Balle balle – Rackl does the bhangra!

When? 28 October 2006, Where? Our new home, Shangri-la Hotel
What? The way the world moves session 2: Bhangra

The mission was to be able to dance just like those gorgeous hunks and sexy babes in the Hindi movies. Picturing various song scenes with Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra in them, we thought we were prepared. Hey, how hard could it be to jump up and down, poke your fingers in the air and go round and round?

Really hard and exhausting!
Thanks to our three amazing instructors Kasturi, Shevinder and Kanchana, we did pick up some pretty swifty moves including dear president Kim who showed us how to do the hip shaking ala robot style! ^_^

All in all, i think its safe to say that we rocked Shangri-la hotel (even to the point of transforming our little meeting room into a disco with dimmed lights and loud music!

Buka puasa with the kids @ Rumah Solehah

When? 15 October 2006, Where? Rumah Solehah, Bandar Tun Razak Cheras, What? Buka puasa tea (joint project with Institute of Engineers Malaysia)
Report by Kevin Wong

Our guest Kevin Wong relates his first experience at Rumah Solehah, a home for HIV+ children where we had a buka puasa-Hari Raya tea.
“The visit to Rumah Solehah is really an eye opening one for me. It’s my first experience to people living with HIV. Previously I have raised funds for AIDS and HIV causes. But until last Sunday, I have not personally met or touched anyone who is HIV+.

It was a very challenging and humbling experience. The children, most of them are barely 10 years old, but all have to suffer the infliction and stigma of AIDS. I am especially touched by the Home’s Administrator Puan Wan. She shared with us the challenges she faces as guardian for all of these children. We all can see and hear her struggles for raising more funds and support from the government and the public. Most importantly, she has fought and still does, for the equal rights and treatment for these “special” children especially in terms of equal education. She must have so much energy and compassion!

On an upbeat note, we all did have fun and lots of laughter with the children. Jennifer created a very fun game for the children to play and to win cute little toys! Overall, the community service outing ended with a positive note with exchanges of appreciation from both the home administrators and the RACKL-IEM team!

Hope the above gave you a small glimpse of all the fun and thrills we’ve been through last sunday!”

De Casino @ Shangri-la

When? 14 October 2006, Where? Our new home at Shangri-la hotel
Report by Yap Mei HanYes, yes, yes!!! This is one of the much awaited programmes which we had planned to “warm” our new RACKL home.

Thanks to our generous and kind Rotary Club of Kuala Lumpur Diraja, we are now able to call the nice and cosy Negeri Sembilan room at Shangri-la hotel home every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month.

Although the weather was not very promising as it was pouring heavily and many of us walked in totally drenched, this did not stop the guests as we had a very good crowd of 20-ish members and guests.

Armed with a capital of RM20, we were drilled with 20 questions during the one hour “De Casino” session. Just like a casino, we had to make the decision on whether to take a risk and place a bet on one of the three color coded answers. It took a skill of Speed, Accuracy and Confidence (not to mention diving skills) as the bet baskets were placed in the centre of the room. Whoever is the fastest and has the correct answer wins all of the money placed in the basket.

There were a few Kodak moments especially the one when Ganesh was spotted practically flying across the room from his chair to the “betting arena” causing his shirt to be literally half removed and exposing his belly ):P
The fun session lasted for an hour with lots of laughter witnessed. Neeraj, the risk taker emerged as the winner with a grand total of RM265 (fake money which was later replaced with chocolates…) collected at the end of the game. Too bad, cos if not we would definitely have made him pay for dinner!

Flying shuttlecocks in action…

When? 8th October 2006, Where? Taman Tun Dr Ismail badminton court, What? RAC Damansara’s badminton tournament.
Report by Rtr Sri Ganesh

It was 7.15a.m on a Sunday morning 8th October 2006, the wake up call for all the RAC KL representative by the team captain. Registration started at 8.00a.m, team briefing at 8.50a.m and the game begin at 9.00a.m.. Our strong and energetic team comprised of Rtr Sri Ganesh (Team Captain) , Rtr Amit Gupta, Guest Suresh (IEM) and Guest Kumar (Ganesh’s Cousin brother)…The tournament was broken into 4 groups of four team in each group whereby each team has to play with each other. The top two shall qualify for the quarter-finals. This tournament was only open for doubles (guys or gals or mixed) as there were no singles or team event. Ganesh and partner Kumar was in group C and Amit and Suresh was in group D.

Amit and Suresh was in the group of Death whereby all the favourites were in their group (as the eventual finalist was from that group). Eventhough, they have not touch the racquet for more than 2 years, they still manage to win one of the group game but was not enough to qualify for the quaterfinals. . Bravo to their sportmanship and commitment.

Well, myself and my partner had to play against DRR Chandra and his partner from RAC Bangsar and it was a tough game but we manage to win. We manage to qualify for the quarter finals. Our quaterfinal opponent was no other then the other team from RAC Bangsar, Pres Suresh and VP Suren who came back for the revenge since we beat their other team. They were one of the favourites as they play badminton together every weekend. Me and my partner which most of the time covering me fought tiressly but lost marginally 19-21 and 15-21.

The event went on smoothly and it was a good fellowship. DRRE Dinesh also came and partcipated eventhough it was the day after his installation. Organiser, PP Ravi and PDDR Brahma thanked the Rotaract Club of Kuala Lumpur for supporting RAC Damansara’s first project of the term.