternative is not yet on the horizon, annual global plastic production is estimated to reach 1.3 billion tonnes by 2060. However, a serious effort is being made to cut its consumption.

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Making books for children

Children’s Books: An Indian Story is a treasure for those interested in Indian literature, whether total immersion or a toehold; whether writers, readers, teachers, editors or publishers. It’s an erudite perspective on aspects of our kidlit (children’s literature), which is attracting more and more attention because of its interesting history, our super-multi-cultural people and layered social issues. An awesome task, achieved with excellence by two doyens in this arena, Shailaja Menon and Sandhya Rao. The range and breadth of the subject require minds that are both learned and creative, both characteristics of Shailaja and Sandhya’s characters and works.

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