OMR Greens: Our charge against Mantri's

Our next door neighbour at Padur,  OMR and organic farmer Mr R Ranganathan, who has been here since early 1970s, says hundreds of trees - coconut and mango - were slaughtered by Mantri's to pave way for raising our residential complex.
So, what's new in it, doesn't every developer do it ? I would have thought so as well, had  a Mantri resident Mr D Venkatesan (A-block) not e-mailed us a media report citing a statement by Snehal Mantri. She was reported in The Hindu Property Plus (Jan.12, 2008) as saying :
When MDPL took over the land on OMR at Chennai, the entire area looked so green we had second thoughts about building Mantri Synergy there. We then thought of transplantation. There were a total of 165 coconut trees, 24 mango trees and around 140 teak wood trees spread there, and we managed to save 90% of the trees.

A tree count on Mantri Synergy campus appears appropriate.  So that,  when the apartment owners association takes over of assets from Mantri's,  we could seek an account of transplanted trees from Mantri's. Apart from an exercise in 'green' auditing, this has financial implication. The cost of transplanting a tree (at 2008 price level) ranged from Rs,5,000 to Rs.10,000. And the expenses, we assume, was billed to apartment buyers .
Meanwhile OMR Greens would like to see trees planted wherever we can. We could do with some on the sides of our front lawn, for some shade on driveway. Would it be too late to consider planting some, may be neem, in celebration of our 'Go Green' Navarathri ?

Designer jewellery

Mantri residents, Sonya and Nadiya, holding a day job in the IT sector, took to jewellery designing on weekends as a hobby. They turned out to be so good at it that their father helped them evolve a business model. And now Sonya/Nadiya designed jewellery are available, at prices ranging from Rs.50 to Rs.550.
Their father K Santharam (A-202) has e-mailed OMR Resident: My daughters Sonya and Nadya have designed beaded chains and ear rings.  They are just doing this as a hobby.
The designer sisters have created a Facebook page  where they showcase their work.  
E-mail for info - evejewel@gmail.com

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.

Holi@Mantri,OMR:The scene of 'crime'

The morning after Holi war with water guns and colour powder, such was the scene of crime, as some would say. If it looks reasonably clean, it's because the mess they left was cleaned up by Holi revellers. As their prime mover Crystal Zachariah put it on our Facebook page, Yes,we made a hell of a mess, but made all efforts to clean up our fun. The fun may have been 'cleaned up'; I reckon the colours we left on the floor would take a few more days to go.

This picture gives us a sense of the 'the fun and colour' we created at Mantri central park. Oddly enough, the colour warriors couldn't find very many willing victims to train their water guns on. Apparently,Holi is not among our favourite festival at Mantri's, going by the turnout. Even the normal crowd of women, children and the elderly residents failed to show up. Holi enthusiasts chose the central park, in the first place, because of a captive crowd that would be a sitting target. And this would have a multiplier effect, with folks from the apartments around the central park joining in the colour-throwing. Crystal had driven all the way to Parry's to fetch the colours.

The enthusiasts got it wrong; found themselves isolated. What was worse, the Holi players (including yours truly) seeking to bring some colour and Holi hangama to our complex were dubbed 'trouble-makers'. PropCare received complaints. I don't know about the others, but the experience has had a sobering effect on me.
I suppose we should have adopted, what I call, 'a committee approach' - involving debate, deliberation, and disposal - to planning this Holi thing. Our thought was Holi, being a delightfully disorderly affair, wouldn't need a committee approval.Clowning around with colours comes naturally on Holi, even to otherwise sensible people. I can't imagine my friend Pandey doing, on any other day, what he did by the fountain side last evening. If anything, he is a responsible parent on other 364 days; usually seen in the mornings, pushing his four-month old in a stroller around the central park.
Anyway,the crazy idea started as a Facebook post that said, simply,'Holi plans?'. Someone left a comment; and one comment led to another and the idea of planning the Holi 'do' at Mantri residential complex went viral. It wasn't a govt. declared holiday, so the Holi revelry had to be done in the evening. That is when folks came out into the park. But not many did on Holi evening.

Mr Krishnamachari and wife were the exception. When young Pandey approached him Mr Chari happily submitted to the colouring of his face, so long as Pandey spared his shirt. Holi is a festival that licenses people to go berserk; to 'let your hair down', as the Brits would say. This isn't understood, much less appreciated in some quarters.

The bunch of Holi revellers were seen as 'trouble-makers' by some who watched the colour-throwing at the park from their apartment balcony. Following a complaint to Mantri project guys, about the mess being made of the common area, a security personnel came to stop the proceedings. He was greeted with colours smeared on his uniform. The security official was not amused; a sharp, but mercifully, brief, exchange of words ensued,leaving an unpleasant taste in mouth. Not quite the Holi spirit we wished to generate. What the security official didn't know was that PropCare, and all other staffers at the complex were invited to join us.

The staffers chose to stay away. Some who strayed into the 'warring' area faced the music. Gas Ramu is seen here with Mantri resident Manoranjan Pandey. Ramu, who faces a spate of complaints on erratic gas-supply from the likes of Pandey on a daily basis, seemed happy to play victim in true Holi spirit.

Speaking of such spirit is this pleasing photo in The Hindu. News channels telecast through the day yesterday video clips of how they celebrate Holi in other towns in India, and even in Karachi, Pakistan. Would like to share here the link to a media piece on Lathmar Holi celebrated in a UP village. Don't miss the photos in the slide-show.