Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Past Perfect

Vasu Reddy from Chicago

It has already happened. Past is already on the books, recorded, and can’t be changed.  It is what it is and that’s it.

We call it history.  The relevance of what we have available to record increasingly makes us to do so, and just as we type is the past.  Once again it is perfect as it is already done, and can’t be replaced.

The history has good, bad and the ugly.  They may not be in equal parts, but they are all there, just like everyone of us.  We come in various shapes, sizes and colors, but we find our own way to live, if we do.  There is no set time frame, no set style, no set template for life, it just happens as we start and finish, with something in between.  To get our life recorded, it must have something extraordinary (doesn’t matter the extremes) but something that a normal person doesn’t do, to become a page to be remembered in history.

We don’t all have the opportunity for becoming the next Gates, Jobs or Buffett, or Indian Tata, Birla or Gandhi.  (Sorry if I only sound off with just a few names). The irony of the massive respect for a name is that with billions of us, and just a few names to refer to.  Gandhi, King or Mandela are a creation of extreme circumstances imposed by societies that became so intolerant of fellow people, so we must find figures that will make societies look up to an individual as a symbol of positive hope and change.  We certainly have a few of the 20th century leaders who are in our thoughts, prayers and focus as leaders who paved way for equality.

With billions of us on Earth, just a few wise folks we pay our reverence and use as historic examples.  At the same time, we also use name as Hitler to reference to the genocide and lately we have had several heads or state from the MEA those have been deposed as leaders who had territorial and dictatorial control on people.  They are also given equal or greater coverage as the father figures in history books.

Howsoever we look at stuff, good and bad (perhaps evil) all get documented for reference as history.  The most(ly) intelligent beings can hear, read, review, look and comprehend the good, bad and ugly (Client Eastwood movie references) from history.  As being good means not imposing harm and hatred, we have a good understanding on what not to do from birth to death.



The choices for us to follow the path we choose to can certainly be circumstantial and lately we (may be for a long time) have been using the religion for our actions.  The first and second WW were fought because of dictators, communists and free world order, and the last several decades based on religion and color.  The various regions of the world work on their own brand of hatred and killing, but with each passing year the hatred acquires an expanded footprint.  For some reason history already has recoded the impact of hate, but we deliberately ignore the past, and continue to perfect the next set of hate.  The good remains with same definition, while the bad keeps expanding the definition.


It is simple to say, “I beg your pardon” or a one word “Sorry” when we make a mistake rather than double down.  It is simple to appreciate what is good and bad, rather than reinvent a new interpretation of something that is already well defined.  It is simple to listen, read or learn from history, its already there.  We have it at our finger tips, on our phones, and all it takes is a click or two to appreciate the value of what we already experienced.

Sunday, October 15, 2017

A Child of India

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Howsoever I look at myself I am a child of India.  My mother and my mother country remain what they are.  Ten thousand miles, still make me a child of India.  Moving with a small suitcase and a black Samsonite in my hand to the USA to go to school, was not a frequent practice when I came (it is now such a common thing, and no longer in need of a bus full of well-wishers sending you off at the airport) and I did not feel any novelty of a foreign student.  When in stepped out of the airport and saw familiar faces to bring me in and send me off to school next day (in a bus) I did not feel anything new.  When I went to school, worked and did the same things as every other kind in school, I did not feel any different.  My English was salted to the British for the first semester and quickly disappeared, and I did not feel any different.  I finished school (two degrees) and worked, and grew up, travelled and did everything I believe I was supposed to, and good, bad, ugly and whatever life had in store for me, and I was always embracing the next day as it came.  I knew I had to live as life presented, and to date just do that.  Life to very one is unique in its own experiences and challenges, and mine was just that, and I accept it as is, and try to derive comfort from family and friends, and strangers as they whisk in and out.  Overall, there was nothing challenging or out of the ordinary to move from place to place, country to country and work, life, sickness and health and family.  All a part of life and it goes on.  Every instance another page, experience and part of on-going life.

My mother lives in India and the new generation of telephony allows for more frequent voice calls.  Every week we catch up on the same stuff, kids, health and weather and relatives.  I am happy to say there is nothing new, but an occasional mother and son health related updates, but by and large we have nothing that we think has changed, except the children growing up and each season’s weather.  We love our extended family and simply check to see how everyone is, and that’s all the best news I have every week.  We live far away, but we have our routines and one thing every week in common is that she can’t travel to the USA and stay with us.  All in all, life is just simple and weeks on we have something to talk about (except occasional happening with the big family) but I admit I am happy the way things are.  We don’t worry too much about what is happening in USA or India, as we have little control over what happens (only one vote in each country) and seldom talk about the local or national issues.

While the new smart phones allow of communications quickly and easily and inexpensive, along with language translators that are sometimes necessary, the social media also has become a forum for easy opinions and commentary.  As someone who blogs regularly, I do have my own opinions, and they are both political and personal.  My likes and dislikes are in each column I write, and they are just my thoughts and opinions, and often lean democratic.  Social justice, opportunity and remembrance are the soul of what I aspire to write, and not critique.  The hundreds of columns I wrote simply represent my current state of mind, and the week’s wordsmithing.  I love to write and read and I hope I will for the rest of my life.

While the social media allows for effortless way to comment, it also allows for serious debates on how individuals feel about where they live and what the just saw.  India and USA and everywhere in the world are separate places.  While social media like Facebook allows for acquainting with a lot of strangers, it is also a forum to thought and opining, and as there is a room for some 5,000 people to befriend on an account, it also has become an easy forum to critique.

Much of the comments are tilted to the nations inability to control traffic, rains, weather, behavior, nature and abuses, and with huge sections on politics and corruption.  It is granted that very nation has its own way of life and things to deal with, individuals placing a nation they migrated to verses a place of birth, is silly.  India is India and USA is USA, or Canada is Canada and wherever you are outside of India is that’s what it is.  You have a choice to live where you want to, and let India be India.  Politics, corruption and life is what it is and unless you want to contribute to what you are criticizing just let it be.  Just because of a social media forum, your opinion doesn’t mean anything but just typing, it is what it is, and unless every citizen tries to make a positive effort, then it is simply back seat driving.  If you don’t like Canada, India or USA or wherever just go somewhere else and see if you find Utopia.

I am a child of India and an adult of USA.  If you don’t like one place or the other go somewhere else.  No one is stopping.  If you don’t like the rain in Andhra or in Chicago, I am sure there are places on earth that have little or no rain, just go there.  If you don’t like politics of Delhi or Washington, find someplace on South or North pole where there is no one and no politics.  If you don’t like the people where you live, find a desolate place.  Whatever it is you don’t like, find a place you do, and that’s all.  I know for sure there is no Utopia on earth and for those of you searching for one, good luck.

Tuesday, October 03, 2017

20/20 on Mass Murder

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

If not for terror in the news, we have mass murder.  These days it has become common place for killing strangers without cause.  There is never a reason to kill another person, but the killing of innocents has become standard practice around the world.  Mass murder for whatever reason is simply inhuman, but is being practiced.  The analysis after the fact is seldom useful, and only adds to the cruelty towards the innocents.

There is a lot of analysis, speculation and thought on psychology of mass murderers and trying to reason with why it happened.  There is no dissection of the reasoning for mass murder.  Seemingly normal human beings attacking strangers has become common place, and the carnage continues worldwide.  The media speculates (as with on everything else) and every outlet there is covers the murder/s until the next one.  No one thinks of children watching, listening or browsing the coverage.  Imagine little ones watching TV with their families being subjected to constant coverage of mass murder, what it could do to their thinking?  There is no doubt that news needs to tell people of what is happening, but bombarding the channels (all outlets) with mass murder will not allow anyone to escape, and no one cares about the two things; one – the murdered people, and the listening public, as it becomes a news story today and later a follow-up segment.

The acts of kindness and heroism of strangers typically plays out with the human beings in us.  We will by and large lend a helping hand, and run towards the needy.  There is a lot more human than anything else in all of us, and with each horror of mass murder we also see the kindness of strangers.  So, it is not all lost in humanity, it is simply some of us deciding to kill.  For whatever reasons behind the killing, the analysis simply doesn’t add up to catching or stopping the next one.

What is becoming common place is the intensity of mass murder.  Targeting innocents (unsuspecting and out in the open) is really the easiest target, as no one knows of the danger in an airport, office, concert, on the road, school, college, or just doing their daily and routine chores.  People must live and do stuff, and they are out in the open and in groups, and are easy targets.  They are unsuspecting and out in the open and the easiest targets.

Imagine the vast spaces of USA, in fact the world.  It is impossible to check, cover, monitor or manage the area, and try to pin point to where someone decides to commit mass murder.  The entire world is not a war zone, and people are not fighting with each other everywhere.  Much of the world is minding their own business and trying to live a normal life, until someone attacks; again.

The sad if that we let it happen again and again.  The news is (analysis) is constant.  The politics and process remains the same.  No one starts to care once the dead are laid to rest, except the families and friends of the affected.  There is no down grading the concern of news and others, but the next one comes again and again.  While the analysis of each instance is ongoing and afterthought, we really can’t plan for the next.  Guns, weapons, politics, religion, and human nature and whatever is influencing the killers is unpredictable and has become unavoidable.

It’s sad but avoidable.  All that can be done is finding more human in humans and perhaps a world that will start looking at life is a onetime blessing, and it can’t be given back.

Cinema and its Magic

Vasu Reddy from Chicago vasureddy@aol.com   While in my college days in India, there was no internet, not much television except single chan...