It was nearly two weeks since the incident at Cheluvamba Hospital happened (refer to my previous post). I was becoming increasingly restless. There was such a strong urge to do something, but I was not sure what to do. I felt that I was not really in control of what was happening either to me or around me.
I walked across to the College Co-operative Society and asked them how to start a Society. The person working there guided me to an office near the Mysore Palace. I went there only to be told that it was the office which registered co-operative societies and the place that I was looking for was the District Registrar’s office in the DC office building. I went there and found an elderly gentleman with a ‘topi’ and vermilion marked forehead, who explained to me that it was indeed the place to register organizations under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960. He explained to me that i needed seven members to be part of the Governing Body and it was the minimum number to register an organization. He also told me that we needed something called a ‘Memorandum of Association’ (MOA).
I was so baffled by all this that I did not know what to do next. I was in Bangalore that weekend and I suddenly remembered that our long time family friend Mr.Varadarajan was a member of a Lion’s Club in Bangalore. I met him and asked him what an MOA was. He gave me a copy of the MOA of his Lion’s Club. The novice that I was then, I copied the same thing (including the title) to be presented to the District Registrar’s office as our MOA.
Now that the MOA issue was resolved, I needed to find the remaining six members for the Governing Body. I spoke to K.N.Chandrashekar, Selvam, Minaketan Singh, Guruprasad, T.Chandrappa and I still could manage only six. I needed one more person. The same evening, i got a letter from my old school mate T.Ramesh that he was also coming to Mysore to do his M.Sc in Physics at the Regional Institute of Education. I was thrilled that an old mate was joining me and also relieved that here was the 7th person for the Governing Body. Without even asking him or taking his permission, i added his name to the list. Now all was set!
I marched down to the District Registrar’s office and presented our MOA and the list of 7 members along with the application and fees. The elderly gentleman (i think his name was Hanumanthappa) asked me to come the following week. When I went, he was both amused and upset. He explained to me that we lived in a democracy and that our MOA had to be along democratic lines. In my own ignorance, i had mentioned that the founding GB was to function lifelong and there would be no elections whatsoever. I felt that there would be no one to join me in this endeavor and thought that we would never grow beyond the initial 6 (or 7 should I say)! I then introduced the clause of a one-year term for the GB and an annual election process.
After one more week, he handed over the Registration Certificate bearing the number 122/84-85. Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement was officially born on this day, the 1st of December 1984. Our registered office was the home of Paul Tamil Selvam, with the address: No.309, Duke’s Mansion, 13th Main, Saraswathipuram, Mysore – 570009.
It all seems like it happened only yesterday and 25 years have gone by so fast!
– Balu
