Republic Day @ Sobha Palladian-Jan,2019!!

8.15 AM sharp.

The now-familiar voice rings out loud, ‘Saav Dhan!’

‘Iskvaaaad, Veeshrum!!’.

And this gets repeated many many times over the next 20 odd minutes. Interspersed with multiple iterations of

‘Dahiney Mud’,  ‘Peechey Mud’ and ‘Dahiney se Tej Chal’.

And finally ending in a very subdued ‘Jana Gana Mana….’ recital. Then ‘Bharat Maata Ki Jai’  repeated 3 times. And then the skvaad disperses.

7.15 PM:  Block 2 lobby rings out with a chorus

‘Vaishnava Jana to ..’ and ‘Saarey Jahaan Se Achha’

These are practice sessions for the Republic Day celebrations @ Sobha Palladian!!

26 Jan 2019 :  There were 3 highlights on this day !

·      Dr Nataraj received the Hind Rattan Award in New Delhi.

·      We celebrated Republic Day at Sobha Palladian

·      Sports finals were conducted post lunch and winners were awarded in a evening followed by Barbecue dinner!!

And what I am not highlighting is that more than 30 ladies form Sobha Palladian took part in the Pinkathalon the very next Day @ 5.30 AM @Kanteerava Stadium!!. The focus of the women’s run was to encourage an active lifestyle and overall fitness among women, while creating a much-needed awareness about breast cancer and bone health.

And they were equally energetic and peppy when they returned after the 5KM/10Km runs around 9AM.

1.    The Bharat Rattan Award:

Congratulations to Dr Nataraj. He was awarded the Hind Rattan Award by Dr. Bibek Debroy, Economic Advisory  Council to the Prime Minister of India.

You would recollect that Dr Nataraj had also received another Prestigious Mahatma Gandhi Leadership Award 2018 in the British Parliament late last Year. 

N Nataraj wins Mahatma Gandhi Leadership Award at British Parliament

Doc N.  We are all very proud of you !

2.    Republic Day Celebrations:

Preparations start much before 8 AM.  Chairs get arranged and the Indian Tricolor budded with rose petals  gets attached to the flag pole cable. The security guards practice their parts and the housekeeping staff turns up in their best attire.

The PA system gets tested and Kannada patriotic songs announce the start of the day followed by Hindi ones followed by the famous AR Rahman’s Vandey Maataram. The cultural committee is busy checking out last minute arrangements and Whats App msgs are sent out to hurry people to come out and assemble.

Gracing this occasion were our own esteemed residents from the armed forces – Col Jaggi Narula, Group Captain D Sitpal,  and Lt Col.DP Mathur.

And its my honor to introduce Lt Col Dinesh Prasad Mathur, who graduated from Allahabad Univ and was commissioned in the

army on Feb 2nd, 1964 in the 1st of Guards.

He fought the Indo-Pak war in 1965 in the Kargil sector. He served in 6 Assam rifles, in Mizoram from 1966-69, when he was awarded the Kirti Chakra  for bravery shown during the counter-insurgency operations ( got a congratulatory DO from Gen Sam Manekshaw! ). He was instructor in the IMA from 1970-73 and then panel shifted to 14 Guards, posted in Kanpur with the unit. He participated in quashing the 1973  Provincial Armed Constabulary ( PAC ) rebellion.

We Salute you !

The Indian Flag is  hoisted and we sang our National Anthem.

Ladies of Palladian sang songs under the tricolor.

“Vaishnava Jana To” is a Hindu bhajan, written in the 15th century by the poet Narsinh Mehta in the Gujarati language. The poem speaks about the life, ideals and mentality of a VaishnavaJana (a follower of Vishnu). This song became popular during the life time of Mahatma Gandhi and was rendered as bhajan in his Sabarmati Ashram. – Wiki.

And,

 “Sare Jahan se Accha" (Urdu:سارے جہاں سے اچھا; Sāre Jahāṉ se Acchā), formally known as "Tarānah-e-Hindi"(Urdu:ترانۂ ہندی; "Anthem of the People of Hindostan"), is an Urdu language patriotic song written for children by poet Muhammad Iqbal in the ghazal style of Urdu poetry. - Wiki

 

And a  surprise solo performance by  Rian  who recited  

Nanha Munna Rahi Hoon

Joy of Giving:

The young children of Palladian pooled in all their earnings from the stalls they had put up during the last few events and bought gifts for all the staff members serving our community.

 Janhavi, spoke in chaste Kannada on behalf of all of us , words of appreciation and thanked all the Housekeeping, Security and other maintenance personnel for their hard work and dedication in keeping our campus safe, secure neat and tidy.  

The children enthusiastically gave away the gifts

Kudos to our young generation!!

Thanks to Manoj who has brilliantly captured all these exciting moments :   Palladian Republic Day 2019

Going back in past, Republic day in Dehra Dun was an exciting day that we kids looked forward to it .  On that day,  the 26^th Jan, all the houses, and roof tops and rickshaws and tongas and cycles and lampposts flew the tricolor  flag proudly. And all of us pinned a flag on our shirt pockets. And we rushed home after  school flag hoisting to listen to the live radio commentary of Republic Day parade in Delhi .

In the later years we sat glued to the B&W and later the color TV watching the MIG-21s fly past the Indian gate, the smart march-past of the various forces, the tableau and the folk dancers and the impressive missiles, the ISRO launch Vehicle PSLV, the Vijayanta tanks and rocket launchers as the narrators covered the event eloquently  in English and Hindi.

And I relived all those times once again by watching the Youtube live recordings. Felt wonderful !!

3.    Sports Finals !!

 Over the last week around 90 players ( yes! 90 resident men women and children ) have been sweating out competing with each other in the badminton court, tennis court and the  table tennis room.  The semis and finals were keenly fought out from 5 to 8 PM. Check out the action in  SP Sports day 2019

  

And there were many happy moments and a few sad disappointments as well.

But that’s for another day !

And Manoj, where are the BBQ shots???

Krish..

My Friends in Sobha Palladian !!

I choose my friends carefully.

Some of my best friends in SP are less than 10 years old and a few in their early teens. 

And I am very comfortable and at ease amongst them.

By nature, I am quiet and not inclined to talk much, especially in a group.  Also, other than a bit of IT and some management principles, I cannot boast of a wide spectrum of knowledge and awareness. 

Politics and cricket are not my forte and now, with a failing eyesight, reading a newspaper is a great challenge and the Economic Times – impossible. 

Awareness and information gathered from the TV are unreliable at best and I would not risk any info gained from this medium in a group of Sobha Palladian intelligentsia.

Being with kids, I have no such challenges.

I am quite comfortable with them. They are not critically analytical or philosophical. And so am I.  

I know for sure that there will be no conversations on Modi’s demonetisation success, the coming 2019 general elections, Supreme Court ruling of NGT directive, Kohli’s centuries, Trump’s policies, how to mix your drinks or a debate on where we stand against China, or how you can cure your migraine with Yoga!

Even with kids I do not talk much but enjoy their company &  their animated conversations. When I take a bunch of kids to the Hippocampus Library each month, I thoroughly enjoy their endless animated chatter. And they can talk quite sensibly on Drone technology & Tesla motors and why they like chicken pop corns amongst million other topics!

And the library initiative has helped me get to them closer.

A few months back, on a Sunday morning two chubby sisters came to library to return and issue new books. They both were fresh after a shampoo bath and with wet hairs the younger one also pushed her toy pram with a Barbie doll inside.  

She proudly displayed a pink tube.

I asked – toothpaste? Where is the brush??

And she squealed – NOO Uncle! It is CREAM! Mummy gave me.

‘Let’s apply to the baby’!!

And we were now two specialists from KAYA clinic, giving a proper beauty treatment to the poor Barbie!

Incidentally my granddaughter once completely squeezed out a brand-new tube of Odomos on to plastic Goofys’s black nose, all the Barbies at home, the building blocks, doors, dressing mirror, her toys cabinet & bottom half of Godrej!  While the room smelled strongly of Odomos for an entire month the good part was that no mosquito got in.

The white board in the library is a great meeting point for all the young great minds!

There is always a demand for marker pens and eraser. And I would be glad if a few patrons contribute  a few white board marker pens every now and then.

And the kids come up with some real good originals!

A few weeks back we had a graffiti session. 3 kids with white board pens exhibited their drawing skills. 

I called out – Please draw a BIG castle!

The little one drew a tall rectangle, as high as her hand could reach and put a lot of windows inside.

Where is the Tower and the flag??

Now she had to balance on her toes to draw a few cones on top and for the flag I had to lift her up!

And Rapunzel??

The second tiny tot jumped in and drew a smiley face inside one of the windows.

What does Rapunzel have??

Loong Hair!  All of then echoed.

And I got a straight line from the nose of the smiley to the corner of the white board!

And them some more blue and red wavy lines on top to make it look really real!!

And it was fun all the way.

Unlike my generation kids, all the kids in SP are very well behaved, cleanly dressed & very sober.

But you cannot take them for granted!

You act smart wit them and you are in trouble. And I learnt it the hard way!

On the graffiti board I drew a smiley with lots of curly hairs, a pointed nose and large ears.  And I said to one- this is you!!

And her response was unforgiving!!

Yes, these soft kids can be pretty tough too.  And I am glad for them. You need to have steel in you to survive in today’s world.

Another great thing about these kids….

Wonderful English!! Also, perfect language, vocabulary and diction. A few also have a stylish American accent.

In my young days English was a challenge.!

I spoke Tamil at home and Hindi outside. Other kids spoke Hindi everywhere. And my school did not appreciate our broken English (Hinglish).

The Principal was unhappy, and he passed a rule.  Inside school everyone must speak in English only, and in good English!!

And our teachers were the worst affected!  Except for a few Anglo Indian teachers all the rest spoke passable English. 

The very next day, our lady Hindi teacher proclaimed – meri shiksha mein aap sab Hindi he bolengey! (only Hindi in my class)

Most happy were David Sir, Miss Andrew, and Mr & Mrs D’Souza.  The D’Souza couple were the first ones I met where the dad was shorter than the mom. Annie miss was a head taller than William.

She was also very sweet and beautiful. Slim and tall she wore fashionably stitched knee length skirt, flower patterned socks/stockings and high heeled shoes! And she wore wonderful smelling perfumes. (I think I was infatuated with her)

Bill wore suits daily and was a gentleman. Ever smiling, he taught Shakespeare to the senior grade students.  And the couple enthusiastically took classes on spoken English for all the teachers after school. (the ‘mind your language’ series came much later)

For today’s kids, English is no challenge.

And for many it’s the only language they can speak. Especially for those kids whose parents come from different states!

That’s sad!

While issuing a book, a young 6-year old read out the book number N49.

Tamillla sollu ? (say that that in Tamil?).

I don’t know.

Naa-ppathi om-bo-du.

Nappiditi Ombludu he blurted out!

Good try! And for the next few times he consulted his dad and came up with the correct Tamil numbers!!

Many times, I wish I had learnt Tamil well.

I can read and write Hindi but Tamil – I can only speak.

So, I have enjoyed reading Munshi Premchand’s short stories and Maithalisharan Gupt, Mahadevi Verma and Sumitra Nandan Pant. Even a few racy Karnal Ranjit Singh thrillers.

Sadly, I cannot read Parthiban’s Kanavu, nor enjoy Sujata Rangarajan’s writings.

And I am sure many of the kids might feel the same way when they reach my age.  Even at schools and colleges many prefer to take a French, Spanish, German or Japanese as an elective. No Sanskrit!

They will all sadly miss some of the wonderfully written  biographies and stories and epics and essays and drama written in Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi, Bengali and many other Indian languages.

And I wish somebody volunteers to teach some us spoken Kannada...

Krish..

Pongal - O - Pongal @ Sobha Palladian !!!

Kite Flying On Sankaranthi Day @ Sobha Palladian

When did you last post a card?

Question:  How many Christmas and New Year greeting cards did your family send and receive when you were 10 years old?

And how many did you get last Christmas??

My Answer:  40+ and ZERO!!

Here is my story..

 

Once upon a time,

Long long ago,

When cell phones and ring tones were non-existent….

We communicated thru inland letters & postcards. And there was one and only one agency – The Indian Post and Telegraph Service. It used to be called P&T.

Envelopes were costly and they were meant for special occasions- like sending your bio data to various companies along with attested copies of your birth certificate, marks sheet and a character certificate.

And for enclosing Jathakams (horoscopes) in response to matrimonial ads.

 And to send a crisp five rupee note to your loved ones on their birthday/anniversary or their son’s poonal (sacred thread) ceremony.

And to send greeting cards, of course!

Marriage invitations and other joyous functions were informed with pre-printed covers with bright haldi or Kumkum smudges on all the four corners – a tradition which is still practiced today. But the old P&T is mostly bypassed by the courier services of DTDC, DHL and Professional couriers. P&T’s speed post also gets a fair share of this business.

Death was announced on a naked white postcard.

Urgent messages were sent thru telegrams.  Many of you might still remember some of these.

Reached safe. 

Blessed with baby girl/boy.

Greeting #30 : May the heavens shower their choicest blessings on the newlywed couple

Greeting #25 : Our sincere condolence

And so on..

And you paid 25 paise per word to transmit. 

Our local postman was the man for all seasons.

Wearing crisp well ironed khakhi uniform (with baggy pockets) and khakhi cap with a red piping, he was probably the only respected and loved government servant ever. He was also one of the few literate ones in the locality who would deliver post and read them as well – an unrecognised & unrewarded value add by the Indian postal service!! 

The postman and his bicycle and his canvas satchel filled with letters was a common sight and the ring of his cycle bell announced his arrival into the small lanes of our mohalla (community).

Start of each month, the Postman was a hot property. Much sought after by many – pleased and pampered by all.

A generous bar of fresh ‘mysoor pak’ would be ready for him at the corner maami’s house when he would give her the money order from her son. And as he went along giving away the money order amounts to each house-hold, he would receive rings of handmade murukkus, a packet (potlam) of mixture, a couple of rava laadus freshly made from ghee residues, ribbon pakoda, kesari and what not!

An acceptance letter for a marriage proposal would fetch him 2 rupees, a job appointment letter- one rupee, and an occasional banana or a mango from the fruit vendor for reading/writing his letters. 

Come Deepavali, Pongal, Navaratri and New year, his satchel would ger heavier with loads of greeting cards, printed post cards and other odd sized envelopes. Sometimes he had to make two sorties to complete the distribution. 

But he never complained. He was always cheerful, wished each one with bright smile and accepted his festival gifts with humility & grace, generously wishing each one with his blessings & good tidings.

My Paati would always make him sit on our front porch cement slab, give him a big tumbler of warm sweetened milk or cool buttermilk depending on the season.

And we soon forgot Mani Iyer, the ever-smiling Postman when we relocated from Vellore to Dehra Dun!

Times have changed rapidly, the cell phones wiped out the traditional postal business. The humble postcard became the benchmark for Dhirubhai Ambani when he announced his vision to the nation saying that he will enable every Indian to talk to anyone in India at the price of a post card (40 paise/min then)!!

And WhatsApp went one step further. You could now write as many letters to as many persons for free!!

Sadly, communication nowadays have lost their personal touch.

Last birthday I got 42 messages on WhatsApp and another 20+ on FB ( some repeats).

Every Christmas & new year, my msgs run into a hundred at least and Holi, Diwali would fetch over 60++ - almost all of them mass forwards, one liners & GIFs.

But I very much miss the 6 odd birthday cards that I would always get earlier – all carefully selected and signed and posted a couple of days in advance so that they reach me on time. 

And the smart post man would correctly guess and wish me first and collect his 5 bucks!

Come Diwali, bright colourful Diwali cards ..

Lovely Christmas and New year Cards – remember Unicef & CRY cards? and others with snow topped Christmas Trees and Santa Claus and greetings written in many languages!

Remember the singing cards??  You open them, and they play the tune, Jingle bells, jingle bells or happy birthday to you in fast forward mode??

Remember the 3-D greeting cards??

For a very long time I carefully preserved one new year card that had a Japanese girl in a bright orange kimono who winked at you when you slightly turned the card sideways!

And we spent hours and hours at Archies and other book stores to select the perfect birthday cards / Christmas & New Year card / or the huge Wedding Anniversary card.

And patiently write our personal wishes and sign by all the folks in the family, write the address and stand at the post office Q to buy stamps for posting them.

And we all eagerly waited for a few special ones from abroad. And these came in fancy printed envelopes and big foreign postage stamps!! 

And we fought over the stamps.

So, when I went to the US the first time in 1979, I bought 20 picture post cards and a variety of stamps and posted them to all my relatives and friends who had kids.

Back to our topic..

Back in those days, between Dec 10 thru Jan 15^th, every empty space in our showcase would be filled with cards.  Our TV top and fridge and every flat surface in our drawing room would have these cards prominently propped up proudly . And at my friends place even their huge Christmas tree would be covered with loads of bright cards!

Not anymore.

It’s been more than 8 years since I got a genuine greeting card.  My fault – I have not sent one either!

By the way did anyone of you get an actual Merry Christmas or Happy New Year greeting card this holiday season?

If you got one or more,

I envy you!!

Krish..

Varadarajan Krishnan Iyengar

Varadarajan Krishnan Iyengar  was my Great Grand Dad (GGD) - my father’s father’s father !
I inherited his entire name.
And a couple of his genes as well
And that’s about it ! Nothing more , No less !!

Great Grand Dad (GGD) was a very big and wealthy landlord. He owned huge tracts of fertile paddy fields, vast acres of palm groves and large plantations of banana trees . And all of this in a rich agricultural belt near the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala – 26 Kms drive from Coimbatore .
His land would have easily supported more than a hundred families, farm hands, casual laborers, plantation workers and odd job migrant workers from neighboring states as well .

In those times there were no man-made disasters, no El Nino effect & no global warming problems either.
Monsoon came in , poured its heart out and went – on time , every time !!
The sun shone brightly each day and the crops flourished.
I would imagine GGD’s coffers must have been overflowing and he had more than enough to share generously with workers and all his relatives as well . 

GGD was a simple man with a large heart !!

Interestingly GGD also had a mistress, in the adjacent village  – as it was common amongst most wealthy landlords  in those times . It was a once a months affair .

The double ox drawn cart would be prepared for the journey. Post noon, fresh after bath, generously sprinkled with sandal powder, Great Grand Dad ( GGD ) would dress up in a spotless white zari dhoti and a comfortable silk Jibba ( kurta ) . Great Grandmom would specially and thoughtfully pack for him , his pillow , mattress and a change of clothes and a big silver gooja ( Jug ) filled with Kesar milk !!

Next morning when GGD returned , he would have to go to the rear courtyard, have a good bath, perform regular surya namaskaram and then only enter his house for his first tumbler of hot coffee .
So convenient , so elegant – a simple ctrl-alt-del operation to reset and then get going on normal mode as usual !!

While GGD was very wealthy , he was also very trusting, extremely gullible , unsuspecting and probably plain stupid as well.  

An ideal combination that attracts suspicious friends, bad company and rotten advice . GGD was no exception and he quickly succumbed to all of it and within a quarter of his lifespan he lost all his wealth, eroded his entire family property and notched up a pile of debts .

Pride or plain stupidity ?

GGD employed two British hunters in his fields to shoot and scare away rampaging elephants and other wild animals that came from nearby forests . I am sure that the amounts he would have paid these British gents – in silver or gold coins would have created a bigger dent to his coffers than all the damage done by those poor elephants !

Bad advice ?
He built a medium sizedl clay-mud dam to arrest the water from the small river and store it for irrigation. When the dam developed cracks , he was advised to pour molten lead (Eeyam Kaachi Kuttinal) to fill them up . Cannot imagine what a huge amount of money must have got flushed down thru this dam !!

Greed ?
He was coaxed into growing tobacco crop because it would yield better profits per acre. So huge tracts of coconut groves and banana plantations were erased to make way for the tobacco crop . And very soon he got into trouble with government regulations, corrupt officials & unscruplous authorities . Very soon and predictably the tobacco mafia from Kerala smelled blood, moved in quickly and stripped him of everything !!

GGD sired 9 daughters – never gave up shooting for a son . And when grand dad finally arrived , it was a great occasion for him – but an extremely challenging and adversely loaded dice for the infant . And by the time all the daughters were happily married off and all the debts settled , there was nothing left  but just memories.

Grand dad gave up his graduation midway, moved into a small house in Mylapore in Chennai along with his parents and took up a clerk’s job in a government office .

GGD must have been a sad and a broken man . Having lived in a palatial house with dozens of servants  he now had to make do in a one room and wash his own clothes.  

And his end was very sudden and tragic too . He got run over by a speeding bus opposite Chennai railway station. He was returning back home after helping Great Grandmom board her train to her village .

You see, village folks are not very adept at crossing busy city roads .
And the young speeding Chennai bus drivers are not very forgiving either !!

Krish..