Issue No. 193 I September 2017

                    

EDITORIAL

It was a Sunday morning and most people were deep in their slumber. Anu Shekhar, Purnima Satish, Seema Chari, Sudha Easwaran and Shini Harish and the always enthusiastic children had rolled up their sleeves and were on their fours diligently drawing the Pookalam in front of the Community Hall. Distractions from me apart, they soldiered on tirelessly and produced a breathtakingly beautiful Kolam adorned with brass lamp and urulis.

The Onam feast was quite a hit with several friends of residents from outside joining in the celebrations. Despite several advisories to buy coupons in advance many residents wanted to purchase coupons in the last minute. While efforts were made to accommodate many, alas some had to be turned away as no caterer factors for a such a big overspill. Burps emanating from the Community Hall was indicative of a satiating feast. The ladies as usual were in their new collection of Onam saris and were looking gorgeous. It made for a fantastic photo-op and immediately circulated around the world through social media.

Most people have an uneasy feeling of sharing their bathrooms with spiders and their webs. I too belonged to that tribe until I spotted three mosquitoes ensnared in the web. Between the two predators, I have a marked preference for spiders as they do not deliver a nasty bloodsucking sting. I decided then to let the webs proliferate at least till the dengue season is over.

The humdinger of all festivals will be upon us next month and we all look forward to have a jolly good time. The illumination competition is one such occasion for everybody to meet and collaborate and bring to fore their ideas, imaginations, skills and execution finesse. It is meant to bring the community together, yet, because of our territorial mindset we tend to take these competitions very personally and get miffed when overlooked for a prize. I am personally very secular about these things and like the buzz and  excitement. It is this that turns me on rather than who wins. Some residents had voiced concerns last year about the lack of resources both in terms of helping hands and money. In order to address their concerns it has been decided to base the prize for Rangoli on only one illustration. We cannot limit those blocks who wish to go the whole hog. The judges will be asked to pick only one rangoli from each set of blocks to pass their judgement. Diwali illumination competition is a tradition that has stood the test of time and draws a lot of appreciation from outsiders who visit our apartments. Let us therefore, wholeheartedly participate despite aging backs and creaking knees. The youngsters should get more into the thick of things to keep this beautiful tradition alive and relieve their elders from the onerous task.

Diwali Mela will be on 14th October, 2017. Those who wish to keep stalls for the same or have friends who wish to keep stalls should get in touch with me. Brace up for an evening of fun, gaiety, games, music, dance, rides and food.

Many parents are quivering in their boots hoping their children do not fall prey to the fatalistic charm of the Blue Whale. For those unfamiliar with the mysteries of this  unexplained cetacean phenomenon, blue whales beach in order to die at some point in their life. It is created by somebody with a sick and sadistic mind who is turned on by encouraging children to commit suicide.  Thanks to the internet and social media, any pervert can infiltrate the minds of gullible children and make them commit downright dangerous acts and the parents will be none the wiser for it. Many victims of the Blue Whale syndrome have been from B-towns where the parents may be much less tech savvy than their children and thus monitoring what a child is viewing may be beyond them.

The place we go for our spiritual solace, our Sri Bala Venugopalaswamy temple is seeing fewer and fewer footfalls, so much so that the resources for running the temple is fast drying up. Let not our spiritual abode run into disuse. Please visit the temple at least once a month, if not weekly or fortnightly, to pay obeisance to the Lord and contribute for the temple's sustenance so that we do not let this magnificent edifice become derelict.

The Ramlila was moved into the badminton court thanks to the voluntary abstinence from pyrotechnics proposed by the children. This year's version of the Ramlila choreographed by Shreeja had the Bollywood staple of music and dance. The children's enthusiasm in putting up innovative concepts in theme and execution deserves kudos. Ravana met his end not in flames but through thorough bashing by Rama and his Vanarasena One cannot single out any one character as they performed in multiple roles and gave a very good account of themselves. Shreeja's contribution however was immense. 

The opening act of the night however was a medley of dance recitals put up by the Sadhana School of Music and Arts. Guru Vandana was the opening act done by Bhavna Harish and Anoushka Nair. The next number was Basant Pallavi by Radhika Venkataraman and it was rounded off by the very fetching Kiana in Megh Pallavi. As can be expected by now, they always come up with a performance of great skill and grace. This was followed by Garba as not many had dandia sticks. Like always, our residents' dancing skills being more attuned to Bollywood kitsch than Garba it soon gave way to pelvic thrusting, hip swinging armpit dance. Both ladies and children display extreme felicity in this art form that it makes for an enjoyable viewing. Their dresses of course were probably tailor-made for the occasion and all of them looked gorgeous. This time a few men, notably Srikumar Madhu and Satish Padmanabhan also shook a leg. Falguni was the eternal purist, being a Gujarati. Mihir Bhatt managed the music well.

SNIPPETS

Two bachelors have moved into H-208. One of them, Ashim Raj bears a striking resemblance to Kunal Savarkar, so much so that one resident staying opposite Deepak Varma's home wondered why Kunal was trespassing into H-208. Ashim and Sobir Singh are both graphic designers. Ashim works for ITU Chaudhury design and Sobir works with Teamworks Arts. While Ashim does branding and designing of brochures for various companies, Sobir's claim to fame is that his company does all the designing work for the Jaipur Literature Festival, a marquee event that gets all the sound bites and global following. Ashim loves illustrating, plays football for a team three days in a week and dabbles in other games as well. Sobir loves playing badminton. Both love listening to varied genres of music viz. Jazz, Classical, electronic etc. Ashim has already traversed three rivers before settling in Yamuna. He has stayed in Tara, Nilgiri and Mandakini. Tara, by the way is a river in northern Montenegro.

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Mr. O.V. Sathiyaseelan has moved into A-309 from Srinivaspuri, a move compelled by the proximity of their children's school, St. George. Mr. Sathiyaseelan is a free lance sound engineer. He has done the sound for the famous National Geographic documentary on Tirupathi which has been screened several times on TV. Like most Indians he is fond of playing and watching cricket and is also facile in other sports. His wife, Tamilarasi is a homemaker and loves listening to music. Their elder daughter, Nikita is in class XI and is an exponent of Bharatanatyam. She, like her father she is also fond of all sports. The younger daughter, Niveta is in Class IV and is also a Bharatanatyam dancer. 

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Mr. Umamahesvaran Srinivasan (Mahesh in short) has moved into G-305 from GK2 with his wife Priti and daughter Vaidehi. Mahesh has started a Government sponsored  incubator on Technology and Agriculture. He is a number cruncher and counts Physics and Maths as his pastime and of course you cannot keep cricket away from any Indian male's genes. Priti, who is from Rajasthan, teaches in a progressive school in Gurugram after an earlier stint in Meerambika. She is also a professional painter and sings Hindustani music. Their daughter Vaidehi is a Class V student. Her interests include singing, dancing, piano playing and crafts. 

We welcome all the newcomers to the Yamuna family.

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Our Secretary, Mr. Madhu Nair (A-003) has relocated to Bangalore. He has taken up a job as Country Manager-India for Spirent Communications Inc. headquartered in Bangalore. He will have to lead a bachelor's life until Deepa is able to join him. Deepa is busy here with her work commitments. He has moved into a row house in Palm Meadows in Whitefield. Yamuna's loss will be Palm Meadows gain.

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We all knew that the women sporting a tumescence are harbingers of good news. The only question mark was when and where was it going to happen. Now the cat is out of the bag, I mean,  the baby is out of the womb.

Priyanka Nathan of A-107 delivered a bonny girl in Kolkata on 4th September, 2017. Now, Kiaan will have little sister to play with

Aarthi (D-104), delivered a baby boy named Apramey on 11th September 2017.

  

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Raghavender Prabhakar of A-306 got married to Vaishnavi on 4th September, 2017 in Chennai. Another bachelor bites the dust. Now that the proverbial knot has been tied Raghav has to make the best of an unequal relationship that is always tilted in the wife's favour. Vaishnavi, who was working with HSBC before she wed Raghav, has joined for an Executive MBA programme with specialisation in HR. We wish both of them the very best.

		CALENDAR OF EVENTS OCTOBER 2017
DATE	TIME	EVENT	VENUE
19.10.17	6.30 PM	DIWALI ILLUMINATION COMPETITION	BETWEEN THE BLOCKS
28.10.17	6.30 PM	MOVIE SCREENING AND POT LUCK DINNER	BADMINTON COURT

Issue No. 192 I August 2017

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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
DATE	TIME	EVENT	VENUE
3.9.17	12 NOON	POOKOLAM AND ONAM LUNCH	COMMUNITY HALL
	ONWARDS
23.9.17	6.30 PM	DANDIA, MUSIC AND FOOD EVENING	BADMINTON COURT
30.9.17	4.30 PM	RAMLILA AND STABBING OF EFFIGY OF RAVAN	MAIN LAWN