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that could come in handy while dealingwith such problems at a future date.The students performed a streetplay on “Little things that matter inlife” on the occasion of World MentalHealth Week. A “flash mob” was alsoorganised during the school assembly.The idea behind the street play was toremind people of the small but highlyeffective solutions that had been employedsince time immemorial to relievestress.As for the “finding solutions phase”,the students were prompted to thinkabout ways in which they could contribute.about the root causes of the social evilsbedevilling women and children. Theyprepared banners, posters and sloganson the issue.They also enacted a street play coveringissues such as gender discrimination,female infanticide and sexualabuse. This was a special event stagedfor the benefit of parents.While the Principal of the NavyChildren’s School was Ms Girija Singh,the Interact Moderators were JasmanPreet and Ashraf Dawoodani. All ofthem had done a very good job indeed.RotaractThe response of the participating childrenwas very rewarding.The Rotaractors invited theChildren’s Aid Society to exhibit thetalent of the children of the juvenileremand home in Dongri. The exhibitionafforded an opportunity to juvenilesto showcase their talent in a constructivemanner.Next, they teamed up with the GiftYour Organ Foundation to spreadawareness about the critical need fororgan donation. The campaign wasscheduled to be held simultaneouslyin three cities, Bombay, Pune and Ban-Amogh Ranadive and KaruneshTalwar from Vir Das’s Weirdass Company(and themselves leading standupcomedians) acted as judges at theevent. They had to endure one and ahalf hours of non-stop laughter triggeredby the participants.While short-listing eight boys andgirls for the final round was not aneasy task, even more daunting was thejob of choosing one winner from amongthem. At the end of all the madness, itwas Khadija Tambawala who won the“Comedy Madness” award and wasnamed the winner of ROFL 2012-13.Ravindra Fotedar galore; the GDC Rotaractors took part The Rotaract Club of Jai Hind Col-AThey decided to contribute in kind t the beginning of the year, Ravi in the drive organised at the Gateway lege had been very quick off the blocks.to Ashadaan, a shelter for those who requested all Committee Chairpersonsof India.It started the year with a flourish andhad been abandoned by their familiesdue to disabilities, women who hadrun away from domestic violence andsenior citizens from the lower socioeconomicstrata. They also plannedan awareness campaign on these andother social issues in the school.Among the other activities undertakenwere the following:Students with physical and mentaldisabilities from Sankalp School, ato direct their requests forRotaractors as volunteers to him andnot to the Rotaract Clubs directly. Thisapplied to all those who required theservices of Rotaractors as volunteersat Club projects.The Rotaractors continued to beever eager to help, but it would be moreappropriate for all such requests to berouted through the Rotaract Committee,he added.Other activities carried out duringthe year were a treasure hunt acrossSouth Bombay; dental camps at severallocations and under various institutionssuch as the Nargis Dutt MemorialDental Camp; IAS Officers’Wives’ Association; the Muslim AmbulanceSociety, Govandi; ColabaMunicipal School; and MachchimarNagar, Colaba. More than 500 peoplebenefited from these dental camps.had completed nearly half a dozenprojects in July itself. Here are briefsketches of some of its activities.“What’s your problem?” The firstphase of this project started on July4 when members spread out to variousparts of the city to interview citizensand record their complaints regardingshortage of water, lack ofcleanliness, erratic power supply andso on.special school run by the Naval community,were trained to perform an rom Colaba to Byculla, Govandi pulmonary resuscitation) programme went in small teams to record theGovernment Dental College They also organised a CPR (cardio-Armed with video cameras, theyF integrated act by the senior students and Talwada, the GDC Rotaractorsfor students, interns and post-graduates;people’s grievances and then passedof the NCS at the Annual Day Celebrations.On World Cancer Day the Interactorsvisited the cancer ward at Ashwiniwent places this year –drilling awayat their usual projects all through.For those unaware of the fact, theyregularly visit the Ajit Deshpandea blood donation drive; a trip toEssel World; and launched the secondvolume of the Rotaract bulletin,Odontspeak.these on to the authorities concerned.This was done with the help of mediatie-ups that the Rotaractors had developedin the previous year throughHospital. They presented all the patientswith red roses as a symbol of taluka of Thane district to offer free olling on the floor laughing! This (One of these had involved the me-Medical Centre at Talwada in Jawhar Jai Hind College some of their projects.R solidarity and wished them a speedy service to the less privileged residents was the crazy name for a crazy dia, the RTO, traffic constables andrecovery. They participated in thebeach cleaning drive taken up after theGanpati festivities.Before an audience of parents invitedfor the event, the Interactorsorganised a silent act on social issuesand the virtues of love, compassion,hope and faith that needed to be nurturedby every citizen to bring aboutchange in society.As part of their Community Serviceactivities, the Interactors installeda rainwater harvesting system, thusof Talwada and the nearby villages. Agroup of four Rotaractors, along witha senior dentist, visits the venue andrenders effective dental care to thepeople.Dr. Ajay Gupta and Dr. SrinivasKamath, both senior dentists, havebeen associated with the programmefor a very long time. The visits toTalwada normally take place on thesecond and third Sunday every month.Under the project called “Shiksha –empowering the future”, the Rotaractorsproject. Believe it or not, on July 18,the entire College was rolling on thefloor, laughing!The madness was initiated by 48students who took part in a competitionin which the winner would be thatperson who made the most peoplelaugh their lives out. And the prize atthe end of the laugh-riot was a oneyearinternship with Vir Das, one ofthe country’s leading stand-up comedians,and the opportunity of actingin a film with him.others; the Rotaractors stood at vantagepoints near Crawford Market tohelp shoppers find taxis that wouldply short distances. It was a hugelysuccessful project.)“What’s your problem?” theRotaractors asked residents of GrantRoad, Charni Road, Marine Lines,Churchgate, Colaba and Cuffe Paradein the course of their drive.Cotton bags, please Promotion ofcotton bags in place of plastic and polybags was taken up in a big way.saving water and contributing to protectionof the environment.Finally, having visited the popularKala Ghoda Arts festival, the Interactorswere ready with their plan togo to Ashadaan and to contribute theirmite for the benefit of its residents.Thanks to contributions from the33 members (from Std. VI to X), theInteractors offered items of everydayuse to help maintain cleanliness and toensure good health and hygiene there.Among the items distributed were anantiseptic liquid, washing powder,phenyl, pain-relieving ointment andsanitary napkins. All of these werebought in bulk at discounted rates.A few days later, the Interactorswere also helping in the uni-versal spread of elementary educationamong underprivileged children. Theweekly project was held on every Saturdayat the Aryan High School andthe Rotaractors took active part in it.They also participated in the Sanjeevanieye camp at the Aryan HighSchool which was part of the Zonal“Shiksha” intervention.Turning their attention to anotherinstitution, the “League of Mercy”orphanage for girls at Byculla thatlooked after 31 girls, the Rotaractorsorganised a two-stage donation drivefor them.As part of the same Zonal “Shiksha”intervention, the Rotaractors also tookorganised an awareness campaign part in “Zypen”, an endeavour to inculcateteam-building among children. meet people and make a list of their complaints about civic problemsSo what's your problem? The Rotaractors of Jai Hind College went out tocalled “Jagruti” to spread awarenessJune 25 to July 1, 2013 THE GATEWAY, The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 27