CHAIRMAN

John Parker

Tel. 07970 568425

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN

Martin Harris

Tel. 07720 823364

SECRETARY

Allan (Mac) Black

Tel. 07512 022949

TREASURER

Duncan Pickard

Tel. 01334 870203

TALK CONVENOR

Graeme Hogg

Tel. 01334 653043

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Jim Lawrence

David Martin

Maurice Shepherd

David Sinclair

ASSIST. TALK CONVENOR

Bill Bowman

TALK RECORDERS

Jim Lawrence

Tony Miklinski

Graham Pirie

MEMBERS PAGE

To access the MEMBERS page enter your password in the box above

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Next Meeting...

Wednesday

9th September 2026

'My life in Sport- Sport in my life'

Presenter - Gina Logan

Club News

Secretary email: macblack2525@gmail.com

The meeting on 26th August in Castlehill Community Centre was chaired by John Parker.

Secretary, Allan Black, reminded members that, if the Monday reminder was not received as normal, the Club website carries details of meeting dates, the Speaker, the subject of the Talk, the Talk Recorder's name, and the name of member giving VOT.

New member, Stephen Stewart had the opportunity to tell members a little of his background. Retired from teaching in Medical profession, he has interests in RBLI, Poppies, and Cupar Foodbank. He also enjoys cycling and walking.

Our speaker, Ian Smith, has a family connection with the Club - his father has been a long time member. Ian himself is an active member of Cupar Rotary, has his own business, and and has political ambitions. 

Would you like to join us?

New members will be very welcome, so, if you are someone who has retired and you are looking for something to do on Wednesday mornings, please contact our Secretary or, better still, pop-in to one of our meetings. If you know of someone, encourage them to attend.

Our next meeting will be on 9th September, and the speaker will be Gina Logan. Her talk is entitled 'My life in Sport - Sport in my life'. We hope to see you there!

A one-way ticket to India

Not many of our audience would have, on retirement at 60, bought a one way ticket to India.  But that is exactly what todays Speaker did. Ian said he had always been fascinated by the country and today gave us a superb account of his travels across the continent, illustrated by excellent photography of the people, architecture and places he encountered.  On arrival in the worlds most populous nation, something over 1.5 billion people, he quickly learned that the Indian’s were very welcoming with always 3 questions: Where are you from? Where are you staying? and How long are you here for?  While seeming innocuous, in fact these inquiries were often a subtle method of establishing your wealth and the opportunity to sell you something.

Over the next couple months Ian travelled widely across central India, by train, plane, taxi, Tuk Tuk, and on many legs of his journey by a variety of Royal Enfield motorbikes. These venerable classic British designs still being manufactured in India today. In spite of the sheer mass of Indian road traffic he found the drivers overwhelmingly good natured and never experienced any ‘road rage’. In a similar vein he never fell victim to ‘runny tummy’ although he ate all manner of foods. He said his general rule was to always eat where he saw locals eating and always hot food.

In a number of cities he looked up the local Indian Rotary Clubs and was always made very welcome. The highlight of his travels was attending the Kumbh Mega festival held every 12 years at the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the Mythical Saraswati. The year of his visit being especially significant as it was a 144 year occurrence. This sheer scale of this festival is staggering to western imaginations, over 400 million people gather in a single location and the temporary accommodation established spreads across hundreds of acres. Worshippers taking dips in the scared waters of the Ganges.

 Amongst the many exotic sites Ian visited were the ruins at Lucknow site of the 1857 Indian Mutiny and nearby the vast Pratibimb Sthal with over 4 acres of polished marble lined by 124 life sized statues of Elephants in 2 long rows. Ian’s graphic accounts of his travels gave us an exemplary feel for this wonderful Nation and its people and drew many questions from our Probus audience today. We thank him for a superb and enthusiastic presentation.

Jim Lawrence