EDITORIAL
In a landmark move that astounded
everybody and which could have wide ramifications, the Narendra Modi Government
abrogated Article 35 A and Article 370, which, before the abrogation gave Jammu
and Kashmir all the privileges of the Indian State and none of its obligations.
These two Articles, originally hastily pushed through by means of an ordinance
by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru limited the
applicability of Indian laws in this state. In one fell swoop, Mr. Amit Shah,
the Home Minister pushed the bill through Rajya Sabha with two-thirds majority.
A very clever and calclated move which effectively divided the Opposition and
took the wind out of their sails. In effect, Jammu will become a State and
Kashmir will become a Union Territory with a Legislature and Ladakh will become
a Union Territory with no Legislature. All the laws prevailing in India will
now be applicable to Kashmir and any Indian can buy land there and settle down.
A history defining move has been made; now,
managing the aftermath and giving Kashmiris the assurance that all is well and
they will prosper in this new dispensation is what the Government should do. It
has to be baby steps and calibrated well to gain the trust of the Kashmiris.
The Government should then make investments in Kashmir and give employment
opportunities to the locals to allay their apprehensions. Kashmiri Pandits who
were uprooted from the valley should be rehabilitated there. If they manage all
this well both Modi and Shah will etch their name in history. Those Indians who
visited Kashmir as tourists often felt alienated in their own land. We hope.
with this move that it will all change. The swift and apparently simple
execution of plans just shows the pusillanimity showed by previous Governments,
particularly the Congress, not to tackle the elephant in the room.
With the
passing away of Mrs. Sushma Swaraj, we have lost the last of the gentlemen(sic).
gentlewoman politicians. She had her supporters on both sides of the aisle.
Like Sheila Dikshit, she always received bipartisan support. She was the first
woman Chief Minister of Delhi and was Chief Guest at the Yamuna Annual Day
function in 1998. She was accompanied by the then Kalkaji MLA, Mrs. Purnima
Sethi. She had an amused look on her face as I welcomed her on stage in Hindi.
Obviously, my Hindi must have sounded like Greek to her as she was an orator
par excellence in the language. This dimunitive person was a towering
personality in the political firmament of the country. It is a big loss for the
nation.
One member informed me that the vegetable
cart vendor is introducing a lot of new maids and servants for residents
without any police verification or information to the Society office. This can
turn out to be a security threat. All residents are requested to provide
information to the Society about the details of their staff whether maids,
servants, drivers, gardeners or anybody else. They should ask them to provide
three passport size photos along with a copy of their Aadhaar Card to the
Sociey office. The Society will then get the Police verification form signed by
them and issue an ID card. Another worrying aspect is that some residents are
handing over the C Block gate access card to their maids. The C Block gate is
unmanned and is meant for use only by residents. By handing over the card to
the maids, we run the risk of them giving access to anybody. In accordance with
a circular issued a couple of years ago a decision to cancel the access activation
of the cards of residents who have handed their cards to their maids will be
taken by the MC if the residents do not withdraw the cards handed over to their
maids. This will effectively debar even the residents of that apartment to use
the card. Residents are therefore requested to act on it without further ado,
lest it be deactivated.
The 73rd year
of Independence did not have much to cheer about on the economic front. Strong
global and domestic headwinds, impending legislation making Bharat Stage VI
compulsory for sales of vehicles from 1st April, 2020 have put the
spanner in the works of auto sales which registered the biggest negative growth
rate since Independence. The automotive industry and its tertiary service
segment, which is one of the largest employers, is in serious turmoil. People
have put off purchase of cars and other vehicles either to get the more advanced
Bharat Stage VI vehicles from April 2020 onwards or are awaiting deep discounts
in February and March 2020, when vehicle manufacturers will be clearing the
unsold inventory of Bharat Stage IV vehicles. Be that as it may, this, along
with floods in several states and deficient rains in others is queering the
pitch further for the already distressed agrarian sector. Yet PM Modi struck a
note of optimism from the ramparts of the Red Fort where he stoutly defended
his plan to make the country a five trillion dollar economy in five years. He
also pronounced several landmark schemes and outlined his reformist credentials
in his utterances. His pronouncements have a lot of heft in them and leaves the
listener optimistic about the future. I hope his words lift the country from
its economic torpor.
His exhortations
from the ramparts also included, among other things, to avoid using single-use
plastic, conserving water, controlling the population and other environmentally
relevant issues. It’s time people heed his words and become aware that they
will be ecologically benevolent if they abjure single-use plastic, fix their
leaky taps and cisterns, use shared transport, grow more trees, and avoid
burning biomass, among other things. It needed the PM himself to galvanize
people to get rid of the scourge of plastic waste clogging drains, choking
sewers, polluting the ocean and generally leaving the planet with millions of
tons of non-biodegradable flotsam and jetsam. Although he has asked people to
stop using single-use plastic from 2nd October, 2019 we need not
wait until then. Let us take our own pledge to preserve the ecology of our
colony. It will be a small step.
Closer home,
the Independence Day flag-hoisting clashed with Avaniavittam and Rakhshabandhan,
hence the turnout was modest. Unlike previous years, we did not have the band
of children tutored by Subhada singing the national anthem and other patriotic
songs. It was left to Subhada, Bhavani, Sumathi, Purnima, Aruna, Anu, Sujata
and Ananya to do the honours. They were later joined by Vinod Asthana, Murali,
Sreekumar and Sundaram. The Indian Republic’s pledge of allegiance vows fealty
to the flag, even though all the flags are made in China! Although one’s
patriotism is not measured directly in proportion to the height of the flag
pole or the size of the flag, we proudly hoist the flag from a tall flagpole. The
flag was hoisted by Kiara Nathan of A-007, the youngest resident present. I was
very impressed by Aditya Santosh of E-002 and Saiansh Gopal of C-202, who
brought out most of the chairs from the Community Hall and laid them out neatly
without anybody having to tell them. I really appreciate their work ethic.
Laddoos and eclairs were distributed by Kunal, Poornima and P.K.K. Nair. I am
grateful to all those who made it despite other engagements.
The first of
the variety entertainment programmes of the year, the Janmashtami celebration
got underway under cloudy skies on 24th August, 2019. I was pleasantly
surprised to see a very healthy turnout of people—a very encouraging sign for
the participants. Subhada and Bhavani set the ball rolling with a couple of
invocation songs. This was followed by a group dance by the tiny tots. The
amazing thing about such small kids performing is that when they sway in rhythm
to the music they look good and when they do their own thing they look even
better. One of the kids did nothing and was staring at the others in utter bewilderment
and she looked the cutest. The children were painstakingly trained by the
redoubtable Aanchal Sinha. This was followed by a Bharatanatyam recital by the
talented Avantika Shankar who lit up the stage with her pleasing performance.
This in turn was followed up with a medley of dance items performed by the
students of Sadhana Dance and music academy led by the consummate artiste,
Radhika Samson. Their attire and very supple dance movements left the audience
spellbound. A couple of peppy numbers towards the end left everybody tapping
their feet in delight. The show also featured Himakshi playing Krishna-a graceful
solo piece. Sashvath Arun celebrated his fourteenth birthday in the badminton
court. He would never have heard over a hundred people singing a birthday song
wishing him. He cut a cake which was distributed generously. The dahi handi was
then cracked open by Kiaan Nathan and Himakshi who danced as Krishna. I am sure
the gopikas must have been a tad disappointed seeing a girl in Krishna’s
attire.The food stall did roaring business and the curtains came down a
wonderful evening’s soiree.
We had to
deal with another political tragedy when the affable and immensely erudite
lawyer cum politician, Arun Jaitley lost his battle against cancer and passed
away on 24th August, 2019. All the four leaders who died in recent
months, namely, Manohar Parrikar, Sheila Dixit, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley
were very popular and had friends across the aisle. Three of them were
relatively young. Manohar Parrikar, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley were all in
their 60s, considered middle age by today’s yardstick of longevity. It is
ironical that the corrupt and vile politicians who are disliked by most seem to
live forever.
Some of the
wireless CCTV cameras have already been fitted by BEL, courtesy the AAP
government, at the behest of Mr. Saurabh Bharadwaj. The rest should get fitted
in another ten days. They will then be activated. We have increased the number
of CCTV cameras to cover a larger canvas. We would parallelly run both the
systems for three months until we are convinced about the efficacy of the
wireless cameras. Once that is established we would dismantle the wired cameras
and get rid of the cables which were criss-crossing the terrace and posing a
problem to residents in the dark when they tried to go from one block to the
other. It was also an eye-sore dangling on the façade like spaghetti. Besides,
whenever these cables got severed due to abrasion or by some other means, the
cameras went on the blink.
Please buy your
Onam coupons for the lunch feast on Sunday, 8th September, 2019. It
would be appreciated if you show up in the Kerala mundu for the festive look.
SNIPPETS
Chandrakanta Rajpurohit of H-206 led the
Indian Women’s Volleyball team to Italy for the European Masters Championship. The
team was crowned the winner when they beat our old colonial masters, Britain,
in the finals and won the Gold Medal.
Congratulations Chandrakanta, we are
really privileged to have you in our midst.
*****************************
Shreeya Srikanth’s (C-003) Bharatanatyam
Arangetram was held at Delhi Tamil Sangam Auditorium on Saturday, 10th
August, 2019 to a full house. I cannot claim to be a connoisseur of this art form
but can only say that her dance and the three costumes she wore were all a
visual treat. She started off a bit tentatively but as the programme wore on,
she developed her confidence and displayed her full repertoire of abhinayas. By
the end of the show she was dancing like a professional. The show ended to loud
applause. The Chief Guest, Justice R.V. Easwar and Guest of Honour,
Smt.Pratibha Prahlad (Padma Shri Awardee) appropriately heaped encomiums on her
performance. Her Guru, Smt. Kanaka Srinivasan (Padma Shri Awardee) must be very
proud of her shishya. Shreeya has headed off to UK to pursue her graduation
from University of Arts, London. We wish her the very best. Shreeja Srikanth
paid rich tributes to her sister and Guru at the end of the show.
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Dakshina Raghavendra of
A-001 has received a scholarship of £ 10,000 a year for pursuing a Masters
degree in Science in Applied Forensic Psychology from University of Bath, UK.
That makes two dancers who are heading to Britain. England’s gain is going to
be Yamuna’s loss.
**************************
Vidyut Mohan (G-206) added
another feather to his cap when he was selected for the Climate Change Youth
Summit at the United Nations in recognition of his work in the field of
sustainable energy solutions. He will
present his work in New York and get an opportunity to interact with leaders in
the field of sustainable development. Vidyut and three others from India were
selected from 7000 applications worldwide. Kudos to you, Vidyut.
*************************
Mr. P. H. Narayanan and
Mrs. Latha Narayanan have shifted to Mumbai from C-007. During their stay, Mr.
Narayanan who was a keen badminton player, regularly gave complimentary gifts
for the Annual Day prizes. His wife Latha, apart from participating in
spiritual activities, also took part in the Quiz competition. They will be
missed.
***************************
There has been a lot of
churn in C Block of late. Mr K. Krishnamurthy and Rohini of C-103 have moved
bag and baggage to Bangalore. Mr. Krishnamurthy is an acclaimed chess player
and, in fact, offered to coach budding players in the colony. Unfortunately,
there were no takers. The gregarious Rohini had moved to Bangalore a few months
ago.
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CALENDAR
OF EVENTS FOR SEPTEMBER 2019
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DATE
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TIME
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VENUE
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8.9.19
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12.30-2.00 PM
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POOKALAM & ONAM FEAST(LUNCH)
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COMMUNITY HALL
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15.9.19
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11.30 AM
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LECTURE ON BASIC LIFE SUPPORT-BY DR. VAISHALI SHARMA
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COMMUNITY HALL
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-AN ESSENTIAL LESSON TO SAVE LIVES
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