Monday, December 30, 2013

Return Of The New Year

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

2014 is just hours away, and another new year is almost here. Lots of excitement as it is at the time of the New Year, with everyone on holiday and in the mood for a reason for celebration. Chicago is going to be bitterly cold approaching 2014. Yesterday the Chicago Bears lost their final game of the regular season in the last minute (I was watching and it breaks your heart, just like many other seasons with the Bears), and the last remaining thing to cheer for the year, and first thing to cheer for the locals for the New Year is gone. Also, the Indians lost to South Africa in the last test match of the year, and they lost big. There will be expert commentary on the losses and the justification behind the massive losses by everyone their brothers. They just won't simply say the teams were up to no good, and they were just average and lost to much better teams. This is also quite a traditional happening in both Chicago and with the Indians.

Its also my last column for the year, and as always its good to look forward to the new year with some excitement. My publishers and readers and everyone else, I am sure are looking forward to the new year and along with it the time off from whatever each one of us do, and also a bit of a celebration. For us in Chicago, it is a really hard time on the body's fat from Thanksgiving through the beginning of the new year. Despite repeated attempts to control the intake, it is impossible to do any kind of moderation during the time. All the workouts for almost eleven months are shot in the space with one month of binge gouging.

The past year has been uneventful as it has been similar to just about every other in the recent past. Politicians continue to bicker, rather well dressed these day but they constantly mouth off against each other, and the availability of massive media outlets is making them sharper looking and sharper in bad mouthing everyone else who is in the opposition; sometimes in the same party. So nothing new can be expected in the space of addressing the people's issues, let along finding solutions for them. Neither the Indians nor the Americans, both large democracies with vastly different economic structure have done a single thing to help their people. The last straw was the arrest of the Indian diplomat in New York and the treatment meted out to her by the Americans, was simply the attitude displayed by the law enforcement in the USA, albeit with the politicians and legal system involved. At last the Indians are showing some spine in taking their own measures to give the Americans their own medicine. Hey! We are are all capitalists and not communists, so let us treat each other with dignity, specially when it comes to women and children. The Americans are not very innocent as they have done things like this to Abdul Kalam (probably most loving Indian living) and to SRK (who is definitely one of the most popular Indians), and the current fiasco in New York is not an isolated incident. So much for the friendship for Dal and Roti as professed by Obama, and Singh proclaiming the friendship between the two great democracies. For the love of god, please have the respect to at least show it for the diplomatic forces, if not for general public.

My state of Andhra Pradesh remain in boil as the state is constantly subjected to the division politics, and for months after the declaration by the INC it remain unitedly divided. There is no magic to the division as it is politicians who are finding the forum to mouth off powerful movie dialogues or equating each others activities to sports. Not a single one of them have done anything to address the people issues, but simply paying to the crowds. We have actors and orators by the thousands in the electorate, and we really don't need any training to make movies these men and women as they play to the gallerias without hesitation.

The AAP forging the government in Delhi is not a real surprise either as people are fed up of scams and incompetence and kissing behind by the politicians. Getting a band new party into power is not a surprise as it is almost guaranteed that people will vote you into power if they can hear you address their concerns. As of writing this column, AAP has fulfilled the promise to deliver free water in 24 hours of coming into power, and its a start to one of their 18 things in their election manifesto. Even if they do half of the things they described in their election manifesto, it will be a welcome change to Indian politics. I personally like this man Arvind as after just getting elected as CM of Delhi, he gets diarrhea and fever and is working from home, and has already done one thing he said he will do if elected. I don't want to forget his electing to stay at his own home and ignoring the big security detail, by saying he is with his people and he doesn't need any security. Way to go champ! And hope you will do all you said will do. Anna seems to be happy with developments in Delhi as his protege Arvind as taken the hot seat and now is the time to perform. Delhi is the seat and root of corruption and if Arvind can get the house clean, it is likely it will flow to the rest of the country from New Delhi. Here is to the newness of clean government, at least for now. Jai Hind.

Many things to move on from as the world is pretty much the same except the figure of 2013 will become 2014. While waiting for the new year, here is to wishing everyone great things to come in the new year and peace to all.

Happy New Year.







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