Rotary Madras South West  “Chariot Awards 2024 “ 

Rotary Madras South West  “Chariot Awards 2024 “ for Lifetime Professional Excellence, For the Sake of Honour, Youth Excellence in Arts and Sports.This year RMSW presented the Chariot Awards ceremony in a grand ceremony held at Radisson Blu, Egmore. 

The ceremony saw five awards presented in presence of Chief Guest Arvind Datar, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India. 

 The Annual Chariot Awards recognizes eminent personalities in our community – accomplished and upcoming in their chosen field. This evening saw 5 awards being given away to honour & celebrate excellence in various fields.

The awardees for the Chariot Awards 2024 include –  FOR THE SAKE OF HONOR AWARD – Mr D Chandrasekhar, President of Madras Dsylexia  Association, VOCATIONAL EXCELLENCE AWARD-Rtn Mr. D Vijayagopal Reddy – Promoter & Managing Director of Vijay Garments, Lifetime OF PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE AWARD – Dr Lingam Gopal, Board of Governors , Sankara Nethralaya, YOUTH EXCELLENCE IN SPORTS AWARD -Mr. Avikshit Vijay Viswanath ,Asian Games – Gold Winner – Ace Skater , YOUTH EXCELLENCE IN ARTS AWARD-Mrs. Srividhya Vasudevan,An immensely talented carnatic vocalist.

As each of the awardees took the stage to share briefly their thoughts and journey with the audience, the striking traits that shined through from all of them was their absolute humility, all consuming passion for what they do, single minded focus to achieve their goals. 

In an interview after receiving the award, Ace Skater  Avikshit Vijay Viswanath , said that the Indian National Anthem played in China when he won gold at the Asian Games was the most memorable event in his life. He requested the government to improve the infrastructural facilities for skating competitions in Tamil Nadu. He also said that immensely happy for receiving the Rotary Madras South West Chariot Award at such a young age.

It was a great opportunity to hear Mr Arvind Datar speak and share his thoughts on the awardees, and their accomplishments and he shared anecdotes about the awardees. The entire evening was well attended by the members of Rotary Madras Southwest and their family. It was an evening that will be remembered for a long time to come for its inspiring awardees – who truly are living a life of passion, dedication and commitment towards their chosen profession and for beautifully showing the way for those who dare to dream! 

The Rotary Madras Southwest (RMSW), one of the oldest and active club, was chartered in 1981.  Since its inception, the Club has taken pride in pioneering several unique projects that truly address the need of the hour in the country, and the community we live in.  Projects ranging from Health Camps in schools and villages around Chennai, a Nursing School from where over 500 students have successfully passed out, a skill school that offered vocational training programmes and facilitates employment, Annadhanam on a weekly basis at schools, orphanages and old age homes for over a decade now, supporting vocational training at Little Flower Convent, active INTERACT and ROTARACT clubs promoting talent, are a few of the key projects among many more. Our ongoing project are Building state of the art, Toilets for Kesari School, Tnagar and Vision ahead project aiming to create Hope for the underprivileged  Visually Challenged section of the Society. Our grander vision of eradicating TB has lead us to start a Mobile TB detection van equipped with state of the art laboratory, that travels to villages far and near. Over 50,000 people have been screened and referred so far.

 The club’s 76 odd members are actively engaged in the club’s efforts in reaching out and its “Service to Humanity”.

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