This Samvada Issue will hit the WhatsApp groups about 10 days before the first sunrise of 2023. With COVID finally behind us in India at least, most would have made plans to travel or just simply party into the New Year. I am sure each one also would have made the proverbial New Year resolutions with the last one on the same list being to forget all of them, before the first weekend of January.
Tathastu! So be it!! Que Sera Sera!!! Notwithstanding the above, I still wish to put in a but … not the anatomy double ‘tt’ kind of course … but the typically quirky kind I am fond of. I wish everyone buys the finest headsets in town. I wish everyone has the finest earplugs as stand-
bye. I wish everyone has the best ‘blue tooth’ connectivity, to their media gadgets. I wish everyone’s life is a song.
But …… I have one wish more important than this combo and that is …. I hope none of the residents use their hi-fi gadgets while out on morning or evening walks. And this wish, while it may sound evil to the Gen X & Y & Zee, has a reason.
In fact it has two reasons :-
The foremost is that when you come out without being a zombie on a media leash, you actually see folks walking on the South City-I streets and a wave or a Hello inevitably ensues. Relationships are kindled or re-kindled. Some may blossom into great ones.
The second is the environment. You start seeing the beautiful trees flowering. The myriad bird life that still exists in our Colony, chirping and singing. These are sights and sounds far superior to recorded gospels on your mobile phones.
I have two more wishes on my list. One good, one evil.
The Evil One: I wish more of you respond and open your purses on every call I make to seek donations or help for an NGO or charity. And, before some of you think I am a 10% zardari, let me clarify that, I DO NOT own or run any NGO and neither am I a part beneficiary as a fund raiser. I just do ‘seva’ in many of them. Heartfelt thanks to so many of our Colony residents who reposed faith and contributed in cash or kind to multiple NGOs on my request this year. I am indebted for your kindness.
The Good One: The new EC is making so many Committees. I hope they make a Committee for “Colony Compassion” too, which can help channelize residents’ urge to undertake charity in trustworthy institutions. I also hope that this Committee opens a “Time Bank” register, where residents can donate 2 hours to 2 weeks or whatever, of their precious time in a year, for
volunteering hands-on, on charity work. It would be a nouvelle gesture as far as any Colony in Gurgaon is concerned, and be a value addition to the new EC’s B.H.E.S.T. goals. I assure you that, it would also be a very satisfying experience into the world of love, kindness and compassion, for all those who choose to give, ‘time’.
by Col Anil Alagh, M BlocK, 9312247284
