FELLOWSHIP & CAMARADERIE
The dialogue between Bombay’s Rotary and The Taj Mahal Hotel began with the Club’s inauguration in 1929 and has still not ended, the subjects of exchanges between them being the size of tables, rooms, microphones, the quality of food and the charges for using the Hotel’s facilities. In the beginning, The Taj Mahal Hotel had a single, large table for the Tuesday meetings. The Club asked it to provide a number of small tables instead so as to create a feeling of camaraderie and to enable members to get to know each other.
Serious and determined though the motivations of Rotary were, there was clearly no bar to conviviality at the weekly luncheons where personal relationships and a sense of belonging could be fostered. In 1929, appetites were probably somewhat larger than those of today and some attention was consequently given to both the size and quality of the lunches served on Tuesdays. It was decreed, a few months after the Club was established, that The Taj lunch at Rs 3 to Rs 8 was not value for money. At this time, the Club’s balance at its bankers Thomas Cook & Sons (Bks.) was Rs 1,950.
By July of 1929, the President of the Club was stressing the importance of inviting more Indians to join it, a sentiment that found ready and widespread approval and was soon acted upon. Discussions then took place on the Club’s insignia and flag after which it was also agreed that those proposed for membership should first be vetted by the Board of Directors before being referred to the Classifications Committee.
The highest standards of membership qualification have been maintained since, with emphasis being as much on the person himself, apart from his acceptability under the Classification rules.
In the first year of its existence, the Rotary Club of Bombay decided that members could bring guests to the weekly luncheons but drew the line at having more than two ladies per member. Meanwhile, the luncheon contretemps with The Taj continued and Rtn. Griffin was assigned the task of sounding Mongini’s on the provision of a menu for Rotary at the cost of Rs 5 per person including drinks. There was no doubt that not a few Rotarians in those relatively hearty days were firmly of the school that believes that civilised eating and drinking and the relaxation that follows were invaluable as well as enjoyable aids to friendship and cooperation.
Early in 1930, a proposal was put forward for a conference of Rotary Clubs of India, Burma and Ceylon with Bombay at its centre. This was indicative of the Club’s own consciousness of itself as a rapidly developing unit; and this was reflected in the first traces of the complexities of classification, an example of the finer subtleties being two classifications reading “Matches (Manufacturing)” and “Matches (Distributing)”. It could be seen, even in those early days, that as much accommodation as possible would be provided consistent with the Classification rules if the applicant was considered a potentially good Rotarian.
Progress was made in regard to the weekly luncheon venue. The Club had become timeconscious and there was a keener sense of the need to organise lunches and addresses as expeditiously as possible while allowing for the relaxation which busy people needed. Mongini was asked and agreed to fix a clock on the wall facing the head table and Rtn. Mongini himself placed a room for furniture and stores at the Club’s disposal. On June 17, “salaams” were telegraphed to the Chicago Convention and thereafter a quick multiplication followed of the Club’s relationships with organisations and Rotary Clubs in India and around the world.
