Rtn. Dr. B.R. Pai celebrated his 80th birthday with friends and family. He believes staying active and engaged keeps him feeling young. On this occasion, Rotary Mysore hosted a "Fireside Chat" where Pai discussed how perception influences life and allows for creativity and innovation. Pai was also able to meet Kamlesh Patel, a spiritual leader known as Daaji, and learned about Heartfulness Meditation practiced by over a million people worldwide. Rotary has launched a new health initiative called "Project Positive Health" focused on preventing non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease through awareness campaigns.

1. From the Founder's Desk Vol: VIII No: 6; November‐December 2019
DearFriends,
On 13th October 2019, I turned 80 years
young. My family members organised a
party for my friends and relatives on that
day at Wind Chimes, Mysuru. Many of my
relativeshadarrivedfrom US toofortheoccasion.
Attheparty,mysonAjithwhileintroducingmecalledme
a budding entrepreneur. Of course he is right, learning,
seeking, searching and exploring new things is my habit.
I feel just turning 80 does not make me old but on any
day If I stop engaging myself then I will become an old
man.
On this occasion, on 24th October 2019, Rotary Mysore
has organised a Fire Side Chat with me which they called
“Life Perception at 80”. Our life depends on your
perception. Life evolves at the level of perception. It is
our perception that adds creativity and brings
innovation to life. Perception is everything in life. I thank
Rtn.Lakshminarayana and Rtn.Roopa Venkatesh for
their role in making this event successful. I am grateful
toRotaryMysoreforgivingmethisopportunity.
R e c e n t l y I w a s
fortunate enough to
meet Shri Kamlesh
D.Patel, Heartfulness
G u i d e a t t h e
International Yoga
Conference on Yoga
for Heart Care. He is
affectionately called
a s D a a j i b y t h e
p ra c t i t i o n e r s o f
H e a r t f u l n e s s
Meditation. Having
startedaspiritualpracticeveryyounginlife,Daajiisalso
a family man, and built up a pharmacy business in New
YorkCityforoverthreedecadesbeforebeingnamedthe
fourth in a century‐old lineage of spiritual masters in
2014.
Heartfulness offers a set of meditative practices for self‐
development, leading to inner calm and stillness in our
fast‐pacedworld.
With over a million practitioners worldwide,
Heartfulness Meditation is available at thousands of
schools and colleges, and over 100,000 professionals
are meditating in corporations, non‐governmental and
government bodies worldwide. More than 5,000
Heartfulness Centres are supported by thousands of
certifiedvolunteertrainersinover130countries.
Ifeeltrulyblessedto havemetthisgreatMaster.
Rotary has taken up a new initiative “Project Positive
Health” with Stop NCD as their focal point. They are
planning wide campaign to bring awareness on NCD.
Wehavepublishedanarticleinthisregard.
Hopeyouwillfindthisissueinteresting.
B.R.Pai

2. 2
(contd...3)
Rotary gearing up to fight against Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs)
NonCommunicableDiseases:
Non communicable diseases (NCDs) are the
conditions or diseases which are not caused by
transmission of infections like that in
communicable diseases. NCDs are non‐
transferableorarenotcontagious.
Noncommunicable diseases, or NCDs, are by far
the leading cause of death in the world,
representing 63% of all annual deaths.
Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) kill more than
36 million people each year. Some 80% of all NCD
deathsoccurinlow‐andmiddle‐incomecountries.
NCDs are the biggest cause of premature deaths in
India. Overall, 61.8 percent of all deaths in the
country were caused by NCDs in 2016. India is
seemingly unable to cope with the newfound
burdenof NCDs.
Despite heart conditions being the most common
cause of death, medical specialists in this area are
lacking. India needs 88,000 cardiologists. It has just
4,000. By comparison, there are 31,890
cardiologists in the United States, catering to a far
smallerpopulation.
OneinfourIndiansareatriskofdyingbeforetheage
ofseventyduetoan NCD.
Heart disease is at the top. In 2016 a staggering 28.1
percent of all deaths in India were caused by heart
conditions.
NCDs include Parkinson's disease, autoimmune
diseases,strokes,mostheartdiseases,mostcancers,
diabetes, chronic kidney disease, osteoarthritis,
osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, cataracts, and
others.
RiskFactors:
The WHO's World Health Report 2002 identified five
important risk factors for non‐communicable
disease in the top ten leading risks to health. These
are raised blood pressure, raised cholesterol,
tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and being
overweight.Theotherfactorsassociatedwithhigher
risk of NCDs include a person's economic and social
conditions.
It has been estimated that if the primary risk factors
were eliminated, 80% of the cases of heart disease,
stroke and type 2 diabetes and 40% of cancers could
Project Positive Health – Stop NCD

3. 3- November & December 2019
be prevented. Interventions targeting the main risk
factors could have a significant impact on reducing the
burdenofdiseaseworldwide.Effortsfocusedonbetter
diet and increased physical activity have been shown
tocontroltheprevalenceof NCDs
Whatisneeded?
The WHO NCD Progress Monitor 2017 has highlighted
thelackofanintegrated NCD policyinIndia.Effectively
combatting NCDs requires reforms at multiple levels,
starting from legislative action, such as imposing taxes
on unhealthy food, tobacco products and alcohol;
enforcing mandatory labelling on packaged foods;
developing infrastructure to facilitate good lifestyle
choices.
Rotary's“ProjectPositiveHealth‐Stop NCD”
Rotary has rolled out the Project Positive Health – Stop
NCD and made it a pan India initiative to promote
positive health among people. Rotary
India would be focusing on the four
common NCDs :
1.Diabetes
India had an estimated 31,705,000
diabetics in the millennium year which is
estimated to grow by over 100% to
79,441,000by2030.
2.HypertensionandHeartDisease
Currently, estimates put the incidence of
hypertension to 20 to 40% in urban areas
and 12 to 17% in rural areas of India.” “One in three
Indian adults has high blood pressure. Heart disease is
thebiggestkillerinIndia.
3.CerebrovascularAccident(Stroke)
Every 20 seconds, one Indian suffers a
brain stroke, or three every minute, and
the numbers are increasing alarmingly
due to changing lifestyles. At this rate, around 1.54
millionIndiansareaffectedbystrokeseveryyear.
4.ChronicKidneyDisease(CKD)
CKD is6thdeadliestdiseaseworldwide
causing2.4milliondeathsperyear
A National Committee has been set up to take the 'Stop
NCD'projectforward.
National Committee members along with Rotary
International President nominee Rtn.Shekhar Mehta,
Rotary International Directors Dr Bharath Pandya &
Rtn.Kamal Sanghvi met on September 16th at Swissotel,
Kolkata to decide long term action plan for Project
Positive Heath ‐Stop Non‐Communicable (NCD) diseases
, and launch programmes throughout the country
throughallRotaryclubsandRotaryDistricts.
It has many interesting programmes to implement this
“ProjectPositiveHealth‐Stop NCD”. Afewof themare:
1. Know your Number campaign ‐ that exhorts every
adult to know his three main health numbers — weight,
BP andbloodsugar.
2. Creating awareness by distributing brochures
containing simple tips to control diabetes, BP, heart
disease,strokeandkidneyfailure.
3.Organisinghealthtalkorapaneldiscussionon FAQson
NCDs.
4.SocialMediacampaignslike‘EkChammachKum,Char
KadamAage'
LifestyletheBestMedicine
We are aware that Improper lifestyle and food habits
contribute to the rise in Non‐Communicable Diseases
among Indians. What is the solution for these Lifestyle
Diseases? Do you know that Lifestyle itself is the best
medicineforpreventionofthesediseasesandpromotion
ofyourhealth?
3

4. Written & Edited by : Arun B.R. & S.Venkateshan
4- November & December 2019
Young India had organised a talk on “Management Lessons from
Bhagavad Gita by Dr.B.R.Pai on Tuesday, 19th November 2019 at
JSS CMS Hall,Mysore.
Mr.Ghanashyam, Chairman of the Chapter welcomed the speaker
and the audience. Mrs.Abhijna, Vertical Chairman ‐ Learning
introducedDr.Pai.
Dr.Pai brought forth that 5000 years old Gita is relevant even today.
Gita was not meant for only Arjuna, it is meant for everyone.
Mahatma Gandhi says “When doubts haunt me, when
disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope
on thehorizon,IturntoBhagavadGita.”Yes!Gitahasgotananswer
foreverything.
In Vishada Yoga ‐ the yoga of Depression, in the battle field of
Kurukshetra, when Arjuna went into depression ‐ throwing away
his bow ‐ Gandhiva, Krishna’s words helped him to recover. It has
manymanagementlessonstoo.
About 70 students participated in the programme. Mr.Pradeep
proposedthevoteofthanks.
Talk on Management Lessons from Bhagavad Gita by Dr.Pai
Talk on “Spiritual Wealth” by Swami Chidrupananda Saraswathi
Vijay Foundation had organised a talk on “Spiritual Wealth” by
Swami Chidrupananda Saraswathi, Founder ‐ Arsha Vidya Kendra
on Thursday, 17th October 2019 at its Himalayan SaltCrystal Cave
premises.
More than 40 people were present Dr.B.R.Pai welcomed the
speaker and the audience. Mr.Venkatesh introduced Poojya
Swamijitotheaudience.
Swamiji asserted that wealth is nothing but security to life.
Everyone earns money to have security in life. Just question for a
while whether the money we earn gives us security? In fact more
moneycreatesmorefearandanxiety.
We are also looking for happiness through money ‐ the wealth we
are earning. Are we getting happiness thereby? It is just like
having the remote in hand and going on switching channels to get
thebestone,andfinallyswitchingitoff.
Swamiji said our swaroopa itself is ananda ‐ happiness but we are
lookingitoutside.

5. S1
- November & December 2019
Glimpses of Hello80
A Birthday Party hosted by Pai’s Family
Hello 80 - A gala party was organised by
Dr.Pai’s family on the occasion of his
birthday. Friends, relatives, well-wishers and
guests were present. Mr.Ajith Pai welcomed
and gave a unique introduction of his father
Dr.Pai - a lot of insights which peoplewere
unawareof,like hisloveforcinema.
Therewasacake-cuttingceremonyandalive
bandofmusictoenthralltheaudience.
Mr.K.B.Ganapathy, Editor-in-chief of Star of
Mysore and Mr.Sam Cheriyan Kumbukattu,
Managing Director of Schevaran
Laboratories spoke on the ocassion. Dr.Pai
thankedoneandallfortheirgoodwishes.

6. S2- November & December 2019
Rtn.Pai’s Life Perception at 80
Rotary Mysore had organised a
‘Fireside Chat’ with Rtn.Dr.B.R.Pai
on his “Life Perception at 80” 24th
October 2019. Rotarians, Anns,
Annets, Innerwheel members and
guestswereallpresent.
Rotary Mysore celebrated Dr. Pai’s
birthday by arraninging a cake‐
cutting. Rtn.Roopa Venkatesh read
a poem on Dr.Pai penned by
Rtn.Arun as an artist sketched a
portraitofDr.Pai.
Rtn.Lakshminarayan presented a
brief biography of Dr.Pai and lauded
hisservicetosociety.
A wish tree organised by Rotary
Mysore was loaded with wishes
fromRotariansandfriends.
Dr.Pai thanked one and all for their
loveandaffection.