Aadit, Mantri's first-born, completes Year One

Aadit,  Mantri's first-born, completes one year today.  We caught up with him when grandma - Champa Chakraborti - was taking Aadit around Mantri's on a  stroller. And on our request, the birthday boy and his grandma posed for a picture with the shenbagum plant we have named after Aadit.
The planting of the shenbagum in June last year  marked the start of our community planting programme. We have since planted 20 saplings in  Mantri Synergy apartment complex. We have planted another shenbagum , named after schoolboy Srinivas ; we have planted  neems named after Nitya and Aadhya ( driveway pot-painters), after my grandsons - Sidharth and Nikhil - when they started going to pre-school in California. Recently  a mango was planted in celebration of  Advik (the second child to be born at Mantri's).
Under our community planting programme we have had saplings planted to celebrate the first resident to move in at Mantri's - Mr Nambir - the first elected executive committee of our association; and to celebrate the visit of Santa Ujjal on the first Christmas at Mantri's.

Poolside planting at Mantri on OMR

 

 Most Mantri residents missed out on Saturday's cozy family-like social gathering. The occasion was  community tree-planting. Advik, barely six months, marked his presence on clubhouse poolside as his mother Anuja planted a mango tree named after Advik, the second child to be born at Mantri Synergy. His sister Aadya, experienced in tree-planting, was there to help her mom do the planting.

And we had Pramud,a surprise visitor from Bangalore who came with his parents visiting Mantri's where they own an apartment. At our community planting, held after a long gap, we celebrated the first elected members of Mantri Synergy apartment owners association.

Treasurer Mrs Indumathy, secretary Mr R Vasudevan, and president Mr Giri Sundaram planted a sapling each.. Vice-president Mr Harinarayan expressed his inability to be present in view of his prior commitment out of town. We plan to get him plant a sapling sometime soon.

 

Resident horticulturist K S Arvind, with his gardening crew, volunteered their planting expertise and labour. Mr Arvind helped us identify spots for digging, and also advised us on the choice of sapling to be planted on each spot - two mango and guava were planted on the railings side of the lawn, while the two sapota plants flanked the park benches.

Sunday Santhai, a club for like-minded Mantri residents to trade ideas, info. and unvarnished gossip, thought of the tree-planting 'do' with a twin agenda - 1) to insure sympathy/support of the community for our crazy plans; and 2) to get some shade on the poolside lawns with tree-planting.    
Mr K Santharam (left in the photo) citing a Balachander movie (which one, would you know ?) writes -  It is not necessary that you should leave only your children after death. You can leave trees as well. They will live for several years like your children and the posterity will ever remember you.
Thank you,  Mr Santharam (A-202) for giving a lofty edge to an idea by 'a crazy foursome'  that met at our first Santhai.

NASA Srinivas flowers

Nasa Srinivas, the shenbagum  planted in June last, has started flowering at Mantri Synergy. The plant has been named after schoolboy Srinivas, on his return from NASA Space training center at Huntsvile, Alabama.  Son of  Sunitha and Sriraj (D-1202),  Upplili Srinivas studies in Ooty, and was sponsored by his school for a NASA conducted space camp for school students from the world over..

At Mantri Synergy we have a community tree-planting programme in which residents  celebrate with a sapling family events such as child birth, birthday, wedding anniversary, start of schooling of one's child, graduation, job placement of one's daughter, or any happening in the family about which you have reason to feel good about. Mrs and Mr Sriraj happily agreed to my suggestion that they celebrate the return of their son from NASA. The shenbagum he planted is named after NASA Srinivas. The schoolboy, and even his parents,  have moved from  here, but Srinivas grows with us at Mantri complex, and has started flowering for our benefit.

Santa at Mantri's

At Mantri's we do things somewhat differently. Not for us, the portly old man with bulbous nose and a pot belly. Santa, for us at Mantri's, doesn't spring down on us from North Pole on flying reindeer. Nor does he park himself on a rocking chair near a Christmas tree. Our Santa comes down the E block elevator from his 8th floor abode.

We, on D block 9th floor, were alerted of Santa's arrival by the cheers of the children assembled at the central park. He bounced about dancing with children,ringing a puja bell, and raising hungama in the joint. The Mantri's Santa, far from being an oldie, turned out to be an young man, athletic built with no belly to speak of, even after stuffing in a pillow under his red robe.

He reached out to all comers, handing out gifts to kids, blessing their young mothers,and seniors twice his age, out there to join in the fun.A platoon of children followed Santa wherever he went in the complex.

Santa's agenda at Mantri's included planting of a sapling under our community tree-planting programme. Children and community elders filled up with sand the planting pit, prepared by gardener Raj, and watered the plant. The tree, when fully grown, would have exotic flowers growing out of its branches and trunk.

Our Santa is multilingual, profecient in Tamil, English, Hindi. He spoke Bengali to the daughter and mother of a migrant worker at Mantri's construction site. Our effort at Mantri's is to make our community events inclusive, engaging in festivities the Mantri staff and residents alike.
The tree we planted has a name - Nagapushpam - but we prefer to call it Ujjal Santa. We the Mantri community would like to see the tree, the children, and Mr Ujjal Mukherjee grow up together to higher heights over many, many more Christmas to come.
More photos on our Facebook page.

Santa Dada invites Mantri kids

Place: 'Wish Well' lawns, Mantri Synergy
Date: Dec.25, Sunday
Time: 10 a m
Occasion: A date with Santa, and tree-planting.
Santa Dada of Mantri Synergy invites Aadit, Advith, Aadhya, Diya, Kavya,Santhanu, Sidharth, Smriti, Shrish, Trisha, Vihan, and all other children in the Mantri complex to join him in planting a flowering tree.
Tree-planting will be followed by distribution of gifts to children.
Event planners: Mr Ardhendu Chakraborti (F-904), Mr Sivaram of PropCare.

Mantri's plantsman Muthiah

Mr Muthiah is the chief of Mantri's gardening staff. He chose the species that we planting on Mantri visitors parking lot last evening. When I asked him about the saplings of his choice Mr Muthiah mentioned something in Botanical mumbo-jumbo. Which impressed me, without making me any wiser.It is a species that belong to the badam family, he said.

What we planted were two year old saplings. Mr Muthiah reckons they would start giving us shade cover in about six months. My preference would have been for neem, which, he says, would take years grow.But then any species that gives us much needed shade,fairly fast-growing, is good enough. Mr Muthiah has helped us procure all the eight saplings - six neems and two shenbagums - that we have planted till date in our community tree-planting programme.

Gardeners Keliappan and Ramachandran did the digging and shoveling, and the house-keeping staff - Pushpa and Geetha - brought in the buckets for watering the plants.

Gandhi Jayanthi: Saying it with a sapling

We planted a neem at Mantri Synergy to commemorate Gandhi Jayanti,2011. Residents, Propcare management and the maintenance staff joined hands to make an occasion of this,the first Gandhi Jayanti Day to be celebrated at Mantri's.

The Gandhi Jayanti neem was planted a day before the event (Oct.1), as part of our community tree-planting programme. It was the second community-planting programme we organized in Mantri, with the pious resolve to have a community planting day every month. Yesterday, we planted six saplings on two locations. The Gandhi Jayanti sapling can be found on the greens around the well near E block.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3181899246868386466
Mahatma Gandhi planting a tree n front of Kingsley Hall, his residence in London's East End during his stay in 1931.This footage of the ceremony (44 seconds) gives us a flavour of the ceremony.

For Vishnu and other working students in Mantri

We have on Mantri's security staff quite a few students - Vishnu, Manikandan, Rajesh and others I haven't met.They work night shift to be able to go to college. We have service technicians doing advanced diploma - Ezhumalai and Aashik. They deserve our support and encouragement, don't they.
Mantri residents can do the following:
1)Plant a sapling in the Mantri complex to celebrate their drive and hard work.
2)Contribute to get a desk-top computer installed at the staff rest area, for use by the likes of Vishnu. I find them using their cell phone to access Internet.
3)Guide them to acquire communication and other soft skills needed to appear in job interviews.
4)Help them with reference to and info. on prospective employers.
I read in this context about a Chennai IT company - Zoho Corp - that hires economically backward high school students to be trained in software engineering. The company is run by Mr Sridhar Vembu, who has an engineering degree from IIT Madras and Ph.D from Princeton.
Blogger Sramana Mitra in an interview with Zoho CEO quotes him as saying, “We hire young professionals whom others disregard. We don’t look at colleges, degrees or grades...go to poor high-schools,and hire those kids who are bright...We train them, and in 9 months, they produce at the level of college grads. Their resumes are not as marketable, but I tell you, these kids can code just as well as the rest. Often, better.”

Tree-planting: An e-mail to Vishnu

Dear Vishnu,
And I address this mail to Manikandan, Ramesh (all security staff), and Murugan (house-keeping) as well.
It is nice to know that we have on the Mantri support services staff youngsters like you pursuing higher studies. And it is a matter of community pride. I am sure other Mantri residents would agree to a suggestion that your hardwork and determination call for celebration. We could do so by planting a couple of saplings in Mantri Synergy on the Community Planting Day we observe on the last Saturday of every month. It is July 30 this month.
1) I would like you, Vishnu, along with the other three, to approach Sriraj Sir (D-1202) and Chakraborti Sir (F-904) for help and guidance in organising the tree-planting programme.
2) You can count on them to approach Propcare Sivaram sir to get suitable slots alloted for planting two neem saplings.
3) Arrange to procure from the nursery or from some place else two neem saplings (say 5 to 8 ft. tall). I am sure one of you is resourseful enough to get the saplings for free from a local farmer. You should also be able to arrange for digging the necessary pits and for watering the saplings till they take root.
I wish I could take part in the tree-planting ceremony. But my thoughts would be with you on July 30. And I hope to find the saplings growing well when my wife and I return from our current US trip.
Meanwhile, I hope to hear from you, Vishu, regarding the tree-planting arrangement. Do foraward this communication to Manikandan, Ramesh and Murugan. I do not have their e-mail ID

G V Krishnan, D-901
(now in San Ramon, CA)

Let's synergize Mantri Synergy

My wife and I appreciate the sentiments Mr Sriraj has expressed in the previous post. Would like to point out, though, that It is not any lofty ideal or self-less initiative that drives me ;it is enlightened self-interest. Our common/unified efforts can improve life, and synergize community living.
And synergy, I reckon, can be furthered, by including in our community schemes the PropCare people, our house-keeping and security staff. We can make our Mantri living inclusive, if we recognise Murugan joining an engineering course by planting a sapling in our complex. When PropCare Siviram's 4-year-old twins join the 1st std. in school, or start taking, say piano lessons, or get a belt in taekwondo , we should planting saplings.
Which brings me to Pt. 6 in Mr Sriraj's list of things to do.The next time he meets Mr Manoj/Mr Sivaram he could work with them to identify the spots for planting the next five saplings. Thus,discovering more and more planting locations can be made a continuing exercise, as we move from July to August, then on to September, and beyond.

Nasa Srini & Aadit are a week old

A week after we planted them Nasa Srinivas has started flowering already, and Aadit has fresh tender leaves coming up.
Now that the saplings have taken roots parents with young children could take them to visit Aadit and Nasa Srini, become their friends and watch them grow in their backyard.

The shenbagams are here

The saplings,both shenbagam,are here. And Mr Sivaram of PropCare showed us the location where they would be planted on Saturday. Dr A P J Kalam Former president and green enthusiast, among other things, is quoted as saying, a tree reduced 14 kg of carbon-di-oxide and gave out 20 kg of oxygen. I wonder how much gas a single air-conditioner, working 6 hours, would emit. When all 700 odd flats are ready and occupied at Mantri's we can count on having at least 1500 AC units.
Young Srinivas, the schoolboy who would plant one of the saplings tomorrow, joined us on our site inspection. Mr Muthaiah of Mantri landscaping dept. said the digging and earthwork would be completed by the end of the day.
Mantri community planting
(behind 'G" Block)
Saturday, June 25
Time: 5.30 p m