CROSSROADSRotary Club of Singapore Vol. 48 / 40

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“KS MEHTA AWARD Presentation”Lunch meeting of the 2nd may 2012

Happy Vesak Day ! On 5th May

Find your bulletin on the Facebook page of “Rotary Club of Singapore”

Joke of the week !“My wife goes through my cheque book like a bestseller. She will not put it down until she finishes it.” From the book of Humour compiled by Rewa MirpuriHAVE MANY LAUGHS AND HELP THE NEEDYhttp://www.rotary.org.sg/bookofhumour.html

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Introductory remarks

President Tapan Rao welcomed members to the first meeting for the month of May, celebrated in the Club as “Community Service Month”. He extended a warm welcome to special guest, Mrs. Kanak Mehta and to the Teacher Advisors from Raffles Institution Junior College (RIJC) – Mrs. Poh Shu-Jia and Global Indian International School (GIIS (Queenstown) – Ms. Geetanjali Kannan and Mrs. Sanghamitra Gupta (mother of Sneha Gupta), and Interactors Amanda Choo (RIJC) and Sneha Gupta (GIIS).

Toast

Toastmaster, Rtn. Keizo Fujitake translated on behalf of Past Assistant Governor (PAG) Nobutake Sugwara from the Rotary Club of Ishinmaki East from District 2520 in the Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, one of the most damaged areas of the recent earthquake. PAG Nobutake was on his way to Bangkok to attend the RI Convention. He advised of the huge loss of lives from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami, including 4 Rotarians from his club.

80 years & beyond...service above self

President Tapan announced that 150 copies of the “80 Years & Beyond…Service Above Self” book were available with compliments from the Club. He requested members to collect their copies of the book.

Welcome of visiting Rotarians and guests

Rtn. Ronald Wong welcomed our guests and visiting Rotarians

- Guests :Ms. Bhuvana (Rightfocus)Mr. Martin EdwardsMr. James IantMr. Paul Nash

Visiting Rotarians :PAG Nobutake Sugwara – Ishinmaki East, Katsuo Oe & Yoko Takakuka – Sendai Aoba, Japan

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KS Mehta Award

President Tapan called upon Vice President Ashi Sarwal to conduct the K S Mehta Award presentation on behalf of the New Generations Service (NGS) Committee. VP Ashi advised that In April this year, the NGS committee successfully completed the 5th K S Mehta Essay Award event, which has become an important annual activity of NGS. He added that the event gave members an opportunity to fondly remember our dear Rotarian the late K S Mehta, and his great commitment with and contribution to the Club and to Rotary at large. It also allowed the Club to keep a closer ongoing engagement with the Interactors.Following is an extract of VP Ashi’s commentary on the Award:

I am proud to announce the winners – but must add that I feel all the 11 final essays writers were already winners. The 2nd Winners are Eugene Lim, Koh Liang Ping and Amanda Choofrom Raffles Institution Junior College Interact Club The 1st Winner is Sneha Gupta from Global Indian International School, Queens Town, Interact Club. On behalf of the Rotarians I offer our heartiest congratulations to the Winners. Equally, thanks to all the Interactors who participated and helped to make the event a grand success. We look forward to all 10 Clubs participating next year. We are fortunate to have with us today Mrs. Kanak Mehta, wife of late K S Mehta, who has kindly consented to present the awards to the winners. The Award is a Certificate of Achievement to the winning writers, a Certificate of Citation to the Winning Interact Clubs with prize money of $1000 to the 1st Winner and $500 to the 2nd Winner or runner-up. Special gratitude to the Award Committee for organizing and managing the event. And thanks to NGS members for their strong support and in conducting this endeavour every year.”VP Ashi then invited Interactor Amanda Choo to read her team’s essay, followed by the 1st Winner, Sneha Gupta. After reading their essays, both Amanda and Sneha, answered questions posed to them by members.

“The Award for the Essay Competition was initiated in January 2008. The competition has since been held every year and has been well received by our Club sponsored 10 Interact Clubs.For the first three years the topic for the essay was a standard: “Service Above Self”. Last year it was decided to change the subject, and let the NGS Committee and IPP, the Chairperson for the Award, select a fresh topical theme every year.With this in mind, the topic of this year’s essay was: “INTERACTION BETWEEN THE ELDERLY AND THE YOUTH IN MODERN SINGAPORE: THE CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS”.Out of 10 Interact clubs sponsored by the Club, 7 participated this year. This meant a higher percentage of participation in comparison to the previous years. A total of 11 essays were submitted for final consideration for the award. Most of the essays were written by individual Interactors, but a few were co-authored by a team of 2 or 3 participants.The suggestions and ideas some of them put forth about bridging the gap between the two generations, were very practical, sound and significant. The essays were of very high caliber, and each of the 3 Rotarians who evaluated the essays on four criteria: Content, Organization, Relevance and English – and scored them gave the following feedback. Quote :"Each essay was of high quality in content, expression and English.""It was indeed very tough as there is very little to separate them. "and, finally, "It was a difficult task...all the essays were excellent"

DVD presentation from Rtn. Katsuo Oe

Once again, Rtn. Keizo translated, this time for Rtn. Katsuo Oe from the Rotary Club of Sendai Aoba. Rtn. Katsuo accompanied the Club’s delegation when it made its volunteer trip to the tsunami stricken areas. He reported on the progress of the Club’s donation towards the Japanese drum sets and presented a DVD presentation of the drums being used. He advised that the people in the area were mostly fishermen and following the devastation of the tsunami, did not look forward to the future. However, Rtn. Oe stated that with the presentation of the drum sets, and the sound of the drums, this had spurred the people now to look towards the future.

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Rotarian Family

From Rtn. Indi Tulsi

“I was wanted to share some good news. Well officially i now live in Krabi and I must admit it nice.June and I welcomed our new boy, Gerrit Tulsi on the 1st April. Things are just busy but enjoyable and finally i got a chance to be boss but in actual fact I just hang around, just waiting for the next change of diaper.”His new email address :indikrabi@me.com

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The Guide to Daily LivingBefore doing the things we want to do, consider first, the precept of the guide. Ask ourselves these 4 questions and act upon them:First: Have I spent some time in self-examination?Second: Have I spent quality time with my family?Third: Have I given my best to my work?Fourth: Have I given some time to someone near and far?The Guide, in fact, encompasses the 4 parts of the Object of Rotary.

MARK YOUR DIARYBirthday celebrantsRC wishes Happy Birthday to celebrants this week:May 8th – Peter-Paul NijstenMay 14th – PN Dr. Shahul Hameed

Anniversary CelebrantsRC sends best wishes to Wedding Anniversary celebrants this weekMay 12th – Subhash & Kanak PritmaniMay 14th – PP Paliath & Vatsala Mohandas

This weekMay 9th 2012

Reception Desk duty: Kavita Singh, T.K. ChewSunshine Box duty: Jean-Philippe Lionnet, Jayant Gadgil

Speaker: Mr. Terence Fernandez, Managing Director, Scotwork Asia Pte. Ltd.Topic: “If your solution is a hammer, you may make every problem a nail”

Vocational Service Date: Thursday, 10th MayTime: 7.30pmVenue: Bottle Tree Park Seafood Restaurant, (Bottle Tree Park Yishun), 81 Lorong Chencharu, S769198Hosts: Rtn. Jamshid Medora, PP Dr. Yap Lip Kee

Next week May 16th 2012

Reception Desk duty: PP Chiang Shih Fang, Robert CraiuSunshine Box duty: S. Malaiappan, Noshir Mistri

Speaker: H.E. Mrs. Amira Arnon, Ambassador of IsraelTopic: To be advised

International Service Date: Thursday, 17th MayTime: 7.30pmVenue: 11 Ewart Park, S279744Hosts: Rtns. Mohan Vaswani, Dr. Albert Wee, PP Peter Tan, Kannan Krishnan

COMING ROTARY EVENTS

MayCommunity Service Month

May 6th – 9th Rotary International Convention in Bangkok

JuneRotary Fellowships Month

June 30th Installation Dinner

Queries, comments and articles request can be sent to Jean-Philippe Lionnetbulletin@rotary.org.sg

The Four-Way TestOf the Things we think, say or do:* Is it the truth?* Is it fair to all concerned?* Will it build goodwill and better friendship?* Will it be beneficial to all concerned?