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

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.

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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

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

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!

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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).

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.