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rotary international in great britain
and ireland
humanity in motion
Rotary Club of
Godalming Woolsack
humanity in motion
rotary international in great britain
and ireland
The Woolsack Raid to India
It was with some trepidation that I found myself in the departure lounge of Heathrow Airport at 8.00am one Tuesday in 2001. I had persuaded ten members of Woolsack and their wives to travel with me. We were on our way to stay with Rotarians in their homes near Chandigarh and then to take a short holiday in Northern India. Only I had visited India before. I knew what I was letting them in for, but did they?
It all started six years previously when I visited Chandigarh on business and stayed for about a month. To me, one of the excellent things about Rotary is that I can walk into any club anywhere in the world where I will immediately feel welcome and among friends. Panchkula Club met just around the corner from my temporary residence, so off I went. That was the first of several visits to Panchkula Club over the following two to three years.
I was shown an ongoing Panchkula Club project which comprised a compound and buildings housing some forty orphan children. The project included education schemes for the children and additional vocational training schemes for the older youth. The proposal for a joint project was to extend the training courses to help destitute women and it was agreed that we would seek a matching grant to provide courses in Food Preparation and Hygiene. The application was successful, our contribution of £1,000 was quadrupled to £4,000, and a group of us from Woolsack decided that we would visit the Panchkula Club.
So back to Heathrow. Despite my concerns we had a wonderful time on our ten day trip. After two days in Delhi on arrival and a three hour train journey to Chandigarh, we were met by our Panchkula hosts for a whirlwind two days during which our President, Jim Barker, officially opened the joint project.
The first trainees attended the opening ceremony and I am sure that I was not the
only one who was very moved by the occasion. There followed a club meeting and buffet
that evening with wives and the following day we departed at 5.00am for the rest
of our holiday -
Lasting memories include following a line of porters bearing our luggage on their heads into the sunset at Delhi railway station, the tranquillity of the Lotus Temple in Delhi in contrast to the bedlam in Chandni Chauk Bazaar, and of course the indescribable spirituality of the Taj Mahal. Most rewarding of all, we had the unique experience of staying with Indian families in their homes.
I needn't have feared -