Dhoom! Again.. 2009

First week of January 2009 is Road Safety Week, and the Rotary Club of Bombay Mulund East is celebrating it by organizing, Dhoom 2009 - A Car Navigation Rally . For more information on Dhoom, and how to participate or how to Sponsor for Dhoom, see this..

Dhoom 2009

A Fun Filled Family Car Navigation Rally

Sunday, 4th January 2009

A Car Safety week celebration by Rotary Club of Bombay Mulund East

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Six Thinking Hats

The guest speaker today was Rtn. Kumar Deshpande. He spoke on Six Thinking Hats, a concept developed by Ed Bono which received great appreciation in management literature.

The excerpts from his speech:

Bono advocated that our thinking should be based on what it is called as parallel thinking...looking at a problem from various angles,as if wearing different colour hat. Each hat has a significance.

White hat - plain facts, objectivity
Black hat - problems
Red hat - emotional
Yellow hat - seeing positive in any situation
Green hat - creative
Blue hat -big boss, directing the thinking of the group

If judgement is not arrived at an alternative route is considered. If you know your destination there is no single route but many roads available.

Bono encourages to use all these hats while solving a problem instead of getting stuck at one place to make our life more enjoyable .

Spiritual Quoetient

We had unique opportunity of being an audience for a discourse by Mr. Sudeep Basu last Thursday at our weekly rotary meeting. Many of us knew Sudeep and a lot of interest was generated during the day. We were really looking forward to listen to him.

We had very learned attendance form Rotarians , very serious and committed. Primarily, those Rotarians who are choosy and always looking for Value for Time.

Sudeep had a wonderful power point presentation and we were too happy internally as our latest acquisition of the LCD projector was being put to the best use.

Sudeep started with relevance of Spiritualism in the life of leaders in the corporate world. The definition and differentiation of various types of intelligence was truly educating. Everyone in the room started realizing where he stood and that being intelligent was not enough. Slowly it began to dawn as to what was missing. Sudeep kept on raising the quality of the contents by introducing a new concept, a new thought ,a new insight and a new experience almost every minute. One really felt as if we must not put a time limit for such sharing. We kept climbing the steps of intelligence or shall we say wisdom and new learning firmly holding Sudeep’s hand and he would not let us stay behind. He carried everyone in the room to higher level of knowledge and realization. What was truly inspiring was the energy in his speech and every word thereof, particularly when one is talking about such an involved and abstract subject. No one could ever have allowed any other thought to enter the mind so long he was talking. Having understood the fourth Quotient as SQ , everyone perhaps knew, we still have some work to do in life .Most of us have been trying hard to understand the third quotient and here was Sudeep telling us one more. But mind you, there was no frustration as everyone could see a new goal for self, albeit a stretched one and a beautiful one.

Sudeep did an amazing service to our club by covering so much in so little time, with full command on the language and the subject. We truly felt gifted and blessed.

What is a discourse if it does not leave you with questions and quest to know more. Sudeep was kind enough to answer them all and agreeing to be of help off line in spite of his tight schedule.

This day will truly make a difference in many of our lives!!!

RCBME would like to thank Rtn. Anil Bhot for submitting this report.

Oh God ! Why not me?

Our guest speaker, Dr. Ashok Sanghvi, is a distinguished management guru and Founder & Managing Director,Axiom Management Consultants Pvt.Ltd.,Mumbai.

We present below a summary of his speech delivered at Rotary Club of Bombay Mulund East, on 7th August, 2008.

Everybody wants to be a successful person. Mulesh Ambani and Narayan Murthy are the business leader who are emulated the most today. People are,in the process, trying to achieve their goals and are successful to varying extent.

The difference between a grand sucess and an ordinary success is networking.
Networking,as we know, is meaningful engagement with other persons, in an activity to achieve some goal.

Networking is of three kinds :

1. Operational - networking with people at your job; it's more or less given and not much can be done in choosing the partners here....however, trusting other partners at work plays important role in getting work done.
2. Personal - networking in a professional, social organisations like Rotary clubs, Toastmasters, and similar professional bodies. You need to devote a lot of time.
3. Strategic - very important, deliberate networking for use in the future...right now you may don't have a need but cultivating contacts that can be used in futue. Many big companies seen doing this like sending gifts to senior officers who are likely to be MDs or CEOs in next4 to 5 years; companies pay donations to political parties even if that party is not in power today.

He gave a six point program towards working on developing network for your future need :

# 1. Just do it - jot down all your contacts; how big is the list of your contacts? Bigger the better. Categorise all your contacts in to persons you talk or meet once in a week, once in a month, and once in a quarter. If you are not doing (calling up or meeting) you better start doing it now.

# 2. Change your mindset - do not have a preconceived mind;everybody has got strong points, highlight them and avoid critising.

# 3. Work from outside in - find out what others want,what are their needs. what they like.

# 4. Re-allocate your time - delegate much of your work that can be done by others.

# 5. Ask and you shall get - go and ask whatever you don't know, afterall you are not suppose to know everything from the universe ! People are ready to help you.

# 6. Stick to it - make a plan for 5 to 6 years; see what are your needs, whom would you require to work for you, take a proactive step to connect to him/her even if he/she is not needed now; that's a strategic planning.

Club picnic at River Touch Resort

On Saturday & Sunday,the 26 th and 27th July,2008 members had gone to River Touch Resort near Karjat on a overnight picnic.

For more pictures visit : http://www.flickr.com/photos/36582408@N00/sets/72157606644574973/

Lifestyle Management

Rtn. Dr. Shivaramakrishana. RC Chembur was the guest speaker at our weekly Rotary meeting dated 25^th July,2008. Dr. Shiva, as he is called afectionately, gave an excellent speech on LIFESTYLE MANAGEMENT.

We present few salient points from his speech.

Today relatively younger persons are succumbing to certain diseases that were hereto were earlier known to have affected aged people only.

Blood pressure, diabetes and obesity are commonly know diseases or disorders that are related to one's lifestyle ….much attributed to present lifestyle where physical activity is reduced due to modern day comforts on one hand and a changing eating habit on the other hand. Rich, processed food has also brought in increasing level of stress. It should be remembered that stress is our response, physical or mental to
a physical, mental, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension. Again, in today's world stress is more due to more and more emphasis on performance.

Body is continuously aging and no one can stop that, but we can regress progression of aging by lifestyle management.

Dr. Shiva gave the following formula, which he called D A R E S :

D	Diet	Proper Diet-Indian Thali is considered to be the best balanced diet offering all the minerals & vitamins that are required by our body, whereas fast food or junk food that is more popular among younger generation may rob your body of the requisite constituents for your body.
A	Activity	Implies physical activity which is very much neglected in today's fast paced, facilities laden life. He stressed on brisk walk, jogging or any other cardiovascular exercise on regular basis.
R	Relaxation	Stress today is mainly mental stress which remains constantly. Stress is an ability to perceive implied threat. Therefore it is needed to keep proper balance between Work & Life. Relaxation in any form that soothes your senses, relieves or reduces your tension or stress is very much important. Light music, hobbies that divert your mind is recommended. Involvement in volunteering like in Rotary work also gives much needed fillip to your mind.
E	Empathy	Empathy as different from sympathy is caring for others by putting yourself in others shoes. Compassion or Empathy takes you to think beyond "I" or "me". It is the ability to experience the world from another perspective, often the perspective of another person. Lack of empathy leads to poor communication and a failing to understand others which may anger you.That's bad for your health. While we cannot control other's thoughts, feelings or behaviors, we most certainly can increase our empathy skills : listening, self-awareness and acceptance.
S	Spirituality	Being spiritual mean remaining positive, optimistic, supporting worthy causes, remaining cheerful. In fact Various practices associated with the path of spirituality—meditation, breathing exercises, physical exercises (yogakriyas/yoga practices), and practice of positive thinking make one physically and mentally better equipped to manage stress.

Nutrition and diet

Miss Maria, is a Polish national, working on her Ph.D. in Nutrition at Warsaw University. She was the guest speaker at RC Bombay Mulund East.





Rtn. Rao is seen introducing Miss Maria.




Seated from left to right: Maria,President Rtn. Sudhir Hanmante and Rtn. Jaydeep Mody.


The engrossed audience.




Maria giving a PPT presentation.



Maria's focus of study is preventing and reversing illnesses through the understanding of human anatomy, physiology and nature's laws.



She believes that nature's wisdom surpasses that of any doctor. Learn how to understand what your body is telling you and how to respond accordingly. Discover what is the ideal healthy diet for a human being and learn how to prepare healthy, tasty meals that heal. Become aware of how to live holistically and in harmony with the environment.



She is at present involved with SHARAN,an NGO, where she works as a volunteer. SHARAN conucts workshop for healthy living through use of organically grown food.

The workshop covers:

1. Health, disease and the scope of medicines.

2. What is the healthiest diet for our species? Understanding our anatomy, physiology and real nutritional needs.

3. Why the foods we are eating today cause disease.

4. Results of diet change.

5. The relation between diet and stress.

6. The relation between diet and our environment.

7. How to manage making the transition without missing the foods we are used to.

8. How to handle social situations.



Maria spoke on her research and few of the above points related to diet & disease.



The meeting was well attended by rotarians and guests.

A to Z of Rotary :

A to Z of Rotary
At RC Bhiwandi Balaji Hall, Bhiwandi

The Inter City Forum was inaugurated by DG Rtn. Bansi Dhurandar.

PDG Rtn. Dr. J.T.Vyas ( above ) was the forum leader.

A well planned seminar organized in a brand new Hall in a cluster type seating arrangement….

Rotarians, Sanjay Rawat,Pradyumna Mokashi,Subir Ghosh, S.V.Rao and Prashant (above)attended the meet.

Rtn. S.V. Rao is going to file a report for the meet and hence I am going to present few of my observations (and Rotary Gyan ) made / gathered at the meet.

Did you know that?....

• RC Bombay is coming out with a Rotary Tower that will be a Rotary monument in Mumbai…are you thinking anything like this for Rotary in your area?
• RI Dist 3140 was the highest contributor among all the Rotary districts in the world?
• A RC from Andheri will be hosting a Kanheri Festival under the Asmita ( our district thrust area) ?
• DG appealed to RC Ulhasnagar to build a museum of History?
• In Europe Rotary goes on vacation…although not officially?
• Siera Leon, a country in worn torn Africa, where tribes fight war for superiority and that the war is stopped officially for Polio vaccination?
• A Mayor of a city in Europe issued a circular…..” Rotary is an organization doing important service to human kind. Please observe … from (this) day to …(this) day as a Rotary Week.?

HKKN...Hum Kisise Kum Nahin... !

• Dr. J.T.Vyas said that in 1998 few had heard of the internet, but in 2008 at a District Assembly, a live video talk witgh New Zealanad Rotarians was held. Well, this reminded me of a similar video talk that Ajay and I , had with an Australian Rotarian/Ham Radio operator in 1999 !
• PP Rtn. Gopal Mandania talked about starting an E-club for District 3140. The idea of similat club, where members can meet electronically was discussed in our club much before even the first E-club was started in Rotary world !
• Giving need is at a higher level than a need for receiving ( Maslow's Theory of Hierarchy of Needs). Rtn. Prafful Sharma, in his skit featuring a scene from the year 2030, portrayed few Indian clubs discussing giving grants to foreign clubs. Well, Rtn. DJ (Deepak Jiandani) put forward this point of giving a grant of US$ 2500-3000 to a club in need in Turkey, in the present era at BOD meeting held a day before this ICF meet!

Mr. Ujjwal Shah, owner of Balaji Hall, was inducted as an honorary Rotarian by RC Bhiwandi.

Importance of languages

How languages are connected to cultures, was the topic chosen by our guest speaker Rtn. Praful Sharma. His speech titled, "Importance of languages" aptly showed how languages were used, in the past, for breaking culture, to inculcate a feeling of superiority and inferiority amongst a class of Indians by Britishers… (more is coming up including the video clip of the entire speech).

Cataract Operation Camp

A Cataract Operation camp was organised at Aastha Hospital, Mulund (West) on 2nd July, 2008.

The project was inaugurated by DG. Bansi.

Rtn. Ramesh Motwani and DG rtn. Bansi performed a pooja for success of the project.

Approx. 15 patients had presented themselves at the hospital where they were going to be operated later in the day.

The Ward Officer, “T” ward, Mumbai, and the local corporator Shi Vishwanath Mhaske, were felicitated for the timely assistance given by them in securing various permissions.

Our club was represented by President Sudhir, Secretary Rtn. Prakash Manay, Dr. Milind Sawant and Rtn. Prashant.

This is ongoing project of Rotary Clubs in Mulund,Bhandup and Powai.

Installation of Rtn. Sudhir Hanmante as President

Rtn. Sudhir Hanmante was installed as President of Rotary Club of Bombay Mulund East

at a glittering function on at Ceremonial Hall on 29th June 2008.

Outgoing president Rtn. Mahesh and DG Rtn. Bansi seen congratulating Rtn Sudhir on the occasion.

DG Rtn. Bansi Dhurandar and his team from the district was present to bestow blessings on Rtn. Sudhir and his team of officers.

Earlier, Rtn. Mahesh, the outgoing President read out his report for the activities carried out of the club during the Rotary Year 2007-08.

He then installed Rtn. Sudhir Hanmnate as a President.

Rtn. Mahesh was immediately pinned as IPP by Rtn Sudhir.

7 new members were added in to the Rotary fraternity; interestingly six of them were lady members.

DG Bansi Dhurandar stressed a need for growth in membership and welcomed 7 rotarians that were inducted on the date. DG is passionate about Thurst Area, particularly the district thurst area- ASMITA and NAV-PRERANA and appealed to all the members to work in that direction.

For more photographs of the installation ceremony click here.