Issue No. 135 I November 2012

EDITORIAL

The Sports Day was held on 4^th November in balmy weather under a thick blanket of haze, which kept most residents indoors. But the ones who ventured to the lawn were treated to a spectacle that was both exhilarating and comical. What once used be the playground of ‘under five’s’, the sudden depletion of numbers ensured that prizes were almost guaranteed for those who participated. With the newlyweds and those in the fertile age group putting away their decision to have children, the demographics of Yamuna is undergoing a sea change. With great effort we could muster three children who could compete in the under five category. With ‘picking the toffees’ always turning out to be raucous affair, what with the audience wanting to pick their own to cheer on. The children who were zapped with all the attention must have viewed the audience as a bunch of loonies letting out their steam. Tanvi Savarkar with three first place finishes was the star of the Sports Day. Vidhya Nair amongst the ladies secured first spot in both ladies events of lemon & spoon and needle & thread. Men took part in a race after hiatus of a year. Kunal Savarkar shot off the blocks and showed a clean pair of heels to the chasing mob! Anup Nair valiantly tried to catch up with him but finished second. Ved Sinha and Deepak Varma were in a dead heat and finished at joint third spot. Take a look at all the prize winners on the notice board.

As usual the show of the morning was the ‘Tug of War’, where men were pitted against women and girls vied with boys. The ladies and gents played a ‘best of three’ contest. I must confess I have not seen a more evenly and bitter pitched battle. After a see-saw contest in the first round which threatened to go either way, the men finally prevailed. The women did not want to give up easily as they took sweet revenge in the next round by hauling the men in like a sack of coal. This effort seemed to take a toll on the women as they caved in meekly in the decider. The girls and boys event was also an evenly matched contest with the boys scraping past the girls 2 to 1.

Pursuing matters with graft ridden departments of Government or Quasi Government bodies is always a challenge. Bharti, Seetha, Mr. P.K.K. Nair and Mr. P.Krishnamurthy with outside help from Umapathy are doing a stellar job in relentlessly following up with the concerned authorities to get the required approvals and overturning the financial demands placed on the Society. We need to be grateful to these members for sparing their time for the benefit of all the members.

Diwali Mela which was held on 10^th November, while being one of the best in form, content and stage décor, drew fewer crowds from both within Yamuna and outside. A surfeit of clashing events like a wedding reception of a former Yamuna resident and three other mela’s in the vicinity acted as deterrents. However, it did not in any way dampen the enthusiasm of the assembled congregation who played games, relished the eats and jived to the music till late into the night. Sujata Sundaresan was instrumental in arranging two of the stalls. Srikant Murthy lent the projector, Mohan Krishnaswamy and Raghav lent their motorcycles to adorn the music stall. Mr. Krishnaswamy donated some articles for the hoopla stall. Soumya and Srikant amongst others were very helpful in dismantling and putting away the equipment and games after the event. I applaud Prashant senior and his crew for putting up a fabulous display on the stage. My thanks go out to all those who made the event enjoyable. Having said that, I have reasonable cause to believe that it is an event which is fast losing its charm. This is noticeable from the extent of voluntary work in staging the show and dwindling crowds on the day. No doubt it is enjoyable on the day of the event but it just does not justify the effort required to be put over a period of a month. I do not see the event continuing in future years unless either there is renewed enthusiasm or someone else is willing to take over the planning and organisation of the event.

We are grateful to Jayashree Mohan for having introduced Chintan to the Society. Chintan’s scientific garbage removal and segregation has made the garbage dump more sanitised. In order that we make the environment more conducive to scientific waste management, we earnestly request you to give kitchen waste consisting of vegetable/fruit peels, food waste etc in a separate bag to the Jamadarni and not mix it up with dry waste like paper, plastic, bottles, metals etc. Likewise e-waste such as used batteries, CFL lamps and other electronic items should be deposited in the green bin placed in the Society office. E-waste is carcinogenic and can leach into the ground and render ground water poisonous. The added bonus of entrusting the task of garbage removal to Chintan is that they remove everything leaving the C block corner clean and sanitised and it is all done free of cost !

Diwali, the festival of lights started early for me. I was roused from my sleep by a burst of crackers at three in the morning. I admire people who follow tradition and wake up at two in the morning for Ganga snan and set forth bursting crackers. But Ganga of yore was pristine with pure mountain water from melted snow snaking through the valleys picking the goodness of medicinal herbs and minerals from rocks on the way to the plains. A bath in these waters was considered very therapeutic. Unfortunately, today the Ganga has been sullied by industrial effluents and sewage emptying into the river. A bath in Ganga water today could subject you to a host of illnesses. Hence, the significance of bathing in Ganga water is lost other than for the devout. Therefore, the tradition continues in some homes. I figured that after the initial burst of crackers there would be lull so that I could give my sleep deprived body some rest Alas no, there was a brief lull lasting all of fifteen minutes. Just as I was drifting back to sleep it resumed. This pattern continued till six in the morning until perhaps, the arsenal ran out. The prospect of a long day of hard labour for the illumination competition looming ahead, was not comforting. However, for the sake of keeping the tradition alive in a few homes, one is willing to put up with the inconvenience. After all it happens only once in a year.

The illumination competition was a humdinger. For a change A and B blocks, who were declared the winners had lots of residents taking part, making it a collective effort. C and D won the second prize. In the individual criteria, C and D won the first prize for the theme, “Communication Through the Ages” with E and F taking the second prize with their theme “Resource Optimisation Through Recycling of Waste”, A and B won the first prize for illumination and G and H took the second and in decoration A and B won the first prize with C and D took the second. It was gratifying to see so many residents in each set of blocks getting involved in the competition. This is one occasion when one gets to meet the new residents and establish friendships. All the blocks gave a good account of themselves. My personal feeling was E and F could have ended a few notches higher One or two residents felt that the competition should be moved to the badminton court and a corner should be provided to each set of Blocks to conserve resources and reduce fatigue. My personal view after seeing the demise of the Pookolam competition when we moved to a common area is that the competition will not survive. There is a certain pride in doing up one’s respective blocks which make the creative juices flow and bring along a feeling of camaraderie. This is the glue that has made this competition stand the test of time inspite of the rigour on Diwali day. Anyway, there is a clamour for the change in rules. Hopefully, the change will usher good news for the geographically and topographically disadvantaged E and F blocks.

Quizzing is an art and a science and involves great deal of planning and preparation. Sumathi has mastered the craft to perfection. She has always brought in an element of surprise in each edition of the quiz. Several new faces participated this year. There were five teams altogether with queer names like, “Vadra ke Dost”, “Clueless”, “What’s in a Name’, “Four Idiots” and “Einstein”. Vadra ke Dost who had the services of Kunal Savarkar (himself a quizzer), stole the show and took the first prize followed by a tie for second place between “Clueless” obviously did not do justice to their name and “What’s in a Name”, didn’t feel the need for a moniker. The “Four Idiots” were anything but that as they were leading the pack after four rounds of the six round quiz. They fell by the wayside in the last two rounds and ended up fourth. The questions posed by Sumathi were way out of my league and many felt the same in the audience. But, the fact that almost all the questions got answered shows that the participants are very erudite. Vadra ke Dost had the services of Geeta Menon, Anup Nair and Siddhant Nair in addition to Kunal Savarkar, Clueless was represented by Dakshina Raghavendra, Vidhya Nair, Anirudh Suresan, Pratap Krishnan and Vedika Arora and a rear guard action from “What’s in a Name” comprising Nisha Jayaram, Aditi Rastogi, Alka Arora, Tarun Balakrishnan and Anita Suresan capped of the proceedings on a very enjoyable and enlightening evening. Hats off to Sumathi for conducting a very interesting and challenging Quiz programme.

The Annual Day was deferred to 1st December, 2012 owing to the unfortunate bereavements in the families of two of the choreographers who between them were to do three items of the variety entertainment programme. This deferment may have also come as a relief to many who found all the weekends in this month locked up with society programmes. We have useful contributions from Mr. N. A. Seshadri who has donated Rs.1000 as scholarship for the topper in XII th class in the Science stream in memory of his late mother Mrs. K. G. Lakshmi Ammal. Likewise, Gita Rastogi has donated Rs. 1,000 for the topper in the Humanities stream. Mrs. Seetha Venkataraman has donated Rs. 5,000 for buying prizes for the participants in Sports events. Mrs. Bharti Ramakrishnan has donated T Shirts to be given as prizes. We are indeed very grateful to these members.

SNIPPETS

Dr. Nita Shah of A-309 who is a Wildlife Biologist and spent most of the time in the jungles of Gujarat realised that she didn’t really need to keep an abode in Yamuna. She has moved her baggage to Dehradun where her husband lives and will continue with her work with the endangered vulture in Gujarat. Nita with her cherubic and smiling face will be missed sorely.

Srichand and Kirti Bulani of A-005, after barely living a year in Yamuna have moved to a South American country. I can’t recall whether they mentioned Columbia or Venezuela. Kirti is in the Foreign Service and will have to complete a three year posting before returning home.

V. Jagadeesan of A-204 who was leading a bachelor’s life in Yamuna as his family lived in Mumbai was getting fed with the forced separation and has moved back to Mumbai to join his family.

Pradeep Amale, his wife Kirti Amale and their adorable twin children Ovi and Aadi of H-106 have relocated to Mumbai on a change of job.

Abhilash Vasukuttan Pillai has moved into G-105. This eligible bachelor owns five restaurants in Moscow and a host of other businesses.

F-003 has a new tenant. R.Venkataraman of (C-005) has taken the flat for his mother.

He established his turf fourteen summers ago at C-006 and became a member of the Zutshi family until life ebbed out of him on the morning of 22^nd. We are talking about Sultan the cocker spaniel who stood as a sentinel at the Zutshi’s entrance and welcomed or warned everybody with a bark. Children in Yamuna had a very close association with Sultan. His passing away left a void in Zutshi household and the family was inconsolable and distraught. May his soul rest in peace.

A Note of Thanks

Yamuna always rises to the occasion. My heartfelt gratitude to all the friends who came to help when my mother, Kausalya Krishnamurthi, passed away unexpectedly on the night of 27^th November, as well as the many others who have since been coming home to offer condolences. As much as we sorely miss Amma’s cheerful, warm and benevolent presence in our home, we are immensely consoled by the kindness and support we have received from the Yamuna family.

Poornima Narayanan(B-002/101)

CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR DECEMBER 2012

DATE	TIME	EVENT	VENUE
9.12.12	7.30 AM	YAMUNA ECO-DRIVE	ASSEMBLE AT BADMINTON COURT
23.12.12	10.30 AM	HERITAGE WALK/NATURE WALK	FROM A BLOCK GATE
24.12.12	6.30 PM	CHRISTMAS CARNIVAL WITH WINTER RAMPWALK, FOOD STALLS, ENTERTAINMENT, MUSIC, DANCE.	AT THE BADMINTON COURT
31.12.12/1.1/13	MIDNIGHT	CAKE CUTTING TO USHER IN THE NEW YEAR	COMMUNITY HALL