Madras Midtown Round Table #42

Learning and personal development Activity at MMRT42, August 9, 2010

2010-08-11T18:11:00.000-07:00

On Monday morning (August 9^th, 2010), Chairman Prasanna realises that its the first business meeting of the year and decides to start it off with a bang. Recollecting an obscure email sent by LAPD convener Tr. Sandy, he shoots a mail off demanding that a Learning and personality development programme be conducted that evening at the Business meeting at the MCC.

Thanks to a very enthusiastic and committed Area LAPD convener Tr. Gitesh Agarwal of MSRT 159, last minute preparations were made for a vision wheel exercise to be conducted. Gitesh himself conducted the very well attended programme.

While the preparations may have been somewhat hurried the programme itself was not and while some hard lessons were learnt the fellowship and bonding increased a great deal on that single evening. What wonders acrimony, name-calling, accusations, cribs, complaints and whines can do for fellowship! Trs. Hari, Vikram, Chetan, Prasad, Sandy, Mahavir, Prasanna and Suman were among the several who will carry the bonding of shared punches...I mean memories of that memorable evening.

All in all, 42 reiterated what we knew all along, but in a much needed organized and validated format. 42 needs to focus more on smaller community service events that bring in more participation in smaller groups. Being a large Table, getting everyone together for a single event is tough. While there have been events where 10 to 11 Tablers have been present, there have also been events where only a single Tabler has been present.

Tempers flared, lessons were learnt, most were in denial, and everyone thought they knew what they were talking about. In the end however, 42 came together as only 42 can – with camaraderie and fellowship as the hallmarks of a great Table.

Our most sincere thanks to Tr. Gitesh who patiently endured taunts, barbs, some stupidity, outright animosity and escaped a few brushes with death, yet bravely soldiered on to complete the LAPD programme well late into the night. It is unlikely that he would have ever conducted such a long programme so late into the night.

He had a very close brush with death in the form of Sq. Leg Prasad who came in briefly to the meeting but did not stay for the programme. We hope Tr. Gitesh only takes back pleasant memories of 42.

Chairman Tr. Prasanna, who sought answers at the beginning of the day, was regretting that he had asked the questions, but was ultimately happy that there was a scapegoat to write a report for him.

Auto Rickshaw Challenge 2010

2010-08-05T04:18:00.000-07:00

MMRT42 's first fundraising and publicity event The Auto Rickshaw Challenge, Mumbai Xpress-2010 of the year was successfully flagged off from chennai on 1st August 2010 by IPC Tr Sakthivel Raja, our Chief Guest for the event.

The Auto Rickshaw Challenge, Mumbai Xpress- 2010 will take the participants across rugged hills, rural countryside, balmy beaches, isolated towns and deserted valleys – all in just 14 days. 28 participants in 13 teams will compete in 13 stages across the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The participants will seek to raise funds for various projects of Round Table India through MMRT42.

MMRT42’s partnering Tables for this Auto Rickshaw Challenge are Mysore 21, Vellore 23, Bangalore 44, Mangalore 115 and Panjim 128 for this event and MMRT42 is very happy to associate with our partnering tables who are our partners for this event since long time.

Regards,
Suman Voora
Secretary MMRT 42

Destination Destiny - Ooty Fellowship 2010

2010-07-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

Around 70 people from MMRT 42 (23 tablers, 22 circlers, 5 sq legs and their wives and a whole load of twinklers) embarked on a historic fellowship trip from Chennai to Ooty on June 17, 2010. The party began right at Central Station where we waylaid the TTR on the platform and enlightened him about the “aims and objects” of tabling!!!!! Adequate publicity about the round table movement was also given to the other passengers on Niligiri Express and many expressed their interest in joining the fellowship!!! From the time the train left Central at 9 pm till around 3 am, the tablers treated each passenger on the train as their “neighbour or friend or brother”. The brotherly love finally came to an end when Mahesh Sr. slept on the ice box and we therefore had no access to ice!!!!

On reaching Mettupalayam at 6 am on June 18, we headed to a resort called “Black Thunder” for breakfast and ablutions. Our ever resourceful tabler Suman had organized a fantastic breakfast which we hungrily gobbled to get over our hangover. After popping some few strips of Avomine to ward of mountain sickness, the group set out to conquer the hills. The drive to ooty took us about 3 hours including 4 masala tea breaks, 7 puke breaks and infinite breaks to relieve bladder pressure! On reaching ooty, our driver informed us that our resort was 35 kms away from ooty in a place called Avalanche and we had to drive for another hour through mostly pot holed roads and then some mud lanes with craters. Finally we arrived at the resort….. no…. wait…it apparently was only the car park of the resort. The resort was 2 kms away deep in the hills and the only way to get there (as there were no roads) was by an off-road military truck. The 2 km ride seemed like 20 kms and all tablers now know what it feels like to be an ingredient in a tossed salad!

The ride was certainly worth it as the resort was simply breathtaking. 25 log cabins overlooking the valley with clean and comfortable rooms. We were completely cut off from the rest of the world as there were no telephones, television or internet in the resort and the only activities were farming, horse riding, milking the cows and fishing. To catch a cell phone signal, you had to climb up a mountain and sit with the bears. The Management of the resort gave us an orientation program wherein they informed us that the resort did not encourage smoking, drinking at places other than the bar and loud music as the resort was in the middle of a reserve forest. Then Prasad Sr. showed them his biceps and gave them an orientation on what he came there to do. Immediately a deal was struck and we managed to get certain concessions. It certainly helped that we had booked the entire resort. In hindsight, even if there were other guests at the resort, I am certain they would have trekked back to ooty through the jungle after seeing our group! The wild animals in the forest are like kittens when compared to our tablers.

Once we settled in and the twinklers ran around the resort playing with the horses and the ducks, the party started with a few beverages from the UB group and a late lunch. While most of us crashed after lunch, Suman, Sai and Katty went all the way back to ooty to get certain other beverages from Scotland and Russia. Kudos to them and to their never-say-die spirit! Katty, in honour of having put one leg into the grave, sponsored most of the refreshments while Sai (who also has one leg in the grave) sponsored the rest. Mahesh Sr. immediately contacted his man-friday in ooty, Mr. Lawrence and asked him to come to the resort with curry leaf powder which he liked to mix with his curd rice. Lawrence (soon nicknamed Lawrence of Arabia) trekked all the way from ooty (35 kms across the hills) and arrived with only half of the ordered supplies. We suspect he stopped along the way and ate a few rounds of curd rice himself!!! Hmmmm!!!

The party that evening began at 7 pm and started getting wild around 11 pm. We were booted out of the dinning room and found our way to the deck outside Sai’s room. We started playing dumb charades and soon discovered the wild side of Amrit and Pavitra. The movies that they were suggesting had failed to clear US Censor Board and were made straight for the internet! Finally the curtain came down on charades, when Venky mimed the movie “sin city”. The way he mimed the word “sin” to his team, Meghna got scared and ran away but Kala got very excited and dragged him to their room immediately!!!!

Day 2 began bright and early with one gang going on a 3 km “short trek” and one gang going for a 7 km “long trek”. I went for 2 short treks – one from my room to the loo and the other to the breakfast table! At 11 am, all the twinklers set out on a fishing expedition and the only kid to catch a fish was Prasanna’s son who is a vegetarian. Sandeep Mall with all his Bengali instincts could only catch his pants which were slipping in the mud!!! After fishing, one big gang went on an agricultural tour around the resort. Arjun successfully got the names of all the herbs wrong except lavender. Soumya promptly stated that she never uses lavender talc, soap or perfume. Must be the TTR on the Trichi train then, with whom Arjun has been spending 2 nights every week! After the agricultural tour, we joined the guys from the long trek (except Prasanna who managed to climb the hills but fell into the gutter adjoining the resort) and sat down for some beers and melodious singing by Soumya. However, once Chetan started singing, the beer turned flat and we were forced to have lunch. In the evening, we got a bonfire going overlooking the valley coupled with a nice barbecue dinner. The girls soon started dancing and continued their party till dawn!

After breakfast on day 3, we packed our bags and left destiny. On reaching ooty, we stopped for lunch at King’s Cliff. After a nice leisurely lunch with loads of beer, we descended the hills. On the return journey, the revelry continued with Suman getting us some fantastic food from Coimbatore. I can safely say that the entire gang had a blast and it was one hell of a trip. Every one from the youngest member of the trip (Atharva – 7 months) to the oldest Sai (45 years) had a good time. In fact, Atharva and Sai did the exact same thing during the trip – drank a lot, smiled at all the women and slept on their backside!!!!!

I am sure the tablers are ready for another trip to destiny. I am not sure how the resort management would react to it though. Last we heard, the kitchen staff have gone on a strike, the horses have bolted, the ducks have flown the coop, the fishes have choked on the bait, the bar tender has a fractured elbow and Bhaskar, the trek guide has amputated his legs!

x x x x x x x x x

Disclaimer: The contents of this report are solely for the members of MMRT 42. If the report does fall into the hands of any other person including NEX, AEX, politically motivated tablers, tablers with a particular agenda, Shard Jalan, Manish Bhanusali, RPF, Railway Authorities, Ooty Municipality, Forest Authorities etc., the contents of this report are purely fictional. Any resemblance to any real person is purely coincidental (except for Lawrence of Arabia who is an MLA in Ooty).

2010-04-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

On a sunny afternoon in March (14th, Sunday), 42 met up in full strength at Tr. Arjun's parents' house to celebrate Round Table International Day. It was a special moment as Chairman Hari raised a toast to Round Table International at the end of our meeting. The fellowship was attended by several square legs. A highlight - as it always is when we meet at Tr. Arjun's house - was that our meeting was attended by the man who signed MMRT42's charter more than 30 years ago. Sq. Leg Ananth of MWRT 10, our sponsor table, was the secretary of 10 when 42 was formed.

We also proposed some historic resolutions that we will throw out some of our more troublesome members like Tr. Suman Voora. But some one (obviously with a low IQ) proposed an amendment to the motion stating that it might be easier to make him a member of the national board and therefore be rid of him for a few years. Every one in their alcohol induced low IQ state agreed and passed a commotion that

he will be made national board member. He is now a member of the Round Table India National board as decided that day.

Historic joint fellowship with Rotary Club of Madras

2010-03-15T03:04:00.000-07:00

For the first time in the history of Tabling a Round Table and a Rotary Club organized a joint fellowship bringing together two premier charitable organizations.

On 19th February, Rotary Club of Madras and Madras Midtown Round Table 42 celebrated "An Arabian Night" at Tr. George Cherian's farm on ECR in true 42 and RCM style. Since several Square legs of 42 are now members of RCM this evening was even more memorable as it did not feel like we were two separate organizations. Thanks to Tr. George who is also Rtn. George current President of RCM and Tr. Hari for this great idea for a Joint Fellowship.

Celebrating Tabling!

2010-03-11T00:25:00.000-08:00

On March 3rd, MMRT42 had occasion to celebrate several great achievements.

Sq. Leg of our Table, Sesha Sai was appointed as Honorary Consul of the Republic of Seychelles to India.
MMRT42 and MCRT94 won the bid to host the 50th National AGM in 2011.
Charter Day of MMRT 42 - February 28th.
Sq. Leg Chinni Jayant's mimicry of Amithab Bacchan was much appreciated by the man himself. Check out the video of his performance here.

The celebrations went on till the wee hours of the night showing why MMRT42 has subsequently been awarded best fellowship table of Area 2 along with MKRT181 for the month of February.

Oh we also celebrated Sq. Leg. Mahesh Sriram's birthday. No animals were harmed during the celebrations.

Funds received by MMRT42 on account of AutoRickshaw Challenge Mumbai Express 2008.

2010-02-07T17:44:00.000-08:00

We thank all contributors local and international for their generous contributions that have made several projects across the country possible.

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Details of Foreign Contributions received from 01.04.2008 to 25.08.2009
S.No	Date	Donor details	Country	Remittance details	Gross	BC	Net Amount
14	08.08.08	Paul Bevan	UK	GBP 2030 x Rs 80.90	164227	496	163731.00
19	28.11.08	Stephen James	UK	GBP 1877 x 75.95	142558	496	142062.00
21	06.01.09	Clare Tinsley	UK	GBP 1000 x Rs 69.33	69330	496	68834.00
23	19.01.09	Miss Weeler	UK	GBP 800 x 71.15	56920	496	56424.00
25	23.01.09	Charles Vignoles	UK	Rupee remittance	98000	0	98000.00
26	13.02.09	Marry Dinneen	UK	GBP 1465 x Rs 70.66	103517	496	103021.00
28	06.03.09	Clare Tinsley	UK	GBP 500 x Rs 72.65	36325	496	35829.00
9	02.07.09	CJ Hartley	UK	GBP 1095 x Rs 79.22	86746	496	86250.00
14	03.08.09	Steve Hawthorne	UK	Rupee remittance	265915.65	0	265915.65
							1020066.65

MMRT Local donations received upto 25.08.2009

S.No	Donor	Bank	Branch	Cheque	Date	Amount	Receipt
				No
1	A.Gayathri	AXIS Bank	Tuticorin	4666	11.05.09	8600	9610
2	VVD Brahmanandam	AXIS Bank	Tuticorin	229816	11.05.09	90000	9611
3	VVD Brahmanandam - HUF	AXIS Bank	Tuticorin	247862	11.05.09	20000	9612
4	B Devajothi	SBI	Tuticorin	92072	11.05.09	28000	9613
5	B.Anoopchand Dhnush Kumar	AXIS Bank	Tuticorin	232876	12.05.09	25000	9614
6	B.Anoopchand Dhnush Kumar HUF	AXIS Bank	Tuticorin	232875	12.05.09	40000	9615
7	A.Renuka Devi	AXIS Bank	Tuticorin	301506	11.05.09	26000	9616
8	B.Aravind Kumar	AXIS Bank	Tuticorin	240458	11.05.09	50000	9617
18	Tr Arvind Swami	HDFC Banl	Chennai	215323	07.08.09	100000	9652
24	Rajesh Sanatkumar	BOI	Chennai	309964	25.08.09	10000	9661
						397600

HRD Efforts at MMRT42

2010-02-05T01:20:00.000-08:00

On a sunny Saturday morning (January 30th, 2010), a band of intrepid 42ers led by the great beer warrior Tr. Hari Shankar Balaji himself, wound their way to the Balaji Distilleries brewery which is on the way to that holy land of Lord Balaji - Tirupati.

The mission was clear : inspect and find out how and why King Fisher beer (which was brewed and bottled at Balaji Distilleries) was so popular in Round Table India. The team was a highly trained and skilled group of Tablers and their wives. Veterans of many beer battles across the globe – from Chennai to Pondicherry to even the Oktoberfest, this team of beer commandoes was determined to crack this mission.

However, this was a mission fraught with obstacles and danger. The first obstacle presented itself in the form of Tr. Sandy’s bar which was checkpoint Alpha for the team. After much deliberation and a broken antique sofa, Chairman Hari managed to steer the team away from the tantalizing Tequila that appeared on the table. After having passed that, Tr. Cheitan managed to almost destroy the pavement and Chairman’s Hari’s car while trying to park his car. Oh the risks we take in the cause of Tabling!

We then proceeded to the checkpoint Beta – Motel Highway on the Poonamallee High Road. Tactical Team 2 rendezvoused with Tactical Team 1 at Checkpoint Beta. TT2 was lead by Tr. Suman who tried to wrest leadership from Chairman Hari – but was as usual put in his place with a stern “Shut up” from Chairman Hari.

With great difficulty and no casualties we arrived at our final destination. Sniper Tr. Mahavir was the hero of the day. With his long range view finder he engaged the enemy who deployed a general Technical Manager, the Brewer and the Senior Finance Manager – under the command of the CFO – to tackle the invasion party.

Tr. Mahavir made short work of the Brewer by grunting his way through the entire presentation on the ingredients that go into the process of beer. The Brewer developed a new sense of respect for the invasion party solely on the performance of Tr. Mahavir.

We too developed a sense of respect and foreboding of Tr. Mahavir’s tremendous intellectual capacity to grunt acknowledgement to a lecture on Barley, Rice, Sugar and Hops. The team had been practising hopping for several days before the mission. Intelligence had informed that hops were an ingredient of Beer.

Several technical questions on the process of beer production were intelligently asked lulling the KF team into thinking that we were actually interested.

After the Q and A, we then proceeded to tour the facility. We were shocked to know that more than 30000 litres of beer were being produced right under our very noses.

Some more technical sounding questions with no understanding of the lucid answers were exchanged between the invasion party and the Brewer. By this time, the Brewer was fully convinced that we were highly qualified team of beer inspectors. Though some questions may have raised a small doubt in his mind.

A sample of the dangerous questions :- “Do you drink beer?”, “Do you drink beer in a glass or from the bottle?”, “Why do you drink beer?”, “Can I drink beer from this vat? (the vat had about 150000 lts of some strange liquid)”.

Anyway, after that we proceeded to the battle

ground where the actual challenge lay upon us.

The challenge was to continue to appear intelligent and in control while “tasting” every kind of beer that was produced in that factory – KF Lager, KF Strong, Kalyani Black Label, KF Gold (pints), KF Lager Draft. The KF team was

suitably impressed. For them “tasting” meant 10 ml. Our team made short work by tasting one mug of each per person. The supply of roast cashews, chips murukku etc. was demolished with ease.

There were many assurances of unlimited supply of beer for us to continue battle. Sadly only the Chairman and Past Chairman were left fighting the battle. Casualties were enormous on our side. Many were floored by the continuous stream of questions from Tr. Mahavir whose questions and grunting were further complicating matters. After battling for 3 whole hours with an unlimited supply of a few hours hold beer, we decided to call it a day and beat a sad retreat. After lunch at Pleasant Days we managed to head back home battle weary and somewhat drunk.

All in all, while casualties were high, the success is inarguable. We have

fresh invitations for another battle from the KF team and we survived to fight another day.

Kudos to Tr. Manoj who managed to get us into the enemy camp. Great work by Sniper Tr. Mahavir behind the view finder. Very sporty of the women to come along knowing that the men were going into very dangerous territory – or were they there to protect them?

MMRT42 along with MCRT94 won the bid for the 50th National AGM

2010-01-20T01:01:00.000-08:00

In a most historic event, MMRT42 and MCRT 94 won the bid to host the 50th AGM of Round Table India here at Chennai. The bid was considered and voted upon by the floor of RTI in the recently concluded 48th National AGM held at New Delhi on 8th, 9th and 10th January.

For the first time in many years, there was a contest for the bid as the City Tables of Hyderabad also decided to bid for the AGM (officially their bid came in first even though Chennai was considering it for sometime.)

On the afternoon of Saturday, January 9th to a tightly packed floor, both groups made their bid presentations with Hyderabad going first. 42&95 wowed the floor by first of all ensuring that everyone from Area 2 was wearing a beautifully designed orange tie with the proposed name "Chennai KadalAuram" embroidered on it. The delegates were all presented with silk Angavastrums that further added panache to the bid.

Hyderabad had a major ace up their sleeve by announcing an extremely inviting price for the AGM. However 42&95's presentation and Area 2's strong presence on stage (almost 50 people on stage) swung the floor significantly. Though no official numbers were announced rumours are that the votes were very decisive.

On to 2012! Welcome to Chennai KadalAuram.

Check out the bid video here

42-62 The Awesome-twosome in the Jungle

2008-11-20T21:27:00.001-08:00

This year's 42-62 meet was to be hosted by the 62ers and boy, their style and panache in this edition of this long standing tradition has created new benchmarks in fellowship.

A total of 19 Tablers, Circlers and Sq. Legs and 10 Twrs caught the Cheran express to reach Coimbatore. As usual the fellowship started at the train itself. The usual suspects were drinks, snacks and a whole lot of teen patti. At the end the 4 men standing were Hari (hardly standing), Bimal, Venky and Suman. They stopped playing just in time for the rest to get up at the Coimbatore station. 62ers welcomed us at the station and everyone left with their respective hosts. The idea was for everyone to get some rest, freshen up and post breakfast, assemble at the Bikes n Barrel for some afternoon fellowship before heading to the jungles.

As usual the home hosting was perfect and everyone started to trickle in to Bikes and Barrels by around noon and started and relaxed though fun filled afternoon amidst, drinks, gr8 food and some awesome catching up with the 62ers.

The start to the jungle got a bit delayed because of some excessive fellow sipping, but start we did in 3 vans and 4 cars to the Bull and Bush Resort at Hasanur, which was a 3 hr drive away.

The journey was splendid with quite a lot of throwing up after the fantastic afternoon session but never mind everyone was in gr8 mood.

We reached the resort by 0730 pm n settled into our rooms/cottages/dorms. 62ers had a fantastic idea of separating the guys and the girls into separate dorms and cottages except for Sandeep n family who were allotted a cottage to themselves as they had braved with their 7 seven month old baby.

After a round of refreshing hot soup we all were escorted to a clear setting
in the jungle about two kms from the resort were a fantastic evening unfolded. The weather had taken for the better with a nip in the air and the temp touching about 16-18 degrees. There were two huge bon fires and free flowing alcohol to keep us warm n cozy. The fragrance of lamb and chicken barbecue was wafting in the air and this was accompanied by a fantastic performance by the locals on their drums. As the night was catching on ,Sq. Legs, Trs. Crs. n Twrs joined in the drumming. The food drinks and the fantastic ambience under the stars was simply awesome. The 62ers had planned out everything to the most minute of details and we all had a gala time. Suman got down to what he does best taking over the dosa counter and making yummy egg burjies. The lamb barbecue needs special mention as it was simple fantastic.

Slowly people started moving back to the resort and then we realized that it was way past mid-night n the time was ripe for some more teen patti. The entire setting enabled fabulous bonding and fellowship between the 42ers and the 62ers.

The teen patti carried on till early morning and our man Hari was sloshed yet again.

The next day started early as we were to head deeper into the jungle for the whole day with our tryst with some wild animals. On the way we stopped at expanse of the dam reservoir for a hearty breakfast. The journey post that was well just too topsy-turvy as there was a kind of non-existent road and to cover about 15 kms it took us a good hr. n half. In the process we could see deer, bison, elephants, monkeys and some strange birds too.

On reaching our picnic destination all the agony of this last bit of journey was forgotten. We were next to a river with cold and clear water and sandy edges. Within minutes the kids along with Sai and Hari were in the water. Thankfully the water was only thigh high at the deepest area and so it was safe for the kids to frolic around. Soon quite a few of us were in the water and the rest either lounged at the river edge on carpets or settled onto to chairs in the water itself. By then the makeshift kitchen was up and fried fish and potatoes enhanced the whole experience, not to mention that alcohol in the form of chilled beer, wine, rum, vodka u name it started flowing along with the river.

The happening of the afternoon was Hari losing his croc slippers in the flow and then finding it back intact

Needless to say the entire afternoon went about in a fantastically lazy and cozy manner with yet again fantastic fellowship with the 62ers. The journey back was equally exciting with lots of animal sighting and at-least one reported puncture in the middle of the jungle.

Everyone had a very satisfyingly tiring look on their faces including the kids who had had the best of the times. On return to the resort it was time for some rest, freshening up and then resuming the fellowship around the bonfire with fabulous starters and drinks.

By then time the dinner was on, the teen patti table was set and the game started in a roaring fashion. Today Hari was not sloshed but he lost in any case.

It was a sumptuous dinner with a lot of bonfire bonhomie and great game of
teen patti where our Suman and their Satish won fabulously. While everyone was slowly gearing up for sleep or were already sleeping, the 62ers were determined to show us their way of night time revelry which continued till about 5 in the morning.The next day was the last in the jungle. We were to leave post lunch and were kind of free to do our own thing. One group went off for a long drive to a nearby hill and another settled down with cards. Meanwhile we had a lecture of saving the tiger by our host KK who is doing a marvellous job. We immediately collected and handed him Rs. 8,000/- for supporting his noble cause and we promised to discuss the issues involved at the floor of the house to take this forward.

Again there was a fantastic spread for the lunch with pomfret and exotic
samosas and fantastic biriyani. Slowly and gradually people started to pack and get ready for the drive back to Coimbatore to join the rest of the 62ers for a kind of formal meeting and fellowship dinner

On reaching Coimbatore we headed straight to the Coimbatore Club and were joined by the rest of the 62ers. There was a formal meeting and a trip down 42-62 memory lane. The traditional beer drinking competition was conducted b/w chairman of 62, Nambi n Hari, who was standing in for Sandy as Sandy had left early. After three yrs. Thanks to Hari, the beer trophy was back with 42. The 62ers wanted another fight n this time with their sq. Leg D. K. Gupta and our past chairman Sai was fielded on 42s behalf. This time the 62ers took the match.

There was the customary best fellowship Tabler and cr. Award from both the sides. 62ers chose Sq. leg Amar for the best fellow ship ward and Cr. Sarika for the best Cr. Award. 42 chose Tr. Deepak for the best fellowship award and Cr. Vikashini respectively.

And then it was time to bid goodbye post dinner as our return train was at 10:35 PM. With a heavy though happy and contented heart we bid the 62ers goodbye with the promise that we shall also try our level best give them all a gr8 time in the next year which is our turn to host them. The benchmarks have been upped tremendously and we have a tough call ahead but we are up to it for sure. Some ideas were being already discussed on the train on the way back.

We would like to thank all the 62ers with utmost sincerity for making this such a memorable and fun filled fellowship weekend. Special thanks to Trs. Bala, Deepak and Satish for their phenomenal planning and execution of this awesome twosome trip. Nothing was amiss and everything was organized fabulously with a lot of care and more importantly with a big heart. From our side it was Suman who had taken the entire responsibility of organizing stuff at our end, so a big thanks to Suman for a commendable job.

Sandeep Mall

Our Sq. Leg Bimal in the news

2008-10-20T23:01:00.001-07:00

Our Square Leg Bimal’s company in the news....

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Diesel may dress up kids in JV with Fifth Avenue
21 Oct, 2008, 0027 hrs IST

BANGALORE: Italian fashion czar Renzo Rosso’s India play is getting bigger. A week after Diesel SpA unveiled a joint venture with Reliance Brands for the core adult fashion business, it has entered into substantial discussions with Chennai-based Fifth Avenue Holdings for a separate deal for tapping the kidswear market.

The Rs 600-crore Fifth Avenue Holdings, one of India’s largest garment sourcing management companies, is holding talks with Diesel Kids for what is probably a master franchisee deal in India, sources told ET.

A formal announcement could come as early as next month. Fifth Avenue could not be contacted for comments immediately. Incidentally, Fifth Avenue has been Diesel’s sourcing partner in India for several years now.

Diesel’s move puts the focus on the domestic kidswear market, estimated at around Rs 4,000 crore, which is expected to grow at 20-30% annually. The premium kidswear segment grew at a compounded annual rate of 25% in the last seven years. ET had earlier reported that Diesel Kids, among the top five kidswear brands globally, may test Indian waters soon. Diesel Kids is a division of the parent company with a separate CEO and top management.

Sources said Diesel Kids may follow the international pricing strategy in India, and start off with exclusive outlets before tapping the upmarket multi-brand outlet channel. Diesel Kids may also dabble in accessories play for the kids, but this could not be confirmed independently.

The core adult business operates in the super-premium-to-luxury apparel space, and is expected to unveil first stores in Mumbai and Delhi in the first half of 2009.
Diesel’s entry is expected to rev up the global interest in India’s organised kidswear market, with several global brands mulling the introduction of their kidswear range here.

India’s organised kidswear market is dominated by local brands such as Gini & Jony and Lilliput, but competition from overseas is hotting up with brands like Mothercare, Kanz, Pampolina and Adams Kids already arriving, or in the midst of entering the market.

OshKosh B’Gosh, the American kidswear brand, which is a close competitor to Diesel, is also reportedly coming to India in a tie-up with Planet Retail.

Joint Fellowship with MART 100, October 2008

2008-10-15T19:42:00.001-07:00

October 12, 2008 will go down in tabling history as the day which witnessed the wettest, wildest table fellowship ever. Driven by Chairman Sandy and Chairman Sharad Jalan of MART 100 (as a fellowship-cum-birthday celebration), all tablers, circlers, sq.legs and twinklers present that day went home with pneumonia.

It was a cloudy overcast day with 100% chances of heavy rain. But that did not stop Chairman Sandy from organizing a great party. The music (retro by nature) kicked off at 10:30 AM sharp and the barbeque delights started rolling out soon after. Tablers from both MMRT 42 and MART 100 showed up in good numbers. There was, as usual, a strong contingent of sq. legs from 42 who were out to prove that they still had it in them to party as hard as the tablers.

After a few rounds of “fellowship”, Sandy and Sharad decided to drench everyone with buckets of water. They soon received help from the gods when the skies opened up and it started raining. This just made the DJ crank up the volume and soon there was a wild rain dance party happening.

The tablers and sq. legs kept “tanking” up the rest of the day while the circlers enjoyed the company of some Ennore fishermen...oh sorry...that was Area Chairman Shakthi and AVC Prabat!!! All in all, it was a great party which ended when HT Giri started serenading sandy under the moonlight!!!

Chairman Sharad also made it a point to conduct a meeting with even an induction thrown in. Tr. Kasiban received a wet but warm welcome into the Tabling movement.

MMRT42 contributes Rs. 150,000 to the Sankara Heart Foundation

2008-09-28T01:48:00.000-07:00

Our community service activities continued to roll after our Bihar effort this year on September 27th at the Madras Cricket Club in a quite and understated manner. Thanks to the great work done by our various Tablers we raised Rs. 150,000 in less than 2 weeks.

This amount was handed over to Mr. K. Jayaramakrishnan, Vice President of Tata Consultancy Services and a Trustee at the Foundation. We had an interesting exchange of background and objectives of both the Sankara Heart Foundation and the Round Table.

The Sankara Heart Foundation is a non-profit providing free heart surgery to children as young as 5 years old. This foundation is focussed on medical care and medical education.

We were very fortunate to have Tr. Pranay Trivedi, National President, with us. In fact we had never intended to make it a formal event in anyway and were simply getting together with Pranay for a casual lunch. When Ravi suggested that Saturday was the only day available for the meeting, it was inevitable. We organised an impromptu lunch meeting with Mr. Jayaramakrishnan and dragged Pranay also into it.

Thanks to Bobby and Ravi for organising and driving this effort through. Sandeep our Treasurer was as vigilant as ever to track down all the contributors and ensure that we had our money in a record time. Much thanks to Suman and Hari for the work down during our Shuttle tournament, Cock-a-Table Do in conducting the raffle and raising Rs. 42,000 for this service.

Bihar Flood Relief, September 2008

2008-09-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

Gentlemen

I am happy to inform you that we have handed over the material collected for the Bihar Flood Relief initiative to our Area Project Convener Ajay Jalan. Most of the material will be airlifted today and the rest will be sent by road.

Tablers, from what I could see our contribution from Area 2 has been one of the largest!

Thanks to Bapuji/Haripriya, Venkat/Kala, Bala/Latha, Shiv/Meena, Chinni/Jayshree, Viresh/Punitha, Katty/Jaya (Jaya for also co-ordinating with the LC), Paul/Tanu, Prasanna/Priya Prasanna, Mehul/Hethal and Meghna for their contibution at a short notice.

Special mention of Bapuji/Haripriya and Viresh/Punitha for their large contribution of clothes and medicines.

Along with the above material the 400 new bedsheets that were arranged by Prasanna / Priya were also handed over by Chairman Sandy for transport to Bihar to Area Chairman Shakti. Prasanna and Mehul were also present.

The bedsheets are of high quality and were partly sponsored by the manufacturer. Prasanna, Kindly thank the manufacturer on MMRT42's behalf for providing these high quality bedsheets at a short notice.

Thanks to Arjun, Chella, Gautham, George, Giri, Mahavir, Mahesh, Mehul, Prasad Sr., Prasad Jr., Prassana, Rajesh, Anandha, Ravi, Sai, Sandeep , Sandy, Shiv , Suman, Sumit, Vasanth, Amar and Bapuji for their contribution towards the funds required for the bedsheets.

Overall it was highly satisfying to see that we had contributions from everybody.

If I have skipped anyone here please accept my apologies and do reply back.

Kudos to 42.

regards

JAIN CHIETAN

Cock-a-Table Do, September 2008

2008-09-21T17:37:00.000-07:00

Our Tablers Suman, Hari, Prasad and Sandeep were at Sterling Club by 0900Hrs on Sunday September 14th, as agreed putting to rest that famous argument that Table time is 2 hours past IST.

By 11.30 AM despite several little setbacks the first match was underway. As usual our Tablers from Area 2 were gung ho about the event and started to accost the registration desk with their entries, changes and special requests.

Through all this the guys at the registration desk kept their cool and handled the scene with aplomb. The challenge was to keep MMRT42's flagship Area 2 event 'Cock-a-Table Do' at a fine balance between a classy sporting event and a much looked forward to fellowship event.

While not without its share of complaints, the event proved itself to be the best it ever has been as anticipated with a record 238 Tablers, Circlers, ladies and Twinklers arriving at the venue and participating in full strength from across the board of Area 2 Tables.

Hari handled the registration and draw, while Suman handled the food. Prasad ensured that we had perfectly chilled beer. And so we thought the event was taken care of.

How mistaken we were!

Through the day, Sumit put in a fantastic effort at conducting the tournament for more than half the session. Prasad ensured that we never ran out of drinks and managed to keep the bar stocked at all times - including walking down to almost near Loyola College to buy soft drinks!

Mehul diligently handled the far court through the day and proved invaluable in ensuring that matches were held at a steady pace.

George became the defacto photographer who captured some fascinating moments of the tournament. Sandeep became the census taker giving us accurate details of registrations and participation through the day. George and Sq. Leg Mahesh chipped in to get us water when we ran out. Hari moved effortlessly from organizer to player and back giving us a much needed representation in our own tournament though 42 never participates in its own.

Sq. Leg HT Prasad chipped in several times to help conduct the matches as also Anantha. Chetan's help at the announcer's desk was invaluable.

At the end of the day, Suman blew everyone off their feet with a fantastic effort in selling the raffle tickets towards our community service project to raise money for Sankara Heart Foundation. He sold 200 tickets of Rs. 250 each and raised a whopping Rs. 50,000 for the project.

Suman was expertly counter balanced in effort by a valiant Hari who handled the draw and match schedule like child's play - earning him a semi-permanent post as match convener for Cock-a-Table Do in the years to come.

The twinklers were taken care of by Sandhya and Jaya who managed to keep all of the kids busy with various activities through a particularly hot September day.

We had Sq. Legs Amar and Vidya, with kids, Mahesh, Bala and Latha and Katty enjoy great fellowship with us! Sq. Leg Sai was his most gracious self when he sponsored 200 bottles of water to the event. Thanks guys for not forgetting 42.

Mahavir, Shweta, Alok, Priya and kids, Ishita, Shalini, Hetal, PC Ravi and IPC Rajesh brought 42's participation to a record high.

It is also very pertinent at this point to specifically mention the help rendered by Sushil and Rakesh of Table 123 in conducting this event without whom this would not have been a fellowship event for 42!

Despite their absence three people made their presence felt at today's event. Sq. Leg Bimal, Vasanth and former member of 42 Kishore of Viveks Ltd. ensured the success of this event by sponsoring it so graciously.

As Chairman of 42 I am humbled by everyone's effort. I learnt that day what my theme "THINK BIG" really means.

Final Results

Event	Winner	Runner-up
Men's Singles	Naresh MMRt95	Amit Khanna MWRT10
Men's Doubles	Amit and Amit MWRt 10	Naresh & Punit MMRT95
Women's singles	Aditi MSRT 123	Mona Lulla 10
Women's Doubles	Aditi and Nandhini 123	Vani and Hamsa 162
Mixed Doubles	Naresh and Heena 95	Punit and Shwetha 95
Fellowship Trophy	MERT 30
Player of the Tournament - Men	Amit Khanna MWRT10
Player of the Tournament	Women Aditi 123

Hippie Day, September 2008

2008-09-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

MMRT 42’s first club service of the year 2008-09 left all the tablers dazed and confused. We had a hippie theme party on August 31, 2008 at Sq. Leg Amar’s beach house. It was a bright and sunny day but there was a strong sea breeze which kept the temper and temperature in control. Plus, there was really cold beer to ward off any heat strokes.

The tablers and sq. legs turned up in good numbers and were all dressed to “chill”!!! Special mention must be made about Tr. Chetan and his wife Meghna who were attired truly hip and hippie and won the best dressed couple award.... (the award was polished off...(a bottle of tequila)..before they showed up at the party!!!!). Special mention must also be made of Sq. Leg Mahesh, 42’s resident hippie, who ensured that the true spirit and atmosphere of Woodstock 69 was recreated.

The day was filled with psychedelic music, flower power, liquid poison and junk food, which everyone enjoyed. Chairman Sandy and Secretary Hari wanted “free love” as well, but as usual struck out!!!!

Autorickshaw Challenge, August 2008

2008-09-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

The first event cum fund raiser for the year was the Autorickshaw Challenge 2008. This is an annual event organised by the Chennai Event Management Services company run by an enterprising Araving Bremanandam. MMRT42 had worked with his company once

in the past and also made a small contribution in 2007-2008. So when he approached MMRT42 this time to participate in a much larger role - that of Charity Partner for the event - incoming Chairman Sandy grabbed the opportunity to turn the event into a major fund raiser cum publicity cum fellowship event for the table.

Over 30 Europeans came dressed in various kinds of costumes and participated in this innovative rally that saw them driving the world famous auto rickshaws from Chennai all the way to Bombay. Along the route they stopped at various Round Table projects

and did various community service activities. This was possible due to the kind cooperation of MERT30, Vellore 28, Bangalore 44, Mangalore 128, Panjim and Bombay RT 2.

Close to 7000 euro is the total amount of funds raised with this event. This money is to be distributed to the various projects that the team has visited.

32nd AGM at the Hotel Chola Sheraton on July 26th.

2008-08-01T00:03:00.001-07:00

Chairman Rajesh and Tr. Viresh hosted the 32nd AGM of MMRT42 at Chola Sheraton this year. It was as all 42 events classy and without frills. Area Chairman Rajesh Gupta and National Projects Convener Mintu Sarna were the guests on the head table.

While there were many minor glitches, as always they were capitalised as great sources of humor and fun for everyone present. One of the most memorable moments of the AGM was the Round Table song. Rajesh asked for the song to be played. The request was conveyed to the hotel staff who conveyed the request to the DJ who then conveyed the request to Hari who was handling the computer. There it met with a blank stare. Finally Past President Shiv saved the day with his booming rendition of the song.

Prasad Sr. turned square and was appointed HT for the year 2008-2009. Other HTs were

Past Area Chairman Giridhar Raj and Chess Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand. Incoming Chairman's theme for the year 2008-2009 was "Think Big 42".

We had a great party after the event to usher in a new tabling year at 42.