The Rotary Club of Madras in RI District 3230 Chennai India, incepted 81 years ago, is the Oldest Club in Southern India and the 3rd. Oldest in India as a whole.

On the 6th. of Oct.' 09, it was probably the only Club in India which celebrated the Rotary Global History Fellowship Day, which falls on the 11th. of Oct. every year and which is being celebrated for the first time this year, the world over.

This club boasts of a rich Tradition in the way the club is run over the years and more importantly, the relevance it has to the community in which it operates, for it has been, sensitive to the local needs and has responded admirably to the wants of the immediate society.

Responding to RGHF Founder Jack Selway's call to celebrate this at the District level, the club, for a start celebrated the RGH Day at the club level by giving and insight to its members of what Rotary Global History Fellowship was and where it has reached after 9 years of it having been conceived as an idea. It was also made known to the 200+ members of the club, that today, the web site of RGHF is a Power House on Information, that even the Officers of Rotary International rely upon for information as authentic, a fact that RIPE Ray Klinginsmith himself expressed to one of our members.

We then had a Historian of Repute in the city of Chennai (Madras), Mr. S. Muthiah, who spoke to the club on "Biography as History". He is a person who has written the biography on many an eminent citizen of this Great City Chennai including a few of our own Rotarians, but has also written and chronicled the History of Chennai for the public at large.

His exposition was articulate and clear, during the course of which he impressed upon each one of the listeners to write their own Biography and not sit in judgment of whether he or she is worth the effort. He said, that everyone has a lot to contribute to History and for people to know how things happened in a particular period and under what circumstances they happened. He said the the circumstances of the Happenings were more important, than the Happening itself.

The Rotary Club of Madras was thus very happy to have got up this event albeit in a small way and hope to continue this effort, year on year.

Rtn. N.K. Gopinath (RGHF Member)

Past President

Rotary Club of Madras