The Chronicle wishes all its readers a Happy New Year!
EDITORIAL
The postponed Annual Day was conducted on 4th December. Unfortunately, the Chief Guest, the Solicitor-General of India, Mr. Gopal Subramaniam became indisposed. The resourceful Mr. Hari Shankar immediately swung into action and invited the eminent lawyer, Mr. Pravin Anand, Partner of renowned IPR and Patent Attorneys Anand & Anand to be the Chief Guest. He spoke lucidly and passionately about protecting intellectual property and offered to provide free of cost, a game on IPR developed by him to anybody in the Society who wishes to have one. He gave away the prizes for academics, sports and cultural accomplishments. Two residents became octogenarians this year – Mrs Pankajam Venkatachalam of A-009 and Mr. K. V. N. Iyengar of D-203. They were honoured with shawls. Mr. Iyengar spoke briefly acknowledging the honour bestowed on him by the residents. The cultural programme, starting with the invocation song sung by Aparna and Vinay, with Sri Hari on the tabla set the tone in a rousing fashion for the programmes to follow. Zoobie Doobie, a dance done by the tiny tots in bright red attire was lustily cheered by the audience. Avantika and Tejas gave a classical touch to the proceedings with a song in the behag raag. This was followed by a jugalbandi with Kavya on the keyboard and Tejas on the tabla. Bhangra is a dance form that always lights up the mood because of the sheer energy and vibrancy in the movements. The boys, well trained by Shahin, did a superb job. Rama Rama, a dance to Tamil lyrics, done by the children became so popular that it was called for an encore at the end of the show. Then the adults got into the act with a dance done by the ladies to Dola Re. I must admit that the quality of the show was of such high order that it was evident a lot of practice and hard work had gone into the preparations. Prakriti the shy teenager did a dance to a jazz number, Tic Toc. She put so much of verve, body and soul into the dance that it was a totally different avatar of Prakriti we were seeing. The coup de grace was the Tamil/English play, No Onions, Nor Garlic. It was a spoof on the current muddled up generation of Indians where parents want to cling on to traditional life styles whereas the children grow up on a diet mixed with western culture Each of the cast members embodied the role well. Seema as Sachu was the antithesis of her real self and enacted the role of a traditional mother with such uncanny relish that one could mistake her real persona as that of Sachu. Her Japanese looking nightgown, however, seemed like a sartorial faux pas, given her role as a traditional mami! The role of Harishankar as Prof. Ram, as the imperious upholder of traditional Hindu values seemed tailor-made for him. Nanu has a penchant for acting and it showed in his depiction of Kicha. Anirudh, Aditi, Raju, Lakshmi, Kunal Gita, Sujata, Poornima, Ramanan and Saudamini all enacted their roles to perfection.
If this did not whet your appetite, there was more to follow. The Kuchipudi dance by little Aditi Ganapathy had the hallmark of a professional performance. We also had a solo song by Sandhya Jaishankar as a curtain raiser for the next dance medley by Aparna, Vedika, Shreya, Anaya, Lipa, Dakshina, Anaya, Kashish, Shruti and Riya. Their shimmering attire just added some glitter to their beautiful dance. At the last minute an indi-pop dance by Netra, Nandita, Aditi, and Harshita was included. It was too crafted and hokey to be entirely spontaneous. Their gyrating moves and synchronised sashaying suggested hours of rehearsing. The grand finale was the show put by the Rock Band. Initially they played the background music to Aditi and Seema’s songs and then they show cased their ample talent in their own renderings. I was amazed at their versatility as they could very easily switch from one instrument to the other. Full marks to Rangu, Ramanan, Raghu, Shashank and At one point Mr. Venkatachalam sent out a request for the song Hotel California. The band didn’t have anybody who knew the lyrics. I reluctantly volunteered to sing. My off-key crooning was fortunately drowned out by the melodious duo of Seema and Aditi and I was thus spared the rotten tomatoes.
At the end of the show, in lieu of the buffet dinner, ambrosia of traditional foods like gol gappa, chat papdi, aloo tikki, gobi and mooli parathas amongst others were on offer. While such foods go down the hatch very fast, unfortunately, they are the harbingers of alarming lipid profile.
I must indeed thank Mr. Murthy (formerly of C-104) who like the old reliable he is, does not fail to show up for the event although he now resides in far flung Vaishali. He supervised the work of the tents and sound system admirably. While the Secretary, Mr. Krishnamurthy gave his vote of thanks speech, I would be failing in my duty if I did not personally thank all the choreographers, namely, Bhavani, Prema, Anuradha, Shahin, Seema, Aditi, Anusmita and Rajni. They put in hours and hours of practice for us all to benefit from this aural and visual delight. Gita Rastogi as the master of ceremonies marshalled her resources well to come up with this splendid show. Kudos, to all of them. We are very grateful to Raghav of G-205 for arranging sponsorship worth Rs. 50,000. This will shore up our reserves and help us speed up some of the maintenance activity.
My regret is that the audience was painfully thin in the beginning and even though the numbers swelled as the show progressed, their applause for the performances was decidedly anaemic. I am sure the performers deserved a lot more for their efforts, unless the ambient temperature was so low as to keep everybody’s hands firmly in their pockets. Please view the blog for the Annual Day pictures shot by Ram and Tarun.
The contract for the road work has been awarded. We were aided by another quotation provided by Mr. T. A. R. Nair and the negotiation skills of Mr. T. S. Narayanaswamy to shave off some cost. However, we will incur expenses to raise the levels of the manholes as well as the water harvesting pits falling on the road. The gates will also have to be raised. The good news is that since the interlock brick road can last upto 20 years, the road maintenance amount that is being charged from all car and two wheeler owners could be set aside for regular maintenance thereby reducing the burden on the members. Besides, you will have the benefit of an even road where you can walk without consternation. You would however, have to bear with some inconvenience while the road is being laid. The entire exercise should be over by March, 2011.
The Christmas carnival was a resounding success, although we missed the presence of some our prominent Yamuna residents who had proceeded on their vacations or had other engagements. The stage was very tastefully done with the efforts of Gita, Seema, Prema, Meera and Poornima amongst others. Aditi on the keyboard and vocals and Seema with her dulcet voice not only gave a superb rendering of the carols but were also the choreographers for the show-stopper. The children were all very tastefully attired for the Nativity scene and did their part splendidly to some rousing cheers from the audience. In walked Nandita as the affable Santa and distributed goodies. This was followed by the Catwalk, held for the first time in Yamuna. Children and adults all participated to show their winter collection. I was amazed when I saw Devyani, Vedika amongst others walk the ramp like true professionals. It was rounded off by Mr. PKK Nair, in Humphrey Bogart style with overcoat, top hat and cane doing a jig to the amusement of everybody. He took the top honours amongst the men followed by Deepak. Amongst the small children, Ananya Sehgal and Samiksha Nair were the winners. Teenage divas, Dakshina and Nandita sashayed to perfection and amongst the ladies Anuradha Nair and Shahin Ponnuswamy poured out their charm in their prize winning attire. The judges did not consider for prizes, those who were too shy and decided to walk the ramp in pairs. I believe it was a tough call for the judges to make their choice as all the participants were very well turned out. Ganesh Ponnuswamy’s annual day gifts came handy to give the prizes to the winners. The participants were cheered with wolf whistles and catcalls as Balaji played the perfect ramp music. Balaji played the lone ranger as the DJ with nobody to support him, but the medley of music he dished out had the audience jiving away. There was plenty of choice available to satisfy the hunger pangs with Auntie’s Rolls, Mrs. Govil’s puri-, chole, Aruna’s pulyodarai and rasa vadas, Nalin’s cakes and parathas and the Savarkars’ pizzas and pasta. The bonfire kept everybody warm. The Yuletide spirit remained alive till the end. View the pictures in the blog. Raghav played the Santa once again by garnering Rs. 10,000 as sponsorship money for the carnival. We salute him.
The year was brought to a close and the NEW YEAR ushered in to rousing cheers. There was much backslapping and bearhugs by the party hoppers awake at that time. The cake was cut in the Community Hall and distributed to the assembled crowd. The lack of confetti did not dampen anyone’s spirits. We bid goodbye to 2010 and said hello to 2011. May the New Year bring cheer to everybody. To those who lost their near and dear ones in 2010, may your sorrows melt away and bring glad tidings.
Dola Re at Yamuna Annual Day
Santa visits Yamuna !
Ringing in the New Year
Mrs. K. S. Jayalakshmy of D-102 became indisposed in November. After a few days in the hospital she gave up the fight and passed away on 2nd December. I would often see her going for walks or in the temple and she seemed healthy enough to live at least another couple of decades. Unfortunately, it was not to be and she left this world a tad too early. Yamuna residents convey their condolence to Mr. Balasubramaniam and Chitra. As usual, Srikanth (Yamuna’s messiah of the distressed) was at hand to take her to the hospital and later in facilitating the conduct of the last rites. It would be useful if other able and fit people also volunteer to help the distressed in times of emergency. Those who are willing to do so may give their names to Srikanth or to the Society office.
SNIPPETS
Mr. E.A. Narayanan and Mrs. Mangalam Narayanan have moved out of B-003 and gone to their own flat in Charmwood village.
Roshni, daughter of Mrs. Abraham of G-104 delivered a son on 8th December in Bangalore. He has been named Zohraab. As usual the grandmother of the child, who is the most wanted at such times was with Roshni to tide over the initial phase of baby rearing.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR JANUARY, 2011
| DATE | TIME | EVENT | VENUE |
| 9.1.11 | 10 AM | ECO & CLEANLINESS DRIVE IN YAMUNA | ASSEMBLE IN THE BADMINTON COURT |
| 13.1.11 | 9 PM | LOHRI CELEBRATIONS | BADMINTON COURT |
| 23.1.11 | 10 AM | HERITAGE WALK TO JAHANPANAH MONUMENTS-VIJAY MANDAL, BEGUMPURI MASJID , KHIRKI MASJID AND SATPULA | PLEASE ASSEMBLE WITH YOUR CARS AT H-BLOCK GATE |
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