SFV Rajyotsava-2018 - Glitters again

Having missed both the earlier SFV Rajyotsava celebrations (out of station on both occasions), we considered ourselves fortunate to be present this time.

We were at the venue in advance to reserve our seats in the front row, which we did in the customary handbag and hanky method, as we got busy renewing acquaintances with fellow residents. 

However, when the function started we found ourselves relegated to the third row. Yes, the innovative kids brought chairs and fixed themselves in the open space in front. Most welcome. That in no way marred our view.

The organizers had a different game plan this time. Doing away with the beaten track of hosting it in one of the parking lots, or the designated amphitheatre, they chose the open lawns in Alder. With what result?  “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Yes, SFV functions, no matter where they are held, will never lose their sheen. It only added glory to the event.

It was great relief to see bright sunshine after a spell of gloomy weather, as a ripple effect of the recent Gaja cyclone in coastal Tamil Nadu.

The daylong programme started with breakfast offering a menu of half a dozen delicacies. We relished our pick - Masala Dosa and Puri-sagu and a steaming cup of coffee.

A row of 20-30 stalls was being readied along the road leading to Alder Gate. Their products ranged from laboratory services, time-sharing holidays, banks, sarees and dress materials, cosmetics, and the stall doing brisk business with digestive churans. As the day progressed one could see a stream of residents making a beeline to the stall area. “We had a fairly good business,” replied a stallholder at night as he was winding up.

At 4.20 pm, one heard the welcome foot-tapping drum beat to alert residents of the events to follow. In the next ten minutes, people had gathered in large numbers to accompany the pageant depicting Kannada culture, from Oak to the amphitheatre. Here the ladies attired in their best danced merrily, and menfolk joined the fun with some initial hesitation. This was followed by complimentary coffee and snacks before everyone headed to the venue.

Navin Kashyap, SFV’s all-rounder, compered the programme; needless to say, with his customary clarity and sincerity. The programme was filled with songs, dances, or skits, all of them carrying a touch of class – be it the young children’s dance, the songs of the adolescents, or the group dance by homemakers.

Some events, nonetheless, unwittingly linger in memory for a little longer. In my case these include the outstanding performance of the ‘evil’ in the good versus evil dance-drama by young girls. Also the film songs rendered by the professional singer – Oak resident. Scintillating.

The other is the scene where the Odeyars known to be descendants of the Vijayanagara clan coming to Maaballa-theertha now known as Chamundi Hills to relieve the surviving widowed queen and her daughter from the atrocities of the wicked commander – Maaranaayaka.

Also the one where the 5th descendant Odeyars fell prey to the unsound advice to acquire treasured jewels of Alamelamma, the surving queen of Timmarasu, a descendant of the Vijayanagar family, whom he had killed in war. Unable to withstand the persistent pressure from the king, Alamelamma jumped into an overflowing Cauvery at Talakadu along with her jewels, but not before cursing the Odeyar Dynasty. “May Talakadu the confluence and fertile province turn to be a desert and Maalangi be a whirlpool – May the Mysore Odeyars fail to beget heirs…”

The function over, it was time for dinner. We learn the organizers had sold nearly 700 coupons. Understandably fear engulfed that pandemonium might prevail for dinner. No, never. It was quite orderly. One had the taste of Malnad cuisine. Kudos organizers also for hosting free dinner to 200 SFV support staff. 


As Aunty and I headed home, she said, “I think we should have invited your sister in JP Nagar, and mine in Whitefield who too live in massive apartment complexes as ours, to see what it is to be living in SFV”. I couldn’t agree with her more.

From Cockroach-hunt to a Musical Bonanza

It was yet another day in the everyday holiday life of a retiree, except that  Aunty didn't have to cook lunch that morning. A common friend hosted lunch to a senior couple going abroad for a few months, and he invited us too. 

One enjoys such bonus free morning hours at home with an extra cup of coffee with something to go with it. “I give you two options,” said Aunty.  I guessed, it must be Idly or Dosa for breakfast. “Should we,” she quipped, “weed out the attic of things we had hoped we would find a use later or, should we re-set the furniture to be remotely close to my friend's enviable interior in Oak?” (Comparative dissatisfaction, thy name!)

Observing my stoic silence on both these labour-intense projects, she reduced the sentence. “Or, shall we just dust the living room?” I agreed. It was ages since the living room furniture came in contact with a duster. “We shall complete the job before the help-lady comes so that she clears all the accumulation in one go,” she clarified.

We started the operation right earnest. Moments later Aunty got the jolt of her life. Her hitherto challenge to all and the sundry that no one can spot a single cockroach in her home was shattered. A medium size cockroach surfaced and played around merrily to give Aunty a real hide and seek discomfiture.

“I say, where are you?” she shouted. I was momentarily out of her sight, which I should never be during such joint ventures. I rushed. By then she had gathered one broom in her hand and another ready to hand me. She briefed me on her plan of action. She would deploy all available means at her disposal to provoke the cockroach to re-emerge and I, at my end, should stay ready with a raised hand with broom to perform in no uncertain terms the executioner's job. But it looked that this particular breed was made of a different stuff.  It chose to remain in hibernation. With nothing in sight after a twenty-minute non-stop operation including turning the showcase topsy-turvy, the never-say-die Aunty changed her strategy. “Now I will empty the show-case of all its contents from the drawers, and see where it seeks asylum.”

She spotted two egg capsules in the process. A student of science having done several dissections in the college lab, she began to explain to an unwilling economist how each of these could convert itself into nearly 30 cockroaches, i.e., 60, to speak of the minimum with the stock identified.

The doorbell rang signalling, much to my relief, the arrival of the maid. That brought the operation to an abrupt halt with the Cockroach & Co getting a respite. Till the next battle, that is.

On the brighter side of this abortive attempt was that while emptying the showcase, I found my long-lost collection of CDs which I thought I had handed over lock, stock and barrel to my friend in Hebbal before moving to SFV. Thankfully I had retained these select few – Anthony Ventura, Paul Mauriat, Kenny G, ABBA, BoneyM, Haridas Bhajans...

The maid got busy with her job, I enjoyed Anthony Ventura in my laptop as I attempted this write-up. Aunty played Haridas bhajan in the living room as she condescended to make coffee, simultaneously branding me an NPA in the cockroach-hunt that, to me, transformed itself into a musical bonanza. I can now hear these CDs by turn as I used to in the 1980s when I attempted writing some pieces for Hindustan Times or Times of India.

A Date with SFV Librarian

“No Lunch before 1 pm. There is no cricket today, and I would like to catch up with my Kannada serial, “Magalu Janaki”,” declared Aunty uncharitably. For me, I had read the newspaper earlier, and have enough material on CBI, Rafale, Sabarimalai, RBI Versus Centre, to take on my other senior citizens in the evening meet.

“Probably I should visit our SFV Library. They had opened it in April when I was away, and I had never been there.” In any case, it is better than: “An idle mind is a Devil’s workshop.”

An infectious smile greeted me as I set foot yesterday. That was Ms Aparna Chandar, of Oak 2082.  She was holding the fort. I am not sure if technically she is one of the 11 members of the Library’s Core Group or of the 20-odd volunteers, but certainly she exuded confidence in all the answers she gave. Bravo.

First impression is the best impression, and Aparna did her quota in full measure. The tiny messages hung all around did the rest to set a right Library ambience. Here are some:

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of Library.”

“Reading can take you places you have never been before.”  “A Good Book has no ending.“ “A book stays with you till the end even if: Narnia disappears; Voldemort dies; Percy drops his sword; Katniss lowers her bow; Valentine surrenders; or Alice is awake.” Aren’t these enough to make you feel your day is already made?

The Library has a collection of 1500 books – all donated by SFVians. Nearly 1000 are ‘usable’. The others await segregation. More shelves, bookracks are required for that – donation or purchase. Incidentally, all the existing almirahs, shelves, book racks are unmistakably donations from SFVians. More gestures won’t go amiss, in other words.

The Library has both reading and lending facilities. Reading facility suits better those who wish to browse through magazines available in different languages – subscribed to by the Library. The avid readers avail of the lending facility through monthly subscriptions. There are over 100 subscribers - one in every five families now in SFV, that is. Good start for one that is less than a year old.

Other activities include organizing puppet shows and others for children. Right now they are organizing a Diya Making class on the eve of Diwali. They have in-house talent to impart these trainings.

The collection includes Tolstoy, Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie, Jeffrey Archer, David Baldacci, to Enid Blyton, Whimpy Kids, Harry Potter, to Sudha Murthy, Chetan Bhagat, Amish’s trilogy, to Vedanta Treatise, Bhagavat Gita as it is, etc.

What might be the genre that subscribers normally prefer? “Well, children prefer Whimpy Kids, Enid Blyton…, young adults go for detective and thriller varieties; the grown ups engineering and non-fiction, while the elderly religious books.” That sounds more like a television-interview answer, I felt.

Name one subscriber who borrows the maximum number of books. “I would bet on Abhinav, Vijetha’s son, of Oak. And his favourite is Whimpy Kids.”

In general how do Indian authors fare vis a vis others?  Indian authors enjoy an edge over others, she said, without a second thought.

Feel like rushing to Library right now? Wait. They open on Mondays, Wednesday, Fridays and Sundays – one hour each in the morning and evening. And, better go prepared with cash and a passport size photo to fill the application form.

Yes, a senior-citizen couple who had moved in exactly two days back, were all eager to survey. Fell in love with it instantly and wanted to fill up the subscription form on the spot. Alas, they didn’t have photos. And the good thing about them is that as soon as they unpack their goods, the first thing they plan is to donate a host of religious and Kannada books. “Mind you,” he told Aparna,  “you are getting a better lot, because we donated many books just before leaving.”

“Better late than never,” I felt about my visit, and mentally thanked Aunty for insisting on having her TV time. “Also, got a new senior citizen friend, in the bargain,” I said to myself as I hurried home, now a little hungry.