THE GENESIS OF ROTARY COCHIN INTERNATIONAL

I joined the Rotary movement in 1997 as the member of Rotary Cochin Harbour and attained big recognition by becoming the best club secretary of the district during the Rotary year 1999-2000. Soon after, things started turning sour and I decided to quit the club in early 2001. Though I found the Rotary movement very dear to me, there were difficulties with some people inside the club. While the hurt and pain was very much there, I did not have any idea to start a new club. I thought I would cool off for some time and later accept an invitation from one of those city clubs (which I have been receiving plenty) and join up to continue as a Rotarian.

It was then that Rtn. Lellulal, who too had been cooling his heels after leaving Rotary Cochin Downtown, where he was the charter Secretary, approached me. I had known Rtn. Lellulal even outside Rotary. Initial cajoling by him did not break the ice. He was persistent and finally (almost after 2 months) I said, “why not”?

How to start a Rotary club and whom to invite to be its members? Lellulal took it as his job to find a sponsoring club. Regarding membership, he thought we would have a mix and match of existing Rotarians and newer one, as there were some existing Rotarians who were interested in joining up with him. I did not want that to happen. It is one thing to leave a club but it is sacrilege to start another club with members taken from existing clubs. I too was not keen to invite existing Rotarians to the new club. Besides Lellulal and I, we had decided to have the rest of the membership to come form non-Rotarians. The first person I brought into the discussion was Hari, who was a partner in my business. Thereafter, I made a list of some of the friends and acquaintances that I have had. I sent them a well-drafted letter explaining Rotary and the advantages of being a member of Rotary movement and invited them to the new club. Later, I followed it up with phone calls. Barring two people, everyone (it was 22 of them) accepted my invitation, which was very heartening indeed.

In an evening of October 2001, all were invited to Hotel Avenue Center, Cochin. Participants were introduced to each other and club vision was put across to them. Many of them had heard of Rotary and the acceptance within the gathering was very good. So we decided to go ahead with the formation of a new Rotary club. Lellulal talked to Pres. Thomson Thomas of Rotary Club of Ernakulm (the club where he started his Rotary membership) and got him to sponsor our club. Pres. Thomson appointed Dr. Peter John, a senior Rotarian and past president of the club, as the GSR (Governor’s Special Representative) to form our club.

Then came the name for the club. Our GSR suggested the name as Rotary club of Lakeside Cochin. Lellulal suggested ‘Cosmopolitan’ as the name. My thoughts on the name were in some global, universal levels. Finally, the brainstorming within the membership resulted in the name Rotary Cochin International. There were big objections from the fraternity from outside, including some past DGs. Everyone feared that Rotary International would not pass the name, as it would be an affront to it. Our then DG (Rtn. Kuriachan) checked with me to change the name. By then I had my defense ready. Having researched through the Rotary International directories that I could lay my hands upon, I came out with at least 10 clubs with the international affix after the city of its origin. (Malmo International, Moscow International, Seattle international etc., in fact later we started a fellowship of the Rotary clubs the world over having the ‘international’ affix to it). This had convinced the DG amply and he forwarded our papers to RI with his recommendations for chartering our club. Honestly, we were very confident of getting the name and were never bothered about the objections of the fraternity. Later, when the approval came, every one’s envy was very evident. It was a sort of deja vu for many of them. (“Why didn’t we think of it earlier as the name for our club”?).

Though we did not go for much fanfare in inaugurating the club provisionally, December 2001 onwards, we started meeting regularly at Hotel Meridien on every Wednesdays at 6.30 PM. (We continued to meet in Hotel Meridien for about 18 months thereafter). We got senior Rotarians like K N Shastry, Balagopal, Lalichan, Rajmohan Nair, and George Korah etc to address our club to give the members appropriate Rotary orientation. By March 2002, our Charter certificate came through from RI. 6th March 2002 was our charter day. The charter presentation was held very colourfully at Hotel Renaissance, in presence of members of Ernakulam club, our member’s family and invitees, sister club presidents and secretaries, district officials and other well-wishers from Rotary. DG Rtn. Kuriachan handed over the Charter to our Secretary (Harikrishnan PK) and me. DG Kuriachan and PDG Venugopal C Govind inducted all new members into Rotary.

Besides me, Lellulal and Hari, the other charter Members were M/s. Aby, Madan, Rajeev, Rajeev Nair, Vijay, Murali, Cinu, Prashanth, Manoj Joseph, Manoj Kumar, Baiju, Dr. Siby, Ravikumar, Reji Ramen, Reji Abraham, Balakrishnan, Shaju and Dilip. Lellulal was the senior most in age and Prashanth, the baby of the club. From the original 22, two did not join but we had a new aspirant with high Rotary pedigree with whom the total charter membership came to 21. A majority of the charter members continue to be in the club. Considering the geo-political situations that Rotary is going through, it is indeed a matter of great joy and pride to see the charter members forming the crux of the membership and always be part and parcel of all activities of the club.

In every word, RCI was a new generation club. Youth power was the essence, professionalism the core and creativity at its helm. Our newsletter letter that was released on the charter day ROCOINT confounded many. Formed of the first two letters of our club nomenclature, it moved away from the traditional ways. With Madan being the charter editor, it was to be!

What was the uniqueness of RCI when it all began? Firstly, all the charter members were professionals. Most of them were in specific hi-tech vocations. Sports in general and Cricket in particular was glue that bonded the members together. The age of members was within plus minus 5 years. There was no communication and generation gap within the membership.

RCI had grown from strength to strength। It had become very much part of Cochin and district 3200 Rotary map. In many activities, be it sports, arts or charity, RCI has been making big impact, year after year. There are many wonderful projects that the club is doing including Bhavana, the Youth festival for differently abled children. It has 5 PPs now. The membership had grown to 36. There are 3 lady Rotarians in RCI. Club members had gone on to be part of District administration (AG/GGR/ District Zone Secy./Dist. Sergeant at arms/ Dist. Jt. Secy./ Conf. Jt. Secy etc all) many times. Personally I am very happy to comment the friendship and dependence for each other within the members, which includes their families. This shows that beyond Rotary, we had formed a cohesive society having similarity in thoughts and action. All members cherish and depend on the relationship that they had built up with each other in RCI.

What is in the Charter President’s wish list for RCI of the future? Continued cohesiveness and feeling for each other comes as the first priority। Quality membership is another। A club not getting corrupted by the vicissitudes of position and power that Rotary offers is a major hope and all members enjoying Rotary meaningfully, is the mother of all wishes.