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FOOT
PRINTS |
| No history of the Club, however brief it is, can be
completed without mention of certain major events where the entire
human resources of the Club were involved for weeks, nay months. Some
of the very important events organised by the Club in the last quarter
of the century was Rotary District Conference in 1977 when Rtn. Hassan
Koya was the District Governor. Our member Rtn. Joseph Chackola was
elected as the Governor of our District and he opted out of office
due to ill health. Rotary International appointed Rtn. PDG Hassan
Koya on a second term since it was not feasible to conduct one more
election. Even at the time of assuming office he had promised the
Cochin Clubs that the privilege of organising the District Conference
will be accorded to Rotary Club of Cochin but should have done it
in any case. It was a District Conference. A colourful, impressive
and dignified affair and Rtn. PDG Venugopal C. Govind was the Conference
Chairman. The venue was the TDM Hall and Sri C. Subramaniam who was
then a Minister in the Centre inaugurated the conference. |
| Next conference we organised was during the period
of Rtn. PDG Venugopal C. Govind, which was the 75th Anniversary of
Rotary in February 1980. It was held at the Kerala Fine Arts Hall
with the adjoining Fisheries Institute facility done up for serving
food and holding the fellowship activities. The crowd was unexpectedly
large and Rotarians went away highly impressed with the Conference
and its peripherals. Rtn. PDG A.K. Azad was the Conference Chairman.
Prof. H.R. Mills , Charter Secretary of the Cochin Club now settled
in England, inaugurated the District Conference and Dr. V.K.R.V. Rao
then Minister at the Central Government delivered the keynote address.
The next conference organized by the Club was during the Governorship
Rtn. PDG A.K. Azad in 1987 was also held at the Fine Arts Society
Hall and Rtn. PP G.K. Pillay was the Conference Chairman. Dr. Shirish
S. Sheth was the R.I. President’s representative. The Conference
was inaugurated by Sri P. Ramachandran, Governor of Kerala. The Registration
was over whelmingly high, the food arrangement was excellent and the
entertainments were highly talked about. More recently in 1997 when
Rtn. PDG L Vishnudas was the District Governor the conference was
again organised by our Club. It was also held at the same venue and
Rtn. S. Gopakumar of Rotary Club of Cochin Central was the Conference
Chairman. Mr. Justice Sukhdevsingh Kang, Governor of Kerala inaugurated
the conference. Rtn. PDG P. Sukumaran from Trivandrum was the R.I.
President’s representative. It so happened that a Past District
Governor from Islamabad was nominated as the R.I. President’s
representative. In the last minute due to diplomatic hassles he could
not get visa to come to India. Frantic telephone calls were made three
days before the conference to Rotary Head Quarters and in a few minutes
time Rotary International arranged an alternative in PDG Sukumaran.
I had the privilege of doing a minor role and was present during the
sequence of events and was highly impressed with the quickness with
which Rotary International made decisions and implemented them. The
few hours preceding this arrangement was hours of intense anxiety
for all of us. |
| The visit of Rotary International President MAT Caparas
and Nita during the Governorship of Rtn. A.K. Azad has already been
described in detail, hence for fear of repetition I am not going in
detail again. Many Rotary International Directors visited the Club.
The earliest recorded is the visit of Soli S. Pavri in 1977 when the
Club celebrated its 40th Charter Anniversary. The Club also released
a commemoration volume during that year. Rtn. R.I. Director M. K.
Panduranga Shetty from Bangalore visited the Club in 1990 when we
gave a reception to him at the Rotary Balbhavan on his being elected
as a Director for Asia Zone II. R.I. Director Kalyan Banerjee, familiar
to many of us in the club, addressed us during the 60th Charter Anniversary
Celebration in 1997 during the Presidentship of Rtn. PP A.P. Mathew.
As soon as Rtn. P.C. Thomas of Ootacamund was elected as Rotary International
Director in 2000 Rotary Club of Cochin organised a joint meeting with
Rotary Club of Cochin Harbour and Rotary Club of Cochin West to facilitate
him at the Rotary Balbhavan. |
| A very major event in organising of which many of our
members were fully involved and those totally linked to the history
of Rotary Club of Cochin is the Rotary Institute 1996 held at Cochin
in December, 1996. Past District Governors and Serving Governors from
30 Districts in India Sri Lanka and Malaysia converged to Cochin to
attend this impressive Institute where Rotary International President
Elect Glen W. Kinross R.II. President for 1977-’98 addressed
the 300 delegates on various policy matters concerning Rotary. It
was a unique event and some of us got a clear insight in the working
of Rotary International and opportunity for interacting closely with
Directors and officials of Rotary International. Rotary International
Director Kalyan Banerjee was Convenor and Rtn. PDG Venugopal C. Govind
was the Institute Chairman, Rtn. PDG A.K. Azad was the Vice Chairman
and Rtn. PDG B.R. Ajit was the Institute Secretary. Eventhough the
number of delegates was only around 300 the organising of such a massive
Institute where every single session was rehearsed to the last minute
was really an experience as to how International Institutes are organised.
Many members of our club had also the privilege of getting to know
Past District Governors and Past Directors of Rotary International
closely and working with them. The organising of this Institute was
on a totally different plane from that of organising a District Conference.
I had the privilege of functioning as the Institute Co-ordinator and
this was a great experience. I still cherish with that. |
THE
FUTURE |
| Founded by four young men led by the Extra- ordinary
Paul Harris in Chicago that was still a frontier town, Rotary International
now has more than a million members across the globe. It affects the
way we all live in a manner few outside appreciate. Our Club, sixty-five
years old has grown in leaps and bounds during these years alongwith
Rotary International. Our membership is great, yet they are not at
all special because they are Rotarians; they are special because they
have chosen to belong to Rotary; and Rotary is special because its
high accomplishments were achieved and are still being achieved by
you, by men who are aware of the need of the man in the street. It
is the need of common men everywhere that Rotary make important, the
still surprising need of a world in surfeit, the astonishing endless
shortfall of civilisation in surplus. |
| Where does the history of the
Rotary Club of Cochin stand in this geography of Rotary? |
| We are happy that we are not alone in the awareness
of the need or in experience of letting down buckets to draw up bile.
What makes our success is its essential lack of solemnity. We know
that we live amidst a plethora of aggressive, muscular charity and
the service organisations and we do not sound brass non-tinkle cymbals
or use amplifiers to advertise our service. |
| The globalised world of the coming decades offers new
opportunities for participation. There was a time in the not too distant
past when a Venugopal C. Govind or N.T. Joseph had to travel all the
way to America and discuss in person to have a Matching Grant sanctioned.
The picture has changed, changed dramatically. Today Paul John or
AP Mathew can get a Matching Grant cleared in no time. Our past may
well come to be seen as a time of experimentation. I see that habit
of international co-operation will become as important as our charities.
Yet, with respect to the future world order the crystal ball is clouded.
One hopes, however, that the new century will see greater congruence
of real or pragmatic action and institutional arrangements. This will
involve a new combination of the local and the global or international
with important alliances and arrangements. |
| We should have a deeper vision of service. A vision
which has many dimensions between individuals, organisations, between
our club and the State, our neighbours and above all with people.
Our various skills and initiatives – for conflict resolution,
career guidance, vocational training and poverty eradication must
be able to serve humanity in resolving their problems from the most
complex to the simplest. As members in a service organisation our
role will change substantially to problem solving which will be one
of the most critical needs of the new century. Coincident with this,
in many phases of society there will be a search for alternative means
of dispute resolution. Our skill should be made available to resolve
these differences as much for business issues and labour disputes
as for domestic arguments. We can envision these skills to inhibit
goodwill and peace between people and communities. |
| For over 65 years, we in the Rotary Club of Cochin
have embraced basic, ethical and moral values as our compass in an
increasingly complex world. Despite many differences we have shared
these values and made them an integral part of our identity as Rotarians.
As we are in the threshold of a vibrant future we need to draw on
these basic principles more and more to revitalise ourselves. As long
as our membership is associated with integrity, honour, fairness,
tolerance and humanitarianism I am convinced our organisation will
overcome any challenge of the future. |
| Mr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said “The ultimate
measure of a person is not where he stands at time of comfort and
convenience but where we stand at a time of challenge and controversy”.
We have shown it in the past, the future is beckoning us to show it
again. |
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