EDITORIAL
It was
a Sunday morning and most people were deep in their slumber. Anu Shekhar, Purnima
Satish, Seema Chari, Sudha Easwaran and Shini Harish and the always enthusiastic
children had rolled up their sleeves and were on their fours diligently drawing
the Pookalam in front of the Community Hall. Distractions from me apart, they
soldiered on tirelessly and produced a breathtakingly beautiful Kolam adorned
with brass lamp and urulis.
The
Onam feast was quite a hit with several friends of residents from outside
joining in the celebrations. Despite several advisories to buy coupons in
advance many residents wanted to purchase coupons in the last minute. While
efforts were made to accommodate many, alas some had to be turned away as no
caterer factors for a such a big overspill. Burps emanating from the Community
Hall was indicative of a satiating feast. The ladies as usual were in their new
collection of Onam saris and were looking gorgeous. It made for a fantastic
photo-op and immediately circulated around the world through social media.
Most
people have an uneasy feeling of sharing their bathrooms with spiders and their
webs. I too belonged to that tribe until I spotted three mosquitoes ensnared in
the web. Between the two predators, I have a marked preference for spiders as
they do not deliver a nasty bloodsucking sting. I decided then to let the webs
proliferate at least till the dengue season is over.
The
humdinger of all festivals will be upon us next month and we all look forward to
have a jolly good time. The illumination competition is one such occasion for
everybody to meet and collaborate and bring to fore their ideas, imaginations,
skills and execution finesse. It is meant to bring the community together, yet,
because of our territorial mindset we tend to take these competitions very
personally and get miffed when overlooked for a prize. I am personally very
secular about these things and like the buzz and excitement. It is this that turns me on
rather than who wins. Some residents had voiced concerns last year about the
lack of resources both in terms of helping hands and money. In order to address
their concerns it has been decided to base the prize for Rangoli on only one illustration.
We cannot limit those blocks who wish to go the whole hog. The judges will be
asked to pick only one rangoli from each set of blocks to pass their judgement.
Diwali illumination competition is a tradition that has stood the test of time
and draws a lot of appreciation from outsiders who visit our apartments. Let us
therefore, wholeheartedly participate despite aging backs and creaking knees.
The youngsters should get more into the thick of things to keep this beautiful
tradition alive and relieve their elders from the onerous task.
Diwali
Mela will be on 14th October, 2017. Those who wish to keep stalls for the same
or have friends who wish to keep stalls should get in touch with me. Brace up for an evening of fun, gaiety, games, music, dance, rides
and food.
Many
parents are quivering in their boots hoping their children do not fall prey to
the fatalistic charm of the Blue Whale. For those unfamiliar with the mysteries
of this unexplained cetacean phenomenon,
blue whales beach in order to die at some point in their life. It is created by
somebody with a sick and sadistic mind who is turned on by encouraging children
to commit suicide. Thanks to the
internet and social media, any pervert can infiltrate the minds of gullible
children and make them commit downright dangerous acts and the parents will be
none the wiser for it. Many victims of the Blue Whale syndrome have been from
B-towns where the parents may be much less tech savvy than their children and
thus monitoring what a child is viewing may be beyond them.
The
place we go for our spiritual solace, our Sri Bala Venugopalaswamy temple is
seeing fewer and fewer footfalls, so much so that the resources for running the
temple is fast drying up. Let not our spiritual abode run into disuse. Please
visit the temple at least once a month, if not weekly or fortnightly, to pay
obeisance to the Lord and contribute for the temple's sustenance so that we do
not let this magnificent edifice become derelict.
The
Ramlila was moved into the badminton court thanks to the voluntary abstinence
from pyrotechnics proposed by the children. This year's version of the Ramlila
choreographed by Shreeja had the Bollywood staple of music and dance. The
children's enthusiasm in putting up innovative concepts in theme and execution
deserves kudos. Ravana met his end not in flames but through thorough bashing
by Rama and his Vanarasena One cannot single out any one character as they
performed in multiple roles and gave a very good account of themselves.
Shreeja's contribution however was immense.
The opening act of the night
however was a medley of dance recitals put up by the Sadhana School of Music
and Arts. Guru Vandana was the opening act done by Bhavna Harish and Anoushka
Nair. The next number was Basant Pallavi by Radhika Venkataraman and it was rounded
off by the very fetching Kiana in Megh Pallavi. As can be expected by now, they
always come up with a performance of great skill and grace. This was followed
by Garba as not many had dandia sticks. Like always, our residents' dancing
skills being more attuned to Bollywood kitsch than Garba it soon gave way to
pelvic thrusting, hip swinging armpit dance. Both ladies and children display
extreme felicity in this art form that it makes for an enjoyable viewing. Their
dresses of course were probably tailor-made for the occasion and all of them
looked gorgeous. This time a few men, notably Srikumar Madhu and Satish
Padmanabhan also shook a leg. Falguni was the eternal purist, being a Gujarati.
Mihir Bhatt managed the music well.
SNIPPETS
Two
bachelors have moved into H-208. One of them, Ashim Raj bears a striking
resemblance to Kunal Savarkar, so much so that one resident staying opposite
Deepak Varma's home wondered why Kunal was trespassing into H-208. Ashim and
Sobir Singh are both graphic designers. Ashim works for ITU Chaudhury design
and Sobir works with Teamworks Arts. While Ashim does branding and designing of
brochures for various companies, Sobir's claim to fame is that his company does
all the designing work for the Jaipur Literature Festival, a marquee event that
gets all the sound bites and global following. Ashim loves illustrating, plays
football for a team three days in a week and dabbles in other games as well.
Sobir loves playing badminton. Both love listening to varied genres of music
viz. Jazz, Classical, electronic etc. Ashim has already traversed three rivers before settling
in Yamuna. He has stayed in Tara, Nilgiri and Mandakini. Tara, by the way is a
river in northern Montenegro.
*******************
Mr.
O.V. Sathiyaseelan has moved into A-309 from Srinivaspuri, a move compelled by
the proximity of their children's school, St. George. Mr. Sathiyaseelan is a
free lance sound engineer. He has done the sound for the famous National
Geographic documentary on Tirupathi which has been screened several times on
TV. Like most Indians he is fond of playing and watching cricket and is also
facile in other sports. His wife, Tamilarasi is a homemaker and loves listening
to music. Their elder daughter, Nikita is in class XI and is an exponent of
Bharatanatyam. She, like her father she is also fond of all sports. The younger
daughter, Niveta is in Class IV and is also a Bharatanatyam dancer.
*******************
Mr.
Umamahesvaran Srinivasan (Mahesh in short) has moved into G-305 from GK2 with
his wife Priti and daughter Vaidehi. Mahesh has started a Government sponsored incubator on Technology and Agriculture. He
is a number cruncher and counts Physics and Maths as his pastime and of course
you cannot keep cricket away from any Indian male's genes. Priti, who is from
Rajasthan, teaches in a progressive school in Gurugram after an earlier stint
in Meerambika. She is also a professional painter and sings Hindustani music.
Their daughter Vaidehi is a Class V student. Her interests include
singing, dancing, piano playing and crafts.
We
welcome all the newcomers to the Yamuna family.
********************
Our
Secretary, Mr. Madhu Nair (A-003) has relocated to Bangalore. He has taken up a
job as Country Manager-India for Spirent Communications Inc. headquartered in
Bangalore. He will have to lead a bachelor's life until Deepa is able to join
him. Deepa is busy here with her work commitments. He has moved into a row
house in Palm Meadows in Whitefield. Yamuna's loss will be Palm Meadows gain.
********************
We all
knew that the women sporting a tumescence are harbingers of good news. The only
question mark was when and where was it going to happen. Now the cat is out of
the bag, I mean, the baby is out of the
womb.
Priyanka
Nathan of A-107 delivered a bonny girl in Kolkata on 4th September, 2017. Now,
Kiaan will have little sister to play with
Aarthi
(D-104), delivered a baby boy named Apramey on 11th September 2017.
********************
Raghavender
Prabhakar of A-306 got married to Vaishnavi on 4th September, 2017 in Chennai.
Another bachelor bites the dust. Now that the proverbial knot has been tied Raghav
has to make the best of an unequal relationship that is always tilted in the
wife's favour. Vaishnavi, who was working with HSBC before she wed Raghav, has
joined for an Executive MBA programme with specialisation in HR. We wish both
of them the very best.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS OCTOBER 2017
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DATE
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TIME
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EVENT
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VENUE
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19.10.17
|
6.30 PM
|
DIWALI ILLUMINATION COMPETITION
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BETWEEN THE BLOCKS
|
28.10.17
|
6.30 PM
|
MOVIE SCREENING AND POT LUCK DINNER
|
BADMINTON COURT
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