Who Is This District Governor?

Deepa Willingham presented as slide show entitled "Who Is This Governor?"  Her father was a Professor of Engineering and then a president of a university.   He came here when Deepa was eighteen and living in the United States.  He was hard of hearing and was taken to an audiologist.  The audiologist wondered if Deepa's father could speak English as he wasn't answering the doctor.  Her father responded, "I would respond to your English if you were speaking English but your English is not English!"   It was her father's dream to have a child of higher studies.  Deepa shared with us that she tries to live a live similar to her mother and that her mother taught the family about the caste system.   Mother taught respect of their house.  The house servants were treated as her grandparents.  Deepa's father, who was well-educated, became the chief pilot for a major airline (Air India).   Deepa finished undergraduate work on September 1, 2003, and on February 3, 1964, she was put on a plane to the United States, so she could be a student for higher studies.

Deepa came to the United States with eight dollars in her pocket (eight crisp one dollar bills), arriving at what is now Kennedy Airport to board another plane.  The bus driver wanted exact change.  Deepa had tears in her eyes and began to think that her parents had abandoned her.   An elderly man on the bus gave her the quarter she needed.  This to Deepa today, is comparable to reaching out and either giving a quarter to someone in need or giving a priceless drop to eradicate polio.

Next, Deepa took a flight to Cincinnati and then onto Oxford, Ohio.  After the first day things did not work out good.  The food as the university consisted of beef and pork or, on Sunday, chicken. Milk tasted funny; Deepa wasn't fond of the meat served.   In a short period of time, she weighed 15 pounds less than her arrival weight.  At the dorm, there were naked girls in a communal shower; she panicked.  She didn't know how to solve her problems,  She had two American girl friends.  They bought Deepa potato chips and Coca-Cola to fatten her up and arranged for Deepa to take a shower at 2 a.m. each morning.  She went to Goodwill for clothes.

After graduating from school and pursuing employment, Deepa went to Cottage Hospital where she became the head of one of the departments.  Her husband was killed by a drunk driver.  Some time later Deepa met a 39-year old who was never married, a man she considered "...a geek and a perfect nerd...." They did marry, and Deepa showed a 'before' and 'after' photo of her husband, handsome now, thanks to her! 

Our District Governor refers to herself as the OCIN (One Crazy Indian Woman).   Last year she had a brain tumor.   Deepa was asked to speak at the Birmingham conference.  The summation of the talk and the experience:  "The planet needs to be in our hands.  Realize that half of the world is living on less than $2 a day."  Many have lack of basics for survival.

600 million children are living on this $2/day.  855,000,000 people in the world are illiterate.  Of this, 2/3 are women.  This is 1/6 of humanity. Remember, literate children do not produce armies.  

Extreme poverty means no future or hope: boys are made into solders, and little girls are prostitutes rewarded with candy.  "No hope, no voice, no control," Deepa said, "Africa and Southeast Asia are bad off."

And we have huge lines at food banks in our country and Deepa asks each club to support their local food bank.

Deepa went on and shared additional statistics; insight on Bill Gates; humanity's problems; the fact that she made her husband a Rotarian and that her daughter started the Rotoract Club in Santa Barbara;  she cited all the wonderful projects that our club does;  how many Rotarians leave their clubs in their first four years of service;  that we need increased diversity, age, gender, ethnicity; that we should create a community clean-up day;  that we need to be a 100% Paul Harris Fellow club by 2012; that we should think outside the box;  and she noted that District 5240 is the biggest givers! And that education isn't available to all boys and girls in the world.

Remember June 25, 2011, the District will be demoting Deepa with mango margaritas!!  Deepa asked that we support the Rotary Foundation for our children and grand children and thanked the club for "allowing me to share my dream with you."  Deepa didn't want any gifts from the club, but instead, asked the club to make a contribution to Rotary in the name of one of our members.  President Miss Sandy selected our newest member, Robert Robert, for the award.