OH18 -Independence Day to Ganesh Visarjan

Orchid harmony is now a living community of almost 1000 residents with more than 300 occupied flats. It's my 4th year here and I have seen lots of human emotions and characters here. It's like mini India and one can witness the similar kind of politics and other flavours as one comes across in national news. :)

Orchid Harmony is a cosmopolitan community with representation from different parts of the country. I have avoided the word "states" as it's feel is of a divided  country . The  belonging to state is highlighted  and does not show any  association with the country. Intellectuals and politicians prefer to divide the country and then rule the divided masses, the formula used by all those who have ruled India for a thousand years.

Independence day, the August 15th, 2018 was celebrated with routine flag hoisting and serving of hot bhajias and ladoos. As usual, the flag hoisting was witnessed mostly by few senior citizens and young children in the morning. The number of attendees increased four folds on free servings of  bhajia and ladoos counter. Ladoos were more preferred than bhajias, in-spite of the calories count , after all the life is happier with the calories. :)  I avoided both, though it was free and I also pay "maintenance" and it was served from the society fund. This thought is a big motivator to eat free meals and have been loudly shared on most of the public platforms.

No comments on right or wrong attitude. Just wondering if any body ever worried about the kind of offspring or society being created by throwing such thoughts to the children ? People in general are very unabashed about their "weight throwing" behaviour.

I remember an incident which happened in society almost an year ago. Few residents with their wives were shouting at the elected representatives of society in a way which in no way was a sign of civilized interaction. I am sure their young children would have hanged their heads in shame if they were shown the videos of that day.

Passing the baton to young ones!

Anyway, let's come back to Independence day celebrations in society. Flag hoisting by the Chairman of the society, followed by national anthem and few items by senior citizens with "bhashanbaazi" types messages from anyone who gets hold of mike. Time has come to change the way we celebrate the festivals of national importance at society level. To my mind, the better way to celebrate independence and republic day is to involve children in some society building activity like cleaning the dead corners of society or garden  to inculcate the sharing of social responsibilities rather than repeating the history umpteen times.

Getting acquainted with the colours of Indepenence

Evening has seen the children performances on theme "patriotic". How about having a long play incorporating all the entertaining elements to have a continuous story?  :)

Ganesh Chaturthi in mid September is also a community function and has seen an increased fervour and favours with society residents. This is mainly a Marathi festival and in earlier years, Marathi Manus of OH were in forefront in planning and celebrating the Ganesh Chaturathi. Things were different this year. I had come to know that they backed out to force some demands.

Anyway, Lord Ganesha's presence is so overwhelming that all these things become non-entities. Lord Ganesha stayed in the OH for three days. Lots of people participated and "chappan bhogs" were curated for all the three days of  "bhagwan's" stay with in the premises. Two times "aarti" every day and action filled evenings saw participation from some enthusiastic residents. Stalls were set up by vendors to provide food items were very popular with the crowd in the evening.

Ganesh Chaturathy is more about social interactions and activities than a religious

I  did not participated in the pooja and aarti as my dialogue with the Lord is very personal and I am not a ritualistic. Since my apartment is strategically located and I can see everything going on in the garden, which is the main venue of all the activities, it feels being there without going out.

Third day was the day of visarjan and time to bid farewell to Lord till He comes next year. Dhol, baja, sindoor khela and garba dancers accompanied lord Ganesha to Visarjan venue.

As He leaves OH to come next year, I wish He takes away all the negativity from the hearts of people and society so that residents live in harmony and peace. Amen!!!

Taking Lord Ganesha for Visarjan - View from my balcony.

Few people also bring in Ganesha home. A kitty party friend has invited to see his Ganesha idol and I along with 4 others have gone to visit her place. She has really made lots of effort and creativity in creating a beautiful look. Sharing the picture for all of you to rejoice!

OH15 ELECTION AND NAVRATRI FERVOUR

Life has been pretty interesting at OH since last one month. There was an amalgamation of political and cultural activities  in OH.

Almost 4 months ago, the builder of OH has handed over the maintenance and other issues to the society residents. Few people were nominated by residents and did all the assigned jobs of taking over from the builder. As usual, there is always another group who want to take hold of things for reasons best known to them. Lot of muck and abusive language was used on the whats-app groups for the people who were doing the job and spending so much of time and extra efforts to setup the systems. 

Though lots of rubbish is being thrown to these people, they were undeterred and did their job with honesty and conviction. They did a real good job. This was proved by the election result, which was won hands down by their team of 11 people. So, on 25 September, 2016, OH has got it's first elected management committee and thankfully, all the colourful language is stopped for the time being. It must be a great relief to all the people who are not used to such colorful language. It was the worst kind of language, I have ever read or heard in my entire life. 

It actually shows the deterioration in society and I felt bad and sad that I am part of this kind of society. I have grown up in the extremely learned atmosphere of university campus and had lived in the corporate colonies of public sector giant, Indian Oil Corporation where people were very careful and respectful towards each other. They were culturally much ahead. 

The OH management committee has 11 elected members. It comprises of chartered accountants, senior bankers, doctor, engineer and successful businessmen. So, a lot of experience and skill sets is there in the team. I wish the new "ELECTED" management body good luck and expect high standards of living in OH.

As the navratri fever has been gripping the city, how can OH community be left behind? The garba classes have started at the onset of September. A garbs tutor was invited to do the job. Another class was organised by some resident garba lovers . The practice time was around 9pm  as it was convenient for the "annapuranas" to finish the dinner of the families. 

I had also joined a class, but somehow on the way, I lost interest as the fun of dancing was being lost in complicated steps. I think, it was important for the trainer to teach complicated steps to satisfy his ego but as a learner, I felt lost in 1,2,3,4, left and right. Unfortunately, this class has created an aversion towards dancing in my mind. I did not try to remove it at all. I was more interested in clicking pics this time. May be next year, I will tap foot on the beats.

The festival arrangements were taken care by a newly formed Navratri Committee. A small temple was erected in the lawns with divine mother's picture. Every day, an aarti to please and request for blessings in the glory of divine mother was performed which ends with the distribution of prasada. The prasada was contributed by the residents. After the routine aarti and pooja rituals of half an hour, the garba fervour started and it went for almost 3 hours and some times more. Few stalls were erected which served popular food items like idli, sambhar, pav-bhaji, paani poori, ice cream and many more. It was fun to sit and watch the enthusiasm of residents. The women took great care and lots of efforts in dressing and makeup.It was time to catch up with friends, have fun and real great festivity. It went on for 10 days. This year , many days were spoiled due to rains. It has been said to be the wettest navratri ever.

In Gujarat, there is a tradition of eating fafda and jalebi on Vijaydashami . On the last night of navratri,  the fafda-jalebi shops are open almost whole night. They do a brisk business in few thousand crores  in just one day. This year, I also had the chance of going out on a night to relish fafda jalebi at midnight. It appeared as if whole city was on roads and almost all the fafda jalebi joints were serving to their full capacity. Finally, we reached a joint in Prahladnagar , where we could park our car. It feels good to be part of the festivity of the city crowd.

 On Vijaydashmi , arrangements were made to serve fafda jalebi in the society. Fafda is eaten with sweet gujarati kadhi and raw papaya chatni. I loved the papaya chatani and will make it some day. Fafda is made from besan chickpea flour, lots of oil and soda. 

Its always good to analyse the jobs done. The scale of  celebration and arrangements were better than the last year, but there is always scope of improvement.

1. Decoration was better than the last year. 
2. DJ for all the 10 days was great. How about having live music and singing next year? 
3. In-house dinner "MAHABHOJ" on Navami was good. I like all dishes, except bhindi, which I do not like  otherwise.
4. The food counters to serve mahabhoj, were very less as compared to the coupons distributed. People have to wait for at-least 30-40 minutes in line. No one wanted to visit again to fill the plates because of long ques, much food is wasted as people fill their plates to avoid next visit.
5. The less number of distribution counters on Vijayadashmi were again a pain in neck. Just one counter ? The distribution system needs improvement.

Have a glimpse of the festivities in OH: