Dear Rotarians
One hundred years ago we launched Rotary in India. Today, I stand before you to celebrate the incredible results we Rotarians have achieved. Membership in India is increasing, poverty is plummeting, vocational service is soaring, selfishness is falling, confidence is surging, contributions to TRF is booming and Rotary is thriving. It has become a highly respected movement. Rotary’s fortunes in India are on the rise and Rotary’s future worldwide is blazing bright.
I know that Rotary had a pre-existing condition during the past few decades. It was a never ending debate over membership increase and membership decline. Now the paroxysm in slowdown is over, we should get back to issues members care about most. The misrepresentation of Rotary’s growth was appalling and so clearly untrue. The years of slow growth are over. The days of our movement being used, taken advantage of by unethical members and even scorned by public for being disconnected to the social needs are long behind us. Gone too are the broken promises given to many people and institutions that looked up to us for help, tired platitudes and constant excuses for lack of funds or members.
In the past 15 years, we have shattered the mentality of Rotary’s decline and we have rejected the downsizing of Rotary’s destiny as the number one service organisation in India. We are moving forward with a pace that was unimaginable just a decade ago and we are never going back.
Our movement now is at its best it has ever been. Indians are being selected as our world leader. With 4 Zones and two Directors on RI Board, our voices are being heard more seriously. Our Foundation is completely rebuilt, with its grants matching power unmatched by any other similar organisation – and they are not even close. Trustees from India on TRF have been effective policy makers and guides. Our members are flourishing and our values are renewed. Our pride as the organisation that helped in eradication of the world’s dreaded polio disease is restored. For all these reasons, I say to you, my dear Rotarians, the strength of Rotary in India is stronger than ever before.
The programmes of Rotary and TRF envisaged and implemented over the last century of service has demonstrated how a team of volunteers can build the world’s most inclusive organisation in over 140 countries and geographical locations. Our agenda is relentlessly pro-community and pro-growth. We are advancing with unbridled optimism and lifting our members to higher levels of living and giving and these people come from every race, colour, religion and creed. People’s confidence, especially donors, has reached amazing new heights.
We are supporting the hopes of people in war-torn areas by making our peace scholars work there. Our leaders have always rejected limits on our movement’s future. Dear Rotarians, we must never forget that the only victories that matter for Rotary are victory of projects that deliver for people in the world. Community is at the heart of our movement. We must always remember that our job is to put Rotary first. Rotary makes a demand on your time, treasure and talent. When it comes to spending money remember this – what you spend, you lose, what you keep will be left for others but what you give away will be yours forever. This is why Rotary has the Foundation to channelize your money which will bring your eternal happiness and joy. Rotary and its Foundation shows you how to believe in a better tomorrow and wants you to be a part of it. How is this done? Rotary helps you to find the good which is all around you. It showcases it and you believe that you, an ordinary person can do extraordinary things to change the world.
The step forward in building an inclusive society is making sure that every child gets a great education and an opportunity to achieve their dreams and build a strong India. Yet, for too long countless children have not been able to get good education. Rotary’s literacy programme in India hopes to bring education to nearly all children who need to go to school in many states to start with.
We also have to work with the Government to improve India’s healthcare schemes with grants that can bring the required equipments from abroad to smaller towns and villages.
Rotary in India was born in Calcutta, place where greatness was born, place were destinies were forged and a place where legends of Rotary came to life. Rotary in India was built by the toughest, strongest, fiercest and the most determined men and women. Our founding fathers of Rotary in India built the most exceptional movement in the history of the country, especially after Independence. You and I have to make it greater than ever before. This is our glorious and magnificent inheritance.
We are Rotarians. We are the pioneers in service. We are the pathfinders. We built the modern Rotary movement and we changed history forever by eradication polio from India and nearly the entire world. Rotary is the movement where everything spectacular can happen. This is the movement where anyone can rise. You cannot get bogged down and be discouraged. You have to keep moving. You have to keep going. As a leader of the club, the district and as a world leader, you have to put one foot in front of the other, smile and just keep on rolling. This is how a century has passed without any major hiccups.
By being in Rotary and serving the community we make the most incredible dreams come true for those who need us most. This Rotary movement is our masterpiece. We look at tomorrow and see unlimited frontiers for service just waiting to be explored. Our entire story is not yet known to the people in the world. Our most exciting achievements in areas of education, healthcare, poverty alleviation, youth development and peace are not still know to many in the community. Our grandest journey is still to be made. Our next century of service has just begun. Members who have been in Rotary for 25, 30, 40 and 50 years have first asked themselves when they joined Rotary, “Does this bring joy to me?” And, their answer was always “Yes.”
During the one hundred years of existence in India, Rotary has taught us many important qualities in life. While taking up service projects, big or small, we know that there are no real failures, only results. There are no true tragedies, only lessons and there are really no problems, only opportunities waiting to be recognised as solutions by the person of wisdom. Every year of Rotary, starting on July 1, is a fresh start. A new chapter in life, waiting to be written. New questions to be asked,embraced and loved. Answers to be discovered and then lived in the transformative year which will be a delight with self-discovery. But before that carve out a quite interlude for yourself in which you can dream of how the world can be a better place to live and what you can do through Rotary. Only dreams give birth to change. Circumstances may have influenced how the world is today, but remember that you are responsible for the way it can become better tomorrow.
Rotary has had adversities in the past 100 years. But, as members, we have more sweet memories that have allowed us to overcome the challenges we faced. This movement of ours, Rotary, has given us a desire to have a life filled with positive energy and we have a satisfaction of living authentically, thanks to the 4 Way Test, in the purpose we have chosen. The friends we have made in Rotary in our clubs, in our city, in our country and all over the world have given us happy and beautiful memories of the days in Rotary service, the melodies of the heart in those moments of the present and the hopeful expectation of what it will be in the future.
The service across borders we have undertaken in various countries has brought us face to face with people of different race, community, culture, aspiration and hopes. We learnt to appreciate the sorrow behind their smiles, love behind their anger and the reason behind their silence. Rotary has taken us to areas torn by war, hunger, natural disasters and diseases. We have learnt to listen to the needs of the souls of the people living in these areas. These people trust Rotarians and trust is very important in any relationship, especially when you are engaged in implementing welfare schemes. If you falter or behave in an unethical manner or flout the stewardship norms of our Rotary Foundation while handling grants, the donors may be good enough to forgive you, but not stupid enough to trust you again.
Rotary’s mission is not merely to serve. Rotary has helped you to thrive, enlarge your vision and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour and some style. Our spirit is still young and dear Rotarians, our greatness should again be seen in the coming years, coming decades and coming centuries.
What did Rotarians learn in these one hundred years Rotary has been in India? They may be wise, but only if they know themselves, they become a human being. This is the training Rotary has imparted and will continue to impart to members in the years to come. Rotary wants all of us to become persons who can proudly claim to have the virtues that make us a human being. Service to others is only one part of it. It is not the question ‘what’ you are going to be when you join Rotary. You should ask the question ‘who’ you are going to be when you join Rotary. You will realise that you have transformed into a person whom others admire as an authentic person. A person who became a very big philanthropist in his life said, “I used to walk miles in the beach at night, searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. I realised that the person is me when I joined Rotary.Joining Rotary was like sitting on a pin. It made me jump and do something.”
Rotary helps you to surround yourself with dreamers and the doers, the believers and the thinkers. But most of all it will help you to surround yourself with those who see the greatness within you, even when you don’t see it yourself.”