By Mary-Justine Lanyon
Editor’s note: If you missed Part 1 of this report on the Rotary Friendship Exchange, you can read it online in the Dec. 4, 2025, flip issue.
As our Friendship Exchange team from District 5330 in California made its way to Ratlam – our fourth stop on this adventure – we saw huge windmills off in the fields as well as women in saris working in those fields.
Our first stop in Ratlam on Nov. 5 was at the home of Gustad Anklesaria, the past governor of District 3040 in India, where we enjoyed lunch and met our hosts; Armand and I were greeted by Prakash and Sonal Lakhani, at whose home we would stay in Ratlam.
The priest at the temple at Mangalya Mandir dedicated to Ganesha, the deity of wisdom.
As the ladies chatted during lunch, it became obvious we wanted to go shopping so shopping we went. That gave us all a chance to get to know one another a bit. In fact, when we got to Prakash and Sonal’s home, Sonal told me she felt as though she already knew me.
Later that day we visited Mangalya Mandir where seven temples had been erected for seven deities. A priest moved from temple to temple, offering prayers and blessings.
That evening, at Prakash and Sonal’s home, they served us tea and Prakash told us about his Rotary Club’s projects, which we would visit the next day.
Our first stop on Nov. 6 was at the garden the Rotary Club of Ratlam has maintained for the past several years. One of their members goes to the garden every morning at 5:30 to open it and make sure all is in order. “He is the hero of the place,” Prakash told me.
About 400 people visit the garden every day. They do yoga, drink some healthy juices, have their blood pressure checked by a nurse and work out on the gym equipment – the only such facility in the area. There is also a playground where we saw children enjoying themselves.
“When we start a project,” Prakash said, “we give it three years to see if it’s sustainable. A project definitely won’t work if you don’t try.”
From the garden we visited the Nahar Global School, owned by a Rotarian. We were greeted first by students who put strings of pearls around our necks and red dots on our foreheads, then by their band, which marched us onto the campus. The students performed a variety of dances, representing the various regions of India. They were dressed in colorful costumes from those regions. We enjoyed a snack of guava, bananas and poha, the flattened rice dish Armand came to love.
Our next stop was the dialysis center started by the Rotary Club of Ratlam in 2006. It is, Prakash said, a private venture with the government, run by the Rotary trust. They started with one dialysis machine and now have 15, which work three shifts a day. The machine acts as an artificial kidney, filtering the patient’s blood; the process takes three to four hours. Over the years, they have treated more than 100 patients.
Team members Al Randall and Gail Seekins trying out one of the pieces of gym equipment in the garden.
The final project we visited was the food program that serves the families of patients at the local hospital. Each day those family members get a meal of dal (a bean stew), rice, roti (flat bread) and a vegetable. The cost of the meals is subsidized by Rotarians and donations from the community. They also deliver meals to those who are sick or alone at home. Other folks can purchase a meal for just five rupees ($0.055). The meals are available every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; they usually provide 100 meals in the morning, 50 in the evening.
Our very full day continued with a visit to PDG Gustad’s chocolate factory, where we observed the process of converting the Indian beans to the final product (we got samples).
And then we visited the Sailana Palace and its cactus garden, which features a rare collection of exotic species from around the world.
Our time in Ratlam ended with a very festive farewell party at the home of District Governor-Elect Sanskar Kothari and his wife, Deepti. There was a lot of singing – and dancing! And, yes, there were more flower garlands.
We had to say goodbye to our hosts the next morning, Nov. 7, as we left Ratlam and the state of Madhya Pradesh. But before we exited MP, as the locals call it, and District 3040, we stopped by the side of the road where we greeted by members of the Rotary Club of Mandsaur, the last club in the district. They gifted us with stoles and hats that made us all look like maharajas.
We stopped at a temple, where we were each presented with a plaque with the image of Vishnu, known as the preserver and protector of the universe. That visit was followed by a stop at the largest fort in the world, which is 1,600 years old. At one time 90,000 people lived inside the fort; today there are 5,000.
After dinner at an Italian restaurant, we checked into our hotel in Udaipur, our home for the next two nights. There was a wedding ceremony going on in the hotel’s courtyard; we enjoyed listening to the music and watching the dancing out our window.
On Nov. 8 we took a boat ride on Lake Fateh Sagar, followed by camel rides for some of the more adventurous on our team. We visited another palace, which was reached by driving up an exceedingly windy road.
Back in the city of Udaipur, our van got stuck in a massive traffic jam. We all got out and got into the three-wheeler taxis – yet another of our adventures. Those taxis took us to the city palace, the second largest in India.
Our exchange came to an end on Nov. 9 when we all were taken to the airport in Udaipur. Armand and I had to first fly from Udaipur to Delhi, then Delhi to Mumbai, Mumbai to Heathrow and finally Heathrow to LAX. After 24 hours of flying, we were back on home turf, exhilarated by what we had just experienced.
The students at the Nahar Global School presented dances from the various regions of India.
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