Vol. 54 Issue No. 40 Mumbai April 2 to April 8, 2013 Pages 8 Price Rs. 3/-

ForthcomingmeetingsApril 2, 2013

A talk on innovation by Dr.Swati Piramal.

April 9, 2013Dr. Shaila Vora, to make a pre-

sentation.April 16, 2013

The Rotary Club of BombayTaru Lalvani Award for Environ-ment Protection to be presented toMr. Aabid Surti.

April 23, 2013A talk by Dr. Rajendra Badwe of

the Tata Memorial Hospital whowas recently conferred the PadmaShri award by the President.

April 30, 2013Dr. Sitesh Roy to speak on “Cur-

ing incurable diseases”.May 7, 2013

Dr. S. Mukherjee, Director-General of the Prince of WalesMuseum, now known as theChhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj VastuSangrahalaya, to speak on “Mu-seums: Building cultures – Increas-ing scope for cultural interac-tions”.

Jetu Lalvani makesa significant

contribution toRotary Foundation

Jetu Lalvani has made a magnani-mous donation to The RotaryFoundation of Rotary Interna-tional.

President Nowroze Vazifdar an-nounced at the last meeting thatJetu had contributed a sum of Rs.13 lakhs (which equals US$24,075).

He then joined members as theyapplauded Jetu’s generosity.

Forget FSI, go for UDI (Urban Design Index),urges urban design expert from Chicago

Mr. Mahender Vasandani, IITKharagpur graduate and urban

design expert in Chicago, suggests adifferent paradigm to make life more

liveable in Bombay

There is too much focus in this cityon FSI, everybody wants more butnobody thinks of what to give back tothe community. If a system like UDI(Urban Design Index) is adopted, thefocus on FSI will be diffused. FSI willstill be a part of the matrix to get plansapproved, but there will be a simulta-neous emphasis on the UDI.

This claim was made at the lastmeeting by Mr. Mahender Vasandani,Director of M Square, who practicesurban design in Chicago and has beencoming to India for some years to lookat the reconstruction, redevelopmentand reformation of various cities, es-pecially Bombay. He has been in touchwith several leaders in an effort to im-prove the living conditions here.

Mr. Vasandani said although he wasinterested in urban planning, he waseven more passionate about urban de-sign. A lot of urban planning was beingdone in India through governmentprogrammes such as the JNNURM.Municipalities were being allocatedfunds to undertake comprehensiveplanning and told to go for proper in-frastructure planning.

But for a city like Bombay, whichwas “already built out”, it was neces-sary to go to the next level and to gobeyond urban planning to urban de-sign. Urban design basically focusedon the quality of the built environment.Based on the experience of other citiesin the world, his hypothesis was thatBombay could improve its urban live-ability through urban design.

He had been meeting many civicgroups as well as some governmentleaders about the need to undertake anurban design plan for Bombay, its dif-ferent parts, or wards, and to then buildupon the suggested Urban Design In-dex (UDI) system. One of the ben-efits of this would be a certain diffu-sion of the needless overemphasis onthe FSI system. “Everybody wantsmore FSI but nobody wants to thinkof what to give back to the commu-nity.”

Mr. Vasandani, who was speakingon “Improving Mumbai through Ur-ban Design”, was introduced by Moy

Biswas, his classmate at Kharagpur,and made an attempt to explain howgood urban design would improve thequality of life or liveability in Bombay.

It was a fact, he said, that 50 to 60%of the city’s population lived in theinformal housing sector. Most peoplealso knew their history and the rea-sons why this sector came up. Butwith such vast amounts of land beingcovered by the informal housing sec-tor, the point to ponder was whethersuch a growth pattern was sustainablefor the future.

Other factors to be noted were thatthe livelihoods of the people residingin them were compromised by poorhygienic conditions and that most suchprojects came up in environmentallysensitive areas. But beyond that wasthe question of whether this was theright, sustainable urban solution for thecity of Bombay.

On the outskirts of Bombay a largenumber of “single use townships” werebeing built. These were suburban en-claves of good housing communitiesbut essentially of single use. It wasnecessary, in his opinion, to moveaway from such an approach.

Although the focus was on FSI andgood architecture and the stress onbuilding a good skyline, his conten-

tion was that good skylines did notmake for good cities. It was far morenecessary to look at the basic infra-structure, said Mr. Vasandani.

Already, there was an infrastructureoverload, whether one lived in Bombay,Delhi or any other city. Traffic jamswere the order of the day and it ap-peared as though “dividends” (such asmotorable roads) were being providedeven before the capacity was built up.But this was not unique to India andhappened in many countries all overthe world.

At the same time, Bombay’s trainsystem was becoming highly antiqua-ted and overloaded. The railways evenhad a unique term for this, viz., “superdense crush load”. Given the increas-ing congestion on the roads, peoplehad increasingly started using buses.

While praising the city planners forproposing a variety of transport sys-tems such as the Metro, the Mono-rail, the sea-based transport systemfrom Borivli to Nariman Point and soon, Mr. Vasandani added a caveat.

“The issue is that all the solu-tions which are being built todaywill essentially address yesterday’sproblems, or at the most today’sproblems. Growth projectionsmade by McKenzie in 2007 showedthat Bombay will grow, as will thesurrounding communities likePune and Ahmedabad; in fact, theentire country will be urbanised.

“But if the population increases,what do we do with the car owner-ship? Some estimates indicate that carownership in India is only 15 per1,000 people at present; however, pro-jections based on the economic condi-tions of the people showed that by2030 there will be almost a seven-foldincrease in car ownership.

“Even if the increase is four to fivetimes, then, given the limited infrastruc-ture capacity of today, you can imag-ine what’s going to happen in the fu-ture... So we have to think differently,we have to think of new urban pat-terns for Bombay, both at the urbancore and at the urban edges.”

(Continued on Page 2)

April 2 to April 8, 2013 THE GATEWAY, The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 2

(Continued from Page 1)For the urban core, Mr. Vasandani

proposed the creation of areas of sys-tematic urban transformation throughthe adoption of a strategic urban de-sign plan which would identify theneeded public improvements. Based onthat would be devised a UDI systemaimed at creating high quality urban live-ability.

As for the urban edges or outskirts,in order to reduce the impact on theinfrastructure, it was necessary to cre-ate systems under which people wouldbe able to walk to work. Mixed or inte-grated uses were fine, what withschools and hospitals, but there wasno alternative to creating facilities forpeople to walk to work.

To explain his idea of good urbandesign, he gave the example of Vancou-ver which he called “one of the mostwell designed cities of the world”. Hewas not suggesting that Bombay couldbecome like Vancouver over the next20, 30 or even 50 years, but it wouldhelp to learn from different approaches.

“As long as a city like Bombay isaspirational about improving the ur-ban liveability, the best example we canlearn from is that of Vancouver. Therethe emphasis on urban liveability is notjust to focus on good architecture buton how to improve the public realm,the public environment and how toimprove the quality of life of the peopleliving there.”

One of the key differentiators of thatcity was the manner in which a build-ing interfaced with a street. A lot ofthought had gone into creating such ahigh design alternative. This had notjust involved creating good buildings,not just good living for the people whoresided in them, but also improving theambient public environment.

In the case of Vancouver what hadbeen designed (and achieved) througha triple layer of landscape buffer be-tween the housing and the street wasto make the housing more private andto make the street more secure.

The classic book “The Death andLife of Great American Cities” by JaneJacobs talked about “eyes on thestreet”. She wrote that if there wereeyes on the street – the eyes of peopleliving in their homes or in apartmentson the street and who retained theirprivacy despite this – then the entireurban neighbourhood benefited froman improved sense of security.

Mr. Vasandani claimed that in thecase of Vancouver it had also been ableto include affordable housing, or non-market housing, which was not veryvisible from the street.

‘Let us at least make an attempt to follow Vancouver,one of the best designed cities of the world’

With old friends and new. Mr. Mahender Vasandani, the guest speaker at thelast meeting, with President Nowroze Vazifdar (left) and Moy Biswas (centre)

Apart from this, Vancouver had beenable to achieve “walkablity” betweendifferent blocks. Thanks to the qualityof the public environment which wasthe result of a direct and cautious ap-proach to create a mid-block pedes-trian walking system, it had been ableto improve connectivity from one blockto another. This was a key aspect ofany city.

Another important point to notewas that these achievements were notthe result of individual developers en-hancing the city, but part of an urbandesign plan. This design plan was pre-pared by the Vancouver city depart-ment of urban design and planning –not planning and urban design – be-cause the city had realised that urbandesign had to be given greater weightage.

The bottom line was thatVancouver had transformed itselfso successfully that it had reversedthe problem of the typical Ameri-can city. In most American citiesthere was an out-migration fromthe centre of the city after officeswere closed and they became dor-mant holes. The suburbs were alive,the cities were not. Vancouver hadmade living in the city so popularthat now it had more people livingin the city than there were jobs.

In the Western world there was anew term called “Vancouver-ism”; ev-erybody wanted to be like Vancouverand everyone was trying to adopt ur-ban planning based upon the Vancou-ver model. Several magazines had calledVancouver one of the top liveable cit-ies in the world for the last ten years.

There were other reasons, too, suchas good hospitals, universities, colleges,libraries, public transport system andso on, but everything was tied togetherat the sinews; the city’s networks werebased upon the urban design schemethat he had described.

Mr. Vasandani said that well-thought-out urban design schemeswould also benefit developers and realestate companies that had been strug-gling to market their projects in thechallenging American economic envi-ronment of the last four to five years.

Even the Harvard Business Schoolprogramme for senior executives wasfocusing on the value of urban design,on what could sell in the market placeand the value of making places.

A study by a London-basedorganisation, published in 2001 andbased on empirical analysis, had foundthat good urban design also deliveredhigh levels of profit for owners andinvestors. Area regeneration, based ongood urban design, delivered economicdividends to society as a whole over along period of time.

“Good urban design, based on theCOBE analysis, enhances, through so-cial inclusiveness, a sense of safety anda sense of city pride, which we all needto have for the city that we live in.”

Returning to specific approaches forthe city of Bombay, Mr. Vasandani saidthat within the urban core the criticalpart was the preparation of strategicurban design plans and, based uponthose, the proposed Urban Design In-dex system. As for the urban edges, todifferentiate new projects from thecurrent ones, there was the “walk towork” idea and the idea of integrateddiversity.

“The focus on FSI and on creatinggreat skylines by employing world-class architects is great; I love good ar-chitecture, I love iconic buildings; buticonic buildings alone, good skylinesalone, do not make good cities, do notimprove urban liveability.”

It was for this reason that he wasemphasising the need for preparing stra-tegic urban design plans which wouldbe based on thorough analysis of the

living conditions, whether in differentwards, or block by block, as in the caseof Vancouver, and then making detailedrecommendations as part of the urbandesign plan to cohesively identify theneeded improvements in a given area.

Sadly, all FSI applications here werebasically spot applications. No onelooked at how an urban area could beimproved, what were the deficienciesand how the liveability of a given areacould be improved.

Mr. Vasandani claimed that he hadput forth his proposals in 2011 andhad been in discussions for almost twoyears now. But he was hopeful of sign-ing a contract very soon, before he re-turned to the USA in June.

Speaking again of the UDI, he saidthat for any given area, once certainurban improvements to be privatisedwere identified, they could be put on ascale (it could be turned into a soft-ware), so that any time a developercame looking for more FSI, for everyincremental FSI he would be requiredto do more additional improvements.

“So the more UDI points he ac-crues, the more FSI he can get; this is asimple and straightforward approach.But the idea behind it is to give backsomething to the community even ashigh-rise buildings are being built.

“We understand that the issue of FSIis very complex, especially in the caseof Bombay which is very dense; a lotof people argue that just increasing theFSI may not be the right answer, andthat may indeed be the case.

“But we need to assess what’s thecapacity for a given area to adopt oraccept more FSI – and to understandthat by going from block to block,neighbourhood to neighbourhood,ward to ward – and then, based uponthat, to create a UDI system.”

When he discussed this with thepowers-that-be in August, Mr. Vasan-dani said, the idea was that it would beapplied across the board; the UDI sys-tem would then be analysed by themunicipal corporation because it hadthe remit to apply the limits of FSI.

One of the most important issueswas that of affordable housing in eachand every block in the overall town-ship plan; there would then be oppor-tunities to create an affordable housingcommunity; not just housing, but awhole community.

“The idea, as Mr. Narayanamurthysaid, is that India can move forwardwith the concept of compassionatecapitalism, to the extent that if somepeople are so inclined, they could usethis as a good CSR and make the projectmore successful,” Mr. Vasandani added.

April 2 to April 8, 2013 THE GATEWAY, The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 3

Office-Bearers'meetings

The following are the attendancestatistics of the meetings of Of-fice-Bearers during the month ofMarch, 2013:

Number of meetings held 4President Nowroze Vazifdar 4IPP Paul George 2Nirav Shah 3Shailesh Haribhakti -Sitaram Shah 4Hiren Kara 3Ishraq Contractor -

The following are the attendancestatistics at the Board meetingsheld during the quarter January toMarch, 2013:

Number of meetings held 3President Nowroze Vazifdar 3Paul George 3Nirav Shah 3Shailesh Haribhakti 2Sitaram Shah 2Hiren Kara 3Ishraq Contractor 1Arjun Jolly 1Ashok Minawala 2Framroze Mehta 3Dr. Vandana Bulchandani 3Madhusudan Daga 2Dr. Percy Chibber 1Shernaz Vakil 3Sunny Pariyaram 2

Attendance atBoard meetings

Welcome to the Club. President Nowroze Vazifdar presents a rotary lapel pinand Rotary literature to new member Mahesh Khubchandani at the last

meeting. He has been loaned the Classification ‘Stock and Commodity Broker’

Mahesh Khubchandani isformally inducted

Mahesh Khubchandani was for-mally inducted as a member ofthe Club by President Nowroze Vazi-fdar at the last meeting. He has beenloaned the Classification “Stock andCommodity Broker”.

Introducing him to members, PPHarry Singh Arora said that as a young-ster Mahesh was a member of the In-teract Club of Cathedral School.

After obtaining a degree in mechani-cal engineering from Manipal, he wentto the USA where he did his MBA infinance and accounts. He also workedunder a US government public policyfellowship at the Washington George-town University.

Following stints with variouscorporates in the US, he returned toIndia and joined his father’s construc-

tion business. His father was also aRotarian.

At present, Mahesh was a corpo-rate member of the National Stock Ex-change. He had acted as a corporatefinance adviser and stock broker to vari-ous individuals, institutions andcorporates.

Over the past 12 years he hadbeen sharing his time betweenBombay and London. Given this,he hoped to organise joint projectsbetween the Rotary Clubs ofBombay and London, Harry added.

Mahesh was married to Natashawho was a psychiatrist. The couplehad two daughters.

Following the introduction byHarry, President Nowroze conductedthe formal induction ceremony. Heoffered a Rotary lapel pin to Maheshand also presented him with a copyeach of the Club Roster, Four-WayTest placards and other Rotary litera-ture.

He announced that for the rest ofthe year Mahesh would serve on theInternational Service and New Gen-erations Committees.

Welcome to the Rotary Club ofBombay, Mahesh.

New assignmentfor

P.K. MohankumarThe jovial P.K. Mohankumar,who is also a member of theRotary Club of Bombay cricketteam, has just been appointed MDand CEO of Roots CorporationLimited (RCL), a subsidiary of theTaj Group.

Before this appointment, heserved as Chief Operation Officerof the Gateway Hotels and Re-sorts.

In his new role, Mohankumarwill lead the management team inconsolidating the operations ofGinger Hotels all over India andspearheading its growth and devel-opment in the domestic market.Ginger Hotels has 27 propertiesall over India.

Birthday donations

President Nowroze Vazifdar an-nounced at the last meeting thereceipt of birthday donations from twomembers.

The members, Sidharth Punshi andJoseph Koshy, had made contributionsof Rs. 5,000 each, he added.

Boost for the Club’sgeneral corpus

The Sadguru Kamubaba Trust,through the good offices of FaliFramroze Mehta, has made a contri-bution of Rs. 25,000 to the generalcorpus of the Club.

President Nowroze Vazifdar thank-ed Fali at the last meeting for arrangingthe donation.

For ‘Bhavishya-Yaan’Manish Reshamwala has donatedRs. 25,000 for the Bhavishya-Yaan project.

President Nowroze Vazifdar madean announcement to this effect andthanked him at the last meeting.

Kamal Bulchandanimakes threedonations

Kamal Bulchandani has made acontribution of Rs. 10,000 toThe Rotary Foundation.

He has made a similar donation ofRs. 10,000 towards the Bhavishya-Yaan project.

Finally, he has given Rs. 10,000 foruse at the Hasanali Tobaccowala EyeCentre at Talwada.

President Nowroze Vazifdar thank-ed Kamal at the last meeting for hisgenerosity.

H.R. Rotaractors in thespotlight once again

The Rotaract Club of H.R. Collegeemerged as the best in the worldin the last Rotary year and washonoured with an award by the thenR.I. President Kalyan Banerjee atthe International Convention heldin Bangkok.

Continuing the glaorious tradition, theClub has once again been nominatedto receive an international award.

In the course of the World RotaractWeek celebrated recently, theClub was selected from the SouthAsia Region for its project called“I for an Eye”.

According to information receivedfrom R.I., Club members held nu-merous school and communityevents to spread awareness abouteye donation and to encouragepeople to sign eye-donation pledgecards.

Significantly, the Rotaract Club ofH.R. College also collaboratedwith the Rotaract Club of theCaduceus, the winner of this

year’s International Outstand-ing Project Award, to raise fundsfor the treatment of eye disor-ders.

The Rotaract Club of the Caduceushas been sponsored by the RotaryClub of Bombay Central.

(Please see Page 6)

FOR THE HTECPP Dr. Rahim Muljiani has donateda sum of Rs. 8,401 for the HasanaliTobaccowala Eye Trust at Talwada.

The visionary behind the creationof the HTEC was thanked for his gen-erosity at the last meeting by Presi-dent Nowroze Vazifdar.

April 2 to April 8, 2013 THE GATEWAY, The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 4

On your marks! Get set! PP Gul Kripalani about to give the ‘Go’ signal at the start of the 15th Terry Fox Run aschildren from dozens of schools (over 30) prepare to take off

Having completed the ‘Run’ from Nariman Point to Brabourne Stadium via the Queen’s Road flyover, the childrensoak in the sun as do their parents and guardians

President Nowroze Vazifdar led the Club contingent that included PP Harry Singh Arora, Hon. Secretary SitaramShah, Sabira Merchant, S.K. Mitra and Devendra Bharma

Little angels from Tata Hospital with celebrity guests. (Right) PP Harry Singh Arora, S.K. Mitra andHon. Secretary Sitaram Shah (seated) and Devendra Bharma and President Nowroze Vazifdar (standing)

Over five thousand children from thirty different schools turned out on a rather cold Sundaymorning to participate in the Terry Fox Run. Here are the names of all the schools

When it was launched in Bombay15 years ago, the Terry Fox Runwas a novel, rather alien, idea. It at-tracted about 300 school children andhelped collect a sum of Rs. 7 lakhs.

PP Gul Kripalani, the man behindthe annual programme, spread infor-mation about the event which com-memorates the unbelievable feat of theyoung Canadian Terry Fox who, de-spite being afflicted by cancer, launchedan endeavour to spread awarenessabout the Big-C and to raise funds tocombat it.

After his passing away, stories ofhis feat endured and an annual TerryFox Run became popular, first inCanada and then in many countries inthe rest of the world.

To return to the Bombay experi-ence, as awareness spread throughword of mouth and as more and morepeople appreciated the fact that theproceeds from the event were given tothe Tata Memorial Hospital to enableit to conduct research on cancer in chil-dren, both the participation and thecollections started to grow.

Growing from 300 childrenand a mere Rs. 7 lakhs 15 yearsago, this year’s event attractedover 5,000 children and hashelped collect a whopping Rs.1.50 crores.

PP Gul, who is the convener of theTerry Fox (India) Committee whichorganised the 15th Terry Fox Run inBombay on March 3, is a very happyman. He says:

“It has been a long journey to wherewe are today. I believe that togetherwe have crossed several milestones. Itis a great joy to witness, year afteryear, thousands of people coming for-ward in an ode to the three-decade-olddream of Terry Fox... When I pause to

Terry Fox Run breaks all oldrecords, attracts 5,000 children,

collects Rs. 1.50 crores

April 2 to April 8, 2013 THE GATEWAY, The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 5

Not only children, even young girls surprised guests at the Trident with their lyrical oeuvre. PP Gul Kripalaniwas once again the man behind this outstanding programme

Fund-raising at the Trident. The brunch that followed drew an almost full house which enjoyed every minute of theentertainment programme and relished the dishes on offer

Some stalwarts from the Club. In the first picture are Jagdish Malkani, Indu and Ranjit Shahani.At right, PP Ashish and Gopi Vaid enjoy the company of Poonam Kumar

The raffle and lucky dip were as much of a draw as the other segments of the afternoon’s programme. At right, theorganisers get together for a final group photograph

Over five thousand children from thirty different schools turned out on a rather cold Sundaymorning to participate in the Terry Fox Run. Here are the names of all the schools

Terry Fox Run breaks all oldrecords, attracts 5,000 children,

collects Rs. 1.50 croresthink of all the lives this movementhas touched in India, simply by up-holding the Terry Fox dream... it isoverwhelming.

“Each of us, deep down, believes inmiracles and shares Terry’s certaintythat anything is possible if we try.Today, 15 years later, I can confidentlysay that we definitely do ‘Try’. Myappreciation for the Committee whichhas stood by me all these years is deeprooted. All of us can feel the power ofhope which has grown with each pass-ing year, as we reach out and touch somany more, bringing them into the foldof the Terry Fox dream.

“At the Terry Fox (India) Commit-tee, we believe that if one CanadianTerry Fox, suffering from cancer, couldradiate so much positivity, how muchmore we can do to continue his dreamand by working together to outruncancer. It was this dream of Terry thatmade him not just a ‘super hero’ but areal life hero.”

Gul stated that with over 40 schoolsparticipating this year and collectingover Rs. 40 lakhs, various corporates,members and others helped reach theastounding figure of over Rs. 1.50crores which was a world record.

At the Terry Fox brunch organisedlater in the day in the Regal Room ofthe Trident which also attracted a largeattendance, Gul thanked the hotel man-agement, led by Devendra Bharma, theRotary Club of Bombay, the CricketClub of India and all the corporates fortheir unstinted co-operation and gen-erosity.

He also had a special word of praisefor the children from Tata MemorialHospital (whom he called angels) andthanked the doctors of the hospital,especially Dr. Rajendra Badwe and Dr.Anil D’Cruz.

April 2 to April 8, 2013 THE GATEWAY, The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 6

OutstandingProject Award

for cityRotaract Club

Rotaractors of Bombay, most ofthem medical doctors, are pro-viding vision screenings andcomprehensive eye care to thousandsof school children in poor neigh-bourhoods of the city through a seriesof medical camps aimed at improvingtheir performance in school.

“Vision Six by Six”, a project of theRotaract Club of the Caduceus whichhas been sponsored by the RotaryClub of Bombay Central, raised$15,500 through a series of creativefund-raisers, including a stand-upcomedy event, to fund the camps.Members bought supplies in bulk tocut the cost of the screenings to $1 perchild and worked with three non-profithospitals to provide surgeries forcataracts and squinting problems.

The initiative has been selectedas the international winner of theRotaract Outstanding ProjectAwards, one of seven projectssingled out for honours during theWorld Rotaract Week betweenMarch 11 and 17. Representativesof the Clubs recognised asinternational and regional winnerswill present their projects at theRotaract Pre-convention Meetingin Lisbon, Portugal, in June.

Among the conditions treated in thecamps were refractive errors (visionproblems), infections, eye allergies andVitamin A deficiency. In theprogramme’s first seven months,10,000 children were screened and1,520 received some form of correction,from surgery to corrective lenses.

“We wanted to do something tohelp the 15% of children in govern-ment-run, low-resource schools inBombay who have undiagnosedrefractory error,” said Caduceus ClubPresident Pankaj Jethwani. “Youngchildren develop an aversion to goingto school because they can’t see sharpimages on the blackboard and don’trealise that this is not normal ortreatable. Most of the children we treathave never before met an eye doctor.”

Apart from providing medicalassistance, the Rotaractors also starteda teacher training programme enlistingthe support of teachers to ensure thatthe children followed through withtheir care. They found that 92% of thechildren were adhering to the suggestedtreatment – for example, wearing theirglasses – two months after the camps.“More children can now see clearly,potentially impacting their future,”adds Pankaj Jethwani.

By Ramesh Ferris, member of theRotary Club of Whitehorse-Rendezvous, Yukon, Canada

Around the second anniversary ofIndia going polio-free, when Itravelled to southern India to meetmy biological father for the firsttime, Rotary International alsoarranged for me to meet anotherspecial person, Rukhsar Khatoon,who at 13 months of age cont-racted the last reported case ofpolio in India in 2011.

Ever since the polio vaccine becameavailable in 1955, there have beenmany “lasts” on various conti-nents: a child in Peru in 1991 cont-racted the last case of polio in theAmericas; a child in Cambodia in1997 had the last case reported inthe Pacific region; and Turkey in1998 reported the last case inEurope.

On the flight from Canada, I wasexcited to meet young Rukhsar asone polio survivor to another. Ittook five flights to reach Kolkatawhere I was warmly welcomed byRotarian Rajkumar Rajgaria, oneof the millions who have put somuch time, energy and money intoa polio-free world. We joined an-other dedicated member of the R.I.PolioPlus staff, Nima, and wedrove over an hour to the outskirtsof the city.

There, concrete gave way to openspace, a place beyond which nofour-wheel vehicle could go. I wasasked to make myself comfortableon the second seat of a motor-cycle.

I was full of emotion – excitement,nervousness, fear of falling – as Ifaced my first ever motorcycleride. But I knew the benefitsoutweighed the risks, so wepushed on through paddy fields,over small river streams and byclusters of small shanty housessome distance from one another.

The motorcycle finally came to astop 20 minutes later before a smallpond with a few thatched housesaround it. Rukhsar lives in a two-room structure with her parentsand two brothers. Within no time,the little courtyard was brimmingwith people – neighbours, passers-by and media.

He travelled all the way fromCanada to meet the last child to be

affected by polio in India

Polio survivor and Rotarian Ramesh Ferris meets Rukhsar Khatoon, India’slast reported case of polio, in a West Bengal village

I took my seat on a plastic chair andRukhsar sat on my lap while Italked to her father about her para-lysis and its onset. He shared howthe flaccidness in her limb beganand got worse, her struggle withfever and how doctors confirmedit was polio. He and his wife hadfelt helpless and hopeless.

I told him my story, showed himmy leg brace and assured him ofthe possibilities for his daughter,even with polio paralysis. Heshared how, after constant visitsfrom Rotarians, he is now part ofpolio awareness efforts in hisvillage and he uses Rukhsar’sstory to convince families reluct-ant to get their children vaccinated.

Wide-eyed, Rukhsar soaked in theattention with bewilderment. Hadshe been a bit older, I would haveshared my story with her. Butafter a few minutes, she left meunceremoniously to return to hermother. I could see that her polio-affected leg was less scarred thanmany of us and that she was notyet dependent on a crutch andwasn’t even crawling. I hoped andprayed the after-effects of theparalysis, which get worse withage, will be less severe for her.

After most of the media left, Iconvinced Rukhsar and her motherto walk toward the pond, leavingthe crowd behind. Rukhsarperched on a log with her motherand me, posing for pictures, as wecollectively congratulated India ongoing two years without anotherreported case of polio. Tucked toher mother’s side, she remainedunperturbed as she stood there

receiving the attention, beforefinally looking at the camera inno-cently as if to say “enough”. Sowe let her be.

It is up to us to ensure that Rukhsarremains the last case in India. Indianeeds to go one more year withouta reported case to be certifiedpolio-free by the World HealthOrganisation (WHO). This callsfor vigilance and continueddevotion to the cause.

On my return journey, I could nothelp but think about the signi-ficance of this young child whocould serve to strengthen theresolve of the global communityand the partners in polio eradi-cation, to push on for a polio-freeworld even while facing challengesin Nigeria, Afghanistan, andPakistan.

I left Kolkata hoping there willsoon be a Rukhsar in Pakistan,in Afghanistan and in Nigeria.And finally, a “last” for theentire earth.

April 2 to April 8, 2013 THE GATEWAY, The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 7

Dr. Swati Piramal is one of India’sleading scientists and industrial-ists and is involved in healthcare, fo-cusing on public health and innovation.Her contributions in innovations in newmedicines and public health serviceshave touched thousands of lives.

She will address the Rotary Club ofBombay on “Innovation” at the meet-ing of April 2.

Swati is the Vice-Chairperson ofPiramal Enterprises, a leading drug dis-covery company which aims to bringaffordable medicines to reduce the bur-den of disease globally. It is a well-known multinational with global manu-facturing operations and supplies medi-cines to over 100 countries.

Born on March 28, she is married toMr. Ajay Piramal, an Honorary mem-ber of the Rotary Club of Bombay.She was a member of the Club someyears ago and her brother Nirav Shah isthe President-Elect of the Rotary Clubof Bombay.

Swati completed her M.B.B.S. inBombay and then moved on to theHarvard School of Public Health whereshe received a Masters’ degree in Pub-lic Health. Since then, she has contrib-uted to public health around the world.

She leads a team of scientists in can-cer, diabetes, inflammation and infec-tious disease research, with a portfolioof over 200 international patents and14 new drugs which are in clinical trialsglobally. Over the last two decades, shehas worked in the prevention of chronicdiseases such as diabetes, arthritis andheart disease.

Swati is a founder of the GopikrishnaPiramal Hospital in Mumbai and haslaunched public health campaignsagainst chronic diseases, osteoporosis,malaria, TB, epilepsy and polio.

The Sports Medicine Centre at thehospital was the first of its kind and,apart from sports injuries, also workedon arthritis treatment for disabled chil-dren and the elderly.

She started Ostop India, a preven-tion of osteoporosis programme, a fielddetection centre for detection of diabe-tes and epilepsy and a nationwide cam-

paign for the prevention of chronic dis-ease in India.

Among the books that Swati haswritten are one on clinical nutrition andanother on nutrition for patients withkidney disease. As Director of thePiramal Foundation which is engagedin inter-disciplinary and field-basededucation, she helps promote health inrural India with HMRI (a mobile healthservice), on women’s empowermentprojects and supports community edu-cation to create young leaders.

Director of the Sarvajal Foundationfor clean water, she has made immensecontribution to the cause of support-ing women in leadership roles. Nowonder she was elected the first womanPresident of India’s apex chamber ofcommerce, ASSOCHAM, in its 90-year history.

Swati has influenced important pub-lic policies and governance. Her impacton public policy related to healthcarehas led to major policy changes thathave helped reduce the burden of dis-ease. She has been nominated in the listof the 25 Most Powerful Women eighttimes, and is now a member of the Hallof Fame of Most Powerful Women.

Apart from being a member of theScientific Advisory Council of the PrimeMinister as well as the PrimeMinister’s Council of Trade, she is serv-ing on the Dean’s Advisory Board ofboth the Harvard School of PublicHealth and the Harvard BusinessSchool.

She serves on the Boards of Indianand International Academic institutionssuch as IIT, Bombay, and HarvardUniversity. She has also served UPennand has board positions in healthcare,financial services, manufacturing andservice companies.

Swati received one of France’s high-est honours, the “Chevalier de l’OrdreNational du Merite” (Knight of theOrder of Merit) in 2006 for medicineand trade. She received an award in thefield of science and technology for 2006from the Prime Minister of India; theRajiv Gandhi Award for OutstandingWoman Achiever in 2007; and the Dis-tinguished Scientist Oration 2008 on“National Technology Day”.

Honoured with the Padma Shri in2012, Swati was elected a Member ofthe Harvard Board of Overseers andhas also received the Alumni MeritAward, the highest award bestowed byHarvard on its alumni and the LotusAward at New York from Children’sHope India, for Leadership and Phi-lanthropy, both in late 2012.

Dr. Swati Piramal has initiatedseveral innovations in medicine

and public health services

One ProfitsMost WhoServes Best

The winners. The Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies,represented by Gurupdesh Singh, Suprav Sarang and Prakash Nishtala,with the fifth Rotary Club of Bombay and Mega Ace Consultancy RollingTrophy for Management Studies. The presentation was made at the last

meeting by Chairperson Poonam Kumar and President Nowroze Vazifdar

And the third prize was bagged by Tejas Kolhe, Pankaj Bisht and AbhaySingh of the Institute for Technology and Management who dwelt on

“Overcoming Infrastructure Roadblocks: Are Chinese Lessons Relevant?”They received a certificate and a cash award of Rs. 10,000. The jury

comprised PP Pradeep Saxena, Tarjani Vakil, Roda Billimoria and Poonam

This is the team that came in second. The second prize, consisting of acertificate and a cash award of Rs. 15,000, went to Ishan Shah, Yogesh

Athale and Gaurav Dode of the Sydenham Institute of Management Studiesfor their presentation on “Social Networking: The New World Order”.

The final round of the competition was held at the IMC in December

Rotary-Mega Ace RollingTrophy is presented

April 2 to April 8, 2013 THE GATEWAY, The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 8

Printed, Published by Rtn. PP Arjun Bulchandani on behalf of Rotary Club of Bombay and printed at Nikeda Art Printers Pvt. Ltd., Unit No.H & I,Kanjur Industrial Estate,Quarry Road, Off L.B.S. Marg, Bhandup (West), Mumbai 400 078 and Published at 97/B, Mittal Tower, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021. Editor Arjun Bulchandani

Regd. No. MH/MR/South-109/2012-14, R.N.I. No. 14015/60Posted on Monday, April 1, 2013

Regd. No. MH/MR/South-109/2012-14; R.N.I. No. 14015/60Posted at Mumbai Patrika Channel Sorting Office, Mumbai 400 001, on Monday, April 1, 2013

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OFFICE-BEARERS 2012/13

PRESIDENT NOWROZE VAZIFDARImmediate Past President Paul GeorgePresident-Elect Nirav ShahVice-President Shailesh HaribhaktiHonorary Secretary Sitaram ShahJoint Hon. Secretary Hiren KaraHon. Treasurer Ishraq ContractorCLUB SERVICE: New MembersDirector in charge Nirav ShahMembership PP Sandip AgarwallaClassifications PP Dr. Adi DasturInformation PP Dr. Kekoo KavaranaMembership Development & District Conference Ramesh NarayanCLUB SERVICE: Programmes/MeetingsDirector in charge Framroze MehtaAttendance Arvind AgarwalProgramme PP Haresh JagtianiFellowship PP Ashish VaidBulletin, Website & Public Relations PP Arun SanghiSergeant-at-Arms Roda BillimoriaCOMMUNITY SERVICE: Medical – IDirector in charge Dr. Percy ChibberChairman Emeritus, Talwada PP Dr. Rahim MuljianiHTEC, Talwada PP Dr. Rumi JehangirADMC, Talwada Dr. Sorab JaveriOral Health Dr. Rajeev NarvekarCOMMUNITY SERVICE: Medical – IIDirector in charge Dr. Vandana BulchandaniControl of TB Dr. Rohini ChowguleCancer Aid Zinia LawyerHeart Care and Health Dr. Aashish ContractorPolioPlus & Differently Abled Shyyamniwas SomaniCOMMUNITY SERVICE: Non-MedicalDirector in charge Sunny PariyaramRCC and Child Care Joseph KoshyOld Age Homes/ Senior Citizens Naresh Kumar JainRural Development Dilnavaz VariavaEnvironment Jagdish MalkaniVOCATIONAL SERVICEDirector in charge Shernaz VakilRotary & Public Awards Ram GandhiVocational Training & Night Study Centres Bimal MehtaINTERNATIONAL SERVICEDirector in charge Ashok MinawalaRotary Foundation & Matching Grants PP Arvind JollyR.I. Programmes & Slumber Kit PP Rajnikant ReshamwalaNEW GENERATIONS: EducationDirector in charge Madhusudan DagaBhavishya Yaan Manish ReshamwalaScholarships & Loans Manojj Kumar PatodiaManagement Studies Poonam KumarNEW GENERATIONS: YouthDirector in charge Arjun JollyInteract Meera AlrejaRotaract Ravindra FotedarRoad Safety Deepak Kapadia

Ravi ShethApril 2

Hon. RotarianMr. Adi Godrej

April 3

Suresh GoklaneyApril 6

Kalpana SinghaniaApril 6

Shanta ChatterjiApril 7

SpousesAsha Mehta

April 4Urvashi Minawala

April 4Vrishali Pispati

April 5Avan Gidwani

April 7

At the lastmeeting

(Held on March 26, 2013)ATTENDANCEMembers 123Visiting Rotarians 1Rotaryanns 6Guests 1Total 131Svc. box collection Rs. 2,600

Ghanshyam ShethApril 7

The role of leadership and individualdevelopment in Rotary is very im-portant. In today’s competitive world,unless one develops one’s self as wellas one’s teammates, it is very difficultto meet expectations.

This year’s District Assembly hasbeen designed to assist Rotarians toempower themselves and their fellowmembers to be a part of the Rotaryvision and to meet the Club’s goals.

District Governor-Elect Lata Sub-raidu and her team have, for the firsttime in the history of District 3140,decided to hold the Assembly at a five-star venue, the Hotel Renaissance,Powai, on Sunday, April 14.

It has chosen a well-informed fac-ulty from within and outside Rotaryto support, inspire, motivate and supp-lement members’ knowledge so as toensure outstanding leadership in theRotary year 2013-14 and to ensurecontinuous excellence.

For the information of new mem-bers and of those who have never at-tended one, the annual District Assem-bly prepares incoming Club leaders for

DISTRICT ASSEMBLY ON APRIL 14

Meet the man honoured by the President of India. Deepak Kapadia (centre)awaits his turn as Dr. Mukesh Batra (a recipient of the ‘Padma Shri’) shakes

hands with Ravi Ruia (left)

their year in office. It also affords theman opportunity to meet with Districtleaders (the District Governor-Elect,incoming Assistant Governors, headsof District Committees) who supportClub projects and activities.

The Assembly is chaired by the Dis-trict Governor-Elect. The participantsinclude all incoming Club leaders, suchas the Presidents-Elect, incoming Sec-retaries, Treasurers, Committee mem-bers and others.

Among the topics covered at theAssembly are the following: The R.I.Theme; public speaking and leadership(for Presidents-Elect only); the rolesand responsibilities of Club leaders;developing goals for the year; selectingand training team members (Commit-tee Chairpersons); Rotary resources;case studies; problem-solving; and teambuilding and finalising Club goals.

President-Elect Nirav Shah has re-quested whole-hearted participation byincoming leaders, including Directors,Chairpersons and others, at the Dis-trict Assembly. The registration chargeper person is 3,500.