Rotary.

he Li hth"OlJ°S°E~ 201 6-201 7 • Ed if on No. 1 g Bulleti n of The Rotory Cl ub of Mod,os

.71 m~cd'#eell" WITH A MAGICAL

PERSON

T he first time that you meet Past President Venkhatramani, your first impression would be: What a kind and friendly person! He's a little shy - albeit in a smiling manner - in the beginning, but once he opens up, you begin

to see the play of contrasts in him. Having batted a "century" in his advertising career, he made a fine transition from billboards to the

RCM board. In the past year, he has literally lived and breathed for our Club. Not a man for loquacious speeches and flamboyant eloquence, he still managed to ensure anything

that needed to be said and communicated, was done so. We the members of RCM remained in the Rotary loop the entire year. Prez Venkhat, along with his expert marksman by his side Rtn. Rajashekhar Gorantla, catalysed the

spirit of Rotary Club of Madras with 201S's theme: Love Accept Share. He loved his "job" and his Rotarians, he accepted an elephantine task of making an indelible mark for

the year and he shared with all ofus his wealth of wisdom and compassion. Continued on next page

~ PRESIDENT ~ Rtn. Dr. N.V. Arulmozhi Varman ~ ~ HONORARY SECRETARY ~ Rtn. Dr. R. Chandra Sekhar ~ ~ IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT ~ ~ Rtn. A.S. Venkhat Ramani ~ ~ PRESIDENT ELECT ~ Rtn. P N Mohan ~ ~ PRESIDENT NOMINEE ~ ~ Rtn. Ranjit Pratap ~ Asst. SECRETARY I BULLETIN ~ ~ EDITOR ~ Rtn. Mohan Raman ~ ~ DIRECTOR CLUB ~ ~ ADMINISTRATION ~ Rtn. R. Rajenderan ~ ~ DIRECTOR YOUTH SERVICE ~ Rtn. M Sesha Sai ~ ~ DIRECTOR PUBLIC IMAGE ~ ~ AND FUND RAISING ~ Rtn. Harish K. Murthi ~ ~ DIRECTOR ROTARY ~ FOUNDATION & ~ ~ INTERNATIONAL SERVICES ~ Rtn. M. Balasubramaniam ~ ~ DIRECTOR SERVICE PROJECT 1 ~ Rtn. R. Ravishankar ~ ~ DIRECTOR SERVICE PROJECT 2 ~ ~ Rtn. K.M. Vinod Kumar ~ DIRECTOR VOCATIONAL SERVICE ~ ~ Rtn. S. Ravi ~ ~ TREASURER (CLUB FUNDS) ~ Rtn. Hemant Chordia ~ ~ TREASURER ~ (CHARITABLE TRUST) ~ ~ Rtn. Nimish C. Talia ~ ~ TREASURER ~ (SPECIAL PROJECTS) ~ ~ Rtn. Kishor Dandeker ~

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~ -w The Lighthouse - Bulletin of The Rotary Club of Madras • July 5, 2016

From page 1

Thanks to him, this past year has seen a boost in our membership acceptance and attendance, a delightfully large number of fireside dinners and events that helped all of us get to know each other better and he has kept our coffers full for RCM's various charitable initiatives.

All this, despite last year's debilitating floods in Chennai and other parts of Tamilnadu and the mountain of relief work that had to be done after Mother Nature's fury subsided. Of course, in these efforts too, he was at the helm of an energetic and enthusiastic group of Rotarians who got down and dirty to help bring our city back to life.

Yes, the contrast lies in his ability to be a happy, smiling person and hide a steely resolve in ensuring things got done in his tenure. His wife Mallika too is a

delight to know: As practical and forthright as she seems, she also hides her love for art and colour in her exquisite Tanjore paintings! A lovely, sweet person who can make a deadly avakkai pickle! The fruit can't fall far from the tree, indeed, and President Venkhat and Mallika's daughter too has become a part of the Rotary family in a way, by designing the year's theme for both Venkhat as well as Arulmozhi Varman this year.

A magical year with a magical person who pulled a great number of tricks from his magic hat. Therefore, an apt caricature

by our Rtn. Biswajit in his quirky style, portraying Past President Venkhat as the wizard he was of this year gone by.

- Rtn. Shakthi Girish

IT. : V"\ • • tes 5th JULY 2016 II 1'-i'I

S gt-at-arms IPP AS Venkhat Ramani collared President Rtn Dr Arulmozhi Varrnan, who called the first meeting of the Rotary year

2016-17 to order, followed by a silent invocation. The minutes of the 28th June'16 meeting was

duly confirmed. President Dr Arulmozhi Varman welcomed all

and the guest speaker Vellore C Srinivasan, an expert in the field of integrated & sustainable solid & liquid resources Management. President said that the topic today is very much close to his heart and also coincides with his year theme 'Save Earth Now'. President welcomed guests introduced by

members. President then extended birthday & wedding

anniversary wishes to the respective members/ spouses and thanked for their sunshine. Rtn R Rajenderan, Director, Club Service

informed and invited members for the installation

& charter nite 2016 which is on the 19th July'16 at the same hotel, Ball Room. Fellowship will be from 6.30 pm to 6.55 pm followed by the main programs from 7 to 9 pm. Since it is a packed agenda requested members to be early and be present in large numbers. Rtn R Ravishankar, Director, Community

Service on behalf of the Rotary Nagar committee invited members to attend that evening, the inauguration of the Tailoring and Embroidery classes respectively, at Rotary Nagar. Also our senior Rtn Namasivayam will distribute Education scholarship to deserving students and will be over by an hour. Requested members to come and extend our encouragement to our Project Beneficiaries, Teaching Staff and Committee Members.

President informed members that District has designated tree planting on 31st July'16, Sunday across the Rotary clubs. He also invited members to his farm 100 kms from here to get exposed to natural farms and sustainable living. Members interested can also have a model aircraft flying experience. On 15th August'16, a massive tree planting ceremony has been planned at our Gummidipoondi Boys Town. Secy Rtn Dr R Chandrasekhar announced that

the next weekly meeting will be at the Abbots bury hall, Hyatt on 12/7 /16 and the speaker will be DGP Alexander who will speak on 'Police & its crtics'. Rtn Shakthi Girish introduced the guest

speaker Vellore C Srinivasan whose motto is to 'Turn Garbage into Gold' by reading out his profile and accomplishments. Speaker

Srinivasan spoke in detail on how we can understand what is waste and how to handle it and its management is very simple & rewarding. With an help of visuals he elaborated on the solid waste management by involving both animals/human beings in reusing & recycling waste in the most effective way. President presented a mementos and our clubs

80 year history book on behalf of RCM. Rtn PP NK Gopinath appreciated Srinivasan's

exemplary work with his social innovating environment projects and his enlightening speech on handling waste responsibly, message with a humorous touch. RCM will extend its moral support in all his efforts and wishes him all the best in his efforts. The meeting was then adjourned.

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~ -w The Lighthouse - Bulletin of The Rotary Club of Madras • July 5, 2016

TURNING

GARBAGE INTO GOLD

Mr.C.Srinivasan began his talk saying the last things we need in this country are dustbins. This was somewhat unexpected as waste

management talks go. We had no idea that this

would turn out to be one of the most relevant

and riveting talks.

H is talk was on Waste Management, something we all know we should be

addressing at some level, and most of us have recycling and reducing our carbon footprint on our 'to do' lists, yet we drive past overflowing dustbins daily, and roads littered with plastic, and while we are not proud of it, it all seems insurmountable for individuals to tackle, and so we turn away and move on.

Some, however, choose not to move on ... they make it their life's work. If each of us can replicate even a fraction of what Mr.Srinivasan has achieved, we will be making a huge difference.

The voyage of discovery It all began in 1997 with a garbage

composting project in Vellore where he wrote, then demonstrated that temperature can be reduced by 6C by creating compost, covering their rocky mountains, covering them with grass and then with other plants. The Project was awarded to them. He then discovered that plastic was not compostable and this eventually led to today's solid and liquid resource management. The biggest mistake we make, he

reiterated, is having dustbins that take everything from food scraps to plastics to metal, to dead animal carcasses. These are then dumped in massive garbage dumps spread across acres and acres of festering toxic waste.

Choppy waters So, has it been smooth sailing for

Mr.Srinivasan? Does he flit from city to city turning stinking messes into beautiful green hills? If only this were the case. He lists the problems he faces, from The administration to people within organisations playing politics, and perhaps not­ so-shocking greed: wells being filled

up by land owners so that they have access to a bit more land to build on .... and what is the landfill used? Garbage. Once groundwater is polluted,

people will truly have nowhere to turn. It is not people who are the ones suffering the most at present. 99% of cattle have 10-80kgs of plastic bags in their stomachs, and birds do too. The American style of throwing garbage tied up in a black polythene bag is the worst thing you can do he said. The material inside could be eaten by an animal, but the polythene exterior will be eaten too and will be the death of that animal.

Distant shores and their wisdom How to tackle non-biodegradable

refuse led Mr.Srinivasan to travel widely and learn what the West is doing. He soon realized that the so­ called 'Scientific landfill sites' in the U.S. are really sanitized versions or our dumpsites. A shockingly low 11 % of items are segregated and the rest goes to container lorries and on to 'scientific' garbage presses. New York has the world's largest dumping site.To highlight his point, he said that from space you see three things: The sea, the Great Wall of China, and the New York dumping site!

Finally the right port He returned no wiser than he left

and still without a solution to the problem. Then, the simple concept of how one can transpant the eyes of a human within 6 hours of death, led him to a revelation: For a while after something has been discarded, it is still of use to someone somewhere, but only for a fixed window of time. His solution is that if you use so­

called 'waste' within12 hours on average, it is odourless fresh raw Material. In 24 hours, it is smelly decomposed material, and in 48

Continued on next page

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~ -w Continued from previous page

The Lighthouse - Bulletin of The Rotary Club of Madras • July 5, 2016

hrs it is stinking waste. For fruits and vegetables if you shift it in less than 12 hours (so two shifts a day), you can feed livestock with it. Dung can go into a biodigester and generate energy. Chicken and other meats should be

shifted every 3 hours as per his formula, and fed to say dog shelters or piggeries. The same applies to waste from marriage halls. He showed us a wonderful clip on what they are currently doing with fish markets. They collect every 3 hours and bring the fish heads/ entrails to a site . Ducks now flock to the spot when they hear the vehicle approach. They happily eat the fish remains, then proceed to frolic in the water and aerate the Sewage Treatment Plant thereby rendering redundant the 12.5 lakh a month motor. Natural cleaners such as pigs for land,

ducks for water, and the crow for the air should be employed and utilized he said. He made light of the common sense he

was imparting, saying that they needed no salary, there would be no unions, and no bonus requirements. At night frogs could be appointed.

The Captain leading by example What is striking about Mr.Srinivasan,

is that he really has got his hands dirty (literally), has worked with ten village panchayats as a block, established his SLRM centres every 2 kms, and put in place stringent practices for efficient recycling. For instance, cycle rickshaws going to saloons will collect hair, shaving foam, and that type of waste from the saloon alone. Ladies hair, he said is Rs.2500/- per kg. It is well worth segregating hair from the start - why mix it with other waste. His model is self sustainable. When

asked by Aamir Khan whether he can transform Mumbai he answered that he could indeed, in 18 months. His success

in Satyamev Jayate led to the Jodhpur Government starting a project with him at the helm - to try to transform a 40 acre dumping site there. Once again, he showed us a video

to demonstrate how slowly but surely that dumping site became A grassy field worthy of a visit by the Chief Minister! One hopes more States will follow suit.

Are there any chinks in his system? One that I could see: the system relies on Whatsapp images sent daily from each site to show him that the ladies are working through the day else they do not get their 200 Rupees salary for that day. While the success relies on one man overseeing more and more work in more and more locations, it is bound to reach a breaking point.

We need more Mr.Srinivasans - the burden cannot rest on the shoulders of one ( albeit incredible) man.

- Rtn. Shaan Katari Libby

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Interact Installation First Interact Installation for the Rotary Year 2016-17. Date- 1st July 2016 - 9 30 am. Name of the School- LM DADHA Senior Secondary School.

Cholaimedu. Number of Interactors- 66. The Interact Chairman Rtn. Nikhil Raj Spoke on How to save

earth. The children appreciated his speech and were overwhelmed with some of his innovative ideas.

Inauguration of Service Projects and Literary Association at Kalayanam Girls School Chindaripet. Date- 1st July 3pm to 5 pm 200 children got benefited from scholarships and

Uniforms distributed by our President Rtn. Arulmozhi Varman. Chief Guest Rtn Arul, spoke about the 4 way test and

he insisted that there should be Acquaintance of large number of youth with Rotary, and specifically, the tenets of the 4-Way Test. Total Number of students present were around 700.

~ -w The Lighthouse - Bulletin of The Rotary Club of Madras • July 5, 2016

Rtn. PP. N.K. Gopinath

James Wheeler O im) Davidson

Born in Austin, Minnesota on 14 June, 1862, Jim Davidson graduated from the Northwestern Military Academy in 1891. Big in body, in mind and vision, he accompanied Admiral Peary to the North Pole in 1893, became a war correspondent for the New York Herald covering both sides of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1896, served as a US Consular Agent in Formosa, Dalay (Manchuria),and Consul General in Shanghai. He travelled to Japan in 1905 where he met Lillian Dow, the daughter of an American businessman and they were married in 1905 after a short engagement. In 1906, the couple moved to Winnipeg, Canada and then to Calgary in 1907, where Davidson became a Canadian citizen and established interests in lumber and land and joined the Rotary Club of Calgary in 1914. Jim Davidson and Lt Col. James Layton Ralston of the Halifax, Nova Scoti club, travelled

to Australia and New Zealand in 1921 as RI Special Commissioners and formed the first clubs in the southern hemisphere in Melbourne, Wellington, Auckland and Sydney.

Charged as a Special Commissioner to establish Rotary in the Middle East and Asia and with a grant of $8,000 from the Board of RI, Jim and Lilian Davidson and their small daughter left Canada on 23 August, 1928 on an odyssey intended to last about nine months, but which was to last for nearly three years and cost Davidson an estimated $250,000 of his own fortune. On arrival in London he held a series of meetings with Government officials before leaving for further meetings in Amsterdam, Haarlem, the Hague and Zurich, establishing contacts who could be helpful in his task. From Zurich he travelled by train - to Istanbul, where he concluded that the time was not right for the introduction of Rotary into Turkey. On 18 November, 1928 he flew to Athens and organised a club before flying on to Egypt where he inaugurated the Cairo club on 29 December after which he travelled to Jerusalem where an American Rotarian, Edward Wisher had formed the nucleus of a club, which the two men formalised on 8 February, 1929. Then it was on to India where the Bombay club was formed on March 19. Then followed the establishment of clubs in Delhi, Madras, Colombo, Theyetmyo,

Rangoon, Penang, Seremban, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Singapore, Medan, Klang, Malacca, Bangkok and Hong Kong. In a journey of 20,000 miles by ship, aeroplane, bus, car and elephant and attacked by fever, Jim Davidson interviewed over 2,000 men in their offices.

Sadly, this great Rotarian, dubbed "The Marco Polo of Rotary," did not live long after completing his epic journey, dying in Calgary on 18 July, 1933. Rotary is fortunate that Lillian Dow Davidson maintained a written record of their great journey which is preserved for all ti me.

Birthday 5th July - Rtn AK Rajkumar 5th July - Rtn Suniel U Lulla 7th July - Rtn Mahinder Jain 8th July - Rtn Anand Vurgese 11th July - Rtn PP Dr Biswakumar 11th July - Rtn P Suresh 8th July - Ann.Pad ma

(Rtn MV Ananthakrishna) 8th July - Ann.Parul

(PP Satyan Bhatt) 10th July - Ann.Dr Anila Mathen

(Rtn Anand Vurgese) 11th July - Ann.Shameem

(Rtn M Fazal Mohamed)

Wedding 5th July - Rtn M Gopalakrishnan

Ann. Rajalakshmi 5th July - Rtn Dr Krishna Hande

Ann. Dr Indira 7th July - Rtn Ravi Moorthy

Ann. Narayani 11th July - Rtn Prabha Srinivasan

Ann. Salish Sridharan

Sunshine Rtn. A K Rajkumar - ~1,000/- Rtn. Suniel U Lulla - ~2,000/- Rtn. Mahinder Jain - ~1,000/- Rtn. PP Dr Biswakumar - ~1,000/- Ann. Padma (Rtn. M V Ananthakrishna) - ~1,000/- Rtn. Dr Krishna Hande (Ann. Dr. Indira) - ~2,500/- Rtn. Ravi Moorthy (Ann. Narayani} - ~1,000/-

EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY: Rtn. Asst. Secretary, Rotary Club of Madras, 'Rayala Towers', 2nd Mezzanine Floor, 158, Anna Salai, Chennai - 2, Ph: 28591020. Contact the editor at: lighthouse201516@gmail.com. Design: www.studiodescience.com

Visit: www.rotarymadras.in Contact club secretariat at: office@rotarymadras.in

®

~ ~ OllHHASAMI GIDTY

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