Celebrity Bashing

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com
 
With television and internet covering every move of personalities and commoners at the same rate, it has become difficult to separate the important events and nonsense.  Things are blown out of proportion, or continuously covered until the next incident happens.  Every opportunity that even remotely resembles a conflict or a confrontation gets blown out of proportion.  The latest incident involving bollywood actors and a businessman was sensationalized for days, and both parties claiming that they were provoked and the other party was guilty of enticing the fight.

It was a fancy restaurant to have guests of repute and importance, who were able to afford the expensive environment.  The place demanded affluence of the pocket but never of the heart or reputation.  Both parties could have avoided the confrontation at the late hour of the night, but they chose to use verbal abuse and fist cuffs to demonstrate the street fights, rather than cordial deviation of conflict.

One party asked for the CCTV footage to demonstrate the guilt of the party that started the confrontation, but the restaurant conveniently claims that it was not in place to give privacy to its guests.  It is the biggest farce of an excuse to either cover-up the incident or reveals the real culprit.  The restaurant should be held accountable for having equipment that did not capture the events as they unfolded, or having dysfunctional equipment in place.  The restaurant should have equipment in place to avoid such brawls and when they happen bring the guilty party to task so the next time someone starts a brawl or misbehaves in public places they can be held accountable for their actions.

Celebrities are as human as the people who make them celebrities.  They are not immune to insults or barbs when they are in public places.  They deserve the same privacy as every other citizen does, and they don’t need to be subjected to any abuse by the people around them, especially when they are in a restaurant or a place where they pay for services.  The expensive restaurants or hotels should provide the comfort of service and privacy to all, along with the ability to have a good time by all the guests.  People pay for high quality ambiance and service with these places and celebrity or no celebrity, when one can afford to pay for eating at the place they deserve the same attention.

It is expected that all these places have a certain decorum with people who attend the place, but they must be well equipped to avoid and personal confrontations on the compound and should have the equipment to capture any kind of altercations that might happen on their confines.  Not having the equipment or not having working equipment is never an excuse to provide the guests with adequate protection and security on the premises.  These places should publicize that they have the security equipment in place that is to protect the guests and provide protection, rather than invade into their privacy, and such equipment is to provide protection.  By doing so and clearly making a point of having such equipment as a protective environment, rather than an invasive process, the public places will be able to better serve people who are guests who are really innocent of provocation.

The media also should stop making a huge issue of just celebrities that get involved in altercations, as everyone gets involved in personal aggravation.  The constant attention to trying to make someone guilty should be avoided, as stop bashing the people who name recognition until they are found guilty of a transgression.  Make the places comfortable and also secure by having the proper equipment in place, not give excuses of equipment not working or not having equipment.

Having an environment that provides same level of comfort to all guests should be the most important aspect of stopping the celebrity bashing.  After all the celebrities are people who pay for the services as anyone else, and they don’t need to be abused for just getting out to town, and at the same time just because of their celebrity status they cannot abuse people who are around them in a common place.

The celebrity bashing is to an extreme by simply using an incident and trying to read into the psychology of the person involved, and trying to dig every intricate detail of the person’s behavior.  Whatever happened to the information prior to an altercation, and was it not relevant to the public to know about the celebrities’ background until a fight ensued.  The level of guessing and prying into the personal past and what transpired at the particular instance gets in such guessing exercise; it becomes such invasive and almost abusive process.

The celebrities should be given the same attention as any other citizen, and no conclusion should be drawn until the law takes its own course.  The places of public domain, especially when they charge a whole load of money to their guests should have the personnel and equipment that protects the privacy or their guests and also attempts to keep them safe.  The celebrity bashing should stop until the whole truth comes and the media should not try and becomes psychoanalysts.  Outside of entertaining people, celebrities are human and they should be afforded the same respect and privacy as anyone else in a public place.

Telecommunications

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

There is no longer the need to advertise or promote your products, services or self these days.  As long as they are sensational and have 30 minute fame, they get quick attention from the electronic media and the Internet.  Do something outside of the box or engage in behavior that is unusual, you get instant internet audience, and then the large network of television stations that need to fill in 24/7/365 space on the air.  Until the next sensational happening occurs, the electronic media will hammer the incident as latest and greatest news and pound people until they get wary of listening to the same with variations on what happened and commentary on who, what, when, where and why, without any verification of facts, just a lot of speculation.  The story typically changes many times during the coverage and the commentary outweighs the news content.

Until another event happens, the story will stay on and will be clearly highlighted for its duration.  There are so many cameras and reporters around the place, with so many channels trying to fill-up airtime, it is impossible to stay focused on one or the other channel, or one or the other story.  The stories disappear as quickly as they get flashed.

Not too long ago people had to wait for the new paper to be delivered to read about the news and mailman delivered letters and cards.  One generation ago, hot news was flashed on radio and television sometime during the day, and people turned into the airwaves for updates, and eagerly waited for new papers to be delivered.  The news readers made great use of the limited time they had to communicate the events of the day and highlighted only the major happenings.  The news papers were through in their print reporting and commentary.

We no longer verify or validate the news, just post it to the electronic media and if it turns out to be false or inaccurate, just retract it with an apology or simply delete the content online so people who are reading or listening get the glimpses of truth and fiction, and corrections as they unfold.  There is no challenging what people say or post online, as the information is more and more graphic each day.  Just simple disclaimers are attached to absolutely unverified information, or call it breaking news and developing story to cover the urgency of reporting whatever is available to sensationalize the issues, and as they unfold use the unverified information as shield to reporting.

The latest fad has been following social networks and using individual updates as breaking stories.  Facebook, Twitter. And many online exchanges are regularly used for individuals posting updates and pictures of themselves to share with their friends.  For celebrities and wannabies the social media is also an outlet to garner publicity.  Use of social media has become so epidemic, every instance you get some sensational posting from one place or the other and becomes hot topic for a few minutes until the next sensational word or picture comes out.  So much so even the real news magazines are following these sensational stories to keep their readers on their own space.

There are real stories and real news that gets mixed in with sensationalism and often obscures the news verses gossip.  The focus is now on having as many people visit the web link or channel and only way to keep them interested is to have some spice in the coverage.  No forbearance on the viewers that could be children and young ones who will be looking at the unwanted sensationalism.  There are no filters or censor that can control the traffic on the internet, unless you start to invest in extraordinary measures to protect the home networks, and even if you do, kids are smart enough to workaround any such measures to get to where they want to on the net.

While access to information and cost of communications have become minimal, and access to people and information almost at will, it is also quite invasive and overbearing.  We continuously get informed of something or the other and continuously get called irrespective of the hour or place.  So much for telecommunications advances and information technology both this will probably become more and more invasive, until one turns their mobile phone off, shut the computer down and switches off the television.

Holier Than Thou

Vasu Reddy From Chicago

vasureddy@aol.com

Since PV Narasimha Rao’s government at the Center, every government seem to be embroiled in some scam or the other.  Every government has been under the scanner for irregularities and misappropriation of funds.  The cost of elections also has been going up with each election cycle, and successive governments have engaged in behavior that is not befitting a democratically elected government.

Democratically elected government’s definitely spend election money to get messages across to the population and promote their programs as the best option available for the country each time an election is held, and certainly the candidates and the parties that are contesting need to raise money to promote their messages.  The creation of political parties, political funding and promoting the agenda is all a democratic and transparent process which is simple to manage and has a process of money and message management.  The global democracies foster in open elections where every party and candidate has equal opportunity to present and promote their messages and the people decide who they would like their representation from.

No democracy is a ticket for embezzlement and stealing from the public and government coffers by electing individual for a certain amount of time, just because people believe in the message and elect the individual for a certain period of time.  The last few governments in New Delhi have gone to great extent in creating and fostering massive amounts of funneling of public resources into private and individual coffers, just because the people elected were placed in position of decision making and creating the environment for embezzlement of public resources.

Granted that the system’s created by the elected officials allowed for such loopholes leading to the scams and embezzlement, the systems should also have been practical in approaching the rules set by the same to monitor any discrepancies in implementation of policies that should be in public interest.  Even the individual push to a truly transparent and public interest policy has been difficult to be upheld in the center and also state and local levels of administrations.  A push for ombudsman failed at the gate and only had a short life, and fizzled out when it came for vote in the parliament.

Scams are not limited to the center but each state and local levels are also heavily involved in creating their own money making process at the expense of public policy and benefit.  All most all the state governments are embroiled in some controversy or other, and it always leads to money making by people in power.  Just that each successive government has gone with greater and greater schemes to siphon the money into a few pockets.

When in power the government is funneling the money into their pockets without abandon, and next government coming in starts to dig into the action of their predecessors, and will unearth the irregularities and start to which hunt the previous administration to either push them into oblivion and jail, or demonstrate that the previous administration was corrupt.  At the same time they will begin engaging in greater siphoning of resources into their coffers.  Granted that the cost of elections and promotional activity is expensive, the money siphoned is never used for electioneering, always to the benefit of individuals and typically moved out of the country and never entering into private or public sector investments.

In the current environment the government itself is not even waiting to go out of the office and chasing its own tail by identifying and going after their own party men who are scamming, and this is a phenomenon that is unlike the previous governments of chasing down the past.  It is now and current government identifying their own party men and brining them to task.  Everyone pleads innocent until they are somehow or the other linked to the embezzlement, and everyone pleads ignorance when the scams surface.

How difficult it is to create public interest policy that fosters openness and corrupt free environment?  If the elected government itself is sending its appointed ministers to jail, then who else but the entire government is at fault.  A political party cannot simply claim that its own elected and appointed ministries are conducting massive fraud or embezzlement without the consent of the party chiefs.  Even if party chiefs say that they are unaware of the scams and are not involved in the process of scamming, they are responsible for actions of the party men, and cannot simply say I did not know, or I am not a party to it.

There are no holy cows in the process, as the party of elected officials and their chiefs are responsible for the actions of the party men.  They are not innocent or ignorant of the scams, as they are not ignorant of the election process, money management, party mandates, or decision making of the part men.  There is no such thing as an individual scam as the magnitude and scope of decision making is across the board and everyone is responsible, whether or not they are directly involved.  The responsibility lies with the entire government; both elected and bureaucratic.

The public should hold every government accountable for all its actions and not just listen to the rhetoric of the elected representatives.  Each government must be accountable for all actions of all the party men, and should stop pointing fingers at one or the other.  There are no holy cows, except that the individuals involved should be responsible and not be left out as outcasts, who are acting alone as they are never alone in scamming a country.

Self Fulfilling Prophecy

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

When one starts to believe in what is believed to be true despite the reality, it begins to sound as if the person is telling the truth and emphasizing the details to start repeating the same until presenting the details as truth, irrespective of what it is.  People really make things up to suit their personal agendas and start representing the same in great detail and start to believe it as the truth and also start representing things in great detail to others to make them believe that it is the truth. The age old saying that truth is easy to say and no need to repeat or remember when truth is stated, but when someone wants to make themselves believe what they are saying is truth by repeatedly making the same statements until they start believing that what they made up is true, it starts to fulfill their own ego.  People go to great extent to represent their version of events as truth and start believing in the nonsense as truth.

Great deal of attention is paid to public and private statements made every day by politicians and public figures.  There is emphatic belief in the statements they make each day and start representing their version of statements as they deem fit, far from truth or reality.  Politicians deploy this strategy often and try to convince their audience of their moral and ethical stances, albeit farcical.

Often when people are covering up or simply lying they tend to makeup instances of their virtuousness and constantly remind others and themselves of how correct they are and how they represent commonsense and righteousness.  Far from truth will be what is being constantly repeated only to emphasize nonsensical statements for others to listen to.

The constant banter from politician’s everyday around the world on how they represent the common man and the values of the people is not only far from what they believe and sometimes they themselves may not believe it in private.  These are statements that have no personal philosophy or commitment to the causes, simply for people to hear again and again and believe that they represent the good of common man.

When such banter is directed at individuals, they become ridiculously one sided and farfetched.  The language and context is always far reaching of the truth and unabashed and unreal, but the person receiving it will have no option but to listen open mouthed and would never have the ability to counter the nonsense or retaliate to such untruths.  But such outbursts happen often and without provocation, and cannot be defended.

Both in the USA and in India such self supporting speeches have become more and more common and very public.  Although the facts support otherwise, the person delivering them is oblivious to the facts.  The media dissects them and backs up with the reality of the issues and people just move on, but the person who is making the statements doesn’t seem to be phased by the facts, but will continue to put context to the accusations, still trying to justify them as facts.

The bickering and banter goes on until one or the other gives up and backs away from the debate or argument.  This is true of the politicians or people in real life.  It is impossible to debate the untruths as there is no justifiable reasoning in debating them.  Once someone starts to fulfill their own prophecies and start to believe in them, it is impossible to make them believe in reality.  Only when they realize the truth, if at all they ever will, is when the realization comes in, and at that time it is probably too late to face the facts.

Family and Heritage

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

The value of extended family and the importance of the support structure that is inbuilt into the Indian family are invaluable.  For hundreds of years and generations after generations the traditions and values are continuously bestowed on the next generation and them respecting the past and continuing into the future is a part of the Indian psychology.

With technology, internet and a wide array of communications and television and other influences, there is a shift in the way people communicate and keep in touch with each other, but the influence of family continues to survive the test of time and advancements.  People do live farther away from their families and the families themselves are no longer with many brothers and sisters in each generation, but they still behold their love for who they are and where they come from.  

After the mobile phone and great expansion of telephone networks, people speak to each other often and keep current on what their respective routines.  In recent developments such as Skype allows people to use their internet existing services to even visibly communicate with each other, and perhaps get to do more together and also see how they look.  So much technology advancements in last 20 years from writing letters to call long distance to video and voice chat on demand.  I am not sure what else is there to develop or invent to bridge the distance from families and friends, but it is pretty close to quite invasive today as it can be as living together.

Marriages can be shared from one part of the world to the other and photos or video clips are as common as sending a text message.  It bring backs the days when people were together and participated in the family rituals, just that they could be thousands of miles away but not miss out on the family traditions and practices.  Technology has definitely helped in taking the distances away and allowing the families to become more involved with things they have been missing due to time and travel restrictions due to the distances they are away from their families.

We also continue to maintain our traditions and heritage that we have left behind in our homes, but not in spirit.  Even living as far as in America, Indians devote a great deal of time and effort in maintaining their identity as who they are where they come from.  Not just by donating or visiting their respective local shrines, Indians truly maintain their home life as Indians while engaging in their respective professional duties without deviating from their traditions.

Ms. Winfrey visiting India for a week and highlighting the way of Indian life and the tolerance built into the Indian society due to its family structure.  Although her trip is a recent event and she particularly highlighted the Indian family structure, there is a lot of press to our family and our heritage.  The value systems in Indian families have never been in question for hundreds of years, just been adapting to the changes in people’s migration and technology in being in communications with each other.

The respect that continues from generation to generation will continue to foster the relationships and respect within the families.  The friction within the systems and individuals is always overshadowed by the unity displayed by the families, and the communications of today are further cementing the relationships that are long in distance but not in heart.

While Ms. Winfrey’s trip to India and her observations highlight the family structure and its heritage within our society, it is something for us to take to heart as the charm of an Indian lies with the family and traditions that come with each person.  They will forever be built into our life and will continue to influence our lives wherever in the world we choose to live.

Trip to India

Vasu Reddy From Chicago vasureddy@aol.com

Every small village in India has its own history and significance attached to the local area with tales of grandeur and architectural significance.  Every place has great fables that are told everyday and people talk of the ancestors and their contributions with such closeness that exemplifies the dearness that beholds to the people and their past.  For those visitors who traveled to India for centuries, the country continues to provide great interest in culture, heritage and definitely architecture.  Although the urbanization of the country and the tremendous population growth continue to encroach into the many historic and archeologically important part of the country’s vast historically significant findings, the country continues to hold wonderful heritage all across the stretch of the nation for people to learn and appreciate the contributions of the generations of the past.

There are fascinating natural and manmade places all across the country which all deserves to be preserved for future generations to come.  There is a great deal of learning to derive from the wonderful past of the country, which is as enlightening today as it might have been the day when they were created.  While in India and since relocating from India, the country holds the historical significance very dear to heart as the fascinating details of each of the places is endearing and beholds the person visiting each one of them.

From the valleys of Kashmir to the Vivekananda temple in Kanyakumari, From Bombay to Calcutta, or the matter of fact any corner of the country to the other India has a rich history for its people and anyone else who visits.  Thoroughly enjoyable are the wild life parks and many hill stations of India which are also all across the country.  The fascinating train rides or bus rides that take you to every part of the country while delivering immense pleasures with local cuisine and culture.  Not to forget the local languages, customs and dialect which combined with localized English makes it fascinating adventure.  There are many pictorial and literary works that capture the beauty and essence of India in great detail and have been for generations.  There is no end to the glory and history that can be repeated over and over with equal enthusiasm and fascination as if it is being told for the first time.

Everywhere in India you would find the incredible mix of religious and traditional cultures and every possible religion represented and respected.  There is no other place on earth that has its people of all faiths living in harmony and together while practicing whatever faith they choose to follow.  Every instance a new religion or tradition has been introduced into India; it has only broadened the country’s tolerance for expression of faith, and integration of new ideas and opportunities to learn from each other.  There is no place on earth that has the vast diversity of people as India, which fosters every freedom of expression.

Visit every part of India if you can and enjoy the place for its beauty and diversity.  Take a friend and family with you and get your young ones introduced to and interested in the glory of our nation’s ancestors and its significance to today’s inhabitants.  The country is filled with tolerance to everyone, democratic principles and the endurance it has had for centuries of invasions and occupation.  Today we have over a billion people and growing and man verses the limited resources, but still possessing the great charms of the past coupled with today’s people who continue to represent the history of the country.

New Year’s Resolutions

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Another year ended and a new one started without any real change in what is happening around the world.  Except a few holidays during the Christmas and New Year things remain status quo, and remain so through the beginning of the New Year.  They seldom seem to change although there is a lot of hype about making resolutions.

Very rarely things change during the course of the last week of the year and the beginning of the new one.  It is just imagining that we will abide by the decision to do or not do something overnight on the 31^st of December every year, as if we were not able to do so in the first 364 days, it is unlikely the last calendar day of the year will somehow influence decision making to alter things we normally do.  It is not being cynical about New Year resolutions, but the fact of the matter is they better serve if thought through over the entire year and not as a prelude to a new calendar year.

In the past year we continue to see India struggle with the acceptance of Ombudsman at the national level, and Anna pushing for sweeping anti corruption legislation.  What started out to be one of the national challenges somehow fizzled out in the last days of the year with the parliament unable to draft and passes a bill that would please the elected officials.  The hype and drama that was prevalent for most of the year dissipated once the elected representatives had to table and vote on the bill in the parliament.

The true chance of anti graft legislation fizzled out with the parliament unable to agree to a draft that is acceptable to the legislators, and never even got into the discussion on what general public would like to see in the ombudsman.  There is plenty of confusion on what the bill is and how it should impact the elected officials and bureaucrats together, and who should be and who should not be included in the bill.

The high drama leading to drafting and tabling the lokpal bill fizzled out quickly once it got into the legislative agenda, and Anna got sick and was unable to further the cause with umpteen complications in the political and public opinion.  Everyone blamed each other for not supporting the bill and also blamed each other for either having or not having the appropriate language in the version of the bill that the parliament was supposed to vote and ratify.  After all the hoopla and drama nothing got done except everyone blaming the other for not getting it properly written and passing the bill.  It is as if the entire legislature did not want to have any kind of ombudsman in place and implemented to monitor the abuse of power and graft.  It is as if everyone seemed to be happy with the way things are and really did not have the heart to support across the board legislation to attack graft.

After the debate and a lot of discussion nothing was accomplished except unanimous consent to make issues of everything to not support the ombudsman and not delivering the necessary legislation to attack the graft in the system.  So, we start another calendar year and still have the same systems that foster looting of national wealth by a few, and continued finger pointing on who to blame for making the bill preposterous and unmanageable.

So another end of the year and beginning of a new one but it is the same old systems and same old story.  We will continue to live with the system of graft and the hottest news on a daily basis on the who’s who of Indian politics going to jail because of some scandal or the other.  We will continue to see massive amounts of the national wealth being siphoned off to off shore locations and will never be able to trace the money to bring back into the economy that needs the wealth.  We will continue to show deficit budgets while having the enormous wealth that will deliver positive budgets, but will never be able to deploy the appropriate funding as it will continue to be siphoned into to some bank account or the other.

So, what do you want to try and resolve this calendar year that we have already not attempted to in the past.  Whatever resolutions we make will make no sense until and unless the entire system will foster such changes that will allow for decency and common sense.  Until such time we are able to accept appropriate changes to the way of life we live and the surroundings that allow for positive and progressive thinking, there is absolutely no need for resolutions.  The day we adapt positive and progressive thinking, there will be no need for any resolutions, as the positive changes will resolve any issues we might have.

Imperfect Democracies

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Throughout the documented history of mankind democratically governed countries have prospered and found ways to reinvent themselves when in danger of extremist governance.  Communist rulers, dictators and oppressive regimes come to abrupt or violent end when people in these regimes begin to feel the need for freedom of actions and speech.  However difficult it is to endure a democratic government, it is still only as good as the current term and people can vote the elected government out if the governance doesn’t meet the demands of the general public.

History repeatedly points to the success of democracies where people decide on the elected government and its leaders for a definite period of time and when the elected officials don’t deliver to their promises they typically get voted out with a new team of government.  Each government in its term typically sticks to its election promises and with proper planning, support from the economy and industry and good weather and good harvests, typically can deliver to their election agenda and promises.  It is cyclical to have natural and manmade disasters that greatly impact the delivery of election promises by any government.  Great governance comes with proper planning along with cooperation from the general market conditions and also nature’s cooperation, along with stable international markets and conditions.

We know that much of the global indicators point to overall stability with the international communities with trade and governance, both internal to each of the countries, but also to the overall global communities.  Many of the global recessions that we can trace account for rogue regimes inflicting undue burden on the rest of the international communities.  Although individual countries might function with proper planning and governance, the impact they have because of the other countries’ economies and governance is felt irrespective of the individual good governance.

India is going through a phase where it has a fairly uncomplicated prime minister who has the reputation of a clean politician, but his entire stable of functionaries and the major departments continue to foster great scams that are unprecedented.  At the same time we have a gandhian who is pushing for ombudsman to contain and eliminate the graft in the country.  The prime minister has taken steps for deploying the ombudsman which is a first step towards meeting the demands of general public not just Anna Hazare or his team.  The entire Indian population is in support of the ombudsman and wants the politicians to adhere to a non graft system, and will encourage the elected officials and also bureaucrats to agree to conditions that will lead the society away from graft and punish the individuals that ask for favors while delivering to their prescribed jobs.

Anna is not the first person to voice against graft and will not be the last person to do so.  He is instrumental in encouraging the entire country to rally for a graft free society.  There is nothing more commendable than the awareness he has brought to the ombudsman in India, and his proposals are well tabled with the general public and the elected politicians.

Now it is time for the public to first start accepting the various forms of ombudsman so there is a beginning to the end of graft as we now know in India.  The very acceptance by the government and the opposition parties that graft exists and it needs to be dealt with immediately is a great step to begin the process of eliminating the entrenched attitudes of the politicians that they deserve to take money and favors for what they are supposed to be delivering to the people who elected them.

While delivering an all encompassing ombudsman in one session is practically dictatorial in a democracy, it is appropriate to first accept that there is a general issue of graft which is growing larger and larger each day, and the government at all levels is willing to adhere to anti graft regulations is the start of tackling the issues from where it arises.

Be it top down or bottom up, making graft a crime is absolutely necessary for the well being of the country and its meager resources.  Whatever we have left as national resources should be best used for the people of the country and not for the benefit of a select few, and legislation and appropriate regulation against graft is essential for good governance and democracy of India.  To drive the process at a speed with which the elected officials and surrounding bureaucracy is unyielding may not result in cooperation of the system that needs to move away from demanding and accepting graft as a normal conduct.  We must allow for debate and determination among the elected officials and then their support structures for ombudsman to be successfully implemented in a democracy where everyone has their handout for the least amount of work they deliver to the general public.

While we need a comprehensive ombudsman, it needs to be delivered through a democratic process and should involve the people’s opinions at large and make the elected and appointed officials accountable for their actions, while being available for common man to be able to reach out to the law to take its course when there is a handout to do work that is a right of every citizen.  If it takes multiple revisions so be it as long as the process of anti graft movement is in full force.  That is what democracies are supposed to work with, and have been successful in choosing elected leaders those who promise to deliver and the office bearers will only get reelected if they deliver to their promises.  

Where Are The Blockbusters?

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

The days when the movies ran for 100 days, 200 days and some as many as 365 days or more in the same theater to packed houses have been long gone. Just about every language films had a long run at the box office and drew crowd’s day in and day out, and people enjoyed the time at the theater despite and glitz or pomp associated with today’s marketing of the movies. There was no television, internet nor aggressive marketing of a movie, except huge cutouts, radio advertisements, wall posters and news paper advertisements.

People flocked to the theaters and had great fun watching the movies four or five shows a day and if the movie was good it continued the house full boards for a long time. Some of the Indian classics ran for a year or more to packed houses, and people saw the same movie again and again and never got tired of the repeat performances. The actors worked on multiple movies at a time, some as many as six or more a year and delivered entertainment movie after movie and year after year to please the senses of the public. When they delivered a dud, people simply avoided the movie, and when the movie was well made it did not need aggressive publicity to keep running to packed houses. The days where people were showering flowers and whistles all through the movie are long gone.

If a movie runs into the second week with same number of theaters or shows it is a definite hit in today’s market. You no longer the see the movie run in a lot of theaters as long as four weeks, let alone 100 days or more. Gone are the days where movies ran 100 days or more in 100 centers. Nothing is generating and keeping the interest of the public at large on any movie as they come and go so quickly, it is difficult to remember what is playing next week.

Given the huge promotional activities actors and movie makers undertake these days, it will be near impossible for them to promote any more than one movie at a time and perhaps a year. They have to plan it, script it, make it promote it and release it and then only work on the next project, unlike the olden days where actors worked on multiple projects at a time, and effortlessly engaged in multiple characters simultaneously, and with great ease and dedication.

These days so much hype and hoopla surround a movie prior to its release and the fate of most of them is disastrous. There is no guarantee that a particular actor in any language is truly capable of delivering a crowd pleasing and money making movie at the same time. Gone are the days where bankable stars had the ability to act in multiple movies at the same time, choose quality scripts, work with hard tasking directors and deliver multiple hits each year. All we have these days is a lot of pomp and circumstance leading to the frosty reception at the theater, and people not responding to any kind of low quality product irrespective of the money invested in the movie.

Granted that we have instant access to critics reviewing and programming our thought process on what to expect from any given movie, it is likely that the general public have been getting smarter and savvier in spending their money on quality of the movie rather than hype. With the influence of the internet and piracy adding to owes of the films, only high quality films will draw continued crowds. People are still looking for entertainment that not only pleases their senses but will draw them repeatedly to the theaters, and when such film arrives it draws the crowds.

Relishing The Diversity

Many diverse people and their tastes, traditions and their way of life make India a great country which embraces just about every aspect of life and its greatness. Every place has a Panjabi dhba, irani chai (although it is not from Iran), Dosa and idli, Biryani and samosa, pav bhaji, vada pav and a million other delicacies we fondly remember and chase down at every opportunity. It is not my intention to forget mentioning any of the delicacies as we have so many of them, which I may not list in my short essay. All of us Indians and non-Indians devour the fantastic delicacies irrespective of their origin or nature, and enjoy them day in and day out. Some of the foodies at midnight as some of the places cater to the taste buds at midnight feasts. Whatever region of the country we come from the food seems to transcend the regional boundaries, and just taste draws full praises while washing the delicacies down with a lassi or goli soda. Never in your mind has it crossed that the origin of the food going down has any bearing on the regional nature of the delicacy, rather the meeting of taste and culinary satisfaction. The Indian Buffet we so much enjoy is a culmination of the entire Indian nation’s delicacies that satisfy the palate of all Indians, but for some reason the regional differences seem to play a big part in creating major political and philosophical differences in policy making. There is one nation for all Indians, which is India and the internal geographical boundaries are no more than our own post independence histrionics that were created for political purposes along the regional language patterns. Granted that India has many different languages and dialects which essentially draw state lines in most instances, but is not necessarily the criteria for separate states. Neither the Indian population is so divided by religion that they form states based on religion. By and large the Indian states are divided on the language and lingo based divisions rather than religion. There might be economic issues that might form time to time become a bone of contention, and sometimes water is also contentious among the states. Indians by and large like each other and live in harmony despite the many language and traditional intricacies. The wonder of the population so diverse and so large living together and in unison is greatness of its democracy and tolerance. No other population as large and as diverse lives together in such harmony and enjoys the brotherhood of each other. Indians love to be together and enjoy the many diverse activities of the great population with so many variations in language, culture, religion and definitely culinary pleasures. We are one nation with a great fabric stitched together with every vibrant ingredient that god has created and man can think of, and nothing can be better together.

Twelve Trillion or Twelve Zeros

The current US debt is at 12 trillion dollars and counting up. Each minute the ticker goes up and continues to climb each day. It is mind boggling to even count 12 zeros after a number, let alone 12. Every year we hear of congress and the president working on debt reduction, and lots of debate on what steps to be taken to reduce the deficit. In years and years of piling up the debt, the money set aside for interest on servicing the debt is larger than the budgets of many a countries in the world. Every couple of years there will be a big debate between congress and the president and talk of government shut down, and they always work out ways to compromise and make the deficit bigger and bigger. Not since the days of President Clinton, annual budgets have been revenue positive. Many years have gone by with the annual deficits getting larger and larger, and debt servicing getting to be a bigger and bigger part of the annual budgeting process. Years of multiple wars, natural and manmade disasters, poor planning, unemployment and other unplanned and unprepared activities have haunted the national budgets with excessive spending beyond what is expected from the economy to generate revenues to sustain the spending process. Individuals have been facing increased unemployment and reemployment has been challenging. High wages, benefits and perks are a thing of the past in the US economy nowadays and just holding on to a job has been more than magical. Daily stories of young people moving back with their families are very common, and putting perspective on the economic system is all but impossible. Thinking of the twelve trillion debt and servicing the debt is humanly incomprehensive, and will require a stomach with iron lining. By simply calculating the individual burden of the enormous debt will make one wonder the possibility of someday making interest on debt the largest item on the US budget process. If really planning to eliminate the debt burden is discussed by the congress, it may never have a beginning or ending to the discussion, as there will never be a real debate on how to solve the debt crisis, as no one has an answer to how to address the debt burden now and its ever increasing number. No one is willing to make concessions on their current benefits and will only use the budget deficit as an election ploy to point out that the president and the party in power has done nothing to cut it down or take long term steps to eliminate it. The biggest congressional battles are to increase the debt limits rather than cut them. There are always plans to cut spending but never get implemented as the individual congressmen and congresswoman will always pitch to preserve their own vested interests. The economy is independent of the congressional decision making in pushing prices higher and individuals working hard to make ends meet. There is crisis in European countries and many of them in need of bailouts from the EU or other major global players. Their situation is as bad if not worse than the US budget deficits. There is an enormous amount of impact on the global trade with countries suffering massive budget deficits, and not doing enough business with each other. To help the US economy the other trading partners should be strong and be able to pay their bills, and at this stage every country seems to be struggling to keep their own economies together. Even the Chinese have slowed down in growth to help with trade with USA, although they also run massive trade surpluses with the USA. There is no quick fix to the massive debt burden, but immediate steps are necessary to stop the increased burden on the US balance sheet. More innovation, cost cutting that may not be appealing to the public, tax structure that may help with increasing revenues and across the board spending decreases will help decrease the debt burden, and will start to help reduce the trillions owed and additional trillions in interest payments. It will be a long road to debt free budgets, which may not be possible if continued congressional dilly dallying on compromises that make no fiscal sense.

Political Yatras

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

One of the oldest forms of political canvassing is conducting walking tours of the constituencies. Every day we hear politicians undertaking tours of their respective constituencies to promote their agenda, and mostly show up to the people's door step to make sure they are personally representing the agenda being promoted on respective tours. Even before India's Independence Gandhiji made walking very popular form of addressing the issues of people and making them a part of the formal protests he undertook. In those day except radio and new papers there was no 24/7/365 coverage of the events. They were strictly by word of mouth and telegram, and eventually on radio and news papers. They were very effective in involving people to participate and support the causes which were noble and represented the common good of the common man.

The country welcomed the walking tours with open arms and at every step waited to embrace the cause and support the movement. For decades the tours of Indian leaders gamely going from place to place and meeting people has been widely accepted as a fantastic forum for communicating directly with people and interacting with them on localized issues to understand the future agenda of the political parties. It has been a very effective platform for reaching out to various sections of the general population and hearing their concerns and what they would like as the agenda for the party in power.

Walking tours are an opportunity to meet people in person and people will see if you are a real person. There is nothing better than shaking hands and embracing people as personal touch is the best form of communication. Granted that with so many millions of people in each state it will be impossible to shake every hand, but even a few hands in each village or town will help build direct communication with that particular community. Each person you touch or speak to will be the medium to transfer the personal interaction to everyone he or she knows thereby putting a human angle to the interaction. It helps to identify the person and that the existence of the normalcy of an individual you have actually interacted with.

There is little expense involved with walking tours as the locals are willing to host you and your entourage. Food and shelter and refreshments are organized with much care and affection by the locals you visit and very likely they will promote your agenda as well once you visit with them. It is also a great way to meet small groups of people and understand their concerns and listen to their issues. Each home visited becomes a great medium to promote personal relationships and further implanting the personal touch to political canvassing.

Walking for long stretches daily keeps a person fit as it is a great form of daily exercise. Most politicians are disciplined and maintain healthy eating and exercise habits. The benefits of walking are often disregarded with the walking tours, and perhaps should be more promoted for their general health benefits. Walking a mile or two daily will help everyone, and perhaps the politicians adopting the walking tours should promote the benefits of regular walking to everyone.

Walking tours are also one of the best possible ways to communicate with small crowds. Large gatherings and rallies do attract massive crowds but keeps the speakers away from personally reaching out to the people. There is no room for personal interaction with a large crowd, and often the large gatherings are in place to hear you speak of your political promotions, rather than personal attention to local issues. Often politicians promise just about everything that locals wish for and people know that it is unlikely that every idea being put forward to the touring politician will not become reality. But we still ask, and they still promise to deliver and we continue with the cycle every season counts votes.

The political yatras will continue with national and regional politicians for time to come or as long as politics are around. Even with the proliferation of television and internet, it is still good to press hands and walk the local roads to communicate directly with the people. Granted that the media coverage will follow you through the walking tours, and they are kept busy with local idioms and festivities. The politicians remain fit with the exercise, and get to taste the local response for a few moments.

Method To The Madness

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

As bad as the reputation of political leaders is today, there is some history to where the current crop of politicians in power have been up to and why many of them are in jail. When Nehru was the leader and followed by Lal Bahadur Shastri for a short stint as the Prime Ministers of India, there was no need for them to raise money for canvassing around the country, and be in front of the media 24/7. The leadership of the country relied on principals of democratic India and only had to express their desire to have India continue to be democratic and remove poverty.

Even when Indira Gandhi became prime minister after the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri, the big slogan was Garibi Hatao and removing poverty was the main slogan that people heard on the radio, prior to the days of the advent of television. There was never scandal related to the politicians and squandering national wealth in form of kickbacks. Only when the television and communications have been introduced into the country the money matters have become a staple of the societal owes in India.

To a large degree when BJP first came into power after the emergency rule declared by Mrs. Gandhi, the money matters were still bare budgeted campaigns and did not foster massive kickbacks. Politicians campaigned hard and visited all their constituents and power packed speeches which were long in rhetoric to huge audiences and promised to deliver to the poor almost in every speech. They were all predictable and spoke the language of the central politicians, and people were divided according to their party lines and voting and campaigns were all predictable.

Only when mobile communications and television were introduced across the country and with multiple licensees in the market big money being demanded and changing hands has become a common practice between the politicians and the business aspirants. Somewhere in the time the technology being introduced and common man having the ability to reach out to each other, the greed factor of politicians in demanding massive kickbacks has come into being a common practice. Instead of using the communications to promote the agendas of the political parties the politicians have been blatantly demanding and receiving massive amounts of money to line their pockets.

Tracing the money is fairly simple, and there is no need to expound on the intricacies of how the money is given, taken and sent to international destinations or into massive public investments. Every industry has been subjected to massive demands for money, and this directly impacts the national wealth system. It drives the price of licenses to levels that are impossible to sustain until the people of subjected to the massive greed factor of the politician in charge of making the decision. Real estate, communications, technology and whatsoever is involved with the markets and infrastructure automatically have to add the value of the kickbacks paid in building the networks and infrastructure and automatically adding to the cost of the end user. Every action taken to give out the country’s resources should have been done with obtaining the maximum value for the citizens of the country, but the reverse is being done while lining the pockets of the politicians. The old political slogan of Garibi Hatao would have been absolutely true if the resources were sold at market prices and the money used to meet the needs of the common man. India would not only be the largest democracy on earth, but also the wealthiest democracy on earth. Jai Hind.

Story Telling At Its Best

CBS 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney died at the age of 92 on November 5, 2011. He has been on radio and television all of his life and just weeks ago did his commentary on 60 minutes. Many years I watched 60 minutes every Sunday evening and special focus to Andy Rooney’s segment at the end of the hour. He only spoke for a minute or two and picked on everyday subjects to comment or critique on, and always was to the point and even with humor. The humor was dry and to the point but ha always made it look like it is simple and true and to the point.

When I first start watching 60 minutes, I was interested in the human interest of the stories and mainly the interviews with the famous figures in the world. Newsmakers, presidents, prime ministers, business heads, dictators, and men and women who influenced the world in some way or the other, sometimes good and sometimes not so good. Many segments covered Africa and Middle East and Asia, and fascinating detail on the subjects and lands in every segment made you wait until next week for more. During winter season 60 minutes followed Sunday afternoon football, and was just after the coffee time to continue watching television Sunday afternoons after football. I still watch 60 minutes on Sundays when I can and still believe the storytelling is as compelling as it was when I first started watching the show years ago.

While the broadcast was compelling view all the time, Andy Rooney’s end piece of each segment was the most charming story of the broadcast. I mean no disrespect to the rest of the crew who capture great stories and tell them quite well but ending with Andy Rooney’s commentary was the icing on the cake for each of the 60 minutes. He told the story quite well and quite simply, and reached out to the sensibilities of all the viewers.

When Andy Rooney announced his retirement a few weeks ago, I was not surprised as he would have known when to stop broadcasting his weekly commentary. There was no replacement for the segment and now that the gentleman has passed away, there will be no other Andy Rooney to shed perspective on common man’s issues every Sunday. No one else will be able to shed such an insightful light on issues as Andy Rooney did every week. Rest in peace Mr. Rooney, and god bless you.

Amitabh Bachchan

Amitabh Bachchan without a doubt is an actor and individual is a true superstar. He is always well mannered, unabated by the personality and fame and every word well chosen in speech and in writing. He has taken to the web lately and frequently shares his daily life with his millions of fans across the world. His taking the time to update his millions of fans on a regular basis is very commendable and brings him closer to his followers and fans. Every update is as elegant and well versed as all things he does. Just recently the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray wrote in his column that Amitabh should be awarded the Bharath Ratna, which is the highest civilian award by the Indian government. No small recommendation from the chief of Shiv Sena, which can be echoed by millions of others across India on the well deserved commendation to the gentleman and superstar.

For decades his movies provided great action, great dialogues and great performances by all actors who worked along with Mr. Bachchan. Such was his screen persona, all his movies were great entertainers with style and substance along with great screen play and dialogues and song and dance included. Its likely that I may not mention every great movie of his, but Anand, Zangeer, Deewar, Sholay, Trisul, Mukkadar ka Sikandar, Sisila, Majboor, Chupke Chupke, Amar Akbar Anthony, Kabhi Kabhi, Lawaris, Don, Coolie, Dostana, Sharabi, Hum, Kudha Gawa, Cheeni Kum, Mohabatten and many more that have and will continue to enthrall the audiences across the decades of work he has done, and continue to do on the silver screen. His foray into television with Kaun Banega Crorepati is also legendary and continues to draw millions to see him in whatever medium he is willing to take on.

His ability to act out any character is well documented and requires no further dialogue that has not been already delivered. His tone and sometimes song has been enthralling audiences for decades and he seem to reinvent him self every single time he needed to present a different phase of his career and never running out of newness and fresh performances. From a tall and lanky young man to a dignified gentleman to a great looking 69, Amitji has continues to keep us glued to the big and small screen, all the while being a great dad and husband.

When I read about Mr. Thackeray voicing his opinion about Amitji should receive the Bharth Ratna, I felt what better weekly opinion piece that writing about my favorite Indian actor of all time. I still remember my younger brother, many of my friends and myself wearing big bell bottom pants with short shirts and long hair and trying to look cool with the styles of Amitji in those days. Everyone was cool, and looked cool with nice and dapper clothes modeled after the big man. Those were the days of abandon and carelessness outside of school or college trying to imitate the superstar. He still is very stylish and dapper and he is still and icon for today's generation. With his own inimitable style he carries an aura of a great personality with ease and dignity. He deserves the highest civilian award from the Indian government and any other citation or award that can be awarded to any achiever of his stature.

I hope Amtji will continue to entertain us for a long time to come, and he never retires. His body of work both on screen and off will always be in the highest form of entertainment for generations to come as it has been for last several decades. Here is wishing him well and a long and successful life and career moving forward.

Unexpected Benefits from 3 G Delay

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

The continued delay in auctioning 3 G spectrum has not slowed the mobile subscriber growth in India. The month to month growth rates are amazingly stable and remain robust. By observing the debates on policy, planning, finance, legal and general issues of 3 G licenses, and in an environment that finds ways to delay any policy decisions, it is quite likely there will be a further delay in the auctions. We have newer reason today than we had a few weeks ago, or for last several months and years.

Subscriber growth rates being constant simply shows that the existing operators with the already allocated spectrum have enough capacity to maintain the robust growth, and the delay in 3 G is not causing any reduction in loading new mobile subscribers. It’s quite a valid observation as to the value of the existing networks having the ability to continue with the growth in user base.

By assuming that at least 2 new entrants will come into the foray with 3 G licenses, the already operating dozen or so networks in each region will only get more competition for the same subscribers. The delays pretty much limit the growth of operators in the short run, and might also allow for some consolidation in the market place. There is no doubt that we don’t need a dozen operators in each market. Consolidation will further improve coverage, network quality along with better usage of spectrum. All of them benefits to the customer, DOT and also the markets.

MTNL and BSNL have had 3 G airwaves for about a year now, and have not made any headway in loading up 3 G subscribers. Accept making noises of 3 G services both these operators have not benefitted by having the spectrum. Its time to look at why MTNL and BSNL are not attracting 3 G customers, if there is such a huge demand for the services? While the policy and other issues are being sorted out by the powers in Delhi, the failure to lure 3 G customers by MTNL and BSNL can be understood to develop the appropriate business and engineering plans to develop the 3 G customer acceptance. There is a perhaps simple reason such as services, value addition, cost, handsets, coverage, speed and the entire regular attributes that a particular customer expects to purchase the service, and may be at this time they do not exist in the Indian market, or the customer simply is not ready to upgrade to the next generation mobile services.

MTNL and BSNL can use the time left as 3 G monopolies to shore up their advantages to develop best practices and solutions to attract customers, and with the already established network and perhaps another year of monopoly in the 3 G arena, they can makeup for the losses in the 2 G and fixed line networks. The government should allow them to act quickly and decisively with 3 G planning and execution (unlike the decision making with 2 G sourcing which is at the speed of a snail) to capture the first in market advantages that certainly exist in the Indian mobile market.

MTNL and BSNL also will not have to pay the 3 G spectrum fees until such time the government. This certainly helps in keeping the cash with them and utilizing the resources for another year or so. This helps them with the balance sheet and also leverage for some more time.

The delays are unwarranted and purely because of poor planning, and too much tinkering by the policy makers. As of now, the proposed auctions have so many difficulties and issues, it may be best to just scrap the whole exercise and start fresh. The unexpected (perceived) benefits do not support the delay in 3 G auctions and launching these services. Albeit it illogical not to take immediate action on 3 G (while the rest of the developed markets might be looking at 4 G and beyond), there is some truth to the benefits of the delays to the existing networks, which have yet to recover costs of deployment.

Finding Common Ground

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Telugu people have more than just their language as common ground. We are for centuries have had our language, heritage, literature, culture, traditions, food, education, people and progress together, while we shared the misery, poverty, backwardness, poor politics and wasted opportunities together, while the past few years have shown progress of the cities and certain aspects of the population in isolation.

The last two months have derailed probably a couple of decades of progress in employment, education and progressive investment climate. No one benefits in an environment where the Universities are used for political activism, and shutdowns are called on by the most insignificant politicians. People have to live with the fear of being persecuted for just going to work or school and normal citizens will not risk it.

The state had tremendous respect in the central government just a few months ago with a chief minister who did things his own way, and delivered every potential populist promise to the people of the state. With the death of YSR there is no leader that can rein in the warring political factions even within the same political parties.

People of the state have lost billions in opportunities, and the current crop of students will lose a year of their life to this unmanageable crisis to the state. It might be fun to miss school for a few days and skip exams this semester, but it can never be made up in a life time. Lost time and opportunity for every student will never be returned. Parents and families toil very hard to pay for the kids to go to schools and colleges will be burdened to do this again and have to pay twice for the same. Outside of the loss of time and money, the students are exposed to the violence that comes with the political instability which will stay with them for a life time. No one wins, and we are given a common ground for all to lose, and just lose with this agitation.

Unfortunately it is too late to save the kids or educational institutions. We have them pawned by politicians who have chosen them as sacrificial lambs in a political agitation. There is no agenda for any regional aspirations and there will never be one as the development of entire country will simply destroy the traditional political equations. When people are self sufficient and law abiding, politics will find common ground to cater to the public to stay in power, but we must first get to that stage where the kids will be throwing away a year of their education and parents helpless in doing anything to stop it.

Spectrum Sharing

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Another year and another month are up on us, and the growth of Indian telecom users continues unabated. The delays with 3 G licensing continue, as they continue to get postponed. The political issues between telecommunications and armed forces continue and many meetings have been organized without any definitive outcome. The CDMA and GSM operators continue to have their differences and no end in sight for a unified telecom forum. MTNL and BSNL are enjoying the 3 G spectrum but have nothing to show for the usage, as no user base to show for the expensive and limited resource granted to them, and they continue to lose market share to private operators. On the global front countries are launching 4 G networks, while India grapples with 2 G technology issues and 3 G auctions, which have been forthcoming for at least 3 years.

The good news about the whole charade is that the users don’t seem to care about the politics of spectrum and technology. They continue to grow in numbers and benefit from the ability to communicate. Perhaps the shareholders of the networks may have had some settling down in the returns, while the price per minute is continuing to be pleasantly appealing to the users.

The quality of service remains good with the networks and normal issues of crowding in the major markets is not yet an inhibitor to users. With 100% plus penetration in some major markets the services are stable with minimal disruptions to users.

There are a dozen or so operators in each circle and even if we don’t add new operators, there will no limiting the services offerings. Perhaps it is time for some radical thinking to manage the available spectrum, while allowing industry consolidation and new investments.

India has the engineering abilities to be ingenious in maximizing the utility of the available spectrum, while catering to the needs of mobile subscribers. For instance two scenarios can be contemplated as the continued delay in 3 G will only make the networks obsolete before they are launched.

(There is absolutely no scientific or engineering proof of what is being suggested, but it is not incomprehensive to imagine the scenarios for India)

Firstly, BSNL and MTNL already have the 3 G spectrum nationwide, and quickly construct the network. They can lease per user based space to all network to have their own registered 3 G subscribers to have the utility of a nationwide network, and come-up with a revenue sharing scheme similar to paying roaming costs to each other. All the operators can immediately start selling the services and retain their own user base, while offering the high speed wireless services. With the poor customer relationship effects of BSNL and MTNL, this may be a hard sell but if the pressure of private networks is added to the management of government controlled networks, there is bound to be some improvement in the areas of customer service. In reality the government networks are built quiet well and have good quality of service. This will immediately start to provide much needed 3 G services to private network operators, while eliminating the entry cost of the spectrum, and also eliminates the uncertainty of winning a block of spectrum.

Secondly, if there is resistance to BSNL and MTNL names, then scrap all the existing 3 G licenses and create one pan India network co-owned by all players who are interested in being a part of the consortium. Essentially the government creates a block of spectrum that is frozen (for example 50 MHZ total to all 3 G services) and all interested companies can pay an initial fee and join the consortium. Each operator identifies their own subscribers and the services are common to all users. In India this can be a socialistic network run by a consortium of people and a majority of the shares can be held by the market and disallow a single person or family to control the network. Limiting the maximum ownership to 5% to any one party can bring some sensibility to decision making and the government itself can be a stakeholder by providing spectrum for its share of the 5% stake. All players can provide towers and have technology decision made by majority. It will not be difficult o organize in a country that is run by coalition governments, but will be a novel concept of public-private enterprise with a common network while different networks owning their own subscribers in 3 G space. Long behold if this works, there will be uniform pricing and little room for subscriber churn in 3 G as there will be no reason to move to another network because of quality of service or service offerings.

Revenues to DOT and to the operators are still generated by the current mechanism, and there will be no impact on alternative spectrum sharing scenarios. It can be a huge 30 MHZ shared network in either scenario, which will be able to meet the demands of both the users and operators, and will have enough capacity to deliver the promise of high speed wireless.

Trying something radical and out of the box will solve many issues for Indian telecom market. The Indian market has the size and strength to have manufacturers devise efficiencies to deliver better services to its users. As outrageous as it sounds there is some merit to a massive shared network with all operators as stakeholders and all users are beneficiaries.

Leadership Vacuum

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Amazingly the state that contributed the most number of MPs to UPA government in 2009 and bringing Congress to power in the center for the second consecutive term seems to get no respect to dealing with the crisis situation with separation activity and destruction of wealth.

The death of YSR last year seem to have brought terrible lack of leadership, experience and intelligence to handle the complex state of affairs Andhra Pradesh seem to have fallen into today. With in weeks of the death of the leader of the state, the affairs seem to out of control and illogical for a common man to appreciate of understand why the state has fallen into such terrible predicament.

The current chaos is not a upraising in general public which was disenchanted with the administration or general living conditions. The state was seemingly doing quite well until Dr. Reddy’s untimely death, and all of a sudden fall into the crisis of every possible situation with natural disasters, political ineptitude, financial difficulties, unresponsive central administration and generally leaderless situation. A bunch of failed politicians and opportunistic voicing of opinions and disastrous reading of the state crisis by the central administration further complicated the December 2009 for the people of Andhra Pradesh.

Not a single policy or political statement has come out to handle the current crisis which has destabilized the state, curtailed the educational process, inhibiting the development process, created political inaction. All we hear is crappy language from people who really had no political stature prior to Dr. Reddy’s death. All of a sudden people are suffering the idiosyncrasies of every elected politician, who all of a sudden seem to have found a voice to blabber utterly idiotic words aimed at each other and nothing to stop the destruction of property in the State. No politician had died and they have successfully faked fast unto death schemes.

The central government has no handle on the sentiments of the people, and continues to dilly dally about the pronouncements of the politicians. If the politicians don’t represent the interest of the people in the assembly and work to improve the possibility of really representing the needs of the electorate, they should dissolve the entire assembly and appropriate measures should be taken to first install representatives who will stop personal abuse and present people’s issues.

There have been many issues that have been many divisions of states, and sometimes combining of territories in India. There is no reason for Telugu people to suffer such inept political process. Our people should reject the violence and admonish the people who are instigating the destruction. People should stop listening to illogical statements and pronouncements from failed politicians. The public should live normal life and stop miscreants from destroying property, and continued inconveniencing of life by the political parties.

Telugu people living across the world have the abilities, resources and wisdom to resolve their issues peacefully. We must strive to choose proper representatives that will bring the current chaos to a halt and successful process of meeting all Telugu peoples needs; both short and long term. We should reject the politics of destruction of our systems and life.

YSR may have had his own style of functioning, but certainly kept all political parties and people to work with each other, while engaging the central government to listen to the state’s issues. We should seek leadership, or provide leadership to enhance the value systems of Telugu people, and not be held hostage to the failed politician’s survival tactics.

Look for true solutions to erase the poverty, improve basic infrastructure, commonsense, education, jobs and right set of political infrastructure. When we do the right things to improve our state, division or together, will be a successful process.