Issue No. 182 I October 2016

EDITORIAL

This year at the cleanliness and eco drive on 2nd October, 2016 it was a no show. Not a single person showed up. In yesteryears many children and a couple of adults would roll up their sleeves and get into it in earnest.

We are so entombed in our little Brahminical virtues and the caste and class barrier that binds and separates us, that we are unwilling to break the mould. We loathe the thought of getting our hands dirty and doing the bidding of a 'shudra'. It is indeed shameful. When are we going to get enlightened? We are so caught up in our microcosmic world that we practice the most abhorrent form of apartheid based on caste, culture, creed and colour. Do you need evidence of this?  We live in urban ghettos separated by all the aforementioned factors. Witness the sales of fairness creams and see the matrimonial ads. We castigate US for their race relations and the treatment of blacks. Actually, we are the biggest racists in the world. At the Diwali melas, I have seen many people from the so called upper caste leaving their soiled food plates on the lawn for somebody else to pick up. I have no qualms in picking up somebody else's plate and depositing it in the dustbin. I have heard refrains, "Ada thodadhe, echhal". Don't touch it, it is soiled. I don't know the equivalent of 'echhal' in English. I have been told that I belong to the highest strata of Brahmins. Can you believe it, a caste within a caste?

We, as adults, are responsible for indoctrinating the kids with the most reprehensible practice of caste and changing their innocent minds as they grow up. I may be a maverick in such people's eyes, but I am proud of the fact that I am not constrained by these prejudices. Once, I happened to spell the name of a good friend wrong in these columns, which I admit of, course, was careless of me. His consternation was not that I had spelt his name wrong but he painfully pointed out to me that by using the letter 'n' in his name instead of 'm', I had made him a non-Brahmin. I was aghast. But I don't hold it against him, it is the indoctrination. He is still my favourite person. I have altered the alphabets just so that nobody speculates about his identity.

Navratri was a festive time for everybody. Visits to each others' houses and to the Puja pandal was the norm. As usual the women looked gorgeous in their silk saris and gold accoutrements. During Navratri we also had our customary dandia on 8th October, 2016. This year was different in the sense that we had a dandia ensemble choreographed by Falguni Bhatt. This four minute dance was a voyeur's, I beg your pardon, viewer's delight with all the pretty damsels moving fluidly to the rhythm of clacking dandia sticks in au naturale choli rears. The crowd was relatively thin due to the awful traffic on the roads with many people who had gone out during the day not being able to return on time. Apart from Falguni, the other dancers included Latha Narayanan, Anu Nair, Sudha Easwaran, Seema Chari, Purnima Satish, Meera Venkat and Isha Gera. Hats off to them for their awesome performance.

Ramlila was an all-out children's show with the script written, directed and produced by Shreeja on 11th October, 2016. The cast consisted of Radhika as the dimpled Ram,  Vanshika Rajpurohit as the demure Sita, Ananya and Adwita as the cute siblings Luv and Kush,and Shashvath as sage Vashisht. Bhuvana as Hanuman did a good wiggling of the hips, Sai Chaitanya looked the part as Ravan, and Megh looked the noble soul as Lakshman. The cast also featured Aruna as Vanar Sena King, Shreeram as Janak, Shivashree as Mandodri, Aiden as the righteous Vibhishan, Aditya as the saviour Jatayu, Navya as the golden deer, Vijaya as Meghnath, Sahana played the good and bad roles as Kaikeyi and Soorpanakha, and Vanshika Arora as Mathara. Back stage assistance came from Purnima Satish, Chandrakanta and Shreeya. They all gave a good account of themselves and were cheered lustily by the audience.

This was followed by a very pleasing diya dance recital by Radhika Samson, Dakshina, Kiana and Radhika Venkataraman to the strains of Raghupathi Raghava Rajaram. The grand finale was the consigning to the flames of the demon King Ravan and his siblings. The blast from the bombs made Ravan keel over. Balaji very kindly distributed some refreshments to the audience. The participants of Ramlila were thrilled when Srikant and Soumya took them to Bikanerwala for dinner.

At this year's AGM held on 16th October, 2016 fewest ever members logged their attendance. This indifference is either a sign that everything is going very smoothly or it may be that there is no point airing one's views as things are not going to change. Either way the Managing Committee will remain clueless The Society needs feedback to address the concerns of members and the absence from attending the AGM helps neither. It is true that the MC may not be able to solve every individual's problems as there could be conflicting viewpoints, as was witnessed in the debate on the merits and de-merits of pruning trees, the frequency and the methods adopted. The MC put forth horticulture rules which was unanimously adopted by the General Body. The horticulture rules lay down the guidelines for various horticulture related issues. If everybody strictly follows these rules there will be less grief generally. All the resolutions were passed unanimously.

Mr. Kunal Savarkar, S. Srinivas and Mr. Mohan Krishnaswamy were elected as the new members of the MC.

Ram highlighted the achievements of the committee in the past one year. The most significant achievement was the one relating to the regularisation of Flats by the ROCS. We sincerely thank Kumar for arranging complimentary refreshments. 

The Diwali Mela on 29th October, 2016 in the badminton court and in the adjoining areas was a hit although the enthusiasm amongst adults and children leading up to the event was very tepid. At many times the thought of abandoning the Mela came to mind as none of the children wanted to stand in the stalls. They only wanted to enjoy. As a last resort they were asked to retain all the earnings and not give anything to the Society. Upon this announcement some children and adults agreed to man the stalls. I must thank Satish for arranging the Sony sponsorship and Mr. S. Krishnaswamy for sponsoring some gifts for Lucky Dip and Hoopla. Prashant. Sr. and junior as usual kept the crowd alive with their comments and music. Sumathi was a great help. The winner, however, was the crowd of visitors that made it an evening to remember. Only the success of this year's Mela stands between the thought of discontinuing the Mela and carrying on this bittersweet experience.

Another tradition that will not last till posterity is the Diwali illumination competition. With children not so enthused with tradition and culture and the adults complaining of creaky knees, fatigue and debilitating backs there is a call to either abandon this event or truncate it. Although I am a diehard traditionalist, I have been pressured to announce the simplification of the event. From next year the contest between the blocks will be decided on only one Rangoli.

Be that as it may, there was quite a good show put up by the blocks this year. There was no flagging of enthusiasm. Despite a woeful shortage of manpower E& F put up a magnificent show and shared the first prize with G&H for the best overall impact.  Bhavani, almost single handed, put up E&F's best show ever. G&H's theme of beti bachao , beti padao got a lot of resonance and they were rightly awarded the first prize for the theme, A&B with their theme of Goddesses of the world took the second prize. C&D got the first prize for illumination and G&H came second in this category. For the best single Rangoli, A&B got the first prize for their interpretation of Goddess Kali, E& F came second for their interpretation of Kalinga Nartanam. C&D's theme of airborne vehicles of the world starting with the Pushpaka Vimanam and ending with a rocket was unique. G&H showed their true mettle after a long hiatus with an all-round show to bag maximum prizes. They reminded us that yesteryears champion can be written off only at your peril. For the first time after twenty five years of illumination competition, the event got press coverage when Jaya TV carried the story with pictures and interview of residents in their news channel. We must thank Mala Sundaresan for arranging this.

We are just a month away from the Annual Day. Residents are requested to give their names for the events to either Anu Shekhar or me. Please begin practice in earnest in order to put up a good show. Only few solo performances will be considered.

MCD has started an initiative to change the power hungry sodium vapour lamps to LED lamps. Some of the lights on the perimeter road have been changed. The Society will shortly undertake to change the other lights to LED to improve the illumination of the colony.

Crime outside Yamuna is spiralling out of control. Mr. Arvind Rajpurohit's (F-004) car was deliberately punctured by two motor-cycle borne youth. One of them pointed to a flat tyre and when Arvind and his driver got down to examine the wheel at the rear, the first one grabbed his brief case kept in the rear seat and ran across the road where his accomplice was waiting for him astride a motor cycle. Both Arvind and his driver ran across the road and with the help of our security guard Khan, managed to lunge and topple the bike. The thieves fled on foot. The bike was then brought and parked in the basement. Arvind then went to the police station to lodge an FIR and the police tried to dissuade him. He managed to pull some strings and got the FIR lodged. The next day the thief was paraded in the police station and Arvind identified him. This clearly shows that there is an unholy nexus between the cops and the thieves. Many such cases relating to Yamuna haven't been solved. Maybe the cops wanted to return the bike to the thieves which is why they were caught.

SNIPPETS

Akshay of A-205 will be seeking his fortunes in Singapore after leaving IFC and joining PWC. He is moving out with his wife Aditi and everybody's sweetheart, Myrah. While we wish them good luck, we are sorry to see them go.

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Our resident doctors Sharada Vinod and Vijay Shankar of G-302 have also unfortunately moved out. Fortunately, they have not gone far afield. They have moved next door to Narmada Apartments.

		CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR NOVEMBER 2016
DATE	TIME	EVENT	VENUE
5.11.16	7.00 PM	QUIZ COMPETITION WITH SUMATHI	BADMINTON COURT
6-15.11.16	7.00 PM ONWARDS	TT AND BADMINTON TOURNAMENTS	UNDER CLUB HOUSE & BADMINTON COURT
19.11.16	6.30 PM	MOVIE SCREENING AND POT-LUCK DINNER	BADMINTON COURT
20.11.16	9.30 AM	SPORTS DAY FOR ALL AGE GROUPS	MAIN LAWN