Tribute to Vaidyanathan Krishnaswami alias Kittu
WELCOME TO IFCR INDIA
IFCR India/World News
RTN. KITTU
CHARTER CHAIRMAN OF IFCR INDIA AND IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR OF IFCR INTERNATIONAL
Welcome to IFCR India
India has been a cricket loving, cricket crazy country for generations. Sachin Tendulkar is next only to God. So were the spin trio (Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrashekar), Gavaskar and Azharuddin in their hey-days.
You must see the over 100,000 strong Calcutta crowd screaming their heads off in support of the home team to believe the frenzy. We tend to celebrate Indian victories with National holidays. If India loses, we go into mourning.
It is no wonder that PRIP Rajendra Saboo suggested that cricket be played amongst Rotarians from different countries, as a means to promote fellowship. When IFCR formally started its international cricketing activities, Indian teams were only too willing to participate.
The first IFCR Festival of Cricket at Fordingbridge, U.K, in 1997, saw two teams from India participating - one from District 3230 in Chennai and another from Baroda, Gujarat.
India hosted the second festival in Chennai in 1999, where teams from Australia, New Zealand, U.K. and Sri Lanka participated, apart from teams from Bangalore/Mysore.
Five Indian teams participated in the third IFCR Festival in 2002 in New Zealand. Teams from Chennai, Bangalore/Mysore, Pune and two teams from Gujarat spent two glorious weeks taking in the sights of New Zealand and playing cricket at Christchurch.
Mike Jackson, past IFCR World Chairman, attended the meeting of the RI Fellowships Committee in Chicago in early January, and reported on it to the GB&I Committee in Glasgow on 13 January. He found the visit to RI "very stimulating" and later wrote to RI Fellowships Convenor Abe Gordon "It goes without saying that I found the whole experience very enjoyable and I thank you for all the work you did to make it happen.
When I returned I then had to fly up to Glasgow for IFCR GB&I committee meeting. Within IFCR each country operates its own committee to run affairs. I was able to report on my visit and all the good things that may emerge. I clearly inspired my colleagues because I persuaded them to make a $10,000 contribution to Foundation. It is being given to RIBI towards a National Immunisation Day in India in April. I have checked that it will help towards the match on the $100million from the Gates Foundation.
Having the whole picture on this helped me to make the link. India is the largest cricket playing country in the world and our start may well extract more money from our Indian colleagues."
The donation was reported to Abe Gordon, Convenor of the RI Fellowships Committee, who immediatley passed on the news to RI President Wilf Wlkinson, remarking. "Sometimes I wonder how effective we are as we do our Rotary Service. $10,000.00 from this group and proves that Fellowships not only engenders fellowship, but can generate financial support for our Polio program."