| |
|
|
Nuclearization and other pulls of today’s fast-paced life have put a strain on the concept of ’family’. Its time for the community to come together and reinforce a support group that brings back some socio-cultural balance…
Gunjan Pant | Gurgaon
The portrayal of intricate community relationships that once found form in Naseeruddin Shah-Deepti Naval starrer Sai Paranjpee’s ’Katha’, has its real life reflection among several residents of Gurgaon lately.
Never before has there been a milling of cosmopolitan crowd as now where acute professional and personal demands have uprooted people from their familiar settings into this happening corner of Haryana. This in turn has triggered a new phenomenon where our neighbours and friends have come to be our extended families.
Growing community involvement has never been more evident - be it the collective celebration of festivals or the generation of mass awareness on issues that affect society at large including cleanliness and protection of the environment.
The DLF Residents’ Association in fact, went a step further to spread its ’green and clean’ message last week by involving underprivileged children of G-Block along with the residents in its cleanliness drive.
Giving the rationale behind the move RWA official Sudhir Kapoor said, "Cross-section community networking is essential to encourage the spirit of ownership of the neighbourhood among people. Unless people get together and take charge, change is not possible."
While on the issue, resident of Richmond Park, Minal fondly recalls the effort put in by her neighbour, noted cartoonist Sudhir Dhar in making the children of the locality eco-conscious by taking the kids "for an enlightening nature walk within the colony one morning."
"The much appreciated attempt was just his way of making people around him more conscientious towards nature." To get residents together more often, the RWA has also started ’tambola evenings’ apart from the usual festival celebrations.
Being the resident of a plotted area where such community activities are fairly restricted, DLF Phase 2’s Sushita often misses out the fun. "But I have my fill during the Durga Puja festivities organised in the neighbourhood," she chirps.
Her favourite haunts? Sector 14, Suncity, Kendriya Vihar, Sushant Lok and the Phase 1 community centre. "The function spread over five-days is a great platform to familiarise the kids with richness of Bengali art and culture," she elaborates, stressing particularly on the fun-filled competitions like alpana and shankh.
The high point however is the Anandamela where women put up stalls of home-made delicacies offering one and all to gorge on the traditional malpua, payesh and fish fry. "Why can’t we have more such activities so that we get a chance to bond with our neighbours," ask Meenakshi of Sushant Lok, A-Block and Ardee City’s Bushra in unison.
According to Gurgaonites, one reason is the lack of proper meeting place as several colonies like DLF Phase 2 and Phase 3, Ardee City, Sushant Lok, Sector 54 are short of community centres. "We therefore have to make do with our own small efforts to meet other people be it through tambola evenings in our house or pot-lucks," rues Bushra.
"Our kids too loose out on opportunities to forge new friendships," points out Meenakshi as she goes back to the days when "we as kids put up a Ramleela during Dussera." Laburnum’s Shruti sees the fun atmosphere developing during the Christmas celebrations in her society.
Laburnum also has a tradition of celebrating Halloween, "then there are the informal coffee mornings and also the community website where people are free to bring up various issues like putting a stop to cutting trees or cleanliness," she adds.
It takes a community to maintain a human, someone once said. Doesn’t that just about sums up the whole deal!
|
Enlarge
