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new memories were thrust upon themind in the mother’s womb itself whichmade it difficult for one to rememberone’s past.Each human being was “nature’sgreatest miracle”, said the inspirationalspeaker, Mr. Azim Jamal, whilespeaking on “Business balance andbeyond”. He had written six books andwas promoting his seventh, Businessbalance and beyond, which capturedhis “Corporate Sufi” philosophy.He hailed from Tanzania in EastAfrica, his grandfather having migratedfrom India. At present he lived in Canadawith his Byculla-born wife andfamily.of Medicine at Harvard Medical Schoolat Brigham and the Women’s Hospitalthere, while speaking on an unusualtopic, “Be kind, unwind: Yoga forhealth, the scientific perspective”A wizened senior citizen, his whitebeard flying in the air, he launched alow-key pitch about the influence ofYoga, but by the time he completedhis talk he had picked momentum andclaimed it was time the worldrecognised the benefits of the 5,000-year-old Indian system of spiritualintervention and introduced it in primaryschools everywhere.This would not only save upcominggenerations from such modern-dayMr. Jamal offered food for thought ills as obesity, stress, anxiety and depression,it would also pave the wayThe UPA-II government has failed, declares Ms Aruna Roy after receivingwhen he said that even a penniless blindthe Club award. She is also a recipient of the Magsaysay Awardwoman of 90 could give something to for a better world in which suchothers, whether a smile, a prayer, goodwishes or forgiveness. A man with twohandicapped children said that the joythey brought him every single day waspriceless. Napoleon, on the other hand,had power, prestige and a beautifulwife, but before he died he said that hehad not known six happy days in hisentire life.Going back to governance, Mr. RaviNarain, Managing Director and CEOof the National Stock Exchange of IndiaLtd. and recipient of the RotaryClub of Bombay Ramkrishna BajajAward for Good Governance, said thatgood governance alone would helpcorporate India garner capital.lifestyle diseases would not extract aheavy price in terms of man-days lost,medical costs, hospital stay and so on.A hard-hitting presentation wasmade by the Magsaysay Award recipient,Ms Aruna Roy, about sixmonths before she resigned as a memberof the National Advisory Council(NAC). She confessed that the currentNAC had no mandate and hadnot achieved anything as yet.The first one was set up to monitorthe implementation of the NationalCommon Minimum programme of theUPA-I government. But the remit ofNAC-II, if any, was to see that thepromise of passing several importantHe admitted that governance was Bills, a commitment made in the The hep daughter of the hippie generation. Ms Pooja Bedi, daughter ofsomething the country had been strugglingwith over a long period of time. of the two Houses of the current Par-President’s address to the first sessionKabir and Protima, recalled her parents with prideCorporate India and the securitiesmarket (to which he belonged) wereno different. But if corporate India reallywanted to meet its ever-growingrequirement for capital for activitiessuch as building projects and businesses,then governance was of theutmost importance.That truth was stranger than fictionwas proved yet again when a recipientof a Rotary Award revealed how a detailedreport on her talk at the Club in2011 that was carried in The Gatewayhad led to many unknown peoplemailing cheques to her.Ms Safeena Husain, founder andExecutive Director of Educate Girls,an NGO, who spoke after receivingthe Rotary Club of Bombay AnitaParikh Award for Empowerment ofWomen, said people believed that shewas doing excellent work – after all,the Rotary Club of Bombay hadhosted her, hadn’t it?Not in their wildest dreams hadmembers of the Club imagined thatsuch a true story would be describedto them by one who had experiencedit at first hand.Little-known truths about the beneficialrole of Yoga were shared by Dr.Sat Bir Khalsa, Assistant Professorliament, was fulfilled.But “we have not been able to push(the Bills) through; the government hasdeveloped skills to stall all that goes toit from the NAC. We have met withbureaucratic resistance.”Returning to the crisis in Europe,two distinguished Germans assertedthat it would be overcome.They recalled that the internationalmedia had expended a lot of energyasking Eurozone countries to be alertand telling them that if the Euro didnot stabilise, then it would be better ifcountries such as Greece, Portugal,Italy and Spain left it. However, thelimit was reached when a legendaryinvestor, Mr. George Soros of theUSA, suggested that perhaps it wouldbe better if Germany itself left theEuropean Union.“This (I say this in my personalcapacity) is sheer rubbish,” exclaimedMr. Heiko Quast, the German Consul(Financial Sector) in Bombay.Joining him was Mr. Tomas Notheis,the Bundesbank Representativein Bombay. The two debunked all thedoomsday scenarios with regard toEurope and the Euro.The effervescent Ms Pooja Bedi,an offspring of the “Hippie” generation,was studying in the USA, hopingto fulfil her dream of a career onWall Street; she wanted to be one ofthe movers and shakers of the world.But she had to rush back home becauseher mother suddenly wanted toleave, to fulfil her dream of creating“Nrityagram” (a dance village).When she returned to Bombay, therewas no one at the airport or at home.When she protested that it wasn’t fairto be abandoned when she was just18, her mother said, “So what? I was16 when I ran away with your fatherto live with him. We were given twotoasts and two eggs by the landlady.You at least have a roof over your head.Just believe in the universe and, and...goodbye”.The young girl was left with a dog,a cook, (housing) society bills whichhad to be paid regularly and about Rs.20,000 in hand. Today, Ms Bedi is anactress, author, columnist and activistwith a desire to change lives.A lot of things happen at the age of18. From being abandoned to beingthreatened with a gun. The veteranactor, Mr. Vinod Khanna, a formerBJP MP and a Minister in the AtalBehari Vajpayee government, revealedthat his father had held a gun to hishead when he said that he wanted toact in films at the age of 18.Having received the Rotary Club ofBombay Shyam Munshi LifetimeAchievement Award for PerformingArts, he recalled that he had grown upin a normal family that had lived inPeshawar for about 15 generations.But just before partition the familyof Punjabi Pathans, a minority in thatpart of the world, moved to Bombay.His father was a businessman andwanted his son to continue the familybusiness.The youth received the best education,went to the best schools, completedhis Senior Cambridge and joinedSydenham College to study Commerce(he would have become a charteredaccountant.) But he was 18 yearsold when he was offered a film by thelegendary Sunil Dutt. “This is howdestiny takes you through life,” he said.Mr. Tarun Tahiliani, consideredto be the pioneer of the fashion revolutionin India, said that it was the endof socialism that had heralded the adventof the fashion industry in India.Till the early 1980s, Indians had tomake do with ordinary clothes, butonce the fetters of socialism were lifted,fashion blossomed as never before.June 25 to July 1, 2013 THE GATEWAY, The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 11