EDITORIAL
There are Quiz programmes on TV, in schools,
colleges but nothing, absolutely nothing can prepare you for the Quiz that
Sumathi puts up for us. There is a palpable sense of excitement about what she
would come up with. There are no straightforward questions for which you would
find an answer in Quiz books or can search on Google. Herein lies the skill of
the Quiz master. While most of the
questions stump me, I still shamelessly come for the Quiz year after year to be
rudely woken up to the fact that I barely know anything. Still I enjoy it
immensely because it has a teasing and beguiling quality. It makes you feel
like you should be knowing the answer, yet you don’t. I must have known only a
dozen answers from a list of fifty or more. That is pathetic for sure. I take
comfort in the fact that some of the questions even baffled people who run Quiz
shows for a profession. However, the contestants were far more well informed
than I was.
Be that as it may, traffic snarls delayed
the start of the Quiz programme by nearly an hour as many of the contestants
were near Yamuna, yet so far. A commute from Savitri to Yamuna was a good
forty-five minutes. We still had enough contestants to form five teams of four
members each. The teams in order of
marks scored were CLUELESS with 260, INSHALLAH, THE TEAM PLAYED WELL with 235,
SIKANDAR with 200, # ME TOO with 175 and HELPLESS with 170. If you remove the
first two teams from the reckoning who had professional quizzers in their
midst, the teams were pretty much evenly matched. The first prize was won by
Clueless featuring Antariksh Das, Anirudh Sundaresan, Savita and Suchitra. The
second prize was won by I,TTPW featuring Kunal Savarkar, Mr. Natarajan, K. Srikant
and Abhinav Kumar. I would like to thank the other contestants namely Anita,
Poornima, Anirudh Suresan, Venkatesh, Seema Chari, Mihir, Madhavi, Anand, Latha
Narayanan, Aditi Rastogi, Kirti and Aseem for making it a keen contest.
Since the quiz competition went well
beyond the allotted time, the antakshari programme slated for the same day had
to be cancelled. The pot luck dinner was held in ideal weather conditions. The
food was great and the bonhomie infectious.
The Diwali illumination competition was
headed to a truncated event with C&D blocks deciding to not enter the fray.
It would have been very disappointing if they had gone ahead with the boycott.
This competition is the only one held in the colony which brings the whole community
to interact with each other. It fosters team spirit, bonhomie and community
bonding. Even between the blocks there is leg pulling and friendly banter, just
to up the ante. While C&D could only muster two rangoli’s in the limited
time they had, shorn of funds and planning. I admire the spirit they showed in
the process. It is not a question of winning or losing, it is just being part
of a great tradition not followed anywhere else. The euphoria of winning and
the disappointment of losing is only momentary but the bonding that is built as
a consequence is everlasting. May this tradition
continue. Even if the older participants
and organizers retire from active duty, the younger and fitter residents should
carry on and maybe bring about a few adaptations.
A&B Blocks who came up with a Hanuman
pageant swept all the first prizes. The categories were Best Theme, Best
Rangoli, Best Illumination and Best Overall Impact. G&H whose theme was ‘LGBTQ
Rights’ got second prize in all the categories. E&F Blocks whose theme was ‘Stellar
Constellations’ shared the second prize with G&H Blocks in all categories
except illumination. C&D deserves kudos for coming up with two big rangolis
on an impromptu basis, having earlier decided not to participate.
The Society has acquired a light weight
wheel chair with safety belts and handles in front and rear to enable patients
to be brought down the staircases easily. As you must be aware, our staircases
are not conducive to carrying patients on stretchers due to the limited turning
radius available. In the light of the above, the new wheel chair will come as a
boon to senior citizens and patients. The wheel chair will be placed outside
the Community Hall, after a cover to prevent it from getting dirty is made
ready. Whosoever takes the chair should return it to the same place and cover
the wheel chair. The Society will also be acquiring an oxygen generator to
facilitate breathing in case of shortness of breath.
Delhi sweeps the crap air award again. We keep flirting with
air quality reading very poor, severe or downright dangerous. To a large extent
Yamuna is sheltered from the ill effects of this pollution with tall tree
barriers on all sides. The trees not only filter the dust and other pollutants
from entering our homes, they also help generate oxygen so vital for our lives.
You can literally smell the difference in the air quality when you walk on the
pavement outside the apartments and move progressively towards the park where
it is significantly better.
The election season is upon us with elections in Chattisgarh,
Madhya Pradesh, Telengana, Rajasthan and Manipur. The political parties have
given prudence and pragmatism a shove into the broom closet with the dishing
out sops which is bound to drain the treasury. It may be good politics but rank
bad economics. It just goes to show that all political parties are only
interested in warming their chairs in the legislative assembly for the next
five years and to hell with the people. I have reasonable cause to believe that
whichever party will come to power will end up losing in the hustings in the
next state elections as they will be hard pressed to fulfil their promises. We
will slip back to a phase of anti-incumbency.
I bumped into a friend after an interval of several years—his
son, on a previous occasion, had sat on my lap and doodled with his pen all
over my shirt. Suddenly he was introducing this very brat who was like a
slender version of the Empire State Building with outsized glasses and a wispy
moustache. This lanky skyscraper with spaghetti like arms grabbed my palm as
though he was squashing a bug. So much for GM food and oustsized specimens. Of course,
he had no recollection of his doodling on my shirt. Closer home also I see this
phenomenon in the case of both the Anirudhs, Rohan Nayyar, Vidyut Mohan, Archit,
Abhishek Eswaran, Hari Nair, Shashank Venkatesh and some others who are all
much taller than their fathers and amongst the girls, Kiana Abraham, Anoushka
Nair, Samiksha Nair, Tanvi and Sahana Savarkar, Shreeya and Shreeja Srikant, all
much taller than their mothers. Of course, we have a lot of catching up to do
with European nations. I recently visited Croatia where the shortest men were
around six feet tall and the taller ones were all over six feet three inches
tall with some towering behemoths at seven feet or more. I felt like a pygmy in
their midst.
The Sports Day was held on 18th
November, 2018 in the main lawn. The weather was awesome and the children were
in fine spirits and raring to go. As always the event starts with the tiny tots
pitting their wits with their friends in picking the highest number of toffees.
This event draws the loudest cheers with each contender having a support base.
While there was a good turnout of children, the ladies and gents were few and
far between. Contrast this with the situation just a few years ago when we had
to conduct heats to accommodate all the ladies participating in the sprints,
lemon and spoon race and needle and thread race. The irony was that even the ladies
present were not willing to do the sprints or needle and thread race, citing
various health or eyesight issues. Coming as it was from ladies much younger
than the ones who used to take part in these events, I begin to wonder whether
modern life styles have taken a toll on people’s health or whether the spirit
is lacking.
The ones with great athletic prowess won
multiple prizes. Equal credit should be given to all those who participated but
could not win a prize for their spirit. The concluding event, the ‘tug of war’
is always a gender fight and the winners take away the bragging rights. The men
were vastly outnumbered and I too had to join the men to bolster the team. Fat
lot it did, though. To say that we were hauled in like a sack of coals would be
putting it mildly. We were dragged on the grass and were humiliated while the
ladies were jumping and celebrating their victory. The girls too got the better
of boys. Estrogen scores over testosterone.
The Society Annual Day is a marquee event which everyone
looks forward to. Children and adults alike put up their best effort to come up
with performances on stage to delight the audience. There was a suggestion by
Ms. Soumya Srikant to light up the colony at night from Diwali onwards to
uplift the mood and replace the dreary and sombre look of the place in winter.
It seemed like a good idea and rather inexpensive to implement. The results are
there for you to see.
SPONSORS FOR ANNUAL DAY 2018
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S.NO
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NAME
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FLAT NO.
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AMOUNT/GIFTS
|
1
|
K. SRIDEVI
|
G 303
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RS. 10000
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2
|
M.
ANAND
|
H 101
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RS. 5000
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3
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SAVITA KUMAR IN MEMORY OF LATE N.V. SESHAN
|
G 105
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RS. 5000 WORTH GIFT COUPONS
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4
|
N.A.
SESHADRI
|
D 103
|
RS.2000
|
5
|
P.H.NARAYANAN
|
C 007
|
MISCELLANEOUS GIFTS
|
6
|
POORNIMA NARAYANAN
|
B 002
|
MISCELLANEOUS GIFTS
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OBITUARY
Mrs. Radha Warrier of H-203 breathed her
last at Moolchand Hospital on 6th November, 2018. She was a pillar
of support to Mr. Warrier and with her passing away he has lost an anchor.
Fortunately, both her son and daughter had flown down to Delhi a few days ago
and were with her. She was an Economics and English teacher at Bharatya Vidya
Bhavan and after her retirement was part of their supervisory board. She also
had a stint managing the children’s section of a Times of India publication.
She had received the best teacher’s award and was a mentor to many teachers.
Yamuna residents convey their heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family.
SNIPPETS
Chayan Adhikari has moved out of A-205 to Vasant Kunj to be
close to the place of work of his partner, Anna.
**************************
Mr. Rajesh Sharma and his wife Sangeeta have
moved out of A-004 to GK 2. He moved
into Yamuna to redevelop his house in GK 2. Since that work is over he has
moved back to his own house.
***************************
Mr. Umamahesvaran Srinivasan’s wife Priti and daughter
Vaidehi have moved out of G-305 and relocated to Pondicherry. They moved in
October 2018. Since Mr. Umamahesvaran had earlier moved out to take up a
teaching assignment at IIM, Indore. The flat is now available for rent.
******************************
Vidyut Mohan of G-206 after earning accolades and prizes for
innovative and sustainable technology in the field of environment in India,
entered the international Smogathon competition held in Poland, an initiative
aiming to fight smog with innovative technology.
The idea was to get the best projects from across the world
to compete for US $ 15,000, US $ 10,000
and US$ 5,000 as first, second and third prizes and special implementation
prize respectively. Pitted against the
best minds in the world, his patented technology was chosen by the judges as
the best in the world and he was awarded the first prize of US $ 15,000.
Vidyut is co-founder of Takachar, a start-up with patented
technology which aims to convert biomass
to bio-coal and other byproducts and thus prevent harmful emissions. This also
creates rural employment and adds value to the waste.
Vidyut, a self effacing youngster with a good head on his
shoulders is destined for greater heights. We in Yamuna are very proud of his
achievements and would like to wish him the best for the future.
CALENDAR
OF EVENTS FOR DECEMBER, 2018
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DATE
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TIME
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ITEM
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VENUE
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1.12.18
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4.30 PM
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ANNUAL DAY-REFRESHMENTS, PRIZE
DISTRIBUTION,
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MAIN LAWN
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VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT AND DINNER
|
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24.12.18
|
6.00 PM
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CHRISTMAS CARNIVAL/CAROL SINGING/WINTER
RAMP WALK
|
BADMINTON COURT
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MUSIC/DANCE/FOOD STALLS
|
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29.12.18
|
10.00 AM
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NATURE WALK TO ARAVALLI BIO-DIVERSITY PARK
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FROM A BLOCK GATE
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31.12.18
|
MIDNIGHT
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CAKE CUTTING AND USHERING IN THE NEW YEAR
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COMMUNITY HALL
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