My biggest strength has been your invaluable support — President Rtn. Nirav Shah
President Rtn. Nirav Shah
Dear Rotarians,
You have often heard me say that ours is the 30th largest Club among 35,000 clubs in the Rotary world and the second oldest in India. These are facts I have always been proud of and, hence, it has been a great honour and privilege to serve as the President of the Rotary Club of Bombay. The year 2013-14 has flown by and we have accomplished so much. Your enthusiasm and assistance, Rotarians, has been infectious.
Over the course of the past year, I have realised that we can do so much for society. I want to thank Rotarians and Rotaryannes for giving Rotary their three Ts — time, treasure and talent. It is because of you all that our Club continues to enjoy the numero uno position in community service. My theme for the year was to “make the world a better place” and, going by the results reported by all committees, we have managed to do so effectively!I cherish every moment spent with Rotarians while brainstorming on and executing various projects. My biggest strength this year has been your invaluable support; each one of you stood by me when I needed you the most. Our Club members come from diverse backgrounds and varied age groups but we have shown once again why we exemplify the term “unity in diversity”. We value and respect our individuality and yet work as a community, which according to me is our biggest achievement. And to lead such a closely knit club has been a privilege. I would like to thank the oldest member of our Club, 99-year-old Rtn. Haso Thadani, who selflessly donated `26 lakhs for the low cost shelter project at Naroli village. Also, our Club’s youngest member, 27-year-old Rtn. Jamshyd Vazifdar (fourth generation Rotarian), deserves special mention, since he devoted a lot of time and attention to committees that are very close to my heart — the Model United Nations Assembly and Road Safety Committee.
There were times when I wondered how my year would turn out. The most important aspect of Rotary is Service and, when I took over, my aim was to make this Club the best among 132 Rotary clubs in Mumbai as far as community service was concerned. Today, I am a happy man when I see the results. We have accomplished targets in all of Rotary’s Six Areas of Focus and every committee has done well in terms of projects — some small, some big. We have done some amazing work this year, especially under Maternal and Child Health Care, Disease Prevention and Treatment and Bhavishya Yaan. Our most important project has been the low cost shelter project at Naroli village. The project has shaped up very well and it makes me proud that we have provided better housing facilities to those villagers who earlier lived in pitiful conditions.
This year we also applied for a global grant (Term Gift), which was introduced by the Rotary International in April, for an endoscopy project at Nair Hospital.
The Rotaract Club of H. R. College has also done our Club proud by winning
Rotary International’s Rotaract Outstanding Project Award for Boond, an initiative to provide clean water for drinking and domestic purposes in villages. Another feather in our cap was Gopi Birla’s Interact Video making its way into the finals of Rotary International’s Video Contest 2013-14. Keep it up, youngsters. Your efforts and dedication show us that the future of our Club is in safe hands.
The Bulletin and Website team, led by Rtn. Abhinav Aggarwal and Rtn. Mehul Sampat, also put in a lot of effort to change the look of our Club’s weekly bulletin and website. We now have our own Facebook group, complete with photographs from all our projects and fellowships. For the first time, we uploaded audio files of the speakers on our website. I would like to thank Maneck Davar and his team at Spenta Multimedia – Viraf, Sasidharan, Monideepa and Divya – for supporting us in this endeavour.
My targets for the year were successfully met through my generous donors. I sincerely thank each and every donor who has contributed towards Rotary’s Six Areas of Focus and the Rotary Foundation. Without your support, the projects would never have
been successful.
It was nice to see many Rotaryannes participate in the Club’s activities this year. It has been a wonderful year for the Programme Committee which saw the participation of R/Anne Vita Dani, R/Anne Umme-Haani Bagasrawala, R/Anne Malti Jain and others. The indefatigable Committee got us some wonderful speakers.
It was also a great year for Fellowships. We created a record by taking 100 Rotarians to Mahabaleshwar. For the first time, a Ladies Night Out was organised for lady Rotarians and Rotaryannes of the Club. For the first time, lady Rotarians of the Club are organising a special dinner party. Here, I would like to thank Rtn. Ashok Minawala, Rtn. Manoj Murarka and his wife Swapana for their unconditional support. I have always felt that fellowships result in strong bonding and that, in turn, results in better humanitarian service.
I am grateful to Board Members, Office Bearers, Directors, Chairmen, Co-Chairmen and Committee Members who stood by me through thick and thin.
Rtn. Deepak Kapadia has been a friend and a guide. He is a hard-working man and is a wonderful Club Secretary. He often tells me that it was because of me that he accepted this role again. I can only thank him for that.
Eruch Irani (the man with Rotary experience), Suchita, Rashmi, Sangeeta, Chandrakant, Vishnu and Preeti from the Rotary staff have meticulously taken care of the functioning of our Club’s day-to-day affairs. These people are the backbone of the Club and its President. I want to thank my office staff, especially Vidhya, Jayesh bhai, Shobha, Ruth, Vinod, Narayan and Harish bhai who have been my support system throughout the year. The Taj staff has been gracious in its hospitality too.
I made a lot of new friends at the district level and for the first time, the South Mumbai Ace co-presidents (called SMAPIANS) did projects together.
Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family — my children, Aditya and Supriya, my parents and my in-laws in Delhi for being my backbone throughout my term. Their unconditional support and belief in me and my decisions made my dream a reality. This year has brought me closer to my father Niranjan Shah, who has supported me in all my decisions and given his advice on new projects. My mother Arunika Shah has painstakingly organised parties and prepared some great dishes, which I am sure you have enjoyed. I also want to thank my sister Swati, brother-in-law Ajay Piramal, nephew Anand and niece Nandini for encouraging and motivating me. My wife Devina, thank you for standing by me always.
In closing, I would like to say that the journey has just begun; there is no end to doing good. As I complete my term as the President of this prestigious club, I wish that you’ll carry forward the legacy and continue to make all of us proud. Jai Ho and God Bless!
Yours in Rotary,
Nirav Shah
President 2013-14