A
friend Atul Jadhav invited me to join Rotary Club of Vasco da
gama in 1993 -
this is the primary and probably the technically
accepted reason to 'Why I am a Rotarian''.
I wish this were true in all cases... but just by joining
Rotary, I became a member of
Rotary Club of Vasco da gama. It
took a lot more to get converted to a Rotarian.
It began in the first year when I attended our District
Conference... I learnt to ''Be a friend''.
Club Service was and
should be the first step to become a Rotarian. (click below to read more)
Next I learnt ''Act with
Integrity..."' I started practicing the Four Way Test (as much
as I could)
in my daily life... so I started to understand the
meaning of ''Vocational Service''
Our Club used to do a decent amount of ''Community Service'' and
with the theme ''Show
Rotary Cares for your community for our
world for its people'' even I started to participate
in the
activities.
theme ''Follow Your
Rotary Dream'' made me creative and I really began giving inputs
rather
than just participate in Club projects. Internet had just
come and I was amongst the first one
to see the difference. That
was the first time I really understood the meaning of
''International
Service'' even despite the fact that I had been
contributing to Our Rotary Foundation just at
the call of the
TRF Chair without understanding what was happening to the money.
My Dream had just begun... that's the time I thought truly
became a Rotarian. I had
understood that unless you participate
in all 4 avenues of Service you can never become a
Rotarian.
Each year's theme added a new dimension to my thinking. By the
time I became
President (2001-02 with Richard King as RI
President and Pratap Puranik as District
Governor) I had read
and understood enough to plan the year and hand over the charge
to
the incoming President satisfied on what I had done.
Participating in Club and District (where I am still known as
''New Technology Rotarian'')
would keep me happy.. but
the ADRENALIN was missing. Our Club was going down and
everyone
was getting disenchanted... some MAGIC was needed to revive the
Club. Then
came the theme ''MAKE DREAMS REAL'' and a few of us
took up things seriously and
planned out the REVIVAL.... It
WORKED... and once again I thought ''I have now become a
true
Rotarian'' thanks to PDG Pranesh Jahagirdar I learnt the MAGIC
GRANTS. It was the
ADRENALIN I needed to keep me running for a
few years...
I soon realised that even that was not the end to my DREAMS and
I still had miles to
go.... Each year was an experience. A
Convention puts Rotary into a Rotarian... Only Global
Networking
can change the way you look at Rotary beyond your Club...
Reading History can
improve your Rotary knowledge.
RGHF, RLI and Facebook have taught me much more in one year than
I learnt in the past
17 years... and do not know NEXT IS WHAT !
Looking at myself and the way I have changed over the years...
this is an ongoing
process... it
is still the making of a
complete Rotarian !
To sum up in Gandhiji's words: I AM A ROTARIAN because I want to
be the change I
want
to see in the world !
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| Prakash Chand Saraswat |
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