Addressing the Vision 2030 membership conclave organised in Madurai by incoming RI Director M Muruganandam, RI President-elect Mario de Camargo made it clear that membership should be the topmost priority of Rotary leaders at all levels, and went on to explain in detail the key and crucial terms and phrases in Rotary, which were often misunderstood.

When it was his turn to address the massive TRF Multi District conclave in Kochi, TRF Trustee Chair Mark Maloney effortlessly lightened the mood and lessened the fatigue of sitting through a long conference with his wit and humour.

During his recent visit to India, incoming RI President Mario de Camargo took out some time in Madurai to sit down for an interview with Rotary News. As candid as always, he did not mince his words as he expressed serious concern about Rotary’s stagnant, and even falling membership in some countries, and said this was “because we are still male, pale and stale”.

The recent depression over the Bay of Bengal caused widespread flooding across Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana. The rainfall which began on August 30 intensified through the first week of September, with AP bearing the brunt. Over 27 per cent of the state’s annual rainfall occurred in just 48 hours; an IMD report explains that this extreme weather event was driven by a land-based cyclone, which drew moisture from both the Arabian Sea and the land heat of eastern India, the combination of which led to the two states witnessing an astonishing 500mm of rain in just 24 hours on August 31.

Give a gift that keeps giving…. This is the motto of the charitable trust that Janet ­Yegneswaran, a past president (2017–18) of the Rotary Club of Bangalore ­Koramangala (RCBG), RID 3191, set up in memory and name of her late husband Rajanet ­Yegneswaran, a Rotarian of the same club, some 20 years ago.

Whether it is enhancing farmers’ income in tribal villages, ­providing wells in villages where women earlier had to walk across several km to carry water over their heads, giving modern ­educational aids to children in rural schools, or organising group ­weddings for ­Adivasis, the Rotary Club of Bombay Bay View, RID 3141, has done it all.

Just as I was reading a tweet from industrialist Anand Mahindra about an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-induced technology which can detect breast cancer some five years before it develops, commenting that “if this is accurate then AI is going to be of ­significantly more value to us than we imagined and much earlier than we had imagined”, came an email from the Rotary Club of Bangalore ­Lakeside, RID 3191, about a strikingly similar initiative.

In Nagesh we have a winner — 1,725 new members, 52 new clubs, 160 Rotaract clubs and a contribution of $2.2 million to TRF — incredible,” said PRIP K R Ravindran, addressing a meet organised by RIDs 3191 and 3192 to felicitate incoming RI directors K P Nagesh and M Muruganandam in Bengaluru. He was recalling RIDE Nagesh’s record-­making feat as DG of RID 3190 in 2015–16. ­Ravindran was the RI president during that year when the district topped the world in membership and TRF-giving.

The first death anniversary of its club member and past district governor (RID 3232) Rekha Shetty was commemorated by the Rotary Club of Madras Temple City through a fitting Awards Night. At this dignified and well-conducted event, the PDG Rekha Shetty Memorial Award was presented to two young women achievers — Umamaheswari K and Saraniya Periaswamy of Agnikul Cosmos, who were instrumental in helping the first private sector company in India to successfully launch a rocket.

When Madhura Zaware, president of the Rotary Club of Ahmednagar Mid Town, RID 3132, read a book titled America, written by the Marathi writer Anil Avchat, about a unique project done in the US to facilitate the rehabilitation of Vietnam Veterans, it left a deep impression on her mind. It described how the war veterans were kept in close proximity to horses for mental stability. The honest, genuine and unpretentious love of animals gave them mental healing.