At the Tejas Institute there were some lighter moments too which had the delegates laughing. After listening to serious speeches about the last mile to ending polio from the world, and the need to take urgent action to save the environment, the unimaginable hardships and pain our soldiers go through to defend our nation, when RI Vice President Alain Van de Poel came up to the podium to give the assembled leaders a glimpse into RI’s finances for the next five years, many a person in the hall must have prepared themselves for a quick shut eye.
But de Poel grabbed everyone’s attention by his opening lines: “When I arrived, I heard that I must speak about different topics… but one bad news my friend Nagesh forgot to tell me was that I must speak about the finances of RI! So I thought since it is Christmas time, he wants to give me a gift!”
That he was saying this in jest became clearer in a moment when he added: “True, I was (working) in a bank for a long time, but I was not a commercial guy. But I have good news for you… normally when I start to speak, I never stop. The advantage today is that because I have to speak about the finance of RI, this will be very short. I really have good news for you. The finance of Rotary International is all good.”
Normally when I start to speak, I never stop. But because I have to speak about the finance of RI, this will be very short. The finance of Rotary International is all good.
— Alain Van de Poel
RI Vice President
As the surprised delegates burst into laughter, he added: “Are there any questions? If you have any, you can always email them to me, and I will send to the treasurer, who is my friend and a fellow director, and he will answer you.”
Another indicator of the good health of RI’s finance was that “we still pay our invoices. That is good news,” he added.
Tension galore
As the Tejas organising team was all set to get the opening sessions of the Delhi institute rolling, a big dampener was the late arrival of the chief guest, Vice President of India C P Radhakrishnan, who was scheduled to inaugurate the event. But as the prima donnas of the organising team scurried around the different sides of the podium, there was no sight of the VIP. The Tejas Convenor and RID KP Nagesh admitted after the inauguration was finally done, saying, “As you could see we were all in big tension, because we had invited the Indian Vice President to inaugurate Tejas. But because he had gone to Vizag for another event and his return kept getting delayed, we were all worried about when exactly he would come. We tried to match our schedule with his travel time, but his arrival kept getting delayed.”
But somehow “we managed… the VP came and blessed us and all was fine. But meanwhile, to overcome that tension, we decided to have a dance performance.”
The dance of course was “very good, it was also cool, but looking at the aerobatics component of it, again tension started creeping up.” (Later past RI President K R Ravindran compared the quality of that performance to the Cirque du Soleil shows, which are grand spectacles blending breathtaking acrobatics, music and dance).
Other highlights of this institute included a Rotary Golf Tournament, orchestrated by PDG Ashok Kantoor. “Thanks to this beautifully organised and executed golf tournament, we were able to raise $250,000 for polio,” said Nagesh. This is the highest ever amount raised for polio in the history of Rotary in India through a golf event.
Smart glasses and white canes, sponsored by RID 3011, were distributed to 25 blind individuals during the inauguration of the House of Friendship.