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Wales Act of 1909 as an autonomousbody to be run by an independent boardof trustees. The State gave it an annualThakore had introduced him by statingthat he was going to be “lovably,irreverently, intellectually interesting”.that a person could access it anywhereand at any time.Fellowshipbers bought their own victuals, washeld at the CCI, the third at the popularwatering hole, the “Tote” atgrant of the then princely sum of Rs. Although he indulged in a great dealPP Ashish VaidMahalaxmi, and the fourth once againT1.36 lakhs. However, nobody botheredabout inflation and the grant retion-answersession that followed he mittee this year was, “Party hard August saw ten Rotary families onof leg-pulling, in the course of the ques-he motto of the Fellowship Com-at the Willingdon Club on June 18.mained static at that level till it wascompletely withdrawn in 1998.“Loot and plunder is the order ofthe day, but where is your outrage?”demanded Ms Sucheta Dalal, theoriginal scam-buster, columnist andfinancial journalist who broke the storyof the Harshad Mehta, C.R. Bhansaliand other huge scams two decades ago.She urged members to speak outagainst the situation in the countrywhen probity had lost all meaning andwhere a scam a day was par for thecourse. The financial regulators wereeither sleeping at their job or winkingat wrong-doings under their noses; flyby-nightoperators were duping gulliblepeople of hundreds of crores ofrupees; ponzi schemes had acquired akind of halo and their promoters wereplaying with the life savings of lakhsof people.In the midst of all this, the mediaappeared to be complicit because itallowed its hallowed space to be filledwith dubious claims and did not bothercame across in a different avatar, as aserious person with unexpectedgravitas.When the applause at the end ofDolly’s introduction died down, hisfirst words were: “What a long roundof applause! Thank you so much.Don’t stop (continue), take your time!But first I would like to welcome arguablyIndia’s greatest fiction writersince Shobha De, Dolly Thakore! Idon’t know what she was talkingabout. They were all lies!”Addressing the burning topic of theday, viz., spot-fixing, match-fixing,bookies, players and the role of thelaw, PP Haresh Jagtiani insisted thatbetting was not a crime in India. Buthe wanted to know why the BCCIwas allowed to behave like a law untoitself.It was time someone challenged andoverturned one wrong judgment of theSupreme Court (in the case filed byZee TV against BCCI for rescindingits contract), because that would leadand donate generously”.Ashish and his team believed thatFellowship and Fund-Raising were thetwo pillars of the Club. It was throughFellowship initiatives that membersof the Club bonded and became onebig, happy family. Hence, it was incumbenton each and every Rotarianto participate actively in the variousFellowship events.This year, the Sports Committeewas subsumed with the FellowshipCommittee. Moy Biswas, the man incharge of sports, had planned golf,cricket and tennis events.Ashish said his Committee wouldorganise one Fellowship event everymonth. In fact, the year had startedwith a Fellowship under a new initiativecalled “Treat Yourself”. It was heldat the Willingdon Sports Club and wasa huge success. Forty members (includingspouses and families) got togetherin July and “virtually took overthe entire place”. The second in thisseries of Fellowships, in which mem-a memorable trip to the Taj HolidayVillage in Goa. Such was the bondingthroughout the trip that “they visitedevery one of the hot spots of Goa...PP Arjun Bulchandani and Ashok Jatiahit jackpots. They promised to donateall the winnings to the RotaryClub Bombay Charities Trust No. 3!”exclaimed Ashish.The Diwali Fellowship was held atBreach Candy Club on November 27.It was hosted by President Nowrozealong with Madhusudan Daga, ManojIsrani, Ashok Jatia, Jayesh Jhaveri,Manojj Patodia, Subhash Sagar, AlokSaxena, Aditya Somani and AshishVaid.December saw the Christmas luncheonat the Taj Mahal Hotel. Thisevent was sponsored by PresidentNowroze, Ashish, Sheila Bulchandani,IPP Paul George, Suresh Goklaney,Joseph Koshy, PP Gul Kripalani,George Mathew, Aliakbar Merchant,Sunny Pariyaram, Bernd Schneiderand Nirav Shah.about checking the antecedents of thosewhom it promoted, so long as themoney kept flowing in.It took a Bombayite, a former PoliticalDirector in the Executive Officeof the Secretary-General of the UnitedNations, to explain the intricate, highlynuanced workings of the world body.Mr. Kishore Mandhyan, whoworked over the last five years in theabove post, revealed all in the courseof an interesting talk on “The viewfrom the 38th floor of the United Nations:A day in the life of the UN Secretary-General”.PP Haresh Jagtiani revealed whileintroducing him that he had rubbedshoulders with several Heads of State,to revolutionary changes in the functioningof the all-powerful BCCI.While passing judgment in that case,the apex court had held that the BCCIwas a private body; it was not a “state”or an authority as contemplated underthe Constitution; therefore, its actionsdid not come under judicial scrutiny.Haresh was unsparing in his criticismof that judgment. “I think thatjudgment is wrong... The BCCI is apower centre. It controls the lives ofcricketers. There is a lot of public interestinvolved in the game of cricket,”he added.At the next meeting, Anil Harishdelivered a master class on the crucialbut neglected subject of “Wills” (as inincluding Barrack Obama, George W.Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter andbequests). It was as if he was dictatinga chapter in a forthcoming book. HeWho says betting is a crime? It's not. But the bigger issue is that the BCCI isallowed to behave like a law unto itself. PP Haresh Jagtiani speaksmany others.He had lectured at Harvard Universityand at Boston College and hadreceived several accolades, includingLifetime Achievement Awards fromthe Tufts Global Institution and theUniversity of Bombay.In the course of his talk, he offered asnapshot of what occurred on the 38thfloor of the UN (where the offices ofthe Secretary-General were located),the context within which it occurred,the content of the occurrences andsome of the key challenges faced bythe office.One of the most irreverent peoplein the mass media, Mr. Cyrus Broacha,showed in the course of a talkpresented all aspects, including shortcomingsand pitfalls, and spoke withsuch erudition that members were leftmarvelling at his grasp of the subject.Departing from the norm, the reporton his talk was presented in theform of a chapter in a legal textbook,complete with crossheadings (butwithout annotations). He ended histalk by stating, “Making a will doesn’tmean you’re over the hill”.The speaker at the last meeting, heldon June 18, was Dr. Rohini Chowgulewho spoke on “Information andcommunication technology in healthcaredelivery”.This was an IT-based system thatshe had pioneered and helped develop.that there was a serious side to him. It was a unique software to store medicaldata electronically on the web soDeepak Kapadia and Arjun JollyCricket aficionados all. From left in this picture are Jaidev Merchant,This was in spite of the fact that DollyJune 25 to July 1, 2013 THE GATEWAY, The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 13