a) The Managing Committee, MAB, takes pleasure in announcing that its Holi get together cum first millennium function will be held on Saturday, April 15th, 2000 from 6.30 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. at the following venue:
Good Shepherd Lawns
Four Bungalows Road
Andheri (W), Mumbai 400 058
b) This venue is the same where we had our last function and several earlier get togethers in the recent past and we are sure that it will be familiar to most of the members. However, some guidelines to approach the venue are:
1. The Four Bungalows Road (connecting J. P. Road with Bala Sawant Marg) is a well known road in Andheri (W) and the Good Shepherd Church Compound is a prominent place on this road. A route chart showing the venue location and approach is furnished herewith for your convenience.
2. The venue (Four Bungalows) can be easily reached from Andheri (W) Railway Station or Andheri (W) Bus Depot by taxi / auto or by bus No. 266 or 267 or by bus No. 255 from Sion. Bus Nos. 38 and 232 have a stop right in front of the venue. From Eastern Suburbs, bus No. 352 Ltd. Goes from Anushakti Nagar, Chembur, to near by 7, Bungalows, and No. 374 (Goregaon) goes via Andheri.
3. Any further or specific guidance about the venue location or route can be had from Shri Taj Bahadur (Phone 6363340 / 6319319), Shri Anil Mathur (Phone 5700754 / 5797081) or Shri Ajit Mathur (Phone 6498673 / 6481744).
c) Dinner, drinks and snacks will be available as usual.
1. Annual Membership of Rs. 50/- for the year 2000 - 2001 may kindly be paid by all members (except life members) at the reception counter.
2. When you approach the Reception Counter (or for any communication withMAB), please specify your MAB Directory Ref. No. (like C-2, W-32, NE-5 etc.) in addition to your name. This will enable us to quickly locate you in our member's list and correctly credit your payment against your name. Besides, it will save a lot of your and our time at the counter, especially during the peak rush.
Your Ref. No. is indicated against your name in the Directory / Corrigendum (already widely circulated) and is also marked at your address on the Newsletter.
(a) Our last (Diwali) function was held on 18-12-99 evening and was attended by 435 persons (a record of sorts) which was a pleasant surprise. We have happily taken it as a trend setting indication of ever-increasing participation of members in our functions, which we always welcome and look forward to. However the pleasant surprise had a little unpleasant side effect too, in the consequential form of some food shortage towards the end of dinnertime. In the absence of any advance information as to who and how many will be attending a function, we go by our guestimate, based on our past figures and normally arrange catering for 300 - 350 persons. Not in the too distant past, there have been occasions when we did not have even these much guests, resulting in wastage of unutilized food. So, in our last function when we had almost 100 guests over and above our planning, some food shortage towards the end did occur. At that late hour and at such a short notice, it was not possible to augment food supply to the required extent.
We are aware that towards the end, some guests could not get all the food items and a few even went back without dinner. This definitely made us feel sad.
Typical to our cool and accommodating Mathur culture, most members ungrudgingly took the situation in it's stride, saying that this does happen once in a while under such circumstances. They managed with whatever they got (or did not get) as a gesture of oneness with the MAB in a spirit of "apne ghar ki baat hai." We are grateful to all the guests for their cooperation and for bearing with the said unforeseen situation
This, however, highlights the long pending need of evolving some system of advance information to the MAB about the number of persons intending to attend a function so that food arrangements can be provided accordingly, (with a reasonable plus or minus), to avoid too much shortage / wastage of food in our future functions. We would very much appreciate member's suggestions on this subject.
(b) Entertainment programs, music, dance, raffle, etc were enjoyed and appreciated by all.
(c) Members from New Mumbai (Vashi-Panvel) had hired a special bus to attend the function with families due to which they had a comfortable, convenient and hassle-free to-and fro journey, specially the late night return journey. We applaud their enthusiasm and congratulate the organizers for arranging and coordinating &this great facility, which can perhaps be followed by other groups in other Zones also.
(d) In response to our "Appeal For Funds", we gratefully acknowledge receipt of the following sponsorships and thank them for their generosity:
1. Shri Taj Bahadur (Andheri W) for 10 bottles of RC Whiskey
2. Shri Bhola Dayal (Deonar) for full supply of Soft Drinks and Soda
3. Shri K B Mathur (Reliance Petro / Andheri W) for 5 crates Beer
1. I Prize - A "Sumeet Mixie" by Shri Suresh C. Mathur (Khar-W)
2. II Prize - An Electric Toaster by Shri Sushil K. Mathur (Bhandup)
3. III Prize - A Citrus Juicer by Shri Ajit K Mathur (Khar-W)
4. IV Prize - A Teflon Kitchen Pan by Shri Anil K Mathur (Powai)
Our sincere thanks to the above sponsors for their offers that made our Raffle programme lively and attractive.
(f) Smt. Renu and Shri Sushil K. Mathur (Bhandup) provided, as usual, free ice cream to all guests. Our sincere thanks and appreciation for the same.
Sponsorships (please see repeated para 4 of this newsletter) help us a lot in holding our functions successfully, besides providing financial backup to meet our various function expenses and in subsidizing the food cost to some extent. We look forward to continuing sponsorship support from our Members, especially from those of our potential contributors who would like to take their first step forward in this direction and give a lead to others.
1. The MAB Directory has already been provided free of cost (courtesy Smt. & Shri Hanuman Bahadur Mathur, Worli) to all members. The first Corrigendum / Addendum to the same was issued alongwith our newsletter dated 1.12.99. A second one (No. 2/99) updated upto 30.3.2000 is enclosed herewith. It is in continuation of the first one and is to read with reference to the main directory. It will be best if members carry out these corrections / additions in their copy of the main directory, rather than keeping these loose sheets which can get misplaced.
2. Printer's Devil: We regretfully admit a mistake in our Directory 1999. The calendar for the year 2000 on page II therein shows the month of February having 28 days which should have been 29 days. We do not want to escape from blame by passing the buck to Y2K, but a mistake has occurred at our end. Result - The entire calendar as shown from March 2000 onwards becomes wrong and has to be ignored.
3. A correction for record's sake - In the "Foreword" of the Directory, para I at page XII the tenure of the MAB Presidentship needs a small but factual correction as follows:
Ordinarily speaking the above correction may not be that important as to be specially announced, but is considered necessary for setting the record right.
Cost of food materials, venue hire charges, music and entertainment expenses etc., have all been rapidly rising, making it difficult for the Association to meet the expenses of holding functions. Occasional donations from generous members do come once in a while, but that alone does not cover all the costs. We, therefore, appeal to our members to kindly come forward and help us tide over the situation by extending their support for the cause of the Association in any of the following few suggested ways:
1. Give corpus donations which could be put in a bank FD, and its interest could be used perpetually as your running contribution at each function.
2. Give whatever you can as a spot cash contribution on function(s) towards the expenses of the said function(s).
3. Sponsor (wholly or partly, individually or jointly) an item of the function(s), by contributing the amount shown against each -
Venue hire Rs. 5000/-
Non-veg. material Rs. 5000/-
Cooking and service charges Rs. 5000/-
Music and entertainment Rs. 3000/-
Lighting, tables, chairs etc. Rs. 3000/-
Hard drinks (whiskey & beer Rs. 3000/-
Soft drinks Rs. 1500/-
Note: Though the actual expenses on these items are usually more, sponsorship amount has been limited to above or actuals, whichever is less.
iv) Any other way desired, e.g. donation on a marriage or any other happy occasion in family or in business.
Your generosity will be greatly appreciated and acknowledged in our newsletters and will go a long way in helping us in holding good functions. Kindly contact any of the following for further details and for processing your contribution.
Your Zonal Representative
Shri Shamsher B Barellia (Mahim) Tel. 4467212 (Ref. No. C-25)
Shri Mahesh C. Mathur (Churchgate) Tel. 2013328 (Ref. No. S-18)
We are always in need of volunteers to manage the various counters at functions, and once again request members, especially young boys and girls, to come forward for this. Those who feel reluctant to tie themselves down to a counter throughout the whole function may form groups of two or three, so that amongst themselves they can relieve each other and also enjoy the function. We are sure many will find this an exciting assignment alongwith a sense of fulfillment of rendering an important community service. Please do come forwards and convey your names immediately to any of the following -
Shri Shamsher B. Barellia (Mahim) Tel. 4467212
Shri Ajit Mathur (Khar-W) Tel. 6498673 / 6481744
Smt. Vineeta Bahadur (Khar-W) Tel. 6046849 / 6046083
Shri Sushil K. Mathur (Bhandup) Tel. 5685727 / 5682082
Even if you volunteer yourself at the function venue, you will be welcome, but please be there in time.
Members of our East Zone (Chembur-New Mumbai-Panvel) organized a zonal Get-together at Koperkhairane (New Mumbai) on 5.2.2000 evening, attended by more than 100 persons of the zone. Variety entertainment programs provided by the members and their families was followed by drinks, sumptuous veg/nonveg dinner. Organizers of this get together deserve full praise from the MAB. Such Zonal activities provide an opportunity for families in the zone to come closer and know each other better. MAB always advocates and encourages such zonal activities and hopes that other zones will also organize their zonal functions from time to time.
There have been frequent complaints that sometimes members do not receive our circular, or receive it late, by which time they have fixed other programs and are unable to join our function. It has, therefore, been decided to "standardize" the function days as evenings of third Saturday of April and third Saturday of December each year for our Holi and Diwali Functions respectively (This will be strictly adhered to unless there are very special reasons for a change). The circulars, intimating the venue and other details will continue to be issued as usual but this "standardization" of dates, we are sure, will be helpful for your advance planning. The next Diwali function will accordingly be on 16th December, which is the third Saturday of December 2000.
i) In this millenium year, it is proposed too compile a list of our "Biradri Buzurgs" (ladies/gents) normally residing in Mumbai, who are or will be 75 years of age or above by the end of the year 2000, i.e. those born in the year 1925 or earlier. MAB wishes to honour them in our coming December (millenium) function and to seek their blessings.
1. It is also proposed to prepare a list of our members or families who have been in Mumbai for 40 years or more in the year 2000, i.e. who have been here (or continuously maintained their household here) since 1960 or before.
Members who are eligible for the above two categories may kindly send their names and required details latest by 30.9.2000 to our Hon. Secretary, Shri Shamsher B Barellia at the following address: Block 10- B, Flat No. 3, Navjivan Society, Mori Road, Mahim, Mumbai 400 016. (Tel. 4467212)
Though we do not insist upon a formal documentary proof of the eligibility claim, some acceptable evidence (even a solemn self-declaration) in support thereof will be expected.
If you yourself are not a candidate for the above two categories we will be grateful if you let us know about such eligible persons known to you so that we may ourselves contact them.
1. Kindly do (repeat do) inform us of any change in your residential / office address and phone numbers as and when it occur. You may simply drop a post card at our office address or phone your Zonal Representative or any other member of our Managing Committee. This will help us in keeping our Directory updated and will prevent our circulars to you coming back undelivered. Listed members leaving Mumbai for good may kindly make it a point to definitely inform us of their departure, and if they (specially the life members) leave with us their forwarding address, it will be highly appreciated.
2. Members, (other than Life Members) may kindly ensure that we receive their annual membership of Rs. 50/- regularly. Our year is the financial year, (April to March) and as such memberships for the present year, 2000-2001 is now due from all.
Fifty rupees a year is a small amount to an individual member but collectively to us it matters a lot. So, kindly do arrange payment of your annual membership regularly, which goes a long way in sustaining the MAB.
In our dinners please avoid wastage of food in leaving platefuls of leftovers (especially in children's plates). On our part, we will provide more number of food counters so that second and subsequent helpings may be picked up frequently and easily. Kindly give us your cooperation in avoiding wastage of food, and thus saving our food expenses.
This is to remind members of the standing cash Academic Awards sponsored through MAB for Mumbai based Mathur boys and girls
1. Awards sponsored by Shri Sushil K Mathur, (Bhandup W)
1. "GUNNO DEVI" Award- Rs. 500/- for the highest marks obtained in SSC.
2. "GANPAT SAHAI" Award- Rs. 500/- for the highest marks obtained in HSC.
1. Awards sponsored by Shri M B Lal (Pedder Road)
1. "ANAND SHARAN" Awards (3 nos.) Rs. 1000/- each for highest marks in BA / BCom. / BSc.
2. "SPECIAL" Award - Rs. 2500/- to a boy and/or Rs. 5000/- to a girl entering the Indian Administrative Services (IAS)
Note: 1) For the Awards under (a) and (b-i) above, minimum qualifying marks - 65%. Applications with photocopies of the marksheets to reach MAB office latest by 31st August, following the concerned Academic year. Applications