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S. Srinivas

02 September, 2017

Issue No. 192 I August 2017

EDITORIAL

The festive season began after a fairly long hiatus. Birth of Lord Krishna always evokes a lot of joy and gaiety, partly because of his naughty nature as a child and also his reputation of playing pranks with gopikas. The Krishna at the Janmashtami this year was played by Adhvik, son of Dr(s). Abhilash and Lakshmi. He broke the dahi handi which sent the children into a frenzy, scampering for the goodies that fell on the floor. That was the conclusion. Now to rewind to the beginning. The day's proceedings started with the duo of Bhavani and Sumathi regaling us with a medley of songs. Their well modulated and mellifluous singing is always pleasing to the ears. Subadha, without whom no cultural function is complete, ushered her pupils to the stage to sing some songs and bhajans as paeans to the Lord. These talented bunch of singers consisting of Shashvath, Sahana, Tanvi, Avantika, Samiksha, Surya, Radhika, Shreya, Pratyush and Mani are tutored by an accomplished and dedicated singer. This was followed by one song and two dance recitals presented by Sadhana School of Music and Dance who, without fail, come up with performances that spell class. A Hindustani recital by Meher Babbar was followed by a solo Odissi dance ballet by the very graceful and lissome Dakshina Raghavendra. The coup de grace was served by the classical dancing elite of Yamuna – Kiana, V. Radhika, Vanshika, Bhavna Harish, and Sahana Iyer. It is laudable that Kiana, at such a young age, could choreograph an Odissi dance number played to the fast tempo of five Grammy award winner sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar's and the equally accomplished violinist Yehudi Menuhin's recital. They danced with great confidence and aplomb. We had a full house, probably the long summer recess had whetted people's appetite for entertainment. The food stalls had more variety than usual and people thronged to savour the treats. Mr. Thangadurai as usual distributed laddoos to the assembled people.

The 70th year of independence witnessed the hoisting of the national flag by the oldest resident, Mr. N. H. Venkataraman (Sudha Umapathy's father) who was witness to India attaining independence, and the youngest resident, Adhvik Pillai, who will dictate the narrative for the next generation. As rose petal showers descended to the ground, the residents sang the National Anthem with gusto. More patriotic songs came from Subhada's troupe. The weather was hot and muggy but that did not deter the others who needed to have a voice in the proceedings. Bhavani and Sumathi were joined by Seema, Sujatha, Purnima, Vinod Asthana, Murli, Muthu, and Farida amongst others to sing some more patriotic songs. The crowd for the Independence Day function did not quite match the bustling one of the night before. Patriotism does not seem to have that many adherents. The ones who came waved the national flag to proclaim their love for their motherland.

Super antics and performances on YouTube are a hot favourite and office hours are often devoted to downloading and forwarding such edifying videos. No wonder the productivity in offices is dropping. It becomes a nightmare for bosses to squeeze out extra productivity in this cyber savvy environment. Another intrusion into the liminal space of office are the jokes whose provenance cannot be traced. The only trope capable of expressing this predicament is the WhatsApp joke some of which tend to be lowdown and crass. One receives WhatsApp jokes which are usually passed on. One can seldom find out where it originated from.

Idli is one of the favourite breakfast foods of South Indians. Together with the accompaniment of sambhar and coconut chutney it not only makes for a tasty treat but  is also easy to digest. Now we have news that UNESCO has certified idli as the healthiest breakfast item in the whole world. I hope I can now convince my daughters to eat idlis.

We are getting into the thick of the festive season and Onam lunch is one such occasion when all Malayali women dressed in their off-white mundu or sari and flowers in the hair congregate at the community hall, looking very fetching. The pookalam and the women are a feast for the eyes. We men are there, of course, so that you do not drown in an overload of beauty! This year the Onam lunch has a ticket price of Rs. 250 per person. Please buy your coupons from the Society office asap.

I travel 45 kilometres to work every day and it takes me an hour. Contrast this with going to Gurgaon, a distance shorter than what I travel. This once bucolic community has become a city of more than a million inhabitants. It is a nightmarish version of what India aspires to be – a destination for global investment – with water shortage, iffy electricity and horrific traffic jams. If that is not enough, even with depressed property prices it is going through a building boom at such a frenetic pace that it can produce a new identity every Monday morning. If young people  spend four hours commuting to and from their place of work, where will they have the energy for anything else. Many erstwhile residents of Yamuna whose place of work is in Gurgaon have moved there as a consequence of this.


The bust up of Baba Ram Rahim has thrown open a can of worms. Heading an empire of deras, he has through deceit, cunning, and crime amassed a fortune and clout that he had become a law unto himself. Having a private army, he used blandishments to lure the gullible. A dera the size of 700 acres, is an area too huge to even imagine. Once inside these hapless devotees could not get out. They were willy-nilly, through coercion and threats, forced into unseemly activities. The government should ensure that these victims of privilege are freed and as for the minders, it is time to awaken them from the slumber of satiated insouciance.

If only Ram Rahim had a semblance of spiritual cadence one could understand the trickery he savaged on his disciples but his dress, bearing and crass and crude talk is such a dead giveaway that I cannot fathom why people fell for his cult image.

If only such a phenomenon was an aberration one could let it pass but it has spread to such an extent that fake babas and seers are a proliferating lot, looting and raping unwary and gullible people. Governments in the Centre and States should clamp down on such fraudsters lest it become an epidemic tearing the fabric of humanity.


SNIPPETS

Abhinav Kumar of G-305 has penned a book of 13 short stories which has been published in Kindle book store. Do take this opportunity to read the book of this budding author.

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Dr. Giridhara Gopal of G-302 and his wife Sonia.have been blessed with the birth of their baby daughter on 6th August in Tanjore. She has been named Samya Shree. Her birth adds one more girl to the population of Yamuna. Girls already outnumber boys 10 to 1. This is a very welcome thing as girls participate actively in  all the cultural events. Not so the boys who are lost in their own world of gaming and soccer.

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Dr.P.J. Manohar Rao of A-101 has been awarded the Noel Deerr Gold Medal by the Sugar Technologies Association of India as his technical article presented at a convention was adjudged the best for the year 2016-17. That he should win such a prestigious award at the age of 90 years speaks volumes about his age defying erudition and clarity of thought. Let's raise a toast to him.


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Tejaswin Shankar of G-306, our Olympian hope, has got admission to Kansas State University in US to pursue Business Administration. He will be representing the University in athletics. His primary objective will be to hone his skills in high jump under the tutelage of the World's number one coach in high jump. Recently, at the age of 17 he broke the National Senior high jump record which stood in the name of Harishankar Roy by jumping 2.26 metres. We wish Tejas the very best.

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Professor N.V. Varghese of A-010 has been appointed as the  Vice Chancellor of the National University of Educational Plannning and Administration and the Director of the  Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education (CPRHE), New Delhi. He holds a doctoral degree in Economics with specialization in  educational planning. He was  Head of Governance and Management in Education  at the International  Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP/UNESCO), Paris till October 2013 and  Head of its  Training and Education Programmes from 2001 to 2006. We are indeed very blessed to have accomplished people like him as our neighbours.


English Is A Language That Defies Logic

As much as all of us have been brought up on a diet of English we tend to take many of the peculiarities of the language for granted. Little do we dwell on what, for a person foreign to the language, appears as ridiculous. Below are some examples:
There is no ham in hamburger, nor egg in eggplant, neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins were not created in England, quicksand is anything but quick, boxing rings are actually square, guinea pigs did not originate in Guinea nor are they pigs.
People recite at a play and play at a recital. We have noses that run and feet that smell. We also park at a driveway and drive at a parkway. You have to marvel at the lunacy by which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off as it goes on. As a conclusion, if you can call  Dad as Pop, why can't you call Mom as Mop?



CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR  SEPTEMBER 2017

DATE
TIME
EVENT
VENUE
3.9.17
12 NOON
POOKOLAM AND ONAM LUNCH
COMMUNITY HALL

ONWARDS


23.9.17
6.30 PM
DANDIA, MUSIC AND FOOD EVENING
BADMINTON COURT




30.9.17
4.30 PM
RAMLILA AND STABBING OF EFFIGY OF RAVAN
MAIN LAWN


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