Oar speakBo at Cl u B Ne w s IN Ho u s e Ma g a z I N e | Fe B r u a ry 2018

The

Club Elite

4 | Club ElitE | February 2018

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1016

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PresidentMr. K.K. Arun Krishnan

Immediate Past PresidentMr. M.R. Ravindra

Captain of BoatsMr. James Joseph

Honorary SecretaryMr. Farid A. Husain

Honorary TreasurerMr. C.A. Theagarajan

MIC - House & New ProjectsMr. Pravin Aiana

MIC - Corporate Affairs & Employee RelationsMr. S.N. Eisenhower

MIC - SportsMr. S. Srinivasan

MIC - Bar & CateringMr. D. Krishnan

MIC - EntertainmentMr. S. Sriram

MBC Management Committee & Portfolios 2017- 19

Editor's Note

TWISTED

May I Please, My Lord!

Republic Day

Muhammed Ali

Naresh Vassudhev

Sasha.C.Thadani

Ted Thadani

Desikan Krishnan

Publisher: Rays Publications Pvt. Ltd.

MADRAS BOAT CLUBNo. 2. 3rd Avenue, R.A. Puram, Chennai - 600 028

2435 3190 / 2435 4751/ 2433 9289www.madrasboatclub.commadrasboatclub@gmail.commbc1867@gmail.commbcparty1867@gmail.comG.N. Anban - 9840175947K.L. ThadaniMahadevan Jayaram, Sumana Narayanan

Contact NosWebsite

General EmailChambers

Party BookingGeneral ManagerManaging Editor

Editorial Team

::::::::

Cover photo: Launch of New BoatsPhoto courtesy: Shantanu Krishnan

February 2018 | Club ElitE | 5

Editor’s Note

All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be produced in the electronic, print or other media, in whole or part, without the prior written permission of the publisher. The publisher makes every effort to ensure that the magazine’s contents are correct. However they can accept no responsibility for errors and omissions. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material. The views expressed in the magazine are those of the authors and the publisher cannot take responsibility for those.

Dear Members,

You have by now read the January issue of the revamped Oarspeak.

Your editorial board is trying hard to improve and enhance the contents and the experience. To keep building and improving as we go along, we need you to contribute in whatever way you can!

Let us all put together an interesting and useful house magazine and share useful information amongst all members.

The editorial board would consider awarding prizes to some of the articles judged as the best at the end of the year. So get cracking and and pick up a prize!

We have just acquired 13 new boats that were named recently at a function held up at club. These new boats are colourful and of excellent quality and were much admired by the rowing fraternity. It was nice to see the row past done by all ages - truly a wonderful sight There is a write up that appears in the pages of this issue. Kudos to the Captain and his team who made this a lovely occasion.

Your entertainment committee has also been working hard and no doubt you would have enjoyed all the functions including the recent Valentine's Night. A lot more will be happening both on the waters and off the water in the days to come and your support is essential to ensure that all events are successful. It's you members who can make

things happen and we look forward to your active participation in large numbers in days to come.

Once again looking forward to articles and photos for Publication. These may be directly sent by email to oarspeak@gmail.com

Warm Regards,Ted Thadani

6 | Club ElitE | February 2018

From The CapTain's Desk

Dear Member,

The rowing calendar for 2018 started with the 76th ARAE-FEARA Regatta at Calcutta, with 17 clubs participating in some 170 races. MBC's A Pair, Rohit Ravindra and Siddharth Sunil brought home the prestigious Venables Bowl. Our sub juniors boys put up a good show with Devanathan and newcomer Jadon Moses winning the Gold in double scull category. And in the masters women’s single scull, Sumana won the Gold.

For the first time in many years, both our Men’s Fours made it to the finals of the Willingdon Trophy. The B Fours of Philip, Darshan, Sharan, and Saketh, coxed by Sanjay took the Silver with the A crew of Rohit, Siddharth Sunil, Siddharth Yadav and Tushar, coxed by Anirudh, took the Bronze. Aditi and Sangavi brought home the Silver in the women’s coxless pair and Philip took the Silver in the Men's single scull (Macklin Trophy). MBC lost the overall trophy to Bengal Rowing Club by just one point. This year we had a large contingent for the ARAE as we wanted to give as many people as possible a chance to represent our club and the experience of rowing at the ARAE. The entire team put in every effort and rowed with great spirit.

Our masters and super masters must be particularly commended for their interest, footing their own bill at Calcutta, and participating with great enthusiasm. In the masters and supermasters women’s double scull events, Kamini and Vishnupriya won the Silver. Our men’s supermasters put up a good show, picking up the Silver in the single scull (Subba Rao), coxless pair & double scull (KK Arun Krishnan, Siva Kumar); and fours (Siva Kumar/ GV Subba Rao/ K Kalyansundaram/ S Karthik/ Sanjay Gandhi (cox). Congratulations to all!

Unfortunately, in the 3 lane races, the organisers could not arrange 3 boats of equal quality, affecting many crews adversely. A change in the organisation of the races was the presence of three finish lines, depending on the category (open, sub junior, masters, super masters)! This, predictably,

led to confusion as the wrong finish official hit the horn for some races. As a result, our women’s coxed fours were affected.

New Boats @ MBC!As you may know, we have received 13 new boats from Kanghua in China, which were launched in early February. Mr. M. Manickam, a Club Colour and National Medallist joined us as Chief Guest. I invite members to get a feel for the new boats, keeping in mind that these boats will soon be reserved for racing. This is also to ensure, like with our Vespolis, a longer life for the boats. Thanks to some companies and several of our members, the Club saved a considerable sum with regards to the boats.

Reclaiming the AdyarOn Republic Day, in addition to the usual flag hoisting and Row Past, this year we had several members show great spirit in pitching in to clean our boats and then wade into the slush and muck of the river for a bit of cleaning. Thank you everyone for the good response and hard work! I hope we can make this is a regular activity and thus, as a community, contribute to reviving our river, the Adyar.

We have quite a busy calendar planned for the year, on the rowing front. I look forward to members’ continued support and good wishes.

Warm Regards,

James JosephCaptain of Boats

February 2018 | Club ElitE | 7

Sridevi is a finance professional who moonlights as a chef. She conducts food festivals, trains chefs in South Indian cusine, and hosts a food show Pudhuyugam TV. Visit her FB page Shribala's Kitchen, or catch her on Instagram @shri_bala or Twitter @_shribala

Sridevi Balasubramanian PUC 559

ANDHRA GONGURA CHICKEN

INGREDIENTS

Gongura Pachadi

4-5 bunches of sorrel leaves/ gongura leaves/ambada leaves with red stem salt - to taste (Use Rock Salt) 2 tsp red chilli powder ½ tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp ginger garlic paste 1 medium sized chopped onion 1 tbsp coriander leaves and curry leaves 4 slit green chillies Water as required 3 tbsp oil

For Chicken Gravy

500 gms chicken cleaned with lime juice and washed well 2 tbsp oil 5 slit green chillies 100 gms of Shallots cut into half 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste salt - to taste 1 tsp red chilli powder ½ tsp turmeric powder 2 tbsp coriander leaves finely chopped ½ tsp garam masala powder ½ tsp roasted coriander powder 1 Sprig Curry Leaves

Method (for the chicken gravy)

1. In a heavy-bottomed pan ½ tbsp oil, add chopped onions2. Add gongura leaves into it.3. Add salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste.4. Add slit green chillies, add coriander leaves5. Add little water into, add the remaining oil.6. Mix all the ingredients well.7. Saute complete till the leaves reduce completely8. Allow it to cool.9. Grind the cooked gongura into a fine paste and keep it aside for later use. For The Chicken:

1. Take a cooking vessel, add oil and heat it.2. Add chopped onions, add slit green chillies and saute until the onion are well glazed3. Add ginger garlic paste and saute completely till the aroma does not carry the rawness of the paste

4. Add the marinated chicken pieces into it and mix well5. Add salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, mix and cook on medium flame for about five to ten minutes with the lid on6. Add finely ground gongura paste7. Let it mix well with the chicken 8. Add coriander leaves and curry leaves9. Add garam masala powder, coriander seed powder, mix well.10. Cook the gongura chicken with the lid on until chicken is tender (about 15 minutes)11. Serve hot with Andhra White Rice.

To give it a real Andhra zing you can finish this with 1 tsp of dry roasted coarse ground sesame and peanut powder and few drops of groundnut oil, while the gravy is still hot.And dig in!

Optional Topping

8 | Club ElitE | February 2018

TWISTEDMy name is John, and I’m a father of two kids. My older child Lily is ten years old, and my younger son Max is nine years old.

Today I woke up to the voice of my late wife, who had passed away a couple of years ago. The voice said; help me I can’t sleep, and when I woke up I realized that I was holding onto to the dress she was buried in. Scary right? Well… this isn’t the first time I’ve experienced something like this. As I already mentioned, my wife had passed away a couple of years ago in an accident, which till date leaves the children devastated. So as I was saying, that this wasn’t the first “creepy” incident that I’ve come across, in fact I’ve experienced way too many, I’ve lost count.

One night as I was putting my son to bed, he whispers to me with an evil smirk, “daddy there’s a monster in my closet”, so I go to the closet and check to reassure him, that there was nothing in the closet. I open the closet door and find my son, another him, quivering and whispering, “daddy there’s a monster in my room” I turn back to look at the bed, only to see that no one was lying on the bed. I couldn’t even feel the warmth when I touched the bed, it was as though no

one was ever there. Ever since then, my children have slept in my room.

Many scary incidents have taken place since then, like when I go to switch on the light, only to find that another hand is already there, even though I’m home alone, or the waking up to weird sounds from the basements, like as though a baby is crying, or a lady is screaming. Sometimes I hear the laughter of an older man, or the crying of a lady.

Luckily all of these “paranormal” activities mostly take place when my children are in school, or at their friends place. Sometimes, but only sometimes when they are at home and we’re all sitting together can you hear the sounds of the doors slamming, although we keep all doors shut.These are a few of the scary things I experience in my daily life.Thanks for reading!

-the guy who “accidently” killed his wife

An original short story by

Sasha.C.ThadaniDaughter of Christopher Thadani (RC19)Student of 10th, Abacus Montessori School

February 2018 | Club ElitE | 9

Are you an experienced rowing commentator who would like to try your voice on the world stage? The opportunity to give it a go is now. World Rowing has a guest commentator position available at the first World Rowing Cup in Belgrade, Serbia at the beginning of June 2018 and we are running a competition to fill it. World Rowing is looking for a guest commentator who would love to verbally paint colourful pictures of a race, entertain the audience as well as inform them with all they need to know about the athletes, the race, the event and World Rowing.

“We have a great team of experienced commentators that our onsite spectators are used to hearing,” says World Rowing’s Sport Director Colleen Orsmond. “But we also know that there are many others out there who are commentating at national rowing events, have a wealth of knowledge and experience, and are eager for an opportunity to commentate at a World Rowing event. This is their chance.” The guest commentator will join the race commentary team at the World Cup in Belgrade. Race commentary, different from World Rowing’s live video-streaming commentary, is heard by the spectators onsite as well as via the audio stream which accompanies the live race tracker on www.worldrowing.com. Sports Presentation Services (SPS) is the team that arranges the onsite sports presentation at World Rowing’s events. SPS’ producer, Sebastian Franke, explains what this entails:

“Our commentators entertain a large crowd composed of multiple groups. We have the spectators onsite consisting of first timers, rowing fans, families and friends of athletes, media as well as local dignitaries and sponsors supporting the event. At the same time, we have the online audience consisting mainly of rowing fans who want to be able to picture the race while listening to the audio stream and watching the live race tracker. For that, they need stroke rates and positions.” “Usually our commentators are accompanied by local-language commentators. They share the job by switching between English and the local language every 30-45 seconds in a race. The ability to talk fast, while still being clear and precise, is highly valued. Our audience is truly multinational, so speaking

Do you have what it takes to be a worlD rowing commentator?

clearly and using commonly-understood phrases is essential. It is also important to share knowledge of boats, technical aspects and athlete information for those in the audience who are less informed. “We are trying hard to create a holistic spectator experience, mixing the input from the commentators, music, the tower announcers, the presenters and the onsite video programme to bring across the excitement of our sport. It is truly a team effort.” And what can our guest commentator expect from the experience?

“Being part of the sports presentation team is a very demanding task but also very satisfying. To be able to contribute to a positive perception of our sport is truly fulfilling,” says Franke. How to enter

Applicants should record themselves commentating, in English, two full races (i.e. from 2 minutes before the start through the finish), and email their recordings to media@fisa.org by 22 March 2018. The two races have been pre-selected by World Rowing and are the:

•2017 World Rowing Championships Women’s Eight A Final •2017 World Rowing Championships Lightweight Men’s Quarterfinal 4 The files should be in a standard audio format, such as .mp3 or .wav. Terms and conditions:

Contestants must be available to travel to Belgrade, Serbia to be on site from the morning of 31 May until the evening of Sunday 3 June. The guest commentator will receive flight tickets, hotel accommodation, breakfast, lunch and local transport in Belgrade, as well as a daily stipend. World Rowing reserves the right to not appoint a guest commentator in the case of no suitable candidates applying. The guest commentator position is offered for the first World Rowing Cup regatta of 2018 only. There is no commitment to further engagement as a World Rowing commentator and no employment relationship to World Rowing is implied. The winner will be announced on 10 April 2018.

Reproduced from www.worldrowing.com

01 March 2018

10 | Club ElitE | February 2018 Club Pages Continues on Page no -14

EstatE Planning - imPEnding inhEritancE tax?

The news that the Government is planning to introduce Inheritance Tax is doing the rounds sending many into a tizzy. Not that I have heard of any such move.

Nevertheless, currently there is no Inheritance Tax in India. Inheritance Tax was levied earlier in the name of Estate Tax/Duty between 1953 and 1985.

What is Inheritance? Inheritance is the acquisition of title to property from a deceased person by a legal successor in interest. A legal successor in interest is defined by the following ways:

1. By a Will and Testament – a document by which the testator (author) bequeaths his properties to named successors in interest. In simple terms it is a written legal document that describes how you would like to distribute your property after you die. A Will becomes operational upon the death of the Testator. The property will be distributed to the successors in interest named in the last will and testament of the testator. Bequeathing properties by way of a Will thereby creating Testamentary Succession is governed by the framework incorporated under The Indian Succession Act, Hindu Succession Act and Mohammedan Laws of Succession.

2. In the absence of a Will, the properties will be inherited by the legal heirs as per the laws that govern them viz., Hindu Succession Act, Mohammedan Law, Indian Succession Act.

Anyone can inherit property in India whether they are persons of Indian Origin or not. NRIs can inherit not only residential and commercial property, but also plantation and agricultural lands. Even though agricultural land and plantation property cannot be acquired by NRIs by way of gift, they can legally inherit it. Foreigners can inherit property in India without any RBI permission. However, citizens of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, China, Iran, Nepal and Bhutan must seek prior approval from the Reserve Bank of India.

Coming back to Inheritance Tax, there is wide speculation that is floating around that there is every possibility that the Government may re-introduce Inheritance Tax in India. Many forums have posted discussions on the internet on this topic and have suggested that Inheritance Tax can be legally avoided by transferring the properties to a Trust wherein the Object of the trust is determined and the Trustees and Beneficiaries of the Trust are named. There are Legal Firms who are pitching for being appointed as professional Trustees to ensure proper administration and perpetuity of Trustees. In fact, there are some High Net-worth Individuals (HNI) who have already created a

May I Please, My Lord!

A SerIeS oF ArTIcleS oN ToPIcS oFcurreNT INTereST relATed To lAW.

14 | Club ElitE | February 2018

Trust and have transferred their Properties to the Trust.A Trust can be of two kinds – a Private Trust or a Public Charitable Trust. A Public Charitable Trust as the name suggests is formed for Charitable Purposes for the benefit of a large group of persons or community and the Trust acquires the “Perpetuity DNA” unless terminated. Our focus is therefore is on the first type – the Private Trusts.

PRivAte tRuStSPrivate Trusts are governed by the Indian Trusts Act, 1882. A Trust needs to be created by a Deed of Trust and desirably registered.

To form a Trust and to bring the entire assets both movable and immovable properties as corpus for the Trust, author of the Trust will have to transfer all the movable and immovable properties to the Trust. It is assumed that the “settlor” creates the Trust by settling his/her properties in favor of the Trust and appoints himself/herself. In such a case the settlor bifurcates his dual ownership and retains in himself the real ownership of the property and transfers beneficial or equitable ownership to those for whose benefit he has created the trust. Such a transfer is not considered as a transfer of property [SALE] under the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 and hence will not attract Stamp Duty. However, the registration of the Trust Deed will attract Stamp Duty which is minimal and is about Rs.200/- or less under the Tamil Nadu Stamp Act.

Nevertheless, if the settlor is not the sole Trustee but there is more than one trustee, the transfer to the Trust will be construed as a sale and will attract Stamp Duty.

A Trust created by the settlor to hold the properties under its ownership for the benefit of his/her heirs and future generation, is void due to ’the rule against perpetuity’. According to said the rule, the properties of an individual cannot be transferred to a Trust or anyone preventing the alienation of the properties eternally. Perpetuity may arise in two ways – (1) by taking away the power of alienation from the transferor and (2) by creating a remote interest in the future property. A condition restraining the transferee’s power of alienation is void as per Section 10 of the Transfer of

Property Act. A disposition to create a future remote interest is prohibited under Section 14 of the Transfer of Property Act. The extent of perpetuity in India is the Life or any number of Lives in being + period of gestation + minority period of the unborn beneficiary. It is true that the transfer of property to an unborn person can be done by way of a “trust” but it is to be noted that the transfer is restricted to living persons and then to the minor. Life interest can be enjoyed by person(s) until the unborn comes into existence. The unborn person must come into existence before the death of the last life estate holder. It is not necessary that the child should be born. It is enough even if the child is in the mother’s womb (gestation + 18 years).

Therefore, alienation cannot be defined in perpetuity and any such disposition is void in law by operation of the “rule against perpetuity” and interest in the property will vest in the ultimate beneficiary at some point by way of inheritance. Hence, incidence if Inheritance Tax, if it is reintroduced will kick-in at some point in time.

While drafting a Deed of Trust one should also ensure that there is certainty in the Object, Beneficiary and the Subject-matter of the Trust. The words used must be so couched that, taken as a whole, they could be regarded imperative. Else the Trust could be construed to be a Family Settlement Deed and the Registrar General has every right to levy Stamp Duty plus penalty accordingly.

In conclusion, by forming a Trust as above, Inheritance Tax can only be postponed to a point and compliance with the “rule against perpetuity” will attract Inheritance Tax from that point onwards.

However, unless, we read the actual text of the Bill that is contemplated to be introduced by the Cabinet, of which I am not aware, we may not be able to state clearly if by forming a Trust as discussed above, the incidence of inheritance tax can be legally avoided.

Naresh VassudhevRN 003

After retiring from the corporate world, Naresh is practicing as an Advocate in chennai

February 2018 | Club ElitE | 15

new Boats @mBc!Madras Boat Club has bought 13 new boats from Kanghua, a company based in China. The colourful new boats have arrived and on February 03, they were launched. Student and rowing members took the boats for their first outing in the Adyar waters.

With this, MBC has added to its fleet a second eights, 4 double sculls/coxless pairs, 3 single sculls, 2 coxed fours. Mr. Manickam, Club Colour, National Medallist, and Chairman of the Sakthi Group of Companies, was the Chief Guest for the occasion. His recollections of the old days, set the stage for other senior members to regale the audience with stories from the past - on rowing in old clinker boats, on how importing oars, let alone boats, was nigh impossible, and of course the pristine state of our Adyar.

Photos courtesy: Shantanu Krishnan

16 | Club ElitE | February 2018

Republic Day

February 2018 | Club ElitE | 17

cRoss woRD

suDoku

ACROSS

1 Orbit (5)4 Enormous (7)9 Absolute ruler (8)10 Walked (4)11 Get back (6)12 Make law (5)13 Notify of danger (4)15 Eggs (3)16 Plate (4)17 Arise (5)19 Back to back (2,1,3)21 Usual rule (4)22 Someone who waffles (8)23 Equivalent word (7)24 Concepts (5)

DOWN

2 Vulgar (5)3 This, eg (7)5 Related to the science of numbers (12)6 Additional (5)7 Flattens out (7)8 The art of code-writing (7)14 Regretful admission (7)16 Wrote a preliminary piece (7)18 Carved gemstone (5)20 Tosca, eg (5)

I had been a fan of Mohammed Ali from his Cassius Clay days and was all excited when I heard that he was visiting Madras.

I missed his arrival and a lovely photo op at the Meenambakkam airport where fans had gathered in large numbers and sneaked in through the barbed wire fencing to get his autograph. I learnt of the press meet and went there though unassigned. It was not particularly crowded for man of his stature.

We waited for around 15 minutes for the legend to appear and he walked in with Jimmy Ellis, his sparring partner in tow.The reporters asked their questions and Ali answered them all in his flamboyant style. I started to shoot using a flash, but was not too happy with what I had shot. I was waiting for one photograph that would capture the character of that great man.

Then out came a question from one of the reporters questioning his weakness against the left jab. Ali immediately put up his hands in the typical boxing pose and invited the reporter to have a go at him, and I got my picture!

There was an exhibition bout in the evening between Ali and his sparring partner, Jimmy Ellis. I volunteered to cover the assignment. A few local boxers were lined up to spar a round with Ali before the exhibition bout with Ellis. I was in a fix again as the one photograph to be used in the daily which would interest the reader evaded me. I did not want to use the photograph of the exhibition bout with Elis as I wanted to establish the fact that Ali was in

Madras at the same time capture the spirit and flavour of the evening.

After a few rounds with the local boxers, a ten year old boy probably a promising boxing talent was hoisted into the ring and Ali was at his prankiest best - dancing around the ring, kneeling down and asking the kid to hit his beautiful face, I shot away and Ali leaned back on the ropes and asked the kid to punch his stomach, which was the height the kid could reach. He was at the end of the ring which suited my camera position and I got my photograph for the day.

I suddenly felt a compelling urge to touch and feel the greatest, and as he came close to me I just put my hand inside the ring and touched him in his ribs and my body quivered with excitement.

Believe me, my fingers still twitch with excitement even today whenever I think of that incident and I still retain the press badge that was given to

me for covering the event that happened

over 30 years ago!

MuhaMMed ali

Desikan KrishnanAfter long stints as a

photographer for The Hindu and the Associated Press,

d. Krishnan currently teaches at the Asian college

of Journalism, conducts photography workshops

across India, and is exploring documentation

photography.

18 | Club ElitE | February 2018