EDITORIAL
Property prices had reached such heights that only few could
afford them. I used to shudder at the thought of conjugally challenged
newly-weds who had to share their cramped quarters with sundry brothers,
sisters, parents, aunts and uncles in joint families. They used to find
themselves marooned in platonic wilderness. There is hope for them now as
property prices have started going southwards rather sharply. I understand that
the prices haven’t hit the bottom yet. Property as an instrument of investment
is no more an attractive proposition unless one wants it for one’s own
use.
Social media has infiltrated our lives in a major way,
Wherever you go you find people with their faces buried in their smart phones
and their fingers darting on the keys either playing games or surfing or sending
inane forwards. By transmitting forwards, actually you are endorsing those
views without really being the author of the piece. We are in a position to
blindside our fallacies, safe in the sanctuary that an inanimate object
provides. Fake news, intolerant views, humour channels with a good deal of
expletives and undesirable content has become the norm. I am left wondering if
it is trendy to be a jerk. Besides, this all pervading social media curse is
putting in peril all social contact between humans and the empathy that goes
along with it. I have been given to understand that a game called PUBG is so
violent and hostile that children’s minds are getting corrupted by it because
of its addictive influence.
Children should be weaned away from video games for their own
good and nudged into building block games. Lego is a building blocks game that
hones a person’s skills and analytical acumen. The permutations and
combinations are mind boggling and you can pretty much make anything with it.
Recently, there was a news item that a person built an artificial arm for
himself with a Lego set. In China, in many schools it is mandated to own a Lego
set so that children become more clever and innovative in building things.
Parents would be advised to invest in an advanced Lego set for their children
instead of video games. Video games can at best make a person more dexterous
but ends up as an addiction and dulls the mind. Whereas a Lego set can make a
child think like an engineer.
Voters over time have learnt to ignore the platitudinous
blathering of politicians. The poor weigh their votes based on immediate
handouts as they all are too aware that post poll, promises are there to be
broken. For the rest of the populace, political parties have taken social media
by storm. There are a plethora of comments from both sides of the political
divide castigating the other. When will these parties stop talking about the
other parties’ negatives and talk about their own party’s positives? There is
too much noise and too little substance.
The Pulwama attack has once again brought to focus what the
insidious and malign intent of our western neighbour can do to the fragile
peace that exists there. One sees those guns regularly in the Valley, stark
totems of the violence that lies beneath the surface of this paradise that is
staggeringly beautiful, so attractive to the tourist, yet so troubled.
It is amazing that Yamuna Apartments got to be mentioned in
the Supreme Court in salutary terms on 29th March, 2019. It was
touted as a model residential colony by The Environment Pollution Control
Authority while recommending parking being made chargeable in residential
areas. In order to cover this item in the next day’s news, a correspondent of
Hindustan Times rushed to the colony on 30th March, 2019 and took
pictures of the parked cars. Her report together with a picture of the colony was
published in the Hindustan Times of 31st March, 2019.
The Thyagaraja Aradhana was held in the Community Hall on 13th
April, 2019. It didn’t quite live up to its reputation of yester years when
there were a lot more singers and the hall used to reverberate when the power
of their combined voices reached a crescendo while singing the Pancharatna
kritis. The absence of Yamuna singers like Kalyani, Bhavani and Seema and some
from outside took some sheen and heft out of the event. Nevertheless, it still
had quality singers in Sumathi, Subhada, Aruna, and Latha amongst others. The
children trained by Subhada like Tanvi, Sahana Savarkar and Samiksha gave a
good account of themselves. Although Saint Thyagaraja composed his kritis over
a century ago, to many people, the Thyagaraja Aradhana bespeaks immense faith
in things both temporal and divine and so it should stay. There is this
enduring resonance that makes the Kritis timeless. Prasadam was arranged by
Kumar Caterers. We are indeed grateful to all those who made this event
memorable.
Children’s final exams are over and they have moved to the
next class. Those who appeared for the Xth and XIIth class Board exams await
their result. I remember when we were children, as soon as the final exams got
over, euphoria used to sweep over us and we would be playing all the time and
generally running amok. I don’t find the same enthusiasm in today’s children
except in the pre-teens. Why are they so stressed? Are we burdening the
children with too many sundry activities that they do not have the time or the
inclination to let their hair down and behave like children? I am hearing of
parents taking their children to psychologists and shrinks because they think
they are muddled up. This is a sorry state of affairs. Children should be
happy, at least during the holidays. At other times they are constantly
battling with tuitions, tests, projects and such like.
Winter flowers have given way to summer blossoms. The
prettiest of them are the mauve coloured blooms of the Jacaranda tree adjoining
the badminton court. The yellow flowers of the Tacomas along the St. George
school boundary wall, the purple coloured bougainvilla flowers flanking the
C-Block annexes, the purple and white coloured periwinkle along the Godavari
boundary wall, the pink coloured thunbergia creeper crawling up the curved
staicase wall of B-107, the red passion flower in the passage between A Block
and the transformer area, the red salvia’s in the mound adjoining the entrance
to the park, all paint a pretty picture against the monochromatic façade of the
buildings. They act as mood enhancers. Together with the greening of the main
lawn, it is a delight to gravitate towards the lawn and other green patches
especially as the days get hotter.
We are in the thick of the election season when nothing gets
done by the Government and in the Government as all the politicians are busy campaigning
for elections and the bureaucrats and other functionaries are on poll duty
manning polling booths or are on sundry duties. Recently, when I enquired from
the local MLA as to why something he had promised had not got done, he
mentioned that the model code of conduct had been imposed and therefore any
work will get done only after the polls are over. My apprehension is that once
the polls are over, the politicians lose their interest in pandering to the
electorate.
There are many leaders on all sides of the political spectrum
who are very articulate and lend a lot of weight to their arguments. I feel
compelled to listen to the PM, who is a master orator. Arun Jaitley who has all
the answers, legal or otherwise to questions thrown by the Opposition is
proficient both in English and Hindi and can hold forth without any aid on any
subject. He is a consummate leader, having been baptised in the fiery cauldrons
of student politics. Then there is Smriti Irani. Although her reign as HRD
Minister was quite shambolic, she is extremely articulate in both Hindi and
English, then there is Sambit Patra of the BJP. I find his eloquence in both
English and Hindi amazing. Among the opposition parties, I find Mr Pawan Verma
as very erudite, analytical and balanced. Having been a former bureaucrat he
knows all the nuances of machinations inside and outside in the corridors of
power. Sachin Pilot, Milind Murli Deora, Deepender Singh Hooda are the young Turks
who will make an impact in the future. However, they will be hampered by the
presence of their inept leader, the proverbial glass ceiling that will impede
their progress.
Summer is here in earnest. If you go out during the day, the
heat can make faces melt. I cannot fathom how they play IPL cricket in this
weather. In the span of a couple of overs, the bowlers have sweat soaked
shirts. However, it is time for heading to the swimming pools. There is so much
rush for temporary membership to swimming pools that when a person lands up
there, you hardly see the water as every square inch of space is taken up by
the swimmers. There is barely any room to move. Not that it bothers me. I have a
mortal dread of the depths. Once I almost perished in four feet of water in a
swimming pool, much to the amusement of my daughters. Even in my most exuberant
stunts, I can hardly claim to be the master of the abyss.
The virtues of thrift and humility are anathema to the
demands of the new age where instant gratification is the hallmark of a good
life. No wonder the e-marketplace business is booming. Until about a decade
ago, nobody had heard of Amazon, Flipkart, Uber, Ola, Zomato, Swiggy, OYO rooms
etc. All these businesses have staggering valuations and some of them have
grown so big that their turnover is more than the GDP of some countries. This
kind of stratospheric growth cannot be even imagined in brick and mortar
industry. To grow to this scale, companies like TATA, Birla etc have taken more
than hundred years. Youngsters, whether they have money in their pocket or not
are calling the shots and debt is the name of the game.
With the advent of the summer season all cultural activities have
come to a halt. Hence, there is no calendar of events planned from May till
August. Summer recess is an opportunity for everybody to plan their holidays to
escape the heat, albeit temporarily. Many holiday packages are being advertised
in the newspapers. Some of the overseas packages particularly to South East
Asia are working out cheaper than the holidays within the country. The only
thing that pleases me about the Delhi summer is the availability of a large
variety of juicy mangoes. I have yet to meet somebody who does not love
mangoes. Then of course there is the occasional indulgence in ice cream and
Natural’s has a host of original flavours.
There is a lot of construction activity going on in high end
colonies where the old buildings are being torn down and replaced with several
builder flats in one plot. This will only add to the pressure for water,
sanitation and parking space. Some of the houses are so out of character that
they mar the landscape. Their proclivity to imitate European baroque architecture
shows no subtlety. Frescos of cherubs and angels with a variety of string instruments, pillars shaped into lyres and other architectural embellishments
look so incongruous in an Indian setting that it militates with our taste.I
guess the reason we do this is because we still have this slavish mentality of
aping the west.
Talking of construction, one sees many flats in Yamuna undergoing
renovation too. Unfortunately many residents still do not follow the guidelines
when they take up any renovation work. Every resident who undertakes renovation
work should fill and submit a form that is available in the Society office
about the nature of work, duration of work, name of the contractor who is
undertaking the job, etc. Besides, there are several do’s and don’ts like the
hours the workers can do the job and about informing the neighbours. The
do’s and don’ts are also mentioned in the Rules for Residents page of the
Society telephone directory. Residents are requested to adhere to these rules
and remove the construction debris in gunny sacks on a periodic basis from the
Society.
SNIPPETS
Mihir, Falguni and Megh of A-308 who lavished tribute to
Yamuna and its residents in a missive to the editor which was published in the
February issue of the Chronicle, left for Mumbai on 6th April, 2019.
It is very sad to see people who move into the colony, get well integrated and
contribute to the socio-cultural fabric of Yamuna depart from the colony. We
hope someday they will get a chance to move back so that we can welcome them
back with open arms.
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Lutz Konnermann, Farida Pacha and Rehan of C-206 who moved
into the colony in July, 2017, left for Germany via Italy.on 27th
April, 2019. This is another family who integrated very well into the
socio-cultural scene of Yamuna. All three of them participated in society
functions and won prizes. Both Rehan and his parents boast of a large circle of
friends in Yamuna, who will feel saddened by their departure. They will be
based in Berlin for six months. They have been practically leading a nomadic
existence, living wherever their projects took them. But with Rehan growing up
and needing a settled life in school, Lutz and Farida will be taking a call
shortly where to base themselves. They will be missed sorely.
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Mr. Sanjiv Gupta and Meenakshi Nagar have moved into A-202
from Vasant Kunj. Mr. Sanjiv Gupta works for Atrisin.com, a Finance Consultancy
company and Meenakshi works with SBI. Sanjiv likes to read and listen to music
and Meenakshi apart from sharing his interest in music, has a fascination for
yoga. When enquired what is the difference he finds between Vasant Kunj where
he moved from and Yamuna, he mentioned that Yamuna is greener, cleaner, more
lively and friendly. Sanjiv can be reached on 8860637277 and Meenakshi can be
reached on 9810157376.
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Mr. G. Ravindra has moved into C-001 from Bhopal. He is
Business Head of Andritz Hydro. He is originally from Bangalore. In his spare
time he likes to listen to Carnatic and Hindustani music. He is also fond of
reading. He doesn’t have to go far to indulge in his love for music. His wife
Jnanamba Rao sings Carnatic music professionally and also Hindustani music. She
belongs to Mysore. Their daughter, Bhairavi is studying in VIIIth Class and has
secured admission to Paul George School. She is however, attempting to get into
Indian School. She is fond of sports and plays badminton, basketball, and takes
part in athletics. She is a very gregarious person. Within a day of moving to
the colony she seemed to know all the children. Mr. Ravindra can be reached on
9826044802 and Jnanamba on 8871136462.
