Sustaining The Cities

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Although we constantly hear about rising global temperatures and shifting weather patterns, India seem to catch the worst of the rains and floods just about every year.  Somewhere in the nation the rains destroy the infrastructure and disrupt the life of citizens, in millions at a time.  This year has not been any different, in fact south India, especially Tamil Nadu has been seeing rains that it has not seen in a hundred years or more.

The floods in Mumbai and Chennai are really more manmade calamities rather than just once in a 100 year rains.  We have nothing new to add to people and infrastructure management that has been developed to match the exponential growth in population.  Oh Yes! these urban centers have created millions of jobs and billions of revenues, but the government never bothers to map the needs of the population and how to manage their requirements.  There is never a disaster management plan for any major event in India.

I really needed to think of anger management this last week.  The flood situation is so severe that there is no plan to do anything to help the people.  The whole country goes down when there are rains, and we call them heavy rains.  The last time I was really angry writing a column was when BBC aired a documentary calling it “India’s Daughter”.  The idiots who spoke of women in terms that were not worthy of any documentary let alone a BBC special on India.  The documentary although hyped did not get much support or acceptance to what it portrayed.  This time I am not angry but really sad, when I look at the rain havoc in Chennai and surroundings.

Today when we see anywhere in India, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, politicians including the PM taking helicopter survey of the disasters, specially of the rain havoc, followed by severe floods and loss of life and property and infrastructure, makes you wonder what are they doing? sightseeing the disasters.

Right after the ridiculous Ariel survey, immediately comes a statement of anguish and then an announcement of relief from the center.  For some miraculous reason the guys in politics seems to be unaffected by any kind of natural calamities that get all the normal folks.  The politicians can travel at will, and dressed as if they just came out of the shower, have no issues with power or communications, all while the public suffers.  Politicians in power travel to disaster areas as if they are vacationing and make nonsensical announcements that really never address the concerns of people suffering the calamities.

If they really did address the concerns that plague the people, we will never have the same floods in the same place every time it rains, would we?

Also, with each disaster the announcement of 1000’s of crores of relief which no one knows how they will come to help the people, and when the money is released how will it help the affected?  We really don’t even know if all the announcements on 1000’s of crores of pledges by the politicians really are being allocated as promised and if there is a record of the reality of promises and spending towards people’s relief efforts.

In India the remnants of manmade and natural disasters stay put long after their time and continue to remind people of the misery that is bestowed upon them.

Is Modi and his management skills ready to be used in his plans to build 100 smart cities in India, to meet the country’s needs?  Most of the cities that are being severely affected y rains are in the list of 100 smart cities.  Can someone get off from their seats and start implementation of infrastructure that is required for a smart city? Communications, transportation, water management, electricity, sewage and waste management, banking and food, things that can be better planned and managed as a part of making a city smart; all these can be put in place to make the city smart.  If we have a plan for building and making 100 cities smart, why not start now.  What good is the wasted helicopter rides and unfunded 1000’s of crores being pledged.  Why not learn from what is happening with the nature and start building the infrastructure that will sustain, handle and eliminate future problems in dealing with the nature?

It can be smart for citizens to demand the politicians to invest in the cities, and invest in such a way that every aspect of natural and man-made calamities can be forecasted and remedies put in place.  Citizens, please get smart, and make your politicians place you, your living place, and your infrastructure given the smart planning, otherwise boot them out.

Spin

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

India’s test cricket team’s success (most of it) is owed to its spin bowling.  For people who remember Bedi, Chandrasekhar, Prasanna, Venkataraghavan; the four spinners who were contemporaries, their on-field exploits are still a matter of legend for cricket lovers.  In-fact they may have started the trend of opening the bowling with spin.  From the beginning of cricketing time in India, spin has been the mainstay of bowling attack.  Although India has not been on a winning track until the recent years, spin has always been the choice and effective bowling weapon for Indian teams.  Long after the spin quartet retired, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh continued the spinning magic, and now we have Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja, spinning their magic on the opposition teams, especially when they play under Indian conditions.  The on-going series with South Africa is a testament to Indian spinners dominance, at home.  They keep the spinning tradition alive and well, and they are nowadays winning test matches.

Slow, steady, flight, leg, off, and googlies all with many variations of quick and effective bowling constantly get the batsmen to make mistakes and gets them out.  The latest test series with South Africa continues to display the mastery of Indian spinners in conditions that best suits them, and their craft of bowling.  The Indian conditions favor spinners, be it the home team or the visitors.  The difference with the last few Indian teams has been that they have been performing better than the visitors, and winning in home conditions.

The major difference between the five-day test matches from the 70’s and 80’s and today the shortened duration of matches in spin friendly conditions.  This year the matches are ending in 3 days.  The olden days when test matches mostly ended un in a draw after 5 days, these have become 3 day matches with results almost guaranteed.  As incredible as it sounds the test matches that used to end up in a draw these days are almost guaranteed with a result.

There is not a lot of change with the Indian line-up in test matches.  It is represented by a couple of great batsmen (who score well in most conditions during their careers).  Great batsmen like Gavaskar, Vishwanath, Tendulkar, Dravid represented India in different eras.  The new lot of batsmen in the test team might have someone emerge as the newest batting great (or two).  The mainstay of Indian test side has always been the spinners (special reference to Indian conditions) and the current team is absolutely bestowed with its share of spin masters, and sometimes supported by the pace attack.  The spinners supported by superstar batsman, was the make of Indian team over the years, and the team never really pieced together an effort on a prolonged basis to make it to the top team in the world, until recently when the Indians started to put together both their batting and spinning to the best use, and perform together to get to the top of the world test rankings.  When you put together Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman with Dhoni behind the wickets and Anil Kumble and Harbhajan spinning their way away, the Indian team did put together one of the best test sides that ever played test cricket.

For several years they displayed the mastery as a team and they were the team to beat.  The current test team is without these great cricketers who made Indian side the number 1 team in the world.  The current team continues to have a potent spin attack, and a good fielding unit and potentially a great batting lineup, that can bring back the memories of the past team success.  The spinners have been showing that the visiting test team look like league teams in Indian conditions.  While playing in India all that the Indian batsmen need to do is stay in the crease and be patient, while the spinners make hay of the opposition.  Although the current series is in India’s favor (courtesy the spin attack), the batsmen have not shown that they are able to stay long enough to work with their home conditions.  There have not made an attempt to make it a five-day event, rather have been behaving like the visiting team.  They can apply a bit more technique to stay put at the crease a little (lot) longer, and make the team look like world beaters once again, rather than just let the spin come to rescue.

Pathway to Heaven?

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

The form of human genus is only about 2.1 million to 1.8 million years old.  It took us a couple of million years from formation to where we are today.  In reality the history of human genus is relatively very short compared to the origin of our living quarters; the good earth.  The best estimate of how old the earth is about 4.543 billion years.  So compared to the origin of our mother earth, us human genus have been around for a very short and young existence.

Much of what we live and practice today probably started with electricity (about a 150 years old), internal combustion engine (1768), steam engine (1807), first car powered by internal combustion engine (1886), then came the first petrol/gas powered engine and decades later into 1930’s we came-up with the jet engine.  It took us c a couple of millions of years to really become mobile.  Oh yes – then in the last 30-60 years of television/telecommunications/internet literally brings us together; irrespective of the distances between where we live.

Calculating the evolution of our being, it took roughly 2 million years to develop travel and communications (to today’s standards) and also find solutions for what we call comforts (at least to a few).  Then we started with world war I, 1914-1918 through 2015 (just about 100 years), we humans have found every which way to destroy our own living environment, kill as many living species on earth as possible, destroy as much forest as possible, pollute as much water (both fresh and sea) as possible, use up most of the over and under the ground mineral and other resources as possible, create as much pollution and trash as possible, all destruction while multiplying ourselves many fold in the same time.  The time is also being spent on finding ways to kill each other at every opportunity we get.  Wow!  So much for the most intelligent species (as we claim ourselves).

Supposedly we are the most intelligent (a term we invented) living species.  We do find ways (constantly invent) to make life comfortable, but we also in turn destroy everything around us with a vengeance.  Along with the inventions, we have been abusing the earth and all of its natural resources with a vengeance (in the same of development), and also with a vengeance we have been hating and killing each other, and also every living being that lives around us.  We have been so good we made many a living species extinct in a very short time.  Such is the power of what we call intelligent beings.

So much for human intelligence and intellect.  We probably started early in our existence with fighting for resources (Darwin) or women or domains.  It probably was the twisted thinking rather than resources sharing.  There was always enough of everything on earth for all living beings, so fighting and killing was probably for control of others rather than any other human emotion.  Much of the last 2000 years has been spent by humans in killing each other (while making other living beings extinct) in the name of religion or race.  We have also done a great job of annihilating everything else available to us as natural resources, as we practice human killing and then torching and burning as so kind of trophy gathering after the killing.  In the last 100 years we have been accelerating the killing and destruction all in the name of what?

From gaining and displaying more intelligence, we also keep expanding our horizons on intolerance.  Our intellectual growth (as we define it) is phenomenal as has become our hatred for our fellow humans.  It simply doesn’t make intelligent sense as the smarter we get, the more intolerant we become.  It simply doesn’t make sense to define intelligent beings in the we have been behaving.

In case of our religious origins, they are also quite young compared to the origins of our mother earth.  In broad sense we started banding together about a 100,000 years ago, forming tribes (may be the Mahabharata) about 5,000 years ago, forming states about 3,000 years ago, and empires about 2,000 years ago.  All of this is quite a new phenomenon.  If we count the origin of religion (has to be from the time we banded together) and that dictating human behavior, the level of intolerance has been constantly growing as the practices become more and more defined in most cases to suit the time and place where we live.

As a person from a religious and god believing family, there is certainly acceptance of spirituality and having divine interference engrained into my life.  The spirituality brings the belief that a supernatural power that has created the universe and all our surroundings, and controls the very existence and the constant change that goes around.  We certainly experience the power of nature and the existence of the great and unexplored universe.  My religion also embraces every element in the universe as something that is to be cherished and has an important part in our life.  So, whether or not we believe it we simply acknowledge the super natural power of being which in engrained in the fact of our life and our very being.

But now a days religion is constantly used as a dividing force between us humans.  Politics and beliefs constantly drive the anger and intolerance amongst us.  We forget that we have been here for a couple of million years, we have yet to find god and heaven.  Yes, for sure we know that the power that drives the universe is out there, but despite all the so called intellect and science we have yet to reach out to our origins.  For whatever reason we believe in the supernatural power, god in any form and his messengers, we embrace a belief, we believe in heaven and life after death, with all that in our life and belief it certainly makes little sense to take a path of killing one another in the name of religion.

Democracies and Predictability

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Time and again we see the same thing happening.  When given a freedom of choice people will behave just they want to behave.  No matter how much media badgering or constant publicity aimed at creating general public opinion, the human behavior is predictable.  There is no way to guess how people will decide to do things.  Especially when it comes to democratic elections, it is always amazing that people will vote for their expectations of the future.  It never fails to amaze the pundits, but people always hold the cards and public is always playing their cards right.  It doesn’t matter which country or what region of the world, if there is a truly democratic election with choices, the people will always vote for the future, and from what they believe can be delivered by the choices in representation they have.

The greatest elections are the ones that people really vote with their heads working, and no matter what the electorate hears, the voting booth always remains a mystery.  These we even have the election results coverage from the beginning of the election day.  No one wants to finish the voting process and then wait for the counting to be completed.  Even the constant coverage on the day of elections, seem to keep the voter fixed on who they are going to vote for, and nothing they are hearing or seeing matters.

If we tune into the recent elections in India, the countrywide elections that yielded a massive majority to form Modi government at the center, seem to quickly have different results in state and local elections.  There is no difference in Modi’s pitch to the nation (voters) which remains unchanged in more than a year he has been the PM.  He has by and large stayed to the agenda of development and cleanliness, and personally works hard in governance and towards his agenda.  He has not been personally involved in any scams or money mismanagement.  But the results of local body elections in Delhi and Bihar reflect a total turnaround in people’s perception of his abilities at the state level, and the political defeats to Modi’s party is now matter of legend; huge losses which only are reserved for total incompetence or gross mismanagement, which with Modi is not the case. What clearly reflects the mindset of the electorate is localized issues.  People clearly differentiate matters of the nation and matters of the town, and more over they are quite smart in choosing their representatives based on what they can feel rather than what they hear.  The voter is smart enough even to distinguish the nation, state and local body representation while in the confines of the voter booth.

The political wave that the reporters constantly blabber about is quite short lived.  Elections only see political waves when there is gross negligence in managing a political office.  The public outcry to replace a party is a reaction to obvious incompetence, but an ongoing political wave is not a constant practice in democracies.  People allow time for the elected representatives to perform to their promises and their party’s overall platform.  People are not looking for a constant wave of new policies and promises, rather a stable and sustainable government up on which they can constantly made demands and also expect people in power not to steal public resources.

The politics of governance is quite predictable.  People are constantly watching and weighing in on their future vote.  Politicians typically get a long tenure to come through with meeting the needs of their electorate, and how they perform at all levels of governance (local, state and center) determines the fate of their party in the next election.  India has a huge issue with pandering to vote banks, but even that is clearly not enough to have people really vote someone into power.

It is quite simple to get reelected.  If politicians just do what they said they will do while getting elected the first time, people will simply place their confidence back into voting for the same person again and again.  While the constant media coverage gets tiring, the media also covers what is really being done by the politicians in power.  So there is no escaping the prying eyes of journalists, who are constantly looking into what is being done by the politicians.

Performance and predictability have become synonymous with democratic elections.  No amount of money, coverage and promotions help in the voting booth.  Only thing that matters is what the voter deems important for the future.

Power of Development

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Many nations including India constantly stress on development.  Building homes (India has famously pledged to build toilets, every home with a toilet) for all the citizens.  Making housing affordable to provide a decent life is perhaps the most politically correct statement that any politician can make.  Along with housing and sanitation, utilities, gas, water and electricity become essential and also play political ploy with each election.  While housing and sanitation are constant sound bites, no one discusses the power needed to light them.  From the USA to India and all the way around, housing is the most common political pitch every politician makes, and also probably the most investment governments make outside of military spending.

It is a fact that world over housing is an initiative that is most needed by the underprivileged, and it is a chance for a decent existence, and also an opportunity to raise a family with dignity.  It has always been and continues to be an excellent initiative to help families that really need help.  Outside of housing, medicine, education and sanitation also are of equal importance and also always in a political pitch.  For some reason the politicians forget to include how to power the needs of the nations, and it perhaps should be the first of the focal points of any nation.

Many nations continue to build affordable housing, and most of these nations are in regions where there is abundance of sunshine.  For some reason the world doesn’t plan affordable housing and building power generation along with homes?  The very fact that the homes are being referred to as affordable should equate to frugal maintenance.  But for some reason building homes powered by solar energy even in nations there is an abundance of sunshine, is something we don’t hear much about.

It would be fantastic to combine affordable housing with solar energy.  It will not just help the new home owners with a roof for their families, but also cut down the cost of utilities, and will also reduce the burden on energy generation of the nations.  It certainly will reduce the pollution.  Affordable housing can certainly be on the regular power grid with solar power being their primary source of power, while the regular power grid help when needed as a backup.

If we can imagine the impact of building every new and affordable house with solar capabilities, the future demand for fossil power generation will be exponentially reduced, and also incentivize the solar industry to produce the equipment at better cost, and also help the new house owners to avoid the cost of electricity (as much as possible), and also helps the governments in reducing the subsidies.  It can be a similar business model as hybrid cars, better yet electric cars.  If we are really building affordable housing, then energy saving, energy conservation, along with saving the new home owner of monthly utility bills, all while reducing the burden on the environment.

With nations around the world plowing large amounts of investments into affordable housing, implementing solar power along with them should not be a prohibitive expense, especially considering the long term impact on the environment and cost of utilities on an ongoing basis to the home owners.  This also should help with scaling the solar power industry to bring the equipment costs down, and immediately help reducing the dependence on fossil fuels.

It is something to think of.  If we can help the needy with housing, we certainly can start helping the planet to revive and survive for the future.  Keeping it planet clean and green, imagine the beauty and blue of earth forever.  It is in the hands of politicians and the money they have in the budgets.

Intolerance

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Secular state is a concept of secularism where the state or nation is officially neutral in the matters of religion.  Being a secular state is a claim to treat all religions equally.  India today is the largest democracy that is also a secular state (there are a number of countries that are listed as secular states including USA and China).  It sounds politically correct for India’s diversity, and in fact most of India and Indians are secular in their living.  From very small villages to mega metropolis, Indians of different faith, color and language live well together.

As with most societies Indians also have a preference of being a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian.  Indians also associate the meat eating habit with their caste, the society has religion and then also caste added into their living.  The Indian society with its own religion, caste, sub-caste and whatever societal nuances, have seldom had communal issues based on food habits.  For a fact my own home where my mother is a vegetarian, and my father and grandparents were not.  Following their example my sister is a vegetarian as my brothers are not.  There was never a problem for anyone in the family with food habits and everyone respected the personal preference.

My home was not an anomaly in my town.  There were many families around us, where people lived together and had different food habits.  Our friends, families, relatives, and the town folks; no one looked at each other with issues related to food habits.

There was respect for everyone, and what they practiced; religion, prayer, food, language, clothes, caste, creed and whatsoever people wanted to live within their own preference was never a factor in living together was never a factor of belonging to one town; and secular it was.

Politics and social media, television and internet, and access to communications over the past couple of decades have had a great influence on people and their thought process.  The more we are able to communicate and connect with each other, we have somehow been focused on intolerance as people.  Perhaps because of the constant coverage of communal disharmony and religious intolerance; all for stake at two minutes of fame?

The politicians certainly keep fanning the religious and caste wedge among their constituents.  With more than a billion Indians in audience, even a small fraction of the population becomes a big vote bank, and keeping them angry and outraged has become a standard political practice, and with television cameras all around, and available focus from social media 24/7/365 days, politicians constantly fan the intolerance into communities.  Every simple action gets a huge hype of communalism and is constantly fed with hatred between people.  Once an absolute model of secular community can become a model for communal disharmony; only with a few choice words that foster hatred.

Politics have become a crazy business of absolute power at any cost, and politicians are constantly looking to target the anger of people, and constantly make issues out of things that never mattered to communities, now turned into communal discord.  Much of the news coverage consistently elevates the political rhetoric into some sort of personal attack on a community.  A seemingly simple and innocent issue is all of a sudden turned into a community outrage, and with the political dialogues that target to enticing the hatred simply turns people who lived together in harmony for generations, into violent verbal and physical attacks against each other.

As secular as people are and have been all their life, they also have a human instinct that can be easily turned negative when constantly fed with intolerance.  Politicians and media work overtime feeding on the human insecurities and what brings out is the animal behavior.  People are constantly being exploited and the coverage of communal intolerance is only feeding into the insecurities of people, and further entice into hatred.

Communal clashes and sexual intolerance have become so pervasive that the nation is constantly viewing the episodes of human indignity.  Could it really challenge the basic frame work of the nation?  Are we really secular?  We have been behaving like a bunch of angry constituents of a highly intolerant nation, and now we are not even tolerant of our own friends and families.

Orphan State

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Modi’s election slogan of “Development for Everyone”, for some reason seems to be not applicable for the residual (“my”) state of Andhra Pradesh. After the bifurcation of AP (now Telangana and Andhra Pradesh) in Modi’s watch, any kind of commitment for funding for development is missing from Modi’s vocabulary, especially considering his election rhetoric, and the state government aligned with his ruling government in the center.  The bifurcation of the state, the current government support for the bifurcation, the previous government’s assurance and passing the decree on special status, Modi and his election promises and the tie-up with TDP to form a government in the newly formed Andhra Pradesh, all that lead people’s belief that the new state will be treated with a special status thru India’s constitution to help establish itself after bifurcation, and govern itself at par with other states.

Watching and following Modi before and after his elevation as PM of India, he certainly is a great campaigner, good manager, good communicator, good traveler, and also a very good showman.  He is constantly talks in election rallies on allocating billions and billions he and his government will help fund the state (he is canvassing for votes), except when he in the state of Andhra Pradesh.  For a fact Modi is quite dramatic in making pronouncements on what he will do to every state he is looking for votes or visits, except in Andhra Pradesh.

In last week’s foundation laying ceremony for the new capital of AP, Modi’s name was inscribed in the largest letters on the stone.  He talks a good game of they will follow-up on all commitments made to the state, but never speaks of any specifics on what he will do (as he does everywhere else) to help the state.  He has nothing to offer the people of AP in reference to the special status (which was approved at the center), nor any material help to build the capital nor the infrastructure of the state.

Modi is really puzzling with his actions and attitude towards the people of Andhra Pradesh.  These are the people of a state in India without a capital (only his name is on a big slab of stone with huge letters), no infrastructure for running a government, deficit in revenues, and above all a loss of status as a full-fledged state without all the necessary infrastructure.  With the second year running of the current government neither Modi nor the state government have any commitments that make the people believe that the government really cares and they will make good on the promises to the new state.

Does Modi really care about what people really need?  Is his rhetoric simply that? Is the current central government in a great economic space that Modi’s government looks only good on paper? What makes Modi promise the moon everywhere he goes except to AP?  Actually the only question of relevance to the people of AP is the last one.  For sure there is not even talk of the current government at the center making good on any of the election promises made to the state.

One has to wonder why the AP government is silent on the resource allocation from the center.  The show and tell between Modi and the state government so far has been just show, and nothing to tell.

The south Indian states in India (now all five of them) greatly contribute monetarily and intellectually to India and its success story.  For some reason they constantly get the short end of any commitments from the center.

The current look and feel for AP is certain.  It is an orphan and no one in center is willing to tend to it.  All the commitments made to the state are simply election humbug.  Modi and his men are quite efficient in talking a great game of promise.  In case of Andhra Pradesh, Modi is not even willing to talk a good game, forget a grand scheme.  Time and again just one more politician making good on who he is, just another politician with a motor mouth.

Viewer’s Challenge

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

I had written (had is the key here as I no longer write about them) about movies for many years.  I have always enjoyed watching movies and as I learnt more languages, I have enjoyed watching them with more choices.  As I got older I enjoyed the movies more and also the multiple languages, sometimes even when I did not know the language just the celluloid was entertaining.  Despite my being away from home most of my life, I still like Telugu movies the most.  Every chance I get I watch the newer movies, and for the past few years I seem to be watching the same Telugu movie with different title and different actors.  The heroes glorified, the women in skimpy clothes and a bunch of guys get beat up and killed in the unimaginable way, and much of the movie shot in most outrageous locations that people really don’t care much about, with the ending of every movie gruesome to unimaginable violence.  The movies are no longer representing the age old good versus evil. They have become glorified tributes to really short guys who somehow have become super heroes, mainly because of their father or relatives or families belong to the film business.  Not just Telugu movies but all the south Indian film industry has been turned into some sort of a family business.  Father, son, grandson, uncle, brother, nephew and any other relative in the family is pushed up on the movie going public just because of the filmy background.  While there is nothing wrong with traditionally following the footsteps of a father in business, the south Indian movie industry has really become a cesspool of families forcing themselves on the movie going public.

Yes.  The father might have been a glorious actor for many decades.  That doesn’t automatically mean that his son or someone related from the family will be an automatic hero or a cinematic choice.  But we keep having one family after the other forcing themselves on us, the poor moviegoers.  The obvious monotony and monopoly of these families on movie making, distribution, exhibition and control on the movies is impenetrable for the new comers.  The public has little choice but to watch these folks forcing themselves on the moviegoers.

I just saw a movie and was really sad that I keep watching them.  Every frame I already knew what was going to happen next and what the words would be and actions would be, and when they would land up in foreign locations.  The movie is 100% predictable and ends with the dialogues on the selection of a girl simply based on the looks.  The entire movie was nothing but a glorified tribute to nothing, that ends up with an ending we knew before the titles.

There are millions of me, just like me.  We don’t have to live in India for these movies to be shown, they are everywhere.  There are everywhere to depress the hell out of people.

It’s the moviegoer that needs to be held accountable for such crap being thrown at us on screen.  We keep giving family titles to these guys and make a big deal out of them simply showing up on screen.  The movie functions have become such big fiascos with typically some woman who anchors the function glorifies these guys and praise them to the moon.  The glory of prayer we typically reserve for god is put to shame in these functions when these guys are praised in front of crowds and they have absolutely no shame in sitting and listening to the crappy accolades.

Sadly we are left with very little choice but to throng to the theaters to see these guys every week, while they do the same thing.  They stifle anyone from doing what they do, and allow little room for anyone else to entertain.

The age of entertaining cinema is long gone and it really doesn’t look promising for anything that can be called good cinema, where we wanted to go back to theater again and again.  May be I should just stop watching anything new in my language/s and stick to you tube watching old movies.  That certainly will save me the aggravation of glorified guys who really are not hero material and also save money.

Quota Systems

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

World over the democracies foster quota systems.  It simply is that the politics drive establishing quota from a portion of available opportunities and funding from colleges, schools, jobs, money, housing, land, and any other resources of the nation/s.  Politicians continuously believe and use the quota system while in power, or posturing for power.  Politicians and the power of quota systems constantly play to the polls and politics.  Quota systems pander to vote banks, and continues to be popular with all countries, especially when it is time for reaching out for votes, and as an election promise and also reaching out to interest group, quotas still touch a nerve with people.

For some reason we believe that somehow or someone has at some point of time taken advantage of our people, and we want the so called old wrong to be done right today.  It’s a long statement, but everyone has a grouse about something, and we want today’s society so something about the past.  No one is interested in the context, just some new benefit, and if the overall human race is to believe that the history of mankind has some issues with their particular sect of people at some point of time, then we all need to be in a quota system, not just a few people at a time.

What drives the quota systems and politics which primarily drive quotas is the communities constantly vying for such classification to stake claims to allocations.  With a single stroke of a pen, politicians have been penning legislation that forces quotas on the societies (without an expiration date) and so far in some cases more than 50% of the available resources, jobs, seats, opportunities are reserved.  There is little room for any more classifications into the quota system.  We have actually over extended the quotas, and never remove the groups from quotas.  We constantly have groups vying for quotas, and we constantly identify people as downtrodden or deprived to demand quotas.  The over used and overburdened quota system is still very popular for agitations and attracting popular voice.

The quota system is perpetuated and doesn’t have an end time line.  There is only a start to the quota and never an end.  The political system keeps pandering to the groups of people (who are all down trodden), and both the politicians and quota holders have perfected the act of paying the poor house, and they will constantly refer to a person, at one time who belonged to the community to keep milking the words of the old time, which might not even be relevant to today, and will drive in the comments as thing to remember and uphold today.  What is forgotten here is that the world has always had inequalities and also self corrects itself.  The evolution applies to people and communities.  We are very smart to find solutions, if we want to find solutions.

The global democracies always had the rich and poor, and the have’s and have not’s.  Transfer of opportunity and wealth is basic evolution.  Wealth and opportunity does get circulated just like the wheels.  The global markets constantly self-correct and reinvent.  Change is constant.  Only thing that gets perpetuated is the quota system, and despite the changes to societies and markets, the politicians keep the quotas in play simply to keep playing to the vote banks. 

The constant waste of money and resources, the incompetence of seat selection in professional and educational institutions, the allocation of jobs without competence and qualifications, the wasted money and resources that bring no positive change to the communities, above all unaccounted and unplanned development that is forced on any community or its people because of quota systems, have shown no impact to uplift the groups as a whole.  Despite all this, we continue to have demands for more and more quotas.  No one really cares that a brilliant student can’t get into school because of quota system, someone very well qualified can’t get a job, someone can’t further in career because of a last name; the atrocious politics of quota systems continue, and keep pushing people to desperate measures.

From the United States to India and just about every nation in between, the quota systems keep the politicians busy, and keep their speeches in high voltage.  Instead of fostering positive change they constantly fuel distrust and despair.  There are definitely pockets of success, but by and large they continue to drive despair and don’t push communities to the main stream.  The quota systems constantly raise communal tensions, and public dissent, political opportunism, and above all abuse of the system.

There is no end to the quota system, once it is implemented.  It is for infinite amount of time, and by trying to change or modify or remove the quotas cause only more upheaval and unrest.  We best implement quota for everyone so there is global coverage for every type of people, and it is for sure the best way to eliminate the grouses and inequalities that are contributing to the society today.

Eternal Optimism

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

For Chicagoans and Cubs fans, the words eternal optimism are synonymous.  For those of us who are Cubs fans, our team win or lose, it is an exciting game every time Cubs play a game, and each and every year we want to believe that we are going to the world-series. For the record the last time the Cubs won the world-series was in 1908, and I don’t believe that anyone in Chicago was around at that time.  The last time the cubs made it to the world-series was in 1945 (LOL.. it was before the Indian Independence in 1947 from the British).  So, the optimism of cubs fan is nothing less than eternal.  I have been a Cubs fan (I am sure as is much of Chicago) for most of my adult life and simply love to follow them.  Win or lose they are a team with potential, every time they play a game.  The late Harry Carry, the long-time broadcaster was one of those who made every game he broadcasted a treat for the Cubs fans, by simply calling the paly-by-play.  There is no doubt that the broadcasters for decades, the players all great ones who played for the club, the managers and staff, the owners and everyone else associated with the ball club are all equally optimistic as the fans are; all of us have been waiting for the Cubs to get to the world series, and even win one, every year since the last time they one in 1908.  The Cubs fans; those who pray and those who don’t even pray have been seeking divine intervention on behalf their beloved Cubs, and for them to get to the world-series first and then win.

2015 season has come to a close, and Cubs did really well in the regular season and are in a playoff situation this season.  They have had great performances all thru the year, and look really good on the field.  This could be the year say all of us (again) the eternal optimists.  Isn’t that all of us Cubs fans wishing from since 1908?

What drives millions of Cubs fans to go see a team that has been a champion more than a 100 years ago, as none of the current day fans have ever experienced the world-series.  We have not experienced the win yet, but we know it will happen. Optimism.

Often the media refers to Cubs fans as “long suffering”.  On the contrary, the fans are not really optimists, not sufferers.  They don’t have any experience of winning, so how will they experience any suffering?  As all human being look forward to and believe in something better, Cubs fans are those good, god fearing and forward looking people, who simply are believers.  The hope of getting to the world-series and winning is what keeps the city, its people, and the team and its management, and all the Cubs fans wherever they are, to keep looking forward to the day that has not come in more than a hundred years.  As we all (me included) think the time has come this year, and the team is ever so close to getting there (I wanted to get this column out before they really do something that is out of the ordinary), may be this is our year.

We really don’t know how we will react if they really win the world-series?  We are going to be realistic than optimistic then, and start to expect them to do this again and again every year?

Narendra Modi

Only In India 2 0f 10

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Narendra Modi is the current prime minister of India, and the 15^th person to hold that position after the 1947 Indian independence from the British.  Modi is a lifelong follower of RSS and also a lifelong politician.  His humble beginnings and his much touted childhood as a tea seller is well documented.  Outside of a young marriage and a life of separation from his wife (who is also equally commendable as she remained loyal to the wedding and continues to remain married to Modi despite living an entire life married but without a spouse) who has lived a full life of anonymity, rest of Modi’s life is well documented since his entry into politics.

From an early age Modi (reported that when he was 8 years old) was influenced by the RSS and his entire life before and after his entry into politics and his election to the highest office of the nation, RSS and its role is well documented. Modi reflects a fairly long and committed association with his principles and practices.

Modi also retains lifelong relationships with schoolmates and fiends and colleagues, and has a great record of life full of commitment to his ideals and convictions.  For a man with such strong convictions he is surprisingly aloof from his own siblings and his once child bride.  He holds his mother very dear to him, and it is his only family relationship that he constantly acknowledges.  He is very fond of his mother, and at every opportunity he has cherished the relationship with his mother, her sacrifices to tend to him and his siblings, and her continued blessings.  Modi keeps himself away from any personal or family related issues, and keeps his siblings far away from his politics.  He does constantly acknowledge the influences of his mentors and the value of his friendships at every opportunity he gets.

India does repeatedly present great contradictions and opportunities for its citizens.  Modi is a great example of humble beginnings, hard work, dedication and persistence will allow anyone to achieve their ultimate goal.  Modi humble beginnings to where he is today, from a tea seller to the prime minister, from a RSS disciple to a global leader; all of which are incredible achievements.  India despite its issues, difficulties and limitations, always has it’s only in India opportunities, and Modi is one of the great examples of this.

Modi in his second year in the PM office continues to hold the Indian and the global public in awe of his ability to communicate and present India as a destination for work, investment and growth.  His constant interest in the global development and reaching out to everyone to work with him to develop India and help Indian public facilities and opportunities is unparalleled.  He is really a great representative for the nation and its needs.  No one matches his energy in presenting India to the world.

The anomalies with his governance is certainly highlighted with his indecisiveness in reference to his cabinet members, who are involved with irregularities in governance, and also state level office bearers who have been accused of scams.  This is very different side of Modi's personality, who is quite vocal about good governance.  He has not said a word about his cabinet members and senior state level leaders of his party, even when the whole parliament has been stalled due to the reported mismanagement and scams.  Strangely, he continues to remain silent on his own party’s scams or mismanagement.  Despite his tainted colleagues, Modi remains quite strong in representing India and himself.  Each of his foreign visits, and any dignitaries and business leaders visiting with him, definitely leave a fantastic impression for India and also bring new commitments to India’s development.

Modi is a vegetarian and practices his religion, yoga and Hindu customs that are to be cherished by all, and he also has a great respect for elders, other religions leaders and greatest rapport with world leaders, business leaders and just about everyone he reaches out to.  He is also quite tech savvy and makes great use of technology to communicate just about everything he does.  Above all he has very little possessions or attachments.

While writing his history as a great PM for India is still in its infancy, his assent to be the leader of the largest democracy in the world is a matter of legend.  He continues to makes the best case for India and its people.  With each of his trips his legend grows, and his curiosity to bring things into the common man of India continues to draw the best of the world.  The economic indicators and the inflow of investment into India continue to be positive, and with a little bit of better governance and better politicking, India for sure has a chance to get better connected, educated and a little bit cleaner.  For sure Modi can make his governance be 100% open and make it public and online, it will only help his politics and governance.  He certainly has the energy and inclination, along with the public support.

Completion

vasureddy@aol.com
Vasu Reddy from Chicago

There is a great importance to making progress on an announced project.  If you are a business then you just don’t announce or start something and just let it sit, you finish the project on budget and on time.  The key to successful and profitable business or life is not announcing or starting something, it is the process of effectively working to achieve the stated objectives of what was planned.

Our politicians announce many major projects and initiatives, and also assign huge values to them as budgets and potential employment.  India has a legacy of major announcements by the party in power, along with massive investments and really massive employment opportunities.  It has become a common practice for politicians in power to say “I will do this in five years”, and then there is nothing that comes back to say “I have done this in 12 months”.

In recent news there was coverage of linking the rivers in Andhra Pradesh which was more than a 50 years plan.  It is hard to imagine what was thought of as a need 50 years ago applied to today, while politicians claim credit for something that really took 50 years?  We have multiple fold increase in population, pollution, encroachment and all kids of social and people issues today that could not have been envisioned 50 years ago.  Still the concept of planning and development that is many decades old which still is in work-in progress today, and we still refer to as progress, as if India has infinite amount of time to take care of its own. On the one hand completion of any infrastructure project is a boon for the people, while the time and opportunity lost in decades of delays and indifference is immeasurable in losses.  The project costs balloon into double, triple and more in the delays and India also adds scam value to any infrastructure.

When a project does get completed, people rejoice.  Politicians inaugurate and place their name in stone as if they really had something to contribute to the eventual completion and ignore the decades old plaque that identifies the politician who laid the foundation stone.  There is pomp and circumstance and a lot of talk of what the project will do to the future of the citizens.  No one on the stage will admit to the huge delays, huge cost overruns, huge loss of opportunity, and huge cost to the lives of people.  No one will ever admit to the delays and lost opportunity.  Indians are optimists, they feel that let’s be happy that it is finally done and we can see the benefits of the future.

The reality of the government promises and their deliverables are so far apart, they are like fact and fiction.  There is no realistic plan of action, development, budget, expenditure or anything that is really real.  Huge numbers are thrown in billions and billions and no plausible explanation of where the money comes from and how it is spent.  Everyone throws around massive numbers as if they are really giving their own money to the public projects (you hear the words so often when politicians claim “I am giving thousands of crores to the project or for development” as if it’s coming from ones pocket).  There is no logic to where the money is coming from, how it will be spent, who will manage and account for it, when and how the money will be made available, who will manage the funds and who will be accountable for the funds, when the project gets started and god knows when it will be finished.  All freely given and freely managed, and nothing gets done ever on time.  India really has projects that are a half a decade or more in the works, some still unfinished.

The current government as did all the older ones, constantly throws billions in pronouncements to projects and programs as commitments to the states and the development of national projects.  The government and the PM are quite computer and internet savvy.  Why not put the projects and their planning and development online.  Why not let the public have access to whole deal and details, people, money, plans, time, deliverables and budgets; put them all online as soon as the PM or the government commits to the project and funding.  The PMO and PM now take the time to post details of its daily routine.  Posting a project plan online and updating daily should be no more than one person’s work on a regular basis, and the public can really know what is being said and what really is being done.  If we are demanding the public to be accountable the government can demand the same from the government.  Especially when the leader of the nation constantly speaks of open government and accountability; then let us see it online.  It is great to hear that he has thousands of crores at public, we constantly hear from the PM “let me give you thousands of crores” sure we need the development and projects, but we want to see if it really is budgeted, from where, when and how it will be delivered and money spent towards the project.  We are all computer savvy and with more than a phone per adult in the great nation.  If we are getting your twitter feed and Facebook posts and Instagram updates on a minute by minute basis, it will be great to have an online and regular minute by minute update of the government's commitments and deliverables.

For a change we the people would certainly like to see the same level of commitment from the government and our leader on completion of what the government keeps throwing at us a “I plan to do this”.  Let us see the accounts and responsibilities online, and up-to-date.  The only measurement to the government’s performance is completion of the promises made, on time and on budget and nothing else. “I completed this” should be the words we should hear and nothing else.

Remakes

vasureddy@aol.com
Vasu Reddy from Chicago

I really love movies.  Always have.  Even as a kid I loved to watch a movie every chance I got.  We have been making movies for over a century now.  We make them in just about every language and just about every part of the world.  From simple movements on film without voice on celluloid to the mega budget movies of today, the business of movie making continues to evolve and also continues to get more sophisticated and continues to keep up with technological advances and user preferences.  All this except when we try to remake popular movies of the past.

India makes more movies than any other country, all in multiple languages.  It makes more movies than Hollywood, in fact a combination of all other markets don’t even come close to the number of movies made in India.  India also has a variety of audiences; regional markets with their own languages, dubbed movies from one region to the other, movies simultaneously made in multiple languages, English and other language films that fill the void for the audience to lap up anything shown on a Friday night, and any other language film, even if it is not something the audience understands, all of them have a great audience in India.  India and Indians love movies and whatever is screened there is an audience for it.

One of the more recent phenomenon in the movie making business is dubbing regional movies into Hindi and releasing them thru the internet.  We have a billion plus viewers and most of them not just with television but with smart phones and internet, the market is obvious for the content, and what better content than dubbed movies to keep the audiences glued to the small screen in the weekdays.

The movie makers have already become adept to various audience segments, and have been making movies to cater to them; romance, action, rom-com, and western, comedy, serious, historical. Mythological and whatever term that existing the movies can be categorized for even urban and rural audience.  Whatever name the makers can give a movie to bring the audience to the theater.  In reality the makers are depicting a writer’s vision to the audience for a couple of hours.  The audiences have many options every Friday, and catchy marketing is the name of the game to get people into the theater.  Marketing and promotions are a major part of the movie business these days.  At least until the first show and then the critics take the stick to the movie.

Our movies have evolved with times, technology, travel, style and adaptation all have been updated as to today’s viewer preferences, and continues to be updated, while the writers and directors try to keep up with the audience aptitudes.  Stars remain a fixture, most of them aging in front of eyes and remaining to pretend to be young and supreme beings.  The media remains the same, always finding fanny.  Our story telling remains true to Indian mythologies, although given a contemporary twist every 20 years or so.  It is difficult to imagine new material for movies, as we make so many of them in so many languages.  The writer’s continue to exploit the well told and well accepted lines, and keep repeating them with alarming success.

One of the things that also is happening is remaking movies.  Remakes are not being limited to popular and classic movies.  Even main stream movies are being remade.  When a movie was made 20, 30, 40, or 50 years ago, the story telling, action and screen play would be typical to that time and treatment.  If it was a huge hit or continues to be appreciated by the current generation of moviegoers, the acceptance of the continued mastery of film making after the years is simply the creative inputs that remain in the mind of the audience, irrespective of time.  Indian audience also have a great respect for movies that become a part of their life, and when a something is considered a classic; movie, music, drama, literature and person all of which remain in the hearts of the people, irrespective of the generations past.  Movie remakes typically attempt to retell the story that was successfully told, and try to make a contemporary celluloid of the past.  This new version of an old classic will be constantly judged based on the original.  It doesn’t matter how much time has elapsed, but the original version will remain as a benchmark.  There is little question that some of the new versions of old classics such as Devdas, made in multiple languages multiple times, have not only retained the originality of the classic, but also integrate the nuances of today’s audiences, with great care.  But majority of the remakes are simply a cut and paste of the originals and neither retain the essence or time of what the movie goers see as a classic.  Simply spending money and marketing can’t deliver a classic remake.  The sensibilities of the context and today’s movie goer’s preferences along with capturing the imagination of a mindset that was set in a different era, all of which along with the nuances of every role, all of which and probably more will make a remake work.  Some of our recent remakes cost a huge amount of money to make and equally huge amount of money to market, and all we see is a reference to the past; a remake of “MOVIE”.

One World?

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Continuously looking at the young and old, men and women and children; all of them trying to find a safe place to stay, to just get a drink of water and a meal, staring simply at the cameras that are trying to make news of their misery, driven away from their home, and now simply without any destination.  It is not their fault to live where they were born and be who they are.  They did not commit any crime or do anything to deserve the forced relocation to nowhere.  With communications getting more and more constant the human suffering is getting is also being played out constantly for the rest of the world to become a part of the destitute.  We think we are looking at someone out there being forced to run away from their home, but we are one world, and it can happen to us, wherever we live.  We are watching human suffering played out on television, and that’s exactly what we are doing, just watching our race being decimated, for what?  There is so much written about race and religion, and the national boundaries and individual beliefs, but what have these people done to deserve such suffering?  The image of a small child washing ashore, dead on a beach could have happened to anyone and any place in the world.  It is really tragic, not dramatic for the world to react to.  What have we done to ourselves?  Why do we simply spend so much time and money on defending ourselves, but let the world become a place of carnage?  Does religion promote creating hell on earth so that the people creating the hell here can go to enjoy heaven?  Who has an answer to the killing in the name of religion?

Is the image of the little child lying face down dead on a beach the trigger this time for the world to become one world?  How many more hundreds of thousands have to be killed, and how many more million need to be thrown out of their homes before the world takes interest in helping?  We keep watch television and constantly monitor the news; hundreds of thousands continued to be displaced from their homes for simply being there.  They have been there thousands of years.  Still all of a sudden they are refugees.  Homeless.  Landless. Penniless.  Simply with nothing.  All of their fate simply tied to the whims of religion and other humans, and nothing else.

We humans are older than any religion.  Every religion and its founders have only preached love and tolerance and peace and coexistence.  There is no religious scripture that depicts hatred and killing.  But we interpret otherwise, and along with religion we have never stopped killing in the name of it.  Killing in the name of religion has been as long as what we call religion existed, and with growing time and populations, the killings have become a way of religious life.  We invoke the name of god and religion as a primary reason for inhumanity, which ends us it is towards our friends and neighbors.

From the world wars, the 1947 India’s partition and separation, the east-west war between Pakistan, the Afghanistan crisis, the continued strife Russian federation, the middle east and African crisis, the carnage in Syria and Iraq, the Palestinian battles, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria and African unrest, somewhere in the world we can’t live as one people, and in the name of religion.  There is no end to killing and destruction.  The world continues to experience the misery live.  For some reason the media and coverage seem to encourage the carnage.  All of a sudden the carnage has a worldwide audience, and the behavior getting more and more violent.  We are not just killing each other, we are also destroying civilizations; old and new, without regard to heritage or humanity.  The utter disregard to women and justifying the atrocious behavior in the name of religion has become a common practice.  For some reason or cause, we forget all of us humans have a mother, and she is a woman.  God himself had a mother, and there is no scripture that asks to ill treat your own mother.

The killer’s get no glory for their deeds.  They have no state.  They have no home.  They have no family.  They just have hatred and in most cases all they end up with violent death.  The typical fate for hatred is the same fate they inflict on innocents in the name of religion.  There is no glory in death, especially when god doesn’t prescribe it.

The destruction of nations and communities and their natural and physical resources, along with generations of humanity and history, makes one wonder; is this one world?

There is no cause, however great and important to be used as an excuse to kill innocents.  Nothing more is important to the world than its history, civilization and humanity.  We are supposed to be the most evolved living beings with superior intellect.  Our superior intellect continues to be overshadowed by barbarian within.  We are not just getting smarted, we are also getting more intolerant.  While the world becomes more and more interconnected, it is also promoting the graphic and barbaric acts of the few, making them more exploitative in using the medium to promote horror.

We really are not one world.  We keep turning a blind eye on destruction and intolerance.  We don’t like to help or comfort.  We spend more money on weapons than education.  We love to watch TV and listen to commentary, but have nothing to offer to our fellow beings.  We really are not one world.  Simply live here in indifference and nothing else.  Oh yes; we certainly use religion to justify what we do.