Friday, October 3, 2008

Rotaract MCM to make presentation

This Monday at our regular meeting, the 6th October, the Rotaract Club of MCM DAV College, Sector 36, Chandigarh, which is an all women Rotaract Club, will make a presentation on "Role of Women in Indian Society", at 6pm at Rotary House. It shall be truly exciting to gain a perspective into the minds of young women.

Auto mechanic would be able to see again

Continuing with the Gift of Sight project of Rotary Club of Chandigarh in association with Rotary Club of Coral Gables, USA, under the Rotary Foundation's matching grant, the sight of an auto mechanic has been restored.
Subhash, a 50 year old auto mechanic from Kartarpur in Punjab, was operated on 26th September 2008 by Dr. Vaishali Gupta at the Advance Eye Centre, PGI, Chandigarh.
Subhash had been diagnosed with lens disorder, internal bleeding and retinal detachment in his left eye. This was a result of an industrial injury that he had suffered due to blunt trauma with a steel spring.
Subhash is the only earning hand in his family of six including four children. He will be able to gain functional vision in his left eye after the surgery.
This is the sixth surgery under the project.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Mahatma Gandhi and Rotary

As we remember Mahatma Gandhi on his birthday, I remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, who wrote: "Gandhi was inevitable. If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought and acted, inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony. We may ignore Gandhi at our own risk."

Indeed, 'we may ignore Gandhi at our own risk'. His message of non-violence, ethics, peace, and service are well known and these are some of the issues that are so close to our heart in Rotary.

Gandhi knew Rotary, and had met many Rotarians and also spoken at some of the Rotary programs. Gandhi wrote an article, "My 7 points for a new world order", which appeared in the February 1942 issue of The Rotarian magazine. That article was included in The Rotarian Reader, published in 1986, which contains the most precious articles published in Rotarian magazines during the first 75 years of its publication (1911-1986). Gandhi's picture appeared on the Cover Page of the book.

And there is a remarkable similarity in the ways that Rotary's 4 Way Test and Gandhi's Satyagraha were conceived and applied; as well as between Rotary's Motto of Service Above Self and Gandhi's Mission in life of Helping the Helpless.

Let's continue to 'Make Dreams Real' for the humanity at large, for the world we live in, and for our children...in true Gandhian way...in true Rotary way.