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lege believed it had made a small contributionto the cause of building anempowered society and an India whichtreated women as equal to men.course, the Rotaractors stepped in.Also on the bus were five ExchangeStudents from France.The trip was flagged off by PrincipalIndu Shahani who hopped alongH.R. CollegeOn the very first day of the Rotary to enjoy the ride (and the view) foryear, July 1, 2012, the Rotaract some time and held an interactive sessionClub of H.R. College achieved yet anotherunique distinction – it won, forthe seventh time in a row, the RotaractDistrict 3140 award for the BestRotaract Club in the District.Outgoing President Junaid Khan andhis team emerged victorious at theRotaract District 3140 Annual Assemblyand AARA Night (Academy forAwarding Rotaract Achievements) atwith the children.A project hits a century The project“Chirag”, which was launched fouryears ago by some students (includingRotaractors) of H.R. College to takeelectricity to many dark villages locatedat a mere two or three-hour drivefrom Bombay, was set to go very, veryfar – all the way to Washington, DC,USA.Lala Lajpatrai College, thus winning Undertaken by the H.R. unit of SIFEH.R. Rotaractors blindfolded themselves and walked around Shivaji Park inthe most coveted award for their Club (Students in Free Enterprise), theorder to promote the message of eye donationonce again.project had been showcased at an SIFEWhoops of joy, screams of delightand high-decibel yells accompanied theannouncement as confetti droppeddown on the stage and the Best ClubTrophy was once again bagged by theRotaract Club of H.R. College.So what did the H.R. Rotaractorsdo after that? They got down to workand completed at least two majorprojects long before the month cameto an end.The first of these was a collaborativeventure along with the Students’Council of H.R. College and involveda blood donation drive to helpthalassaemia patients. It was organisedin the concourse of Churchgate, one ofthe busiest suburban stations, in affiliationwith the Rotary Club of NarimanPoint.Student volunteers devised ingeniousways to attract morning commutersto spare five minutes to donatea few precious millilitres of bloodthat would save the life of an innocentcompetition at the national level andhad bagged the top honour. This meantthat the project would represent Indiaat the world SIFE competition to beheld in Washington, DC.At a regular meeting of the Club,President Prateek Mathai of the SIFEof H.R. College explained with the helpof a few slides that they had alreadytaken electricity to 99 villages and werepoised to take light into the lives oftheir brethren in a 100th village borderingthe city of Bombay.As the members applauded the performanceof the SIFE of H.R. College,Nowroze requested Indu Shahani tojoin him; the two then felicitated thedriving force behind the project, Mr.Jyotirmoy Chatterji. He also called outand honoured his colleagues, PrateekMathai, Rahul Sanghi, Vivek Kotak,Vandini Bhandari, Bhavi Doshi, KetkiPrabhat and Santhosh Kumar.Out of the blue, one of the studentsof H.R. College stepped forward tofor the intellectually impaired, thedeaf-mute and other underprivilegedstudents.The visually impaired children ofthe Victoria Memorial School weretreated to an “Utsav” (festival) whenthose with sight joined them in playing“dandia”. One Rotaractor stoodbehind each child in a ring and, to thebeats of pulsating music, helped thechild to play “dandia” with other childrenin an inner ring.Then came “Indradhanush”, the annualinter-school art festival for theintellectually impaired, the deaf-muteand other underprivileged students.This was the 15th year of the festivaland 2,500 special students participatedin it. They were required to bringout their creative skills and to giveshape to their imagination as best asthey could.While for the intellectually impairedthe task was to colour a printed image,the visually impaired were asked toworld blind”, the Rotaractors steppedforward to state that “An eye for aneye makes the whole world shine”.They performed street plays tospread the message at the Gateway ofIndia, Dadar railway station and ShivajiPark. At the last venue, when a peacerally with 80 to 100 Rotaractors wasorganised, many of them blindfoldedthemselves and walked around ShivajiPark to promote the donation of eyes.Pledge cards were distributed to thepeople at all three places to urgepeople to donate their eyes after deathand to bring colour into sightless eyes.Over 650 pledge cards were handedout and about 300 returned by peoplewho pledged to donate their eyes.For rural youth Ever eager to dosomething different, the Rotaractorsorganised an entrepreneur developmentprogramme in distant Pachal villagein the Rajapur taluka of Ratnagiridistrict in Maharashtra State.Volunteers from South Bombay andand unfortunate victim of offer a memento to his Principal, Indu make abstract paintings on topics of Singapore descended on the village tothalassaemia. Posters, banners, publicannouncements and the like were employedto get more people to donateblood.No less than 220 bottles of bloodwere collected in one single day, a figurefar beyond expectations. A “Donorcard”, a certificate and an umbrellawere presented to the donors. TheState Blood Transfusion Council washighly impressed by the students’dedication, enthusiasm and achievementand heartily praised H.R. Collegefor inculcating such noble valuesin them.In another project on July 20, theH.R. Rotaractors arranged a road tripatop an open-air double-decker bus forchildren from the India Association.This annual project offered underprivilegedchildren the opportunity totake another look at their city and toknow something about its heritage andhistory. A journey atop an open-airbus was a dream that was unlikely tocome true for most of them; unless, ofShahani, who was celebrating her birthdayduring the week (July 17).Home for the aged As already reported,the Rotaractors of H.R. Collegehelped the Senior Citizens Committeeand Naresh Kumar Jain inorganising a gala Parsi New Year celebrationfor the residents of the F.S.Parukh Dharamshalla at Old KhareghatColony, Hughes Road.As part of the afternoon’sprogramme, the Rotaractors renderedsome old songs that reminded the residentsof their youth. They also arrangeda medley of games, music anddance in which some of the senior citizensdanced to their hearts’ content.All for the handicapped Not one butthree projects for the handicappedwere organised in quick succession.The first was a campaign to requestthe public to pledge to donate theireyes after their demise; the second wasa musical event to enable the blind toenjoy the popular “dandia” event; andthe third an inter-school art festivaltheir choice. The deaf-mutes took partin a card-making competition and theunderprivileged went in for toothbrush-painting.The art festival was a contest betweendifferent schools. Prizes weregiven to the winners and participationcertificates to the rest. The childrenwere fascinated with the opportunityto do something different and to puttheir imagination on paper.According to Taskforce DirectorsRushab Shah and Trividha Mehra, thechildren turned in an amazing collectionof paintings and other forms ofcreativity – a veritable rainbow(Indradhanush”) of colours.The Rotaractors, in association withthe Aditya Jyot Foundation for TwinklingLittle Eyes, organised a campaignto promote the cause of eye donationon the occasion of the InternationalFortnight for Awareness of Eye Donations.Tweaking the popular dictum that“An eye for an eye makes the wholeteach English and subjects like marketing,economics, accounts and negotiationskills to a group of 100 highschool and secondary students.This was no fly-by-night operation.The volunteers stayed in the villagefor ten days and offered five groups ofyoung students seed capital of Rs.30,000 to launch their own business.They called the project “GazaabMaharashtra 2012” and worked in associationwith a group of young volunteersfrom the Singapore ManagementUniversity.Rushab Shah and Trividha Mehra,Taskforce Directors for 2012-13,pointed out that although India boastedsome of the biggest businessmen andindustrialists, their number was smalland it was necessary to have morepeople involved in business.Told repeatedly that “the real Indialives in the villages”, the Rotaractorsdecided to take up the project to developthe spirit of entrepreneurshipto the rural areas of Ratnagiri.June 25 to July 1, 2013 THE GATEWAY, The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 29