The Association

THE  ASSOCIATION

 2.1 .OUR MEMBERSHIP:

a)      Any Mathur individual, or a family in which one of the spouses is a Mathur, normally residing in Mumbai area on a regular basis is enlisted as a MAB member on receipt of information from them or from some other responsible source.  Dependents and resident parents are taken as part of the member’s family. An earning son in a joint family is, however, treated as a separate member in his own right.  Membership fee is Rs. 100 per member for each Financial  year (April-March), payable at the beginning of each year.

b)      Life Membership to an individual or a couple is also available against a one-time lump sum payment of Rs. 1000. A Life Member and spouse continue to be MAB members and on our mailing list, and as “External Life Members” if they shift out of Mumbai. Considering the ever  increasing cost of servicing a Life Member and reduced returns on our investments, Life Membership is now considered for a 15 year duration. Thereafter it has to be renewed.

c)      As of December -2005, MAB has a total strength of 557 primary members  which include 228 local and 52 External Life Members.

d)      We always advise and request our members to take Life Membership as it would free them from the responsibility of having to remember to pay the annual membership year after year and would also reduce our secretarial work, besides helping the building up of the Association’s much needed Corpus fund.

2.2.  OUR  ZONES:

     MAB covers Mathurs in the entire Mumbai and extended suburbs upto Virar on the Western Rly. and Kalyan, Ambernath and Panvel on the Central Rly. We have divided Mumbai and its far flung suburbs in seven geographical Zones (please see “MAB ZONES” and sketch in this Directory) for better coordination and administrative convenience. Each Zone has one or two Managing Committee members as Incharge of the Zone and some Sub-Zonal Representatives (SZR’s) as shown in the Zone details. The main idea of formation of the Zones and nomination of SZR’s  is to provide easy, convenient means  of better and more frequent contacts (Mulaqaat, aana-jaana, khana-peena) amongst Mathur families residing nearby in the Zone. It will be to our great pleasure and satisfaction if members are benefited by this Zonal system and are of help to each other in  need.

     Management is  highly  grateful to its dedicated  SZR’s for the interest and valuable service  being rendered by them voluntarily to the Association despite their own pressures and engagements. Since the scheme of the SZR’s was introduced only about a couple of years back, the number of SZR’s in some Zones is not as much as we would have wished, but as and when more SZR’s are added it will be informed through our Newsletters.

     We appeal to our members, specially the younger generation ladies and gentlemen to please come forward for this (SZR) assignment and convey their willingness  to the MAB Office or through any of our Zonal or Sub-Zonal Representatives.

2.3.  OUR  FUNCTIONS:

     It has always been our endeavour to provide opportunities to Mumbai Mathurs to meet regularly and thus get to know each other. We  hold one Central function each year (usually in January) to cover the entire Biradri in Mumbai. In addition, each of the seven Zones organizes at least one Zonal Function each year for the members in its Zone in an effort to bring the Zone’s members in closer contact, in a smaller group. The Zonal Function is a recent concept  which is gradually picking up in all  Zones.

     All these functions are largely attended and enjoyed by members and their families. Success of these functions has been mainly due to efforts of our Zonal Incharges, SZR’s and volunteers,  specially the ladies and children who put up lively entertainment programmes etc., in each function. Food in these functions is generally served at subsidized price and with the ever increasing catering cost,  venue hire charges and other overheads the functions invariably run into some deficit. These deficits are met with by donations/sponsorship from generous community members.

      MAB’s purpose will be well served if we could add some joy to the life of our members in this busy metropolis by occasionally enjoying together on a common platform and coming to each others help when needed. In addition, we attach utmost importance to retain the old Mathur culture  which is fast getting eroded with the changing times and may, someday start fading away from the memory of our younger generation. Mathur culture, customs and traditions, evolved over centuries, are even today envy of many a communities and societies. It should be our sincere endeavour  to see that our future generations are provided all opportunities to imbibe this great heritage.

     May we, therefore, request members to please ensure that the youngsters in the family do participate in our functions. Presence of elders always adds a grace to our functions and they too feel happy meeting their age group, talking of old times in an inimitable style unheard of by their children.

     Suggestions for improvements in our functions and offers of participation in its programmes are always solicited and welcome.

2.4: OUR  NEWSLETTERS:

Communication and exchange of information between the Management and the members at large are vital elements for a healthy growth of the Association and good public relationship. For this, we issue two half-yearly Newsletters, one in June and the other in December each year, containing information of our functions, Zonal activities, happenings in the Biradri, any distinctive achievement by a member or his family members, or any other event worth reporting  that  comes to our notice. These letters are dispatched by post to all the members, including to all those External Life Members whose addresses are available with us.

Though we and our SZR’s keep gathering such information on their own, we may sometime miss something worth reporting in our Newsletter. Members are, therefore, requested to please promptly convey all such items of information to us directly or through our Representatives in their area for inclusion in our next Newsletter.