What is Rotary

Dr. Babu Rajendran, a senior Rotarian and reputed ophthalmologist spoke today at my Rotary club on Rotary. The speech supported by a dynamic PowerPoint presentation was truly Edutainment. The audience consisting of the members of the Rotary Club of Madras Southwest (My Club) and the Rotary Club of Madras Silver Beach were received a treat of wonderful and humorous anecdotes with inputs on what Rotary means and what it means to be a Rotarian.

Doc Babu gave a detailed expolanation of the Rotary Wheel and its symbolism. He took the 24 teeth on the Rotary Wheel and compared it to the 24 hours and the 7 white spaces (six between the spokes and one at the Center) represent the seven days of the week thus signifying that Rotaery is functioning 24x7 across the globe! Babu went on to say that the Sun never sets on Rotary because at any given minute Rotarianss are doing something somewhere across the globe to further worthy causes amongst their communities. It was almost like a Masonic portion inside theLodge Temple. If only Rotar

ians could bring the seriousness that Masons do for Masonry, Rotary with its International spread can work wonders and be an engine for communitryt relief anmd social change.

He associated a word beginning with P for every teeth on the Rotary Wheel. They are:

1. Paul Harris, The Founder of Rotary
2. Purpose
3. Participation
4. Performance
5. Periodical (Bulletin)
6. Program
7. Punctuality
8. Publish
9. Publicity--Or else how will people come to know about the good work done?
10. Public Relations
11. Promote--Rotary
12. Provide
13. Pin--Babu stressed the need for wearing the Pin always. One lesson I took home today.
14. Polio Plus
15. Praise
16. Polite
17. Protocol
18. Procedure
19. Past--should be respected by recognizing the Past Presidents and Charter Members
20. Partner--To be involved
21. Party--Necessary to maintain the buzz. After all Paul Harris conceived Rotary as a group of people meeting regularly to do good to society.
22. Profession -- Our Vocation is the reason we are in Rotary
23. Persistence
24. People--In Rotary and Outside, People matter.

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