CONFIDENTIAL
Vishwa Nath Sood Sterling Castle,
Longwood,
SHIMLA 171001 HP
10th November, 2005
The President,
Sood Sabha,
SHIMLA

Reference: Your Letter Dated 17th October, 2005


Respected Pradhan ji,

I have gone through the contents of your letter captioned as reference and had been musing over it for a considerable span of time. My views in these matters are being portrayed hereunder with a fervent hope that you will perceive and appreciate these. Sir, if at all you feel that I might have crossed limits in expressing my feelings, please forgive me because I am not writing this letter with any intention of impertinence or insolence towards you or any other person. These are purely my personal views and I think it to be part of my duty to convey the same to you. I know, you will consider these with a very open mind.

Firstly, I must salute your good self for your intention to implement a pending resolution about holding a DECLAMATION contest. The Managing Committee in November/December, 2004, made a resolution to this effect and I am sure that the same shall be implemented in its letter and spirit. As far as a QUIZ competition is concerned, this is also a very scintillating idea and its implementation shall project a very constructive approach, which leads to surfacing of hidden talent and wisdom in youngsters.

Now, I may please be permitted to put forth my point of view with respect to your suggestions of conducting a meeting of The Managing Committee and holding some function on behalf of Sood Sabha, outside Shimla. Personally speaking, I am not against your proposal to hold a meeting outside Shimla. Although a meeting can be held if the quorum is complete yet I feel that if the venue has to be away from Shimla and especially in a place like District Kangra, it is expected that every member should be available (which looks like a very remote possibility to me). Maximum presence of members in the meeting should be ensured to promote a dignified image of The Managing Committee. Though the members are at liberty to be present or absent according to their personal convenience but they should intimate their intentions in advance so that there is no eleventh hour hassle in arrangements. If I may be allowed to refresh your memory, you also floated this idea about a couple of years ago. Members at that time took your suggestion lightly when you talked about it but later on started whispering their disagreement to the proposal and the same had to be shelved. As far as venue of the meeting is concerned, it ought to be finalized only after we decide as to what type of function or activity is to be undertaken outside Shimla.

Mr. President Sir, last year, our Sabha sponsored a BHANDARA in Dehra and I propose that our next activity should be elsewhere. We should not be confining our selves to Dehra only. If we repeat our selection of venue of activity, members of Biradari may not like this because it may smack of some personal interests of the president of Sabha. Though I respect and appreciate spirit behind your proposal but majority of people will not understand it and, therefore, we should avoid the avoidable. I can only make my humble suggestion that Sabha should shift the activity to some other place. Our Biradari is mainly settled in Village Amb and Ambota In District UNA. The latter name too may cause eyebrows to be raised because this is native place of our Hon’ble Secretary and most of the members of the Managing Committee belong to these two villages. GARLI &PRAGPUR are two villages, where we have maximum concentration of SOOD BIRADARI but negligible presence in The Managing Committee. Some type of activity can be pursued at either of these two places after taking into confidence some local SOODS as well as those persons who are regular “MIGRANTS” to these places from Shimla during winter. By no means it should be construed that I am against any activity in Ambota or Dehra. My considered opinion is that comments which tantamount to PERSONAL INTEREST of the members of the Managing Committee from life members at large, as far as possible, should be avoided. Ambota can be given a preference later on.

If it meets consent of the Managing Committee, we should dispense with the idea of arranging BHANDARA etc outside Shimla and instead should engage our selves in some charitable cause or other pursuit, which may be beneficial to public of that area. We should, first, arrive at a conclusion as to how much funds can be spent THIS YEAR for some social or charitable purpose in some village of erstwhile Kangra District, which now stands trifurcated into HAMIRPUR, UNA & KANGRA Districts. I may point out that last year when Sabha arranged a Bhandara in Dehra, an expenditure of Rs.26-27000/- was incurred. Once we fix a limit of our expenditure, we can invite the views and suggestions about local problems or requirements from SOODS residing permanently there and after going through the pros and cons of the proposals, we can arrange to implement the same in such a manner that name of SOOD SABHA SHIMLA remains in forefront. If our first attempt of this kind is successful, we can repeat the activities and select a new place every year. Names of GARLI & /OR PRAGPUR struck my mind because these are the two most famous places with which the names of Soods are instantaneously associated and recognized. Satellite villages like NAGROTA-NAHAN, MUIN, KALOHA and RAKKAR are also very near and adjacent to these two villages. Involvement of local Soods and Sood Sabha Shimla will be beneficial to all. I am stressing upon the involvement of Local SOODS because they can be good guides as well as helpers in problems or activities, which we may decide to undertake. Between today and February, 2006 there is a lot of time. Feelers can be sent to the people and IF we are agreed on some proposal, a formal meeting can be arranged in one of the selected places and decision conveyed after completing other formalities. This will meet the requirement of holding a meeting as well as active engagements of our Sabha outside Shimla. As an alternative to GARLI & PRAGPUR, we can also think of PALAMPUR though this is slightly a bigger place for us to look into. The SOODS in Palampur may also be having their own SABHA or some other kind of active body.

PRADHAAN JI, I also regret from the core of my heart to convey my different opinion to your suggestion about disbursement of stipends already sanctioned to the people of the area where we may hold our meeting or some function or activity. I have in the foregoing paragraphs given a suggestion that we should skip the idea of Bhandara etc. If we call these financially hard -pressed people for the purpose of ostentatious display of distributing stipends and propose to pay them bus fare thereby saving some money order fee, we shall be causing them a lot of hardship. It is of paramount importance to keep in mind that people who have sought stipends from us are very poor persons and most of them are engaged in some petty cores to earn their meals for the day. Some are daily wagers, some are petty helpers and some are just living in expectation of some opportunity to get a call for day’s work to earn a piece of bread. To ask them to collect money personally by being present in our show shall be taxing them too much. They may even have to skip their meals and their daily work and loose their wages for the day. Most pinching aspect is that by making a public show of distributing petty amounts of stipends, we shall be exploiting their state of poverty to earn a few words of praise and false prestige. If we are so caring about them, we should see to it that the money due for postal dispatch in January, 2006 is sent to them well in time and not delayed to February, 2006 because everyone eagerly awaits post man’s knock at the door. Yes, if SABHA is ready and willing to give them extra chunk of money, so that they are compensated for their loss of wages and cost of meals etc, this proposal can be given a thoughtful consideration for arriving at some decision before this exercise is undertaken. In a nutshell, I am of a firm view that we should not indulge in this type of SHOW…. After all we are giving them petty stipends and not any prizes. There may be certain persons whom unfortunate circumstances have compelled to look for some AID from our Sabha, yet they would prefer to keep their sorry plight AWAY FROM PUBLIC GAZE. We must respect their sentiments.

Having said this much, I am having a fervent hope that you will rethink and reconsider your proposal with an open mind and then only reach some definite decision in this matter after pressing the other Hon’ble members of the Mg. Committee also to give their independent opinion without any hitch, who, at times, feel tongue- tied by your towering personality and eminent stature.

With my kindest regards, I have the honour to be

Yours very truly,

To
(VISHWA NATH SOOD) Sh. Kapil Dev Sood
MEMBER, Mg. Committee, Hon’ble President,
SOOD SABHA, SHIMLA. Sood Sabha, Shimla.

Copy forwarded to Sh. Ashok Sood,Secretary, Sood Sabha, Shimla for kind information please.


Sd/- Vishwa Nath Sood,
Member, Mg. Committee, Sood Sabha, Shimla. (Endorsement made with pen-writing)