SEVENTH MEETING


 

Minutes of REVIVE BOMBAY - Seventh Meeting
Time: Sunday 8th SEPTEMBER, 5 PM, OLIVE
NEXT MEETING : SUNDAY OCTOBER 20th, 4:30PM AT SIN, Moksh, Warden Road.

Hello everyone,

These are the minutes of the seventh meeting of the organization.
-Organisation Update
-Team Updates
-New Members
-New Projects Proposals & Project Removals
-Miscellaneous

1) Organisation Update:
 
Our quest to become a chartered organization has ended. We have gotten registered as a Public Charity Trust by the Charity Commissioners Office.
We have applied for tax exemption from the Income-Tax department so that we can start accepting donations and that we are not taxed on our income.
Akshay Sahgal has kindly volunteered to print our stationery for free through his company Positive Prints. Huge Thanks to him!
Our meetings - locations and times have now been scheduled till September 2003. The list is below.
We are also working on opening a Bank a/c for our organisation. HDFC has been kind enough to waive the opening balance.
 
All meetings will start at 4:30pm.
 
Oct 20th 2002 -    Sin - hosted by Vikrant Chowgule
Dec 1st 2002 -     Cafe Mocha - hosted by Kiran & Kimaya Salaskar
Jan 12th 2003 -   China Garden - hosted by Edward Wang
Feb 23rd 2003 -   Fire n Ice - hosted by Ketan Kadam
Apr 6th 2003 -    Liquid Lounge - hosted by Chirag & Kanika Doshi
May 18th 2003 - The Oberoi - hosted by The Oberoi -Priya D'Cunha
Jun 29th 2003 -   Liquid Lounge - hosted by Chirag & Kanika Doshi
Aug 10th 2003 - Mikanos - hosted by Devesh Sharma
Sept 21st 2003-  Athena - hosted by Vikrant Chowgule

2) Team Update

Bollywood Walk of Fame (Hemanth Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net):

Presentation to MSRDC is ready will take place this month alongwith Mr. Hiranandani and Hafeez Contractor.
Cost will be approximately Rs. 85 lakhs. We are looking at how to pay for this. Our initial idea of having the stars pay for their own stars after their nomination has been accepted by the committee - not happening. We feel we should first make the Walk popular enough and build it using sponsorships etc, and then eventually move to the model where the Stars pay for their stars.
Sponsors options –
1) Tourism dept.
2) Corporate
3) Hotel industry
And this sponsorship will be upto 5 years. After this, it will revert to stars paying.

There is a landscape area next to the walk. We are now extending our scope to include this as well by placing some of the old statues that are rotting away at the Jijamata Udyan in Byculla. The idea is that these statues are placed here and statues of only those people who have made a difference to Bombay city

We are still working on the name for the Walk as the filmis dont' like the name Bollywood. Feel free to email Hemanth any suggestions.

Food Drives (Chirag Doshi - ccdoshi@walchand.com):
They have studied the feasibility of doing Food Drives, using our network of big restauranteurs. However, after studying the logistics and the idea - it turned out quite unfeasible to do on a regular basis. A one-off event, or series of one-off events can be done but not using food remaining at the end of the day as this could lead to liability and legal issues.

Tree Plantation (Chetna Mahadik - skye123@rediffmail.com):
Are looking into the possibility of working with Anahita Pandole - the lady who filed the PIL against hoardings and their action on chopping and killing trees. They are looking into replacing the trees that were killed by these hoarding companies.

Waste Management (Neha Mehta - neha@idfc.com):
The Waste Management has finished Il Palazzo. With that, they have completed what they set out to do. Congratulations to Neha Mehta and her team for completion of their project!

Accessibility for Individuals with Disabilities (AID) (Manish Maker - mrmaker@makersinternational.com):
 

ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY
RAM VIDHANI – Head theatre association – commitment form him to have provisions in all possible theatres.
Architects have been contacted to help and get them to incorporate provisions in all their constructions. Articles to be published in the release by HVS regarding provisions for the physically handicapped.
Buildings contacted.
Hilton hotel

GROUPS OF AID
Will be splitting team up into smaller teams. Each one will work on a specific area of AID
-     Airports
-     Railways
-     Schools
-     Legal
-     Entertainment

Clean Air - Taxis (Puneet Khurana - puneet_k@yahoo.com)
The deadline for CNG conversion was August 31st. With that, the majority of taxis and auto rickshaws have converted to CNG/LPG. There are a few remaining - only because of the lack of conversion kits in the market. They are approaching the High Court for an extension. However the purpose of this team - ie, to facilitate the conversion of taxis to CNG has been completed. With that, they have completed what they set out to do. Congratulations to Puneet and his team for completion of their project!.

Stray Dogs (Vrinda Chhabra - vrinda_chhabra@hotmail.com)
No update as she has gone abroad! But Kimaya Salaskar (kimaya@procamintl.com) will be taking up for her. 

3) New members: 

We welcomed 5 new members at this meeting. Three of them have started their own projects!

4) New Projects & Proposals & Project Removals:
New Projects: 7 New projects
 
1) Make-a-Wish (Nisha Sareen - nish46@hotmail.com)
The idea is that of the Make-A-Wish foundation that tries to give terminally ill children a wish - be it to meet a film star, or go for a horse ride, or see Disneyland etc. It is similar in that it gives the wish, but it is different as it will deal with not only terminally ill children but all kinds of children that are deprived and in extraordinary circumstances.
 
2) Mobile Phone Law  (Freishia Bomanbehram -freishia.bomanbehram@aajtak.com)
People were made aware that there is now a law that does not allow you to use your mobile phone while driving, but furthermore you cannot even use your handsfree kit. This seems absurd as laws abroad permit this and it made little sense. RED FM wanted to tie-up with this team to see what can be done about this law to change it as it makes little sense and loses the point of mobility. The law says if a person is driving, their mobile should be in the switched off mode.
 
This led to a huge debate - where people argued for and against this. It was resolved when it was pointed out that not everyone will agree with every project - everyone will have differences with ideas and ideals. The point is someone finds this an issue worth pursuing where it affects a large number of citizens and Revive Bombay as an organisation should help them so that at the end of the day - something good should come out of it.

3) Adopt-a-kid (Dr. Sohan Shah - drsohan@indiatimes.com)
The idea here is the team finds a child, or childen who they literally adopt upto a certain age. They monitor their life, health,education, even help them out where possible, take them out for outings. Want to tie up with other organisations like Magic Bus etc.
 
4) Emergency Medical Service (Hina Oomer - hinao@hotmail.com)
In Bombay today, it is impossible to get an ambulance to reach on time even though there are so many of them in the city. This team wants to bring together all the ambulances in the city under one umbrella - one central control room, with one number that they can be reached at. With each ambulance having a CB Radio and being monitored via GPS, every ambulance location can be seen and known on a screen at the Control Room. We want to have professional medical staff on board each ambulance to give that emergency medical aid to people to keep them alive atleast until a doctor can see them. Modelled on the Paramedics of the US.
 
5) Hoardings PIL with Anahita Pandole (Hrishi Dugar - hrishi.dugar@czbpartners.com)
Most of you must be aware of the PIL(Public Interest Litigation) filled by Dr. Anahita Pandole. The court has given her a favourable interim ruling while the expert committee works out more details. In the mean time, on talking to her, she suggested that we also get involved by filing as Intervenors, like Citispace and AGNI - two other city NGO's. An intervention is when you support the petition of the main petitioner. We have received the petition and have gone through it and will be looking into the possibility of this.
 
6) Trucks & Lorries pollution (Hem Tejuja - htejuja@hotmail.com)
Most of you at some point must have avoided the exhaust of a truck at a signal etc by pulling your windows up or stopping your car a little further back, so as to get hit by the exhaust of the truck. Hem noticed that there was a family on a motorbike and the exhaust came straight into the face of a baby who was being held by his mother on the bike. What we want to do is to persuade the two main truck manufacturers to alter their exhaust design to make it similar to that of the US, where the exhaust comes along the side and out the top of the truck. This will make the truck manufacturer seem more environmentally and socially responsible, and they will be looking into the possibility of this.
 
7) Saving 2 Heritage statues (Hemanth Meka Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net)
One of the Revive Bombay advisors, historian and author of the book 'Bombay-The Cities Within' - Sharada Dwivedi has pointed out these two beautiful bronze statues that are lying in complete neglect in the Kala Ghoda area. Invisible to the naked eye, these statues are that of King George V and the Prince of Wales, from 80-100 years ago. We want to save these pieces of art and give them a home in an appropriate place, like the NGMA (National Gallery of Modern Art). We are working with the BMC to ascertain the ownership of these statues and then hope to get them to be housed somewhere where their value can be appreciated.
 
 
Team Removal:
Waste Management, Clean Air-CNG and Food Drives.
Waste Management and Clean Air-CNG completed what they set out to achieve.
Food Drives looked into the possibility of donating food from restaurants but it turned out to be quite unfeasible. Having done its research into this, it made little sense to continue this as there were several legal and liability issues.
 
5) Miscellaneous
 
We received a letter from Naveen Jindal. Most of you might know him as the person who fought for seven years to give each and every Indian the right to fly their National flag! An excerpt :
 
" To me flying of the National Flag is a symbolic gesture and is a small act of patriotism while the real act would be to live by the ideals of the flag and that's what I think you are exactly doing. I have always felt that ideals of the flag just tell us to follow simple things like keeping our neighbourhood clean, working with honesty and sincerety .. whether one is an engineer, soldier, teacher or clerk.., trusting and helping each other to grow, to put country's interest before one's personal interest and not to always expect the government to do something. Infact when we talk about major issues of concern like population, literacy, environment, communal harmony and economy we actually need to begin with addressing them at an individual level in our family, workplace and sorroundings.

I agree with you that we need to instill a sense of civic pride and responsibility in each other. I visited your website and saw the small achievable targets that all of you have set for yourself. I really appreciate everyone's role in the REVIVE BOMBAY projects and I am sure everyone is indeed making a difference. Your project 'BOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME' especially is a very distinct piece of thought. Do also let me know about the 'MAKE A WISH' project.

Bombay being one of the greatest and exciting cities of India with population of over 15 million it will be the best place to set an example for rest of the country. Infact I hope that with more and more people joining it soon becomes a peoples' movement, spreads beyond Bombay and becomes REVIVE INDIA. We all should make a beginning starting with the man in the mirror.

Keep in touch. Best regards, Naveen"

Don't forget that the Supreme Court has given a ruling whereby every Indian can proudly fly the National Flag on their home and office.
 
One of our members met a group of Supreme Court Judges - and they’ve heard of Revive Bombay!
 
Fund raising - We need every one to get working on funds and looking for people who support our causes. Now that we have 11 Projects going on, surely there will be interest in atleast one of them.

Attendance - While the initial three meetings got an average of 50 people, since then attendance has dropped to 25-30 people.
Everyone was of the opinion that we shouldn’t do anything about it because that way the focused few are involved …. So people …. Get focused!

Thank You!
We ended the meeting with a BIG Thank You to AD Singh and the Olive Team for making this meeting  possible. They provided some delicious refreshments which I never got to see! This was our first meeting in the suburbs to get more people from the suburbs to show at the meetings.  Most people agreed it was one of the best, most effective meetings.

Next Meeting!
The Next Revive Bombay meeting will be on OCTOBER 20th (this Sunday), at SIN, the new place at Moksh - opposite the U.S Consulate, Warden Road - Courtesy of Vikrant Chowgule and the Chateau Indage team. 
 
Looking forward to seeing you all there, so please be there.