EDITORIAL
It may sound strange and paradoxical that global
warming is causing frigid weather in February. What global warming has done is
change the direction of the trade winds in a phenomenon called polar vortex
whereby cold wind from the Arctic is coming into the lower latitudes and has
given us record low temperatures in December, January and now in February. In
fact, strange things have happened. Chicago in USA had colder temperature than
the North Pole! In the southern hemisphere, several parts of Australia
witnessed 50⁰ centigrade and a massive hole has appeared in a glacier in the
Antarctic.
The India Art Fair happened to be on the
coldest day February has witnessed in several years. It was cold and windy.
Naturally, nobody wanted to go out when you could snuggle up under the quilt
with a hot cup of tea. Anyway, few of us braved the elements and went to the
show and were rewarded with an eclectic display of art work from around the world.
What is fascinating about artists is
their innate ability to think out of the box and come up with such esoteric
works that one begins to wonder as to how the artist’s mind works. Fortunately
for us the weather warmed up in the afternoon and we could luxuriate in the
balming effect of the winter sun. In order to contain the crowds, the
organisers had increased the price of the entry ticket to Rs. 700 which was
rather steep I thought.
The following day too was rather cold and
gloomy in the morning. The on-the-spot painting competition slated for that day
at 10 am had to be deferred to 11 am for the fingers to thaw sufficiently
enough for the painters to be able grip their paint brushes. The cold weather
did not deter the painters who assembled in good numbers in the park armed with
pallettes, paints, brushes, crayons etc. The participants had to choose between
two topics viz. “Enchanted Forest” or a science fiction topic, “Space Odyssey” or something incorporating
robots.. Some of the participants combined both the topics and came up with
their own interpretation of the theme. Since Art has no boundaries, one could
give reign to one’s imagination. There were a riot of colours and the
participants had a jolly good time. Children of all age groups and adults too
took part. Mrs. Seetha Venkataraman distributed Cadbury’s chocolate to the
participants and bystanders. The judging of the paintings was done by Anandita
Gopal, (daughter of M. Anand). Anandita was all admiration for the quality of
work by all participants but she had the onerous task of picking only three
winners per category. Those who made the
grade are listed in the table below. The potluck lunch which was to follow the painting
competition saw another set of indulgers. It was past two o’clock and the
salivary glands were on overdrive. As soon as the dishes were laid out there
was a bee-line for the food and it got cleaned up in no time.
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PAINTING COMPETITION RESULTS-2019
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PRIZE
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AGE CATEGORY
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NAME
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ADDRESS
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1
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5-8 YEARS
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KIAAN NATHAN
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A-107
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2
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REHAN KONNERMANN
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C-206
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3
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AKSHARA RAM PRABHU
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H-002
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1
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10-12 YEARS
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VANSHIKA ARORA
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A-106
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2
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ADWITA NAIR
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B-107
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SAHANA V IYER
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E-101
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1
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2
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13-15 YEARS
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ANANYA SATISH
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A-106
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3
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SAMIKSHA NAIR
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B-107
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KIANA ABRAHAM
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A-008
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1
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ADULTS
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LUTZ KONNERMANN
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C-206
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2
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C.VENKATESH
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E-101
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3
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PRABHU RAM
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H-002
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There is a thriving sub-culture amongst
the young mothers in Yamuna. Ananditha Anand Ganesh conducted an artist
workshop in C-001 organised by Anand Mahadevan’s other daughter Namagiri on 1st
February, 2019. It was a workshop on Dutch painter Van Gogh. The colourful
paintings done by the children were so amazing that I began to wonder why I too
did not get the benefit of the training by this artist. who has done her
Masters in Visual Communication from Birmingham City University in the UK. I
have told Ananditha that one day she should conduct classes for adults as well.
The enthusiasm of these young mothers is so infectious that it spreads a lot of
good cheer. They take it on themselves to conduct art and craft sessions to
spread their knowledge and skills to the children. Priyanka Nathan of A-107
engaged the kids in a Basant Panchami workshop. Basant Panchami is a festival
that marks the begining of Spring and is dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, the
goddess of knowledge and music. Priyanka started the workshop explaining the
significance of knowledge and learning in our lives. This was followed by a
singalong on Saraswati while the kids enjoyed plaing the manjira. This was
followed with three crafts sessions (the girls made their own yellow flower
tiaras and the boys decorated the book marks) It concluded with an aarati done
by children with small electric diya thalis. The children were all given
batashas as prasad. Amongst the men, only Lutz engages the children in getting
them to rig things up. They rigged up a winch, a pulley, a crane and such other
things by mounting it on the jungle gym in the park. He has also crafted a bird
feeder from coconut shell. This will enable them to grow up to be capable handymen.
For those appearing in the Board and
sundry other exams, we hope you peak at the right time and give your best and
not worry about the end result. There is a future for everybody.
The upwardly mobile youth of today like to
live in style. The number of luxury cars in Yamuna have doubled over the course
of the last month. Is prosperity knocking on everybody’s door or is it a sign
of the times?
OBITUARY
Mrs. Thara N. Rao, mother of Mr. N. Ravi
Rao of H-105 passed away at Max Hospital, Saket at the age of 85 years.
She was ailing for a while and the end came on the morning of 21st
February, 2019 at 5.30 am.
The members and residents
of Yamuna convey their heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families.
SNIPPETS
After a three day wedding extravaganza in
Hyderabad, the celebrations concluded for Sravan (G-303) and his bride Usha
with a reception at the Delhi Gymkhana Club. The place was decked up
beautifully with flowers and fairy lights albeit in a very sophisticated and
understated way. Sridevi and Satya welcomed all the guests and there was a fair
sprinkling of guests from Yamuna. Sridevi could be spotted from a mile away,
with her diamond necklace shining like laser beams. The sartorial turnout of
Yamuna ladies was so amazing that they took one’s breath away. Sravan looked
dashing and debonair and Usha looked very comely. Usha who has done engineering
from IIT, Kanpur and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad is working with Grofers. She has now got a job
in Dubai and joining Sravan there. The couple is headed to Kenya for their
honeymoon amongst the wildlife of Masai Mara!
************************
Tejaswin Shankar does not believe in resting
on his laurels. Recently, representing Kansas University, he leapt an
incredible 2.28 metres to win the Big12Conference Men’s high jump title. That
is another feather in his cap.
************************.
Mr. Puneet Sehgal has moved into C-203. He
is an interior decorator by profession and has moved from Goa where he lived
for seven months. His interests include going for walks and playing badminton.
His wife Mamta is a housewife. She loves to cook, play badminton and is
interested in home décor. Their elder daughter Nitika is 12 years old and is studying
in Class VII in K. R. Mangalam School. She is interested in Art and Theater and
is very good painter. Their younger daughter, Hitika is just three years old
and loves to dance. Puneet can be reached on 9582278253.
***********************
Kaushal Bhardwaj has moved into C-204 with
his wife Deepika Shori, brother Keshav and sister-in-law Neha Dogra. Kaushal works
for APTIV, formerly Delphi as a senior engineer looking after Northern India
sales. Deepika is a corporate lawyer with PRA law offices. Keshav works as a
Process Manager and heads R&D in Ambrane India. He is parallely running his
own company called Droyd Generators manufacturing power banks which he sells
through e-commerce sites. Neha works as a network engineer with IBM. Both
Kaushal and Keshav are very good dancers to Bollywood music and Keshav has won
several prizes in dance competitions. In the next Annual Day a slot has been reserved
for them. Deepika loves to read and Neha has interest in learning foreign
languages and is currently learning French. They can be reached on 9910830189.
*********************
Pankaj Maniyar has moved into B-006 with
his wife Amrit Kaur. Pankaj works with Benetton India Pvt Ltd as treasury
operations manager. His wife Amrit Kaur is an entrepreneur and distributes
luxury products like Swiss watches, jewellery through e-commerce sites. Their
motto is to ‘live the good life’ and to live up to it, they travel extensively
around the world. Pankaj is also passionate about sports, particularly soccer
and cricket. They can be reached on 9818841612.
We welcome all those who have moved into
Yamuna and hope they grab their chance to integrate well with the community.
Letter to the Editor from Mihir Bhatt, A-308
April
17th 2016, was the day we entered Yamuna with plenty of hesitation,
apprehension and scepticism about the city, people and culture. Coming from
Maximum City which we still identify as Bombay, Delhi in lot of ways was a
shocker. Dark streets, old buildings etc. Our landing in Yamuna was by sheer
chance as we had almost finalised another home in Narmada because nothing was
available in Yamuna. But on the day of paying token money to landlord in
Narmada, by chance we came across a flat in Yamuna. Rest is not history but a lovely
experience. Courtesy Mr. Nair we made A 308 our nest in Delhi. We cannot thank
him enough for the same.
Mohan
played pied piper for us as we started settling down in Yamuna and started
seeing life in Delhi as not so bad after all!!! Mohan ensured that we were part
of all festive & social gatherings of Yamuna. By the time Durga Puja came,
we were swinging to the harmonious riverlike sounds of Yamuna. From Diwali to
Christmas and New Year to Annual day, it kept getting better and better.
Countless wonderful souls were added thru melting pot of Yamuna to our lives.
Kunal, Seema, Raghav, Rekha, Madhavi, Julius, Abhilash, Shekhar, Anu, Poornima
Narayanan, Poornima Satish, Satish, Sujata, Anand, Aseem, Savitha, Shubhda,
Arun, Jayashree, Lavanya and many more.
Megh
has spent some of his best years in Yamuna and learned a lot. His circle of
friends kept getting bigger and better. Falguni came in to her own in Yamuna
and her dance, art and culinary skills peaked during festive parties thanks to
Mohan’s relentless persuasion.
As
Gita (Bhagvad that is ..) proclaims , change is constant. One more change is
coming our way calling us back to our home turf Mumbai. As we prepare to set
sails for Mumbai once again, we are filled with memories of our first day in
Yamuna. Never did we think that we will have such wonderful memories which will
make it so difficult for us to leave Yamuna behind. But Yamuna is not a colony,
it is actually a way of life flowing from the time immemorial. We would like to
thank each one of you for making our stay unforgettable in many ways. There
would have been occasions where any of us would have hurt someone knowingly or
unknowingly, we would like to sincerely apologise for the same.
In
the end we would like to say “You can take person out of Yamuna, but you can’t
take Yamuna out of person.” Wishing you all a lovely, joyous & healthy life
ahead. See you guys soon. Do expect us on festivities in the years to come.
Thanking
you all
Falguni
, Mihir & Megh
We
can always be reached on Mihir – 98206 99767 ( mihirzee@gmail.com);Falguni – 98334 73073 ( fmbhatt@gmail.com )
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CALENDAR
OF EVENTS FOR MARCH, 2019
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DATE
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TIME
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ITEM
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VENUE
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21.3.19
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10 AM
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HOLI MILAN IN THE PARK
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30.3.19
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7.00 PM
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COOKING COMPETITION FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS
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BADMINTON COURT
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