Sunday, January 22, 2006

Rotary Club of Pondicherry Beach Town

After breakfast and some postcard writing, Kumar met us at the entrance to the hotel and we drove south, as though we were going to return to Pannithittu, but stopped far short of that distance. We had been invited by Past District Governor Purushothaman and Club President Anil Kumar to participate in the dedication and distribution of several tricycles and wheeled chairs for disabled adults who live in the communities surrounding Pondicherry. Through the efforts of PDG Puru, as he is fondly called, tricycles made from recycled bicycle frames and other parts were purchased and shipped to Pondicherry especially for this day. Rotarians from Australia had fashioned the wheeled chairs from recycled parts and had also shipped a number of them to Pondicherry.

The tricycles are not what one would normally think of when remembering when we were youngsters and got our first set of wheels. These were going to serve the recipients as basic transportation, as well as a means to possibly travel the streets, and become productive members of society, where the recipients might possibly be able to create small businesses for themselves, selling items from their tricycles. Most of the recipients were victims of paralysis as a result of polio, and the paralysis affected the lower half of their bodies. With the tricycles, they would be able to “pedal” by using their hands and arms, rather than their frozen legs.

We had been contacted several times during the past several days by Club President Anil, and advised even as we were ready to depart from the hotel, that the program had been postponed by an hour. Evidently, PDG Puru, who resides in the city of Salem, in Tamil Nadu state, left his home at 5:00 in the morning, and rather than taking the normal three or four hours to drive, had taken well in excess of six hours! The highway system in India is being expanded, and therefore, construction work narrows the already overcrowded roadways, clogged with trucks hauling sand and cement, crushed stone, and all of the other components of building roads and bridges. This along with the normal everyday traffic caused serious delays for everyone.

We arrived at the site of the meeting – a wedding hall about fifteen minutes from the center of Pondicherry, and were greeted heartily by the Club President and other members and guests. We went upstairs in the hall and were reunited with our dear friend, PDG Puru. It was so good to see him again, particularly because he was so instrumental in facilitating the process of connecting with Swamiji, as well as shepherding our joint efforts for the construction of the homes in Village Pannithittu in an orderly manner. It was obvious to the three of us that he is highly respected and dearly loved by the Rotarians from his district. Also in attendance was another Past District Governor, PDG Balu, who had served his district in 2001-2002 when the theme for that year was MANKIND IS OUR BUSINESS. Although I had never met PDG Balu, it was as though we were old friends, meeting once again after the passing of time.

Once we had arrived and gotten somewhat settled, President Anil announced that we were only awaiting the arrival of the recipients of the tricycles and wheeled chairs. Due to the fact of it being Sunday, and moreover that these folks lived in a bit of a scattered pattern from the central part of Pondicherry, the Club had arranged to have them picked up by a rather large open bed truck, which went from village to village to meet them. About a half hour following our arrival, we heard the honking of a truck horn, and went to the upstairs balcony of the building to see the arrival of the truck carrying about a dozen of the recipients. Each was gently lifted from the bed of the truck and carried up the two flights of stairs to the meeting hall. A few of them were able to climb those stairs using only their hands and arms to lift them, one step at a time.

Everyone settled into his or her seat, and the program began. President Anil welcomed all of us, and asked that PDG Puru and I join him on the dais. We did and as is the tradition in India, we were each welcomed with ceremony and presented with a bouquet of flowers. There were a number of presentations and recognitions, and the program began. President Anil Kumar addressed those in attendance, speaking of this project and how it evolved. Past District Governor Balu was then introduced, and spoke not only of the project, but also of the creation of this Beach Town club. Originally, it was chartered during his term as District Governor, 2001-2002, and its members consisted only of people under the age of thirty-five. Initially, the idea caught the interest of so many young business owners and managers in the area. However, numbers dwindled a bit, until finally PDG Balu himself, joined this club, and invited several of his contemporaries to be a part of a very vital and vibrant Rotary Club. There is a great deal of enthusiasm within the membership, and they seem to take on one fundraising and/or community service project each month!

PDG Puru and I were in turn introduced and addressed those assembled, but were eager to get to the real purpose of the meeting – to dedicate and distribute the “tricycles” and the wheeled chairs to those who had been transported from the outreaches of Pondicherry. It was very heartening to see the appreciation on the faces of those who received these new means of transportation, and it was quite evident that those who were presented the tricycles, would be looking at them not only as a means of transportation, but also as the basis for becoming productive members of society, through use as commercial carts to sell vegetables or trinkets or other items to those who lived in their immediate areas.

Following the formal presentation, everyone adjourned to the lower level of the building and we were treated to a typical South Indian meal – served on banana leaves. During the week, I found I had become reasonably adept at eating with no utensils, but using only my right hand to gather up the food from the plate or the banana leaf. The meal was very hearty and delicious. We left following lunch and returned to our hotel.

During our stay in Pondicherry, we had attempted to arrange to meet with His Excellency, Lieutenant General (Ret.) Lekhara, Governor of the Union of Pondicherry. I decided to make one last attempt by calling his residence and speaking with his Aide de Camp. About mid-afternoon, I received a telephone call from his Aide and a meeting was arranged for that afternoon, at 3:45. We showered and dressed and Kumar drove to the governor’s residence. Due to the upcoming Republic Day celebrations, scheduled for January 26, barricades and checkpoints had been set up surrounding the governor’s residence for several blocks away. However, word must have been passed along, because we were cleared at each point and drove directly to the front gate of the residence. Additionally, taxis and private cars are relegated to park a few blocks away from the residence, but Kumar was allowed to park his vehicle directly across the street from the gate!

We presented our credentials and were escorted into the residence and upstairs to the private quarters. The formal reception room is located just off the private quarters, not so dissimilar from our own White House, and we were asked to sit and wait for the governor to appear. As a side note, I had met Governor Lekhara on a number of occasions this past year, in April 2005, and when our team was about to depart the area, he invited us to a reception and tea, and commended us upon our accomplishments. Governor Lekhara entered the room and greeted Mark and me very warmly and we introduced Melpo to him. We enjoyed tea and some very special snacks, including miniature samoosas, which the governor informed us, were only made at the residence.

There were a number of issues I wanted to discuss with the governor, most centered around the construction site at Pannithittu Village and the progress, which has been made, to the greatest credit of his intervention on the project. Being an independent union, Pondicherry seems to function with more efficiency. This can also be attributed to the fact that Governor Lekhara is a retired Lieutenant General from the Indian Army, and he is very decisive in the manner in which he carries out his duties. Land was quickly identified, purchased and the project begun much more quickly than most in Tamil Nadu. There are still areas, for example, where land is awaiting approval as a location for rebuilding homes, to say nothing of being purchased and cleared, so Governor Lekhara is to be commended and congratulated for his intervention. Mark, Melpo and I had considerable concern regarding the hygiene, which was not being observed by some of the villagers, the lack of toilets, and the lack of clean water. We discussed each of these topics and were assured by the governor that proper toilets were not only installed in each of the new one hundred homes where we had been working all week, but in addition, his government had subsidized the installation of toilets in several hundred homes which already exist in the area. This, along with some serious education, will make a tremendous impact upon the cleanliness of the area, thereby making the beach areas safer for people to walk on and enjoy.
Governor Lekhara thanked us for our continued involvement, and for the generous support shown by Rotarians and friends of Rotary from throughout the world, for the construction of these homes. We thanked him for his hospitality and his personal intervention in this project, and left to drive south again to Pannithittu Village for one last look.