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THE CHAKA

Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Calcutta (D-3291)
India's oldest Rotary Bulletin.
Cyclostyled from 1920. First printed in 1925
Incorporated with The Eastern Rotary Wheel 1933-51

Editor: Rtn Ritwik Gupta (chakaeditor@gmail.com )

Vol 79 No. 17
Tuesday, 15 Nov 2011

www.rotacal.org/chaka

TODAY
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RTN. GOPINATH GHOSH
Past President RC Noth Calcutta
AG Zone VII, RI District 3291

Topic: Is the Sports Bill Necessary?

Sportsman, PR professional, Sports Administrator and Rotarian, Gopinath Ghosh is an MA in Political Science. He has worked as PR Manager with large organisations like the JKs, Shaw Wallace and the RPG Group and was the Regional Director of Concept Communications Ltd.

University Blue in hockey, Gopi-da was a state-level player in the Bengal team and also played for the Mohun Bagan Club. Subsequently he had organised major sporting events. Gopi-da was the Joint Organising Secretary for the 33rd World TT Championships, Organising Secretary for the 5th Asian TT Championships and Executive Secretary for the 3rd SAF Games.
As the President of Bengal TT Association, Vice-President of the Bengal Olympics Association and Treasurer of the Bengal Hockey Association Gopi-da has been deeply involved in Sports Administration. He had also led several sports delegations to Moscow, Vietnam, Colombo, Bangladesh etc. Interestingly he was also a radio commentator and has covered several sports like, Hockey, Football, Table Tennis, Tennis and Cricket.

Gopinath Ghosh has been a Rotarian since 1988 and has served RC North Calcutta as Chairman, Secretary, Vice-President and President. He has chaired District Committees and is the AG for Zone VII this year. He had led a GSE teams to England and is also a Faculty on the Rotary Leadership Institute.

NEXT MEETINGS
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Nov 22 Tue 1:00 for 1:30 PM
RTN DR. SUMIT PODDAR
Topic: Animal Bites
Rotary Sadan (Top Floor Hall)

Nov 29 Tue 6:30 for 7:00 PM
PROFESSOR ABHIRUP SARKAR
Topic: The West Bengal Economy
Rotary Sadan (Ground Floor Auditorium)

ONE WORLD
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We Toast Today
ROTARY CLUB OF NORTH CALCUTTA
R.I. Dist. 3291

NOTICES
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CHANGE OF MEETING TIME
The Regular weekly meeting on 29th November 2011 will be an evening meeting at 6:30PM instead of lunchtime. The Meeting will be followed by dinner. Spouses are invited to join.

NOMINATION OF CLUB'S OFFICERS
Members are informed that nominations will be invited for the post of the club’s President for the Rotary Year 2013-14 and for the posts of Vice President, Hony. Secretary, Hony. Treasurer and five Directors on the club's Board for the Rotary Year 2012-13 at the regular weekly meeting to be held on Tuesday 29th November, 2011.
The corresponding elections will be held at the Club’s Meeting on Tuesday 27th December 2011

ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Nov 15 Tue 6:00 pm
CHILDREN'S DAY
Will be commemorated by the NCLCL and Cultural Sections with a Film Show.
Rotary Sadan, Children's Library

Nov 18 Fri Science City Auditorium 4 pm
ROTARY ZONAL INSTITUTE IN KOLKATA INAUGURATION
After 7 years the Rotary Zonal Institute for RI Officers - past present and future will be held at Kolkata on between 18-20th Nov, 2011. For the first time THREE Indian RI Board Members including RI President Kalyan Banerjee will be present.
Convener RI Director Shekhar Mehta has given an opportunity to all Rotarians of RID 3291 to attend the Inaugural Ceremony at Science City, Main Auditorium at 4 PM on Friday,18th Nov.
Registration Charge is Rs.200/- inclusive of High Tea. The last date for registration is 17th Nov '11. Register with DG Angsuman Bandyopadhyay or PDG Rajkumar Rajgaria, Co-Chair Rotary Institute 2011

Nov 27 Sun NICCO Park 9:00 am
ANNUAL CHILDREN'S TREAT
Will be held on Sunday, 27th November, 2011 from 9 AM onwards at the NICCO Park. We propose to invite more than 1,500 underprivileged children this year. Members are requested to generously donate or sponsor Breakfast, Lunch, Ice Cream,
T-Shirts, Carry Bags, Sports Items and Gifts of any kind to make this a special day for the children.
Donations made to Rotary Children's Welfare Trust enjoy income tax exemption u/s 80G of the Income Tax Act.

SPEECH
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KALIKATA - CALCUTTA - KOLKATA

BY DR. INDRAJIT ROY
At our Regular Meeting on 1st November 2011

When the arranged speaker of the day suddenly opted out at the last moment due to a family bereavement -- our Program Co-chair Rtn. Sanjib Basu phoned up the city's Sheriff. With a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face our member Rtn Dr. Indrajit Roy took up the challenge. Two hours later at our RWM he gave us a wonderful PowerPoint exposition on the evolution of our beloved city garnished with esoteric nuggets. We extract:

Once upon a time it was a village called Kalikata and then it became Calcutta and it is now Kolkata. So I propose to you take down a trip – Kalikata to Kolkata via Calcutta.

It really started with this Englishman Job Charnock. He was sailing down the Hooghly for scouting a piece of land to set up a factory of John Company - the honourable British East India Company. He almost by chance landed at a place where there were three villages very close to the river and the river was very wide, navigable for ocean-going ships of those days. He chose this place but he couldn’t settle down here on his first or the second attempt.

First time he was driven away by the soldiers of the Mughal Emperor. Later the British Admiral forced him to go to Madras. And only the third time could he settle down here and Charnock converted this place into a bustling little centre.

But before that there was another claim to fame of this place, the old temple of Kalighat. Kalighat was then one of the shakto pithasthans and Kalighat may have contributed a bit of its name to one of our streets. I will come to that later.

A Fort was later built and the Company grew stronger by the day. But then the young Nawab Shirajuddaula at Murshidabad was growing nervous and feeling insecure as the Company kept on growing stronger and kept adding to its armed forces and kept on stock piling weapons. The inevitable happened. There was war not only once but a number of times. First time Shirajuddaula put the city to sack. But ultimately it was Robert Clive, the then Commander of the British forces in this part and the fateful battle, the battle of Plassey where Mir Jafar betrayed his Nawbab and went over to the British.

Life in British Calcutta built itself around one road, the Chowringhee Road. It is perhaps the only road anywhere in the world, which can be called fully imported. Yes, it is an imported road. Those days’ ships came from Great Britain to India to pick up huge amounts of cargo and go back. They didn’t bring in much. But empty ships can’t sail the high seas, you need some weight, ballast. This ballast was nothing but mud, clay picked up from the ports of Southampton, Bristol, etc. and this mud or clay was emptied where you see Chowringhee Road today. Chowringhee Road is basically a completely imported road – “Made in England”.

There is a story about Chowringhee. It is said that there used to be a little hermitage where a Guru of the Nath community called Chowringhee Baba had his ashram. And it is said that it is after him that the area was named Chowringhee. There is however disputes because many historians claim that Chowringhee Baba never had a hermitage in this part of city at all. They say that Chowringhee has got his name from the words ‘cherangee’, ‘chera anga’ – chera means cut and .anga. means the body part, a piece of the Goddess which fell to make Kalighat, so cherangee from which came Chowringhee.

Another very old landmark is the first connection between the sister city on the other side of the River Hooghly, called Howrah. Industry was also thriving in Howrah. The two places needed a connection and a Pontoon bridge was set up, boats held it up and the bridge could be moved away, or could open up when large ships came in.

Very soon the city became one of the largest metropolis. It would be called a city of palaces. It would also be called the second city of the Empire and it would be called the first city of the Empire East of Suez. Another landmark came up later about which all doctors are proud of. The first medical college, again in Asia, the first medical college in fact in Asia and Africa for scientific medicine, as we know it, was the beginning of Medical College Calcutta in 1835 that is two years before starting of the Calcutta University in 1837. Another landmark was built after Queen Victoria died, the Victoria Memorial.

Commerce and trade were thriving. The main traffic was horse drawn phaetons and carriages and later motorized transport came to the city. Calcutta got its motorcars mainly through European sahibs, but it did come to Calcutta. With that came another change. The original Pontoon bridge across the river was replaced by the Howrah Bridge or what’s known today as Rabindra Setu. We have added a new landmark the Vidyasagar Setu, another bridge across the Hooghly, but we have not forgotten the old, the Rabindra Setu is still there.

With the English came the introduction of western studies, studies in philosophy etc. With that came another kind of change. People were getting restive, they were given voice by certain leaders in this city. The first was Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay from whom we got the first slogan of Indian nationalism ‘Vande Mataram’. Today we all know of Vande Mataram as the opening of almost all Indian and sometimes of closing of all the speeches. So Vande Mataram united the whole of India and gave India its first sense of nationalism.

A century later, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose took up arms and fought against British imperialism during the 2nd World War and from him we got the second slogan, and again the second Indian slogan by which India is recognized “Jai Hind”. If India has two slogans or two words which unite us, one is Jai Hind and the other is Vande Mataram. So both these came from this city.

In this city Sir Ronald Ross discovered the way malaria is transmitted by mosquito, only a few hundred yards away from where you are sitting now, in a small laboratory inside the P.G. (Presidency General Hospital, which is now known as the S.S.K.M. Hospital and he got the Nobel Prize in Medicine. When Rabindra Nath Thakur got the Nobel Prize in Literature first time for this country, it came to this city. Sir C.V. Raman for his spectroscope and Raman Effect got the Nobel Prize in Physics, again he worked in this city. The Saint of the Homeless, Mother Teresa, got the Nobel Prize in Peace, Amartya Sen Nobel Prize in Economics. We do not have the financial clout of Mumbai, we do not have the political clout of Delhi, we do not have rich legacy and history of Chennai, we are not boom cities like Pune or Bangalore, but every time that Nobel Prize has come to this county, it has always been through someone who has lived, worked or has been born in this city. Unless it seems, unless you work in this city you cannot get a Nobel Prize from this country.

And why not? Even today we have roads, the College Street where you can pick up a folio edition of Shakespeare for as little as $2.5. Again we have our cultural Hub Nandan, the logo and the name designed by a person called Satyajit Ray through whom came the first Oscar Award that ever came to this country.

Chowringhee continues to progress. Overcrowding, traffic jams, a developed Chowringhee, but the spirit of Kolkata is the same – jubilant, joyous and always willing to come out and share the joy with others – not only the Durga Pujas, may be Christmas or Id or any of the other festivals. Give a Calcuttan half an excuse and he will come out on the street for joy.

And so the river Hooghly flows on, still romantic and the city it gave birth to remains very vibrant.

ROTARY FOUNDATION
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NOW’S THE TIME TO LEARN ABOUT WHAT THE FOUNDATION DOES

TRF Trustee Chair's Monthly Message
November 2011

November is Rotary Foundation Month, and I hope you’ll focus on the Foundation with your club speakers and programs. How can our newer Rotarians understand the Foundation if we do not tell them what it is and what it does?
We are often not good communicators in Rotary, which is strange as we are business and community leaders. Maybe it is information overload or too much sport on television, but Rotary information is not a high priority for many Rotarians. For example, how would you answer these questions:
Is there an Ambassadorial Scholar in our district?
What is this Future Vision Plan, and what does it mean for our club?
What do we need to know about polio eradication, other than that it makes us feel good?
What is the difference between Group Study Exchange and vocational training teams?
I hear the words Every Rotarian, Every Year. What is that about?
How can The Rotary Foundation support our club’s desire to help people outside our community?
What are Rotarians doing on issues such as HIV/AIDS and water and sanitation?
Nobody in my club reads the Foundation annual report. Where does the money go?
What is our relationship with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation?
The list of questions could go on, but the real question is, “What is our club doing to learn more about our Rotary Foundation?” If the answer is “not enough,” now might be a very good time to start.

William B. Boyd
Chair, Board of Trustees
The Rotary Foundation

MINUTES OF THE 4371TH MEETING
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HELD ON TUESDAY 8TH NOVEMBER, 2011

Total Members 274
Members Present 56
Members Exempted 87
Visiting Rotarians 2

1. In the absence of President O P Malhotra, Vice President Rtn. Joyanta Chatterjee took the Chair called the 4371st Meeting to order at 1:30 PM at Rotary Sadan. National Anthem was led by Rtn. Sujata Pyne. Minutes of the 4370th meeting were confirmed.
2. Chairman greeted all present and welcomed the Guest Speaker Rtn. Subhojit Roy, District Publications and Public Relations. He also greeted visiting Rotarian Vaswani from RC Hong Kong.
3. Chairman announced that:
a. NCLCL Vocational Service Archives Committee will organise a Film Show for the students of NCLCL and Cultural Section on Tuesday 15th November 2011 at 6.30 pm at Rotary Sadan to observe Children’s Day and requested members to join.
b. Annual Children's’ Treat will be held on Sunday 27th November 2011 and requested all members to donate generously. Donations to the RCWT will qualify for deductions under sec.80 G of IT Act.
c. Nominations for Office of the President for Rotary Year 2013-14 and for Office of Vice President, Hony Secretary, Hony Treasurer, and five Directors for Rotary Year 2012-13 will be invited at the RWM on 29th November 2011. These will be taken up for Election at the RWM on Tuesday 27th December 2011.

4. Hony. Secretary welcomed members guests and congratulated Rotarians celebrating their birthdays till the next meeting. He then announced:
a) Next RWM would be held on Tuesday, 15th November 2011 at 1:30 PM at Rotary Sadan with Rtn. Gopinath Ghosh, AG Zone VII of District 3291 as the guest speaker.
b) A special meeting of the Youth and Children Committee on Children’s Treat will take place after the RWM in addition to the Health Care meeting.
c) Sad demise of our Ex-member and Past President Anshu Banerjee was announced last week. His wife Smt. Mira Banerjee has requested members attend the Sradhh ceremony on Friday 11th November at Sri Chaitanya Gaudia Math, Kalighat. Rotarians were also invited to join a memorial service for Late Anshu Banerjee at Arabinda Bhawan, Shakespeare Sarani on Sunday 13th November 5PM, especially those who wish to speak about him.

5. Guest Speaker Rtn. Subhojit Roy was formally introduced by Rtn. Dr. Asha Padgaonkar. Rtn. Roy addressed the club on the topic of Rotary’s Public Image and explained how to highlight the projects we undertake. Rtn. Suchitra Sen proposed the vote of thanks amidst applause from the members. The Chairman then presented a memento to Rtn. Roy as a token of the club’s appreciation.

6. The special Sunshine Box collection was Rs.100/-with a contribution from Rtn. Dwarka Prasad Agrawala.
7. The Club remembered with Good Wishes Rotary International coupled with Rotary Club of Calcutta Metro City, R.I.District 3291.
8. The Meeting ended at 2:15 PM.

Joyanta Chatterjee
Vice-President

Saumen Ray
Honorary Secretary

CONTACT US
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WE MEET EVERY TUESDAY AT 1:00 FOR 1:30 PM
Rotary Sadan 94/2 Chowringhee Road, Kolkata 700 020
Tel: 2223-8686 / 8787, Fax: +91-33-2223 2573
Email: rccalcutta@gmail.com Website: www.rotacal.org

Editor eChaka: Rtn Dr Dipak R. Sarbadhikari deares@gmail.com
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