EDITORIAL
The
festive season began after a fairly long hiatus. Birth of Lord Krishna always
evokes a lot of joy and gaiety, partly because of his naughty nature as a child
and also his reputation of playing pranks with gopikas. The Krishna at the
Janmashtami this year was played by Adhvik, son of Dr(s). Abhilash and Lakshmi.
He broke the dahi handi which sent the children into a frenzy, scampering for
the goodies that fell on the floor. That was the conclusion. Now to rewind to
the beginning. The day's proceedings started with the duo of Bhavani and
Sumathi regaling us with a medley of songs. Their well modulated and mellifluous
singing is always pleasing to the ears. Subadha, without whom no cultural
function is complete, ushered her pupils to the stage to sing some songs and
bhajans as paeans to the Lord. These talented bunch of singers consisting of
Shashvath, Sahana, Tanvi, Avantika, Samiksha, Surya, Radhika, Shreya, Pratyush
and Mani are tutored by an accomplished and dedicated singer. This was followed
by one song and two dance recitals presented by Sadhana School of Music and Dance
who, without fail, come up with performances that spell class. A Hindustani
recital by Meher Babbar was followed by a solo Odissi dance ballet by the very
graceful and lissome Dakshina Raghavendra. The coup de grace was served by the
classical dancing elite of Yamuna – Kiana, V. Radhika, Vanshika, Bhavna Harish,
and Sahana Iyer. It is laudable that Kiana, at such a young age, could
choreograph an Odissi dance number played to the fast tempo of five Grammy
award winner sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar's and the equally accomplished violinist
Yehudi Menuhin's recital. They danced with great confidence and aplomb. We had
a full house, probably the long summer recess had whetted people's appetite for
entertainment. The food stalls had more variety than usual and people thronged
to savour the treats. Mr. Thangadurai as usual distributed laddoos to the
assembled people.
The 70th
year of independence witnessed the hoisting of the national flag by the oldest
resident, Mr. N. H. Venkataraman (Sudha Umapathy's father) who was witness to
India attaining independence, and the youngest resident, Adhvik Pillai, who
will dictate the narrative for the next generation. As rose petal showers
descended to the ground, the residents sang the National Anthem with gusto.
More patriotic songs came from Subhada's troupe. The weather was hot and muggy
but that did not deter the others who needed to have a voice in the
proceedings. Bhavani and Sumathi were joined by Seema, Sujatha, Purnima, Vinod
Asthana, Murli, Muthu, and Farida amongst others to sing some more patriotic
songs. The crowd for the Independence Day function did not quite match the
bustling one of the night before. Patriotism does not seem to have that many
adherents. The ones who came waved the national flag to proclaim their love for
their motherland.
Super
antics and performances on YouTube are a hot favourite and office hours are
often devoted to downloading and forwarding such edifying videos. No wonder the
productivity in offices is dropping. It becomes a nightmare for bosses to
squeeze out extra productivity in this cyber savvy environment. Another
intrusion into the liminal space of office are the jokes whose provenance
cannot be traced. The only trope capable of expressing this predicament is the
WhatsApp joke some of which tend to be lowdown and crass. One receives WhatsApp
jokes which are usually passed on. One can seldom find out where it originated
from.
Idli
is one of the favourite breakfast foods of South Indians. Together with the accompaniment
of sambhar and coconut chutney it not only makes for a tasty treat but is also easy to digest. Now we have news that
UNESCO has certified idli as the healthiest breakfast item in the whole world.
I hope I can now convince my daughters to eat idlis.
We are
getting into the thick of the festive season and Onam lunch is one such
occasion when all Malayali women dressed in their off-white mundu or sari and
flowers in the hair congregate at the community hall, looking very fetching.
The pookalam and the women are a feast for the eyes. We men are there, of
course, so that you do not drown in an overload of beauty! This year the Onam
lunch has a ticket price of Rs. 250 per person. Please buy your coupons from
the Society office asap.
I
travel 45 kilometres to work every day and it takes me an hour. Contrast this
with going to Gurgaon, a distance shorter than what I travel. This once bucolic
community has become a city of more than a million inhabitants. It is a nightmarish
version of what India aspires to be – a destination for global investment – with
water shortage, iffy electricity and horrific traffic jams. If that is not
enough, even with depressed property prices it is going through a building boom
at such a frenetic pace that it can produce a new identity every Monday
morning. If young people spend four
hours commuting to and from their place of work, where will they have the
energy for anything else. Many erstwhile residents of Yamuna whose place of
work is in Gurgaon have moved there as a consequence of this.
The
bust up of Baba Ram Rahim has thrown open a can of worms. Heading an empire of
deras, he has through deceit, cunning, and crime amassed a fortune and clout
that he had become a law unto himself. Having a private army, he used blandishments
to lure the gullible. A dera the size of 700 acres, is an area too huge to even
imagine. Once inside these hapless devotees could not get out. They were
willy-nilly, through coercion and threats, forced into unseemly activities. The
government should ensure that these victims of privilege are freed and as for
the minders, it is time to awaken them from the slumber of satiated
insouciance.
If
only Ram Rahim had a semblance of spiritual cadence one could understand the
trickery he savaged on his disciples but his dress, bearing and crass and crude
talk is such a dead giveaway that I cannot fathom why people fell for his cult
image.
If
only such a phenomenon was an aberration one could let it pass but it has spread to such an extent that fake babas and seers are a proliferating
lot, looting and raping unwary and gullible people. Governments in the Centre
and States should clamp down on such fraudsters lest it become an epidemic
tearing the fabric of humanity.
SNIPPETS
Abhinav Kumar of G-305 has penned a book of 13
short stories which has been published in Kindle book store. Do take this
opportunity to read the book of this budding author.
*******************
Dr. Giridhara Gopal of G-302
and his wife Sonia.have been blessed with the birth of their baby daughter on
6th August in Tanjore. She has been named Samya Shree. Her birth adds one more
girl to the population of Yamuna. Girls already outnumber boys 10 to 1. This is
a very welcome thing as girls participate actively in all the cultural events. Not so the boys who
are lost in their own world of gaming and soccer.
******************
Dr.P.J. Manohar Rao of A-101 has been awarded the Noel Deerr
Gold Medal by the Sugar Technologies Association of India as his technical
article presented at a convention was adjudged the best for the year 2016-17.
That he should win such a prestigious award at the age of 90 years speaks
volumes about his age defying erudition and clarity of thought. Let's raise a
toast to him.
*******************
Tejaswin Shankar of G-306, our Olympian hope, has got
admission to Kansas State University in US to pursue Business Administration.
He will be representing the University in athletics. His primary objective will
be to hone his skills in high jump under the tutelage of the World's number one
coach in high jump. Recently, at the age of 17 he broke the National Senior
high jump record which stood in the name of Harishankar Roy by jumping 2.26
metres. We wish Tejas the very best.
********************
Professor N.V. Varghese of A-010 has been appointed as the Vice Chancellor of the National University of
Educational Plannning and Administration and the Director of the Centre for Policy Research in Higher
Education (CPRHE), New Delhi. He holds a doctoral degree in Economics with
specialization in educational planning.
He was Head of Governance and Management
in Education at the International Institute for Educational Planning
(IIEP/UNESCO), Paris till October 2013 and
Head of its Training and
Education Programmes from 2001 to 2006. We are indeed very blessed to have accomplished people like him as our neighbours.
English Is A Language That Defies Logic
As much as all of us have been brought
up on a diet of English we tend to take many of the peculiarities of the
language for granted. Little do we dwell on what, for a person foreign to the
language, appears as ridiculous. Below are some examples:
There is no ham in hamburger, nor egg
in eggplant, neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins were not
created in England, quicksand is anything but quick, boxing rings are actually
square, guinea pigs did not originate in Guinea nor are they pigs.
People recite at a play and play at a
recital. We have noses that run and feet that smell. We also park at a driveway
and drive at a parkway. You have to marvel at the lunacy by which your house
can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and
in which an alarm goes off as it goes on. As a conclusion, if you can call Dad as Pop, why can't you call Mom as Mop?
CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR SEPTEMBER 2017
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DATE
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TIME
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EVENT
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VENUE
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3.9.17
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12 NOON
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POOKOLAM AND ONAM LUNCH
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COMMUNITY HALL
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ONWARDS
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23.9.17
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6.30 PM
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DANDIA, MUSIC AND FOOD EVENING
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BADMINTON COURT
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30.9.17
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4.30 PM
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RAMLILA AND STABBING OF EFFIGY OF RAVAN
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MAIN LAWN
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