Minutes of the Meeting-that-never-was !!

Our last meeting for 2006 - the Annual Review Meeting (ARM) - was to be held on November 17 at our President, Mabelle Palat’s, house.

Unfortunately, the meeting could not be held since there was ‘promise’ of very poor attendance. This could be due to the fact that we had changed the meeting to Friday, instead of Saturday, which made it impossible for our working members to attend.

In any case the summation of the programmes of 2006, including the accounts, had been sent to our members by e-mail and we trust that all the details meet with approval.

The Committee for next year has been constituted and is as follows:
Itisha Peerbhoy (1995-2001) - President
Shanti Yajnik (1983-1985) - Secretary
Mabelle Palat (1971 - 1985) - Treasurer
Good Luck to them. May we all extend every co-operation to the committee to make our time together productive and fun.

Please check out our wonderful SCESA-Bangalore website! The correct website address is http://www.scesabangalore.blogspot.com

There will be six meetings next year. Interesting talks and events have been planned. Please note these dates in your calendar so you won’t miss any get-togethers.

January 20
March 17
June 16
August 18
October 20
Nov 17

All are third Saturdays, and the time will be 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Till we meet again, all the very best for the festive season and a very Happy New Year on behalf of the SCESA – Bangalore committee!

Letter from the President

Dear Scesa Bangalore Friends,

Another year has gone by on our willing or unwitting march to Wisdom and, as we are Sophiaites, we will be on our way with an added thrust. Towards this end, we met as ex-Sophiaites, here in Bangalore, on 4 different occasions to date.

Our meetings catered to our senses, whether taste, smell or seeing. We met for lunch on 2 occasions, and even though we were very few, the second time round, we attended in comforting numbers for the session on perfumes and matters related. The session taken by the accomplished and well-known Ahalya Matthan was extremely informative, interesting and of course very pleasurable, with vapours of different perfumes wafting around us. She took a lot of pains to make sure we experienced the talk rather than just listened. And talking of experiences, this was what our very own 'Star' Nayantara Abreo shared with us, of her stay at the Kanha Reserve. She brought home to us the beauty and the calm of ' The Wild ' and a love of 'Nature' that we have been gifted with in our country. In keeping with the recurring request, and our own inclination for reaching out to the unfortunate whether man or animal, we had two members from CUPA who came to our meeting and made a very absorbing and moving case for the care of animals. For the coming year more such talks are planned among other activities.

Even though we had not deliberately packed our calendar with a number of events, yet even this would not have been possible, if not for Anuja and her team who has taken great pains to try and repeatedly inform members of the upcoming events, and I very sincerely say a heartfelt thank you to her. I would also like to add that despite the efforts the turn out on a couple of occasions was not disheartening, but disappointing. I know it does take time for an organisation to establish itself but, humanly, I wish it were quicker. We have an opportunity to improve the attendance now, as a new committee will take over from 2007, so let us strengthen their hands with our attendance and cooperation.

So here I am, fondly saying Bye and Thank You to each of you ex's, who in one way or another showed a sense of connection and oneness with other Sophiaites.

May Wisdom always be our Goal and Endeavour our Banner.

Mabelle Palat

Letter from the Secretary

SECRETARY’S REPORT FOR 2006

Fellow Sophia-ites, we are coming to the end of the second year of regular meetings and get-togethers!

Attached in the email invite are the SCESA – Bangalore:

• Minutes of the last 3 meetings. (The fourth was a small lunch meeting at Museum Inn in April)
• The up-to-date accounts of 2006.
• Our President, Mabelle Palat’s, letter.
• Invitation to the Annual Review Meeting on November 17

The committee that has functioned for the past two years is ready to hand over to a new set of enthusiastic members. We are sure you will extend your co-operation to them as well.

The most exciting development is that Shanti Yajnik, my co-Secretary, has put together a website for our Bangalore chapter. It looks good and promises to be a great platform for all of us in this city to connect. Please check it out – the address is www.scesabangalore.blogspot.com

As outgoing Secretary, I will outline below some plans the committee has drawn up for the year 2007.

There will be six meetings next year. Please note these dates in your calendar so you won’t miss any get-togethers

January 20
March 17
June 16
August 18
October 20
Nov 17

All are third Saturdays, and the time will be 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The last meeting (November 2007) will be our Annual Review Meeting (ARM) and for the other meetings we are planning programs on Art, Bangalore’s Architectural Heritage, Textiles and health-related issues.

At every meeting we will have one fun activity related to our Alma Mater. (Come prepared with memories and anecdotes that we can share and enjoy.)

On a more serious note we will be calling, to each meeting, a resource person from six different NGOs or social service organizations. They will tell us about the work they do so that SCESA – Bangalore can steer itself in the direction of giving back to the community.

As we did this year, the meeting costs will be nominal and collected at the time.

Let’s have a great time and a memorable 2007!

Yours,

Anuja Sharma