Human Nature Part 3 of 3 - Weather

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Every ten minutes you get a weather bulletin in Chicago.  This is where I live so this is the best reference point I have.  I am pretty sure everywhere you go or live in the USA, the weather bulletins are a part of the radio and TV, and the mobile and internet channels.  In about 10 minutes you get the latest and greatest on the weather updates.  We have very fancy names for people who deliver the weather reports, such as chief meteorologist.  Listening to the weather is actually a part of the normal routine for everyone, and I really think no one really pays attention, unless they see something serious happening around them, it is really background noise?

Weather is unpredictable everywhere.  It changes constantly.  It can be anything; harsh, normal, beautiful, hot, clod, sun, wind, snow, rain and any combination.  Weather can be anything we can imagine, but we know it is changing constantly.  We can use any adjective we can think of for weather, and it will happen.  If you live in Chicago, for sure you don’t have to wait very long to experience the changes and that too very quickly and very fast in patterns.  We are fortunate to really see the four seasons in their full bloom in this part of the world.  Each of the seasons in their full splendor and full bloom with a constant what if it was, is the normal routine for people who live in the region.

Too hot, too cold, too much snow, too much rain; and then you will also hear along with a beautiful spring day, perfect beach weather, great winter weather, snow day, rainy day, for Chicagoans a windy day, and colorful fall day; all these are things we are used to from our meteorologists.  It makes us happy to hear about good weather.

Simply thinking of good weather lifts our spirit.  For some reason picking on our nature and equating to the human spirit is really what we are.  Simple things make us happy.  A rain drop, a snow flake, cool breeze, warm weather and any variation of enjoyable combination of living makes us reflect and also happy.

When politics, money and global events make us wonder what is going on the world with unpredictable instances that happen constantly, weather is something that is also that is happening constantly.  But the weather at most times is a relatively predictable change, compared to the human behavior.  For sure we have extremes with cyclones, earth quakes, swelling rivers and severe weather, but just about all of the weather patterns are easily predictable and avoidable.  We can at most times get away from simply following the weather bulletins that are updated about every 10 minutes, and following the directions will certainly avoid any bad weather or find a place to let the weather pass through.  And for sure the weather will pass though and we simply reflect and move on with life.  We enjoy the good, we try and stay away or avoid the bad, and try to go far away from the severe.  It’s simple to deal with the weather and its unpredictability.

Human Nature - Part 2 of 3 - Politics

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Greeks termed politics as the theory of influencing other people.  The term politics itself is more than 4,000 years old, and since that time has evolved into politics, judicial and bureaucratic systems that govern the democratic nations in the present time.  The late 1700’s and the formation of the United States, and since than the push for freedom of expression, speech and simply the right to do what we like to do has been in the forefront of many a wars and movements; simply people wanting democracy.  Politics continues to evolve with each of the instances where people raise to make freedom a focal point of governance.

When it started out politics certainly was meant to be a noble profession.  It was by definition working for the good of people.  One can’t influence other people without doing something useful to the society.  In reality only through the 1900’s majority of the nations have become really political democracies.  We still have communist governed and dictatorial nations, while we have kingdoms and nations governed by families.  All the while in 2015, the form of democracy continues to be challenged in various parts of the world, while it flourishes in some parts of the world.

At the end of the day the power vested in an individual (or a small group of individuals as ministers) who are elected by the majority of public voting them into power for a fixed duration of time becomes a democratically elected government.  They get either reelected or get replaced with a new set of individuals once the elected term is over, is the most recent form of democracies functioning.  In reality the current electoral process is quite a new phenomenon for the world.  We were used to living under kings and emperors, who ruled over their people with impunity.

At least for a couple of thousand years we have the history of living under kings and queens as subjects.  In essence the rulers simply passed on the governance of their subjects to family.  The growth in human population which has been exponential, and the kingdoms transforming into elected governments is in historic terms quite a small chapter in our existence.

The history of the world as we know is quite fascinating.  We continue to find and dig through our past, and everything we find is intriguing and educational on every aspect of life before the advent of communications in today’s form.  The tremendous influence of radio, television, internet, wireless and wireline communications, and the latest social media and instant access to what is happening certainly is a driving force in the way we live and conduct ourselves.

The fantastic benefits of information and communications at finger tips have a great advantage, and also huge drawbacks.  The politicians use the social media for direct communication with folks around the world.  Millions of people get instant feed of tidbits of information from someone in the position of power.  It could be anything that the individual wants to share; can be a simple greeting, a picture, an opinion, a thought, travel or trivia, anything that they feel is in their mind to share with millions of followers, or people on the www.

Politics has also become quite personal in the recent decades.  For some reason the negative comments get more eyeballs than positive commentary.  People in power and people not in power both focus on what is wrong with each other than displaying the positives of what can be done and what needs to be done.

Politics has in the past 20 or 30 years have become personal.  The money required for getting into elected office has become humungous.  The constant barrage of advertisements and media interactions, almost always point to what the other guy has done wrong.  Also, the democracies and abuse of elected office from around the world has become a common practice.  Scams, abuse of power, nepotism, influence peddling and simply ignoring the law has become a common practice for elected officials.

From a noble thought of influencing people with positive actions and leading them, politics have really become abusive, and for personal benefit.  There is no doubt that the aspiring leaders have high level of insight into the people’s current state of mind.  They probably enter into politics with the intent of great good of the people.  Whatever happens in quick succession is the power of money and power of the office take precedence over the common good.  Either democracies nor dictatorships, and in some cases self-appointed leaders though brute force, all of them somehow fall into the trap of power rather than politics, and forget the common good of the population.

The people themselves are not in any better cognizance in relationship to leaders.  We certainly don’t believe anymore that elected governments are really doing anything for the common good.  We simply cling on to hope.  Hope of a better tomorrow with better governance.  While politics have simply gone from common good to complete focus on individual benefit.

Ignorance or Bias?

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Keeping up with India’s news online on a regular basis is simply part of the daily routine for myself and millions of other Indians.  It’s a part of my daily routine and fodder for my weekly blog and also chitchat with friends and family.  We still have the love for cricket, movies and politics.  We troll the internet to check on what our fellow countrymen are doing.  Along with breaking news and sports (mostly Cricket) and movies, the online updates from various web links provide a close connection to homeland on the other side of earth.  I am no different from any other NRI, I love my mother, motherland, cricket and movies, all long side of politics.  My likes have remained what they were since my first step to today.  Nothing changes, except where we live and what we have done, but roots remain.

Until this weekend, I would not notice bias in internet coverage of South Indian states.  I lived in North India for a few years before my journey to the USA. And being referred to as a Madrasi was of little offense to me in general.  I was young and did not know Hindi beyond a few words, but by the time I left I was proficient in one more language, gotten a degree and made lots of wonderful friends, and took the train back to Madras a happy man with great memories, and not the term Madrasi.  Things have changed, including the name of the City of Madras.  I am sure that my friends have not, and I have not.  I am sure of this.  We remain besties after a life time away from each other, still find brotherhood whenever we can find each other, and whenever we continue to find one more of our friends in the old gang.  I don’t believe that there was bias or bigotry in the term Madrasi from people of North India.  It was actually endearing to have them use the term, and also teach them the different languages of South India and also the people of South India.

Online news and coverage of India mainly focus on Delhi and politics with coverage for Mumbai and big industrial houses.  Movies focus on Bollywood, with a sprinkling of tidbits on other industries.  Although death, destruction and scams get great coverage irrespective of where they happen India.  One thing you notice if you start to dissect the coverage is the minimal effort that the writer’s out into the coverage of events that are outside of their comfort zone, especially when they cover south Indian news. One of the blatant references the idiots who write about movies always refer to the actors as south actor, south siren, or something with a south attached to it.  You will never hear a north something when they use 99% of the space in covering Bollywood.  The most idiotic stories are written about children of stars, clothes, homes, vacations and whatever so called life style of the movie actors. Force fed through the internet.  Till date it really did not strike a chord, when the south tag was used for just about every reference to the work of the movie industry.  I thought the age old ignorance was the reason rather than bias, when the coverage was about movie industry outside of Bollywood.

This week’s release of the Telugu movie “Bahubali” was a celluloid event that is worthy of the whole nation taking an interest.  The local Telugu media has been covering the making of the movie for almost 3 years.  The national media just started to cover the movie, days before its release.  What was surprising is some of the news starting to write about movie was somehow “Karan Johar’s” along with giving a second preference to the director of the movie S.S. Rajamouli.  It was only after part 1 of the movie was readied for release, Karan Johar got himself involved in distributing the movie is North India, and nothing else.  He had no involvement in making, producing or any other aspect of this movie.  Just because he became associated with the distribution of the movie, it all of a sudden becomes Karan Johar’s movie?

This is where you certainly notice the Bias.  Karan Johar is definitely one of the names to be reckoned with the Hindi movie industry.  There is no questioning his credentials on his continued contributions to movie making.  But the news of making him somehow a part of being the architect of a movie that has been in the making for 3 years was quite a stretch, that Karan himself would find amusing.

The movie has released and at the end of two days, has shattered every record of all Indian movie box office.  We really don’t know what it will do in its full run but for a Telugu movie it will certainly establish a bench mark that will be hard to beat for years to come, perhaps may be its part 2 that should come out in a year.  It is the most expensive Indian movie to be ever made.  All the lead actors and actresses are accomplished and successful.  Nothing has been written about them.  S.S. Rajamouli, the director has made hugely successful movies his entire career, and has been in the movie industry for more than a decade.  No mention of his accomplishments except for a tidbit about of his movies.  There is absolutely nothing written about the producers of the movie.

Definitely there was hype about the scale of the movie, and its graphics and grandeur, and the scope for the movie to be a global product.  The movie got released and lived-up to every expectation of the viewers.  The two day box office performance is phenomenal and certainly promising for the long run in brining smiles to the producers, distributors, actors as it has so far to the audience.  The national media is silent on the movie after its release, outside of releasing a few numbers here and there.  The same web channels have information on crap movies and gets them tracked on a daily basis.  Even the mention of the plot release related reactions are far and few in between, while referencing to movies that might come next week and may dent into the collections of the movie that puts Indian films on the world map.  My impressions on the national media went to zero.  Such blatant bias?

What is wrong with these guys? Is it that the regional movie makers are not wining and dining the national media?  For a movie that was made on the scale of Bahubali, and with pre-release expectation sky high, and the movie reaching the expectations should have been legendary in coverage.  Why there is no hype and pomp for such extraordinary cinematic achievement?

There is no number tracking, no actor interviews, no follow-up to movie goer reactions, no fan reactions, nothing in national media.  Just a blimp and gone.  This movie has not only lived-up to expectations, but shattered box office records on day one and day two, and will continue to do so in coming days.  For sure the movie has the song and dance sequences that cater to the Indian audiences.  The movie is also a grand adventure filled with excellent performances, great technical values and more than anything audience acceptance.  It has delivered rare cinematic excellence, and still the national media ignores it.

It’s a clear case of regional bias.  The hero, the villain along with the rest of the supporting cast deliver first rate performances, they get very little ink.  What else can be more biased than not covering the director’s vision, the technician’s brilliance and the producer’s belief in a quality cinema, on a global scale?  I am sure we will start hearing about one more superstar this and one more super kid that, and some other unbelievably stupid and personal cinematic news from the national media by Monday AM.   What else can we expect? We are still from Madras (that’s all of South India).

Human Nature - Part 1 of 3 - Money Matters

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Since India’s Independence from the British in 1947, the prime minister’s office has escaped the taint of money.  From Jawaharlal Nehru to the current PM Narendra Modi (who is just over a year in the office) all the heads of state for India have not been accused of pocketing money.  They have all have had some issues on policy and matters and major portion of the office holders from Nehru/Gandhi family along with the short lived tenure of Lal Bahadur Shastri passed away in the office, and several other short lived tenures in the PM office remained taint free while in the office.  Modi certainly is a candidate that will continue the tradition of Indian PM’s not getting embroiled in the taint of money for favors.  In fact his main electoral message to the nation was “I will not eat and I will not let anyone else eat.”  He was referring to money for favors.  This phrase was probably one of the most endearing thing to hear for the Indian electorate, which believed him and voted his party into the office with a huge majority.

The last two INC governments had a massive share of scams by elected officials.  In just about every area of governance, money was scammed in huge amounts.  Even after the party was voted out of office, the old scams continue to come to light and the ministers facing the investigators and courts.

2014 electoral victory by the BJP and nationwide rejection of INC was primarily associated with the wide spread abuse of the office by the INC leadership in looting the public coffers.

To date with the administration. Modi keeps his immediate group of ministers and bureaucrats on a very short leash.  His reputation for micro management and no money needed approach seems to hold well at the center.

What is beginning to surface is the peripheral issues of his ministers involved in individual decisions that are deviating the government from its focus on issues on hand.  What also is coming as head line news is of the state level leaders being accused of scams and also the past deeds of association with people who are no longer in the good books with government, law and also the public.

The 24/7/365 press and internet play a great part in exposing even the minute issues and there is no escaping the watchful eyes of hundreds of millions of mobile cameras waiting to capture everything.  Nothing and no one is any longer away from the glaring eyes of the prying masses.

The top leadership of the nation barring an instance or two of impropriety, have not gotten in any money related issues in the first year in office.  Modi himself continues to be beyond reproach just like his predecessors.  His public persona is also intact with the money matters.  By and large there is no visible signs of any scams in the center after a year of governance despite the massive drive in investments in both public and private sectors.

There are several instances of the state level BJP leadership where issues have begun to crop up as they did when INC was in power.  Some of the state level ministers have shown their indulgences as the leaders of INC did.  Modi can certainly contain the state level governments as he does the central leadership.  He can crack the whip quickly to enforce the same level of scrutiny as he does at the center with all levels of government.  Exposing the politicians who dig into public coffers and more so to bring them to swift justice will stop future abuse of power.  All Modi has to do is to keep the pressure at all levels of government, and continued scrutiny and continued vigilance will keep the politicians in tow and start to discourage them from digging into public coffers.

The value of communications and constant vigil by the public and the government will slowly eliminate the rampant abuse of power and scams, as it has been shown in the past year.  People getting caught quickly and are taken to task, and the central leadership is dissuading the politicians and bureaucrats form scamming, should at least start to limit the abuses.  Money will continue to matter to politicians as the scale of the economy is only getting bigger and bigger, and the scope for creating loop holes also gets bigger, but the fear of exposure and public censure will definitely limit the blatancy in looting the public wealth.

Event Management

vasureddy@aol.com
Vasu Reddy From Chicago

It has been a very interesting June of 2015 for the BJP government in India.  Interesting the Government just got into its second year in power.  The first year in office of the BJP lead government was constantly focused on Narendra Modi and his travels and tribulations.  I especially like the Clean India, Clean Ganga, Girl Child and Education were my favorites outside of slew of good initiatives by the new government.  Weather repacked from the old government or the new initiatives by the Modi lead government, the first year of the BJP government was quite absorbing for the people of India and also the world.

This last few weeks have been quite different for the Modi government.  The never ending issues of the central ministers and state governments dragged into the old cricketing boss, supporting him with this visa status while living in exile in the UK has dominated the news and all of a sudden the media and the opposition has newsworthy fodder to start targeting the backbone of Modi lead government; scams.

Outside observers really can’t make a great deal out of a highly successful Indian entrepreneur who got into trouble and is living in exile in the UK having high level connections in political and business circles in India, and having friends in booth politics and industry.  He uses his old friends to help him with travel documents to travel away from UK to see his ailing wife and back to UK.  Obviously the current BJP government leaders in both center and state who were friends of the man who is a fugitive living in the UK, put a word in with the UK government to allow him to travel to see his ailing wife.  All this was done some time ago.  First, the man has been a fugitive since the last government was in power.  His travel albeit for a reason on humanitarian grounds should have been curtailed by the British authorities.  The British asking for references from senior level politicians from India, and also the Indian politicians providing the support for travel documents is all in the protocol between the two nations, and should have been handled through government to government channels.  Obviously the support documents submitted by the Indian politicians were within the requirements of the UK authorities to allow Lalit Modi to travel from UK and back to see his wife.

Modi has been vocal to the public and to his ministers and party men to toe the line of the party, and constantly vocal about any taint of a scam.  From the time he was presented as a candidate for PM, his credentials of a man who doesn’t need personal wealth, and also a man who is devoid of any money related scams was the first and foremost reason for qualification for the PM of India.  He has continued to focus on taint free management of India and its resources.  He is hands on with his government and its decisions and policies.  How did it happen that his senior minister make the decision to help someone who is a fugitive, especially that she is responsible for external affairs of the nation?

The previous instance of the state chief minister almost providing him support documents for Lalit Modi to stay in the UK, is far more of a personal nature as her family and his were friends.  It was also done several years ago, but could have been put in public domain to avoid any impropriety.  Before and after you enter politics you have family and friends, and it is natural to extend help to a friend.  But this incident could have been made public or the nature of communications through New Delhi and official channels to avoid a delayed embarrassment to the ruling party now.  Lalit Modi had a lot of friends and also a lot of resources.  He seems to continue to have a lot of resources.  He also seems to have itching fingers or self-destructive streak in him to constantly egg his old friends on a daily basis.  He is a tax evader and a fugitive for India, and India can simply ask the UK to send him home.  There is nothing stopping the current Indian government to take steps to bring this man to justice and bring him to face the law.

Why has Narendra Modi failed to be an event manager as constantly harped by the opposition parties in India?  In every positive action Modi took in India and internationally the opposition parties categorized him as an event manager rather than a leader of the nation.  All of a sudden both Modi and his government and also the opposition parties have switched the roles.  Modi is no longer an event manager, he is silent on the issue of Lalit Modi, and the opposition stopped calling him an event manager.

Modi as the leader of the nation should come out and say who, what, when, where and why on the actions taken by his ministers.  The grounds for humanitarian help is always a good cause, but is it applied to all the citizens of India? Or this becomes an exception for a privileged few?  Modi himself doesn’t belong to the privileged few of the nation to start with as his ministers who were of privilege.  Irrespective of the circumstance why were the senior members of the government ignoring the backlash that would come with such decision making?  Did they follow the protocol in issuing support documents to another government?

So many unanswered questions for the government.  Is Modi really an event manager?  Obviously not by this single incident of his ministers doing something that has caused global backlash on him and his government.  Whatever will be the actions taken by the government to bring Lalit Modi back to India to face the legal actions against him they will be looked as reactionary to the lapse of the government in providing travel support.  Weather intentional or humanitarian, Modi is not a great event manager.  For once the opposition will stop using the term to describe Narendra Modi as a great Event Manager.

Why Choose Politics?

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Even before someone is a year old. The world starts looking at what you do, how you do things and why you do things.  It is meaningless to evaluate a little child, but with the availability of internet and telephony (at very little cost to the users) just about everything that we do is getting transmitted, and is available immediately and forever for scrutiny.  We simply google for anything and there it is.  One doesn’t need to tell their life story, it’s out there for just googling and dissecting.

While the internet brings information on to your screen with just a few key strokes. It also opens one’s life to the www.  If you are any kind of a public figure, then there is just about everything that you have done, documented for everyone to google.  The www continuously documents every bit of our history and present.  The simple search tools are of great value for learning and understanding.  The library of yesteryears is at your fingertips and on your computer.  In fact history, past and the present is relayed as is, and as things happen.  CNN started the trend of 27/7/365/366 reporting, and the coverage was most times unedited, unfiltered and reported thru the eyes of the reporter on the spot.  The events of 911 (which I heard on my car Radio driving to Miami, and then glued to the TV as it happened, Iraq war, now the ISIS and the in between Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden, and all the strife around the world keeps the reporters and photographers very busy and well-travelled.  From isolated incidents of yester years, the killings and unabashed human carnage has been increasingly filling our viewing space.
One of the biggest viewership after the carnage and war, is the dirt digging of backgrounds on politicians.  From the American president’s birth certificate (the man is fifty years old and has been in public life most of his adult life) to the Indian prime Minister’s very young marriage, to who’s Kim Kardashian, all things are detailed in the greatest possible narrative.  The fund part of the coverage is not just simple reporting, what follows is continued coverage of every tidbit of information that is real and gossip, that is broadcasted all over the internet, radio and television, followed by the daily newspapers and magazines.  Until the next bit of reporting comes on the air, the channels continuously beat the last ounce of everything out of it, and then move on with the next sensational story.

While the ongoing and current events, specially the wars and disasters get great coverage, one of the great areas of aggressive reporting is often looking into the background and past referencing to anyone that is important (politicians mainly) or anyone that might begin to get public attention (again politicians mainly).  No information is sacred, and no one is sacred, no person related or friend or associate is spared and almost often the search is on for some dirt on the individual.
When you are a politician, or you want to become a politician the scrutiny is excruciating.  For a local level politician wanting to move to the national level politics, the media gives the X-Ray treatment from every angle.  The media doesn’t stop until they dig and dig into every aspect of the person’s life.  The media can and will twist and turn every event, every word, action of the individual in either good or no good.

The person under the intense scrutiny might not remember every instance of what the background reporting might stumble upon, and in what context.  In many cases the simple reactions to any of the instances can be simple human reaction.  But taken into the context of the media coverage today, a lot of gossip, hyperbole, and expert opinion gets added to the non-issue of yesteryears, and becomes political gossip of today.  After a series of intense debate by so called experts, the non-issue starts become something of a statement to defend.  Absurd but ruefully true.

 

Why would anyone want to be a politician?  Why would they want to be in constant scrutiny of the public?  Why would anyone want to be subjected to such public display of their private life?  Simple.  The power and adulation of the political office.

The Business of Killing

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Outside of eat, drink and be happy, we also like the business of killing.  I am no longer sure of the word happy applies to killing, as we seem to be surrounded with the business of killing.  Where ever you live in the world, from the streets of Chicago, to worn torn Middle East, Asia and Pacific, and Europe and Africa, Australia and everywhere we live we seem to be obsessed with the killing business.

Most of my weekly columns don’t require any research.  They are mostly reporting facts as is, or opinions based on observation.  For writing this column, I spent considerable time looking for information on when did the human beings start this business of killing each other?  The internet has millions (may be billions) of references to our evolution, and along with the evolution into current human form, we also have a history of creating and using weapons.  Weapons to kill, what else?

A lot of time was invested trying to trace the first human conflict and invention of weapons.  All this stuff goes back to hundreds of thousands of years, and whatever little we can find on history of weapons and killing relates directly to about 500,000 years and the evolution of neocortex took place at the speciation of archaic homo-sapiens.  While this sounds more scientific and something we don’t want to dig into any deeper, it simply means that human beings brain began to process complex social phenomenon such as language and religion.  It was a long time ago when human beings as we are today when the creation evolved with brain large enough to appreciate and learn multiple languages and understand that we all might not be the same.  There it started, this whole business of logical thinking and illogical thinking, which leads into the business of killing.

I am a Hindu by birth, and believe in god.  Everyone in my family I believe are all believers in god.  Hinduism is also traced with a fairly long history, that predates any other religion is believed to be a way of life.  Our preachers and historians, and our elders all state the same; Dharma and Karma.  Simply agreeing to the oldest religion as the one which believes in reincarnation, it leads to the belief of being good and doing good, and you are rewarded with another human life which is in Hind scriptures as the most intelligent form of life on earth.

Not deviating from the business of killing (the author is not an expert on religion or history or anything else, except being a Hindu in the USA), our epics are all ending with the killing business.  We adore the Ramayana and Mahabharata, but they are full of great virtue of the revered Hindu gods and goddesses, and names of men and women who look up to daily, and pray for their blessings.  The stories which we have been telling for thousands of years, and we continue to read them, write them and practice them.  We love this mythology of our religion, and we cherish the values of the scriptures with the ever changing world, we hold them close to our daily life and in birth, in life and in death; in all instances we believe that the great scriptures are things that we live and follow.

Actually all religions that we follow and all religions we practice and follow are of similar practice.  People are asked to do well and be good in every religion, and then the interpretation of the holy books of each religion that we would like to embrace is what leads us to do what we do.  The business of being good and doing well is widely publicized, preached and asked to be practiced.  But what we are embracing is using our brilliance to fight and kill.  Much of the business of killing now a days is based on religious beliefs and disputed boundaries.

Us humans have been around for hundreds of thousands of years, and perhaps were at constant territorial conflict because of food or resources, and sometimes because of the opposite sex.  Only in the past two or three thousand years we have developed the fascination for killing in the name of geographic boundaries and religion.  In reality there are so many more of us on earth, and we continue to grow in population at alarming rates.  We are also developing ways to live longer and be more productive.  We are also finding ways to cut short our own life by the virtue of religion and geographic boundaries.  The business of killing seem to be blooming despite our ever expanding intelligence and comprehension.

Why are we in the business of killing? Only god knows.  Because outside of going to war for land grabbing, natural disasters are the only other reasons we use for mass killing is religion.  That’s the one thing only god can answer.  Every Holy Scripture preaches peace and coexistence, but those are the followers don’t want to practice it.  Why don’t we follow what we want to believe in?  There is no answer to this.

Better Leaders While in Opposition?

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Indian politicians in the recent years have become more vocal while in the opposition.  The freedom of being in the opposition makes them bold and critical of every move made by the party in power.  Once in opposition the national and state and local leadership becomes very vocal and critical of every move made by the government in power.

A combination of available media outlets and the freedom of being in the opposition and also not having the responsibility of governing to the public, makes politicians experts on policy and governance.  Part of the aggression and analysis comes from the ability and time to analyze performance of the ruling party without the burden of governance.  Also a major part of the aggressive critique is because of the availability of information on every action of the government in power.

The available communications channels serve dual purpose; one – to get updated on everything possible instantly, two – react to whatever is being reported.  Adding to the instant availability of news and updates. The channels also broadcast commentary and opinion.  Most times the reporting is not objective, it is reactive and subjective to catch what is happening.  Many times someone is simply narrating what they see, as they see events happen.  This sometimes is not accurate, rather live narrative, and can be inaccurate.  But the viewer will latch on to any kind of negativity with which the information is being narrated.  This kind of reporting is often corrected as the details of the incident become clear.  Many times even after the corrections are aired to the reported events, the originally reported in accuracies will remain in the viewer’s mind, and most times the politicians are the group that latch on to the inaccuracies in reporting, and they certainly will spin them as facts, especially when the reports are about the opposing political parties.

This kind of opportunism is not limited to just the Indian politicians.  This is a common political phenomenon all across the world.  Politicians specially love to take reporting inaccuracies and twist them as facts, and add a bit of drama to the information and start story-telling to constantly use inaccuracies as facts.  Sometimes the debates on such inaccuracies take a life of their own and the inaccuracies start becoming facts, and be kept alive in the media until something else becomes a topic of discussion.

The opposition parties also have an advantage of the lection loss.  They all of a sudden have the time to reflect and react and repeatedly point to any deviation to election promises and manifesto of the party in power.  The opposition can be vocal in critique and knit pick on even at the programs that are in public interest.  It is great to be in the opposition as the public doesn’t hold you accountable.  You can make it a full time job to simply be a critic of the administration, and get the eye balls and attention.  The opposition also has a long sabbatical from governing, so that they can pretty much do and say anything that they choose to until the next election cycle.  Not being in power enables voice rehearsals, reviewing government actions, become active on networks as a political and social analyst and critic, all this while enjoying the freedom of not being accountable to public.

Nature’s Fury

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

The massive earth quakes, the tsunamis, the heavy and unseasonal rains, the long droughts, the extreme cold, the extreme heat, and all what we call the unnatural events we term as natural disasters have always been a part of earth’s existence.  Our evolution into who we are today clearly chronicles the metamorphosis of humans and the mother earth herself.

We know that one massive land mass broke into today’s continents, which still constantly are moving and creating new boundaries.  The volcanoes and the earthquakes create and destroy the land and surroundings, and reshape the geography quite often.  In the billions of years of its existence, the earth has always evolved into something new and reinvented the conditions that fostered life in many forms.  Until the evolution of human beings in their current form who started to inhabit the land, the habitation of earth was in concert with mother-nature and its sustainability.  The living beings simply survived in the environment of their time and caused little disruption to the eco system.  The fury of nature and the cosmic connection simply determined the existence and survival of the living beings.

Only in the last hundred years or so the humans have either used up or abused much of the earth’s resources at such a rapid pace, much of these earth’s resources that took billions of years to create.  In fact not just on the land mass, we have already abused the oceans.  We dig, we drill, we bore, we cut, we clear, we kill, we pollute and we find very which way we can to destroy the very place we live.  We have only had motorized vehicles for a little over a hundred years, and we might be getting close to using us the oil reserves on earth in a couple of generations.  We are not only using up the reserves, but are also polluting and burning a lot of these reserves either being careless or using it as a weapon against one another.  It won’t be too long before we exhaust the oil reserves and start abusing some other natural resource in thirst for our energy needs.  Simply put in a very short span of life on earth, man is single handedly using up all the natural resources that the good earth took to create its inception.  The ingenious human mind has so far only been smart enough to use the resources, but still has yet to work on sustainability.

The biggest burden is also that the humans keep multiplying at an alarming rate.  We also keep making self-made rifts with color, religion, culture, language and whatever reason that can be found.  We keep abusing everything around us; be it human, living and all the natural resources.  We have eliminated more than 90% of the forests and vegetation, but seldom think of the consequences on the eco system.  We have continue to alter the earth at an alarming rate, and we create waste and trash everywhere.  All this while having no regard for the environment and its fragile eco system.  We really don’t appreciate the beauty and prosperity of our surrounding nature and the good earth.  It shows our utter disregard for the earth.  In just about a hundred years we have used and destroyed just about every available natural resource and dramatically altered the edifice of the good earth.

We complain about the dramatic changes to the dramatic changes to the environment and the extreme changes to the conditions with seasons.  In fact we have destroyed the natural protection that fostered the regular seasons, but fail to realize that we have caused the calamities that are effecting the earth.

While the human consumption and behavior influences the seasonal changes on earth, the earth itself has the ability to self-correct the disasters.  The real problem is at the speed humans are contributing to the drastic changes to the environment, the earth really doesn’t have the time to regenerate.  It is impossible to correct such accelerated abuse of natural resources.  Whenever there is natural correction to the abused environment, we always find ways to accelerate some other means to destroy the environment.  Then we start using the term nature’s fury.  We are smart enough to know that there is no unlimited of anything (including our own life span), and the resources we need take a long time to be created.  Unless and until our intelligence is directed at preservation and upkeep of our nature and our surroundings, and we develop the much needed respect for the mother earth, we will continue to deplete and destroy the precious resources that can never be recreated.  We can only complain about the nature’s fury.

Trivial Pursuit

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Normal citizen of India is looking at the Modi government for actions on many of the poll promises that put him in the PM chair just about a year ago.  There is no magic to politics, and Modi and his BJP colleagues are no different than other master politicians in speech verses performance.  The election promises of a political party that is in the opposition are typically targeted at the weaknesses of the incumbent government, and the electorate already has the five year history (or in some cases more than one term) to make opinions on the ruling party, and also listen and make opinions to vote for the opposition.

Along with majority of Indians both in India and the NRI community, yours truly also strongly advocated opinions (and continue to express positive opinions) for Modi lead government for India.  There are may be a dozen major factors along with many more tangible and intangible reasons for voting for a change at the central government in India in 2014.  Modi and his team and their agenda that sets out the future of India, for both the very rich and the common man and in between the middle class.  The rhetoric, the speeches, the words of wisdom, the challenges for the new government, the wide reach of the media and internet, the many reasons of the nation’s needs and in my opinion the corruption at every level of government; all factors that needed to be changed and Modi hit one every one of the failing of the previous government, and we the people were listening to him and his party.  We really needed change at the top, and also change in the policy and administration of the country.  It did not matter who was listening, but just about everyone wanted to have the government do something to curb the corruption and start focusing on the common man agenda.

Modi was a successful CM, and administrator and also a man who is quite simple and reaches out to everyone.  His reach is enormous to everyone with ability to communicate, and in today’s connected society he is a superstar.  At times he is like a teenager who is constantly updating his profile on the internet pages, and much of it personal and meaningless for public policy.  He shares his private moments with his travels and other head of state, and most of them are filled with his personal anecdotes and his personal comments on where and with whom he is with.  Modi is the leader of the largest democracy on earth, and his reaching out to anyone on earth is unobstructed.  His personal equation with everyone he meets is quite warm and receptive.  It doesn’t matter which country he is in or who he is meeting with, the man is a charmer.  His travels and interactions globally has certainly put India and its leadership as a positive discussion across the world.  We finally have Indian PM that is a welcome visitor into the global audience, and he certainly is smart and savvy to embrace people, politics and culture of everywhere he is.  He is our own political superstar.

In a year at the helm of the country, Modi is well travelled and well engaged man of action.  His agenda is enormous and his public persona continues to expand globally as a man of substance and pro-development.

To review a year at the helm of India is quite trivial.  It is difficult to really look at the election manifesto and 12 months in power.  The election manifesto is typically a list of corrections to the failures of the incumbent government and adding a few spicy issues that are of importance to the nation at the time of elections.

The massive change in the perception on India and Indians across the world after Modi took over as PM is the curtailing corruption.  It is a universally known fact that Modi and his team have been quite vocal in curtailing the corruption, and in the last year there is no significant or major scam that is highlighted as associated to Modi government.  Personally, this is a major plus for Modi and his government.  The telecom, coal, public sector privatization, defense and any other areas where the government has taken major initiatives and auctions, there is no whiff of scams.  This is an election promise that Modi made, and if the current trend continues it is the most significant achievement of this government.  This is probably the most important contribution to the nation’s well-being and managing it resources.

Moving from a state capital to the nation’s capital, especially with the vast diversity of India and its needs. Modi definitely has some more learning to do on what his government says and what it does.  The reality of running a massive nation is much different than running a state, and we can see the management issues that have become common to Modi government.

To begin with a year is over in governance, and it is time to implement what is constantly being publicized as government agenda.  Also, for each project make public what was said and what is being done.  Outside of curbing corruption, there are a lot of initiative that the government must respond to, and put out the progress on each of them.  For sure the promise of returning black money to all Indians is simply impossible as India alone can’t force the global banking system to do something they have never done before, and also estimating the amount of money that is really stashed abroad is the most unimaginative poll statement any politician can make.  People are way too smart to realize that there are things the government can do and there are things that are impossible.  People would appreciate if the government fixes the laws going forward and curb the hoarding of unreported money, rather than trying to figure out imaginary numbers that were promised before the elections.

The government should stop announcing impossible expectations, and start publishing the report card on the already under process initiatives.  Take the next four years to better manage the country’s resources and continue to eliminate graft and cronyism.  By simply diverting the national resources to national building, people will respond to the next elections.  No matter how well you speak or how well you tell a story, the audience is limited to one sitting.  You will have to deliver to the expectations for people to continue to listen to your story.  In Modi’s case and his BJP government, the emphasis should be to continue to eliminate graft (100% graft free) and start publishing the progress of its many initiatives.  No matter what the progress the public will want to know where the government is in doing things that are of importance to the nation, and the public also is fully aware of the reality of life much more than what politicians give credit to.  Modi is always online and it will take his government very little effort to update the nation on everything they have said they will do in the last year.  Just keep us updated and we will judge the actions.  It’s simple to understand and appreciate facts, rather than play trivial pursuit with government’s actions.

Where Are The Billions?

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

It has been a year since elected BJP government with an absolute majority, and made Narendra Modi the prime minister of India.  The year has seen India and its public relations on an upswing, and Modi ass a leader with great public persona.  Modi himself has always been a media and publicity savvy and he connects quite easily and well with global leaders and common man with ease.  His personal equation with global leaders he has met is displayed with extraordinary ease to the tune of friendship.  It is quite a site to see leaders of the world display such camaraderie with each other as if they have been friends for a long time.  It is great to see Modi connect with the rest of the global leaders with such ease and simplicity, and it is quite extraordinary that all the global leaders develop such personal equation with a man who just shot into the international leadership such a short time ago.  It’s all good for the Indian psychology to have its leader treated in such a welcoming way by the global leaders.  The Indian diaspora across the world continues to give Modi a rock star welcome and there has never been such a spectacle of public display of support for Modi wherever he visited.  The endearing thing about Modi is his interest in local culture and traditions and people, and his constant pitching to the audience almost bordering a great salesman.  He continues to travel and receive the adulation from leaders and public from around the world, and also he continues to reach out the every person he comes in touch with.

In his year-long travels and visits Modi has raised pledges for tens of billions of dollars in commitments from just about every nation he has visited.  These are pledges by governments to make investments into India.  There are untold amounts of commitments by companies and NRI population to invest in India.  The entire world has looked at Modi and his government with great expectations for good governance and improving the economic and living conditions for all Indians.  The initiatives taken by the Modi government on clean India, river cleanup, make in India, sanitation and toilets, girl child support, infrastructure, smart cities and many other programs announced along with good governance, with focus on investment opportunities; all of which are good and very much needed development programs for India.

The fact is that the Indian population and the global audience continue to give positive response to Modi and his continued pitch for supporting India.  For the past year most of my weekly columns have covered Modi and his government and governance.  The issues that are focal point of Modi and his policy initiatives are well in line with what is needed by India.

With the end to the first year of office approaching, people want to grade Modi and his government.  To a large degree it is difficult to measure the success of the government in what they have accomplished.  Many initiatives Modi has announced are straight out of his party’s election manifesto.  They are programs that sound great and have great general acceptance.  But after a year in power, the country is looking for these programs to be executed, rather than constant barrage of promotions.  Modi continues to travel and sign agreements for billion and billions, but what has happened to the billions already committed in the past year?  What has happened to these massive commitments made to India?  Where is this money, and when will it be invested and what is the status of these projects and plans?

One of the most interesting and intriguing plans was to build 100 smart cities.  Not a single one has started in becoming a smart city at the end of the year.

The list of what happened is quite long.  There is no doubt that Modi’s good governance is in full swing and we have yet to hear of another scam in India.  Modi himself is hard working and definitely influences others to follow suit.  Modi certainly logs in long hours and his staff and ministers are getting used to working long hours.  But what has happened to the billions pledged into India and who is tracking them and their progress into the economy?

Modi is constantly updating his personal anecdotes on social media, and he is quite good in making statements on what he started.  It might be best for him to also track the progress of each of these things he announces.  He has the time to update the world on what he is doing and who he is meeting and how much pledges that he is getting, but a track on what is happening to these pledges and projects on a regular basis will help appreciate what is that we have really achieved?  It is really time for this government to stop the campaign mode and start the implementation mode.  It’s very simple to measure.  Publish every project, commitments made, who made them, what has been done to those commitments and what has been executed that was initially publicized.  Simple steps with; who, what, when, where and why? On every project that the government has announced.  Modi and his government should make it a practice to update the nation on progress of all these commitments, along with his selfies and personal anecdotes.  The nation deserves better and the government also deserves to do better.

Victim’s Rights

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Last week’s court proceedings in Mumbai about a Hit and run case from 2002, was major headlines all across the news and web channels.  Salman Khan, who has been accused of driving drunk and killing one and injuring others was in court, finally, and the hearings, judgement, bail and the ensuing drama surrounding the proceedings makes one wonder about the victim’s rights in a high profile case.

One of the survivor of the accident says “We don’t want to see Salman going to jail.  We bear no ill will towards him.  Our family has been hurt and destroyed because of this accident and we only want help with moving forward with our life”.  It was on 28^th of September 2002 when this happened and many years have passed by and much has happened to the lives of those involved.  Salman continues to be a superstar and the pavement dwellers have lost a life and lively hood.  After so many years of coverage and hoopla the case finally got to court on May of 2015, and the arguments focused on if Salman was driving the car?

There is still no resolution on what will happen next despite the court hearings, judgement, bail and further opinion of a superior court on Salman’s sentence to a five year prison term, and granting him bail until further hearings.  The judicial system is definitely very slow in dealing with the case load they have.  Every case they have on the docket takes many years to simply come to hearing and much longer to final judgement.  Often the parties to the case, both sides of the argument are fuzzy about what really happened and the story changes many times in the time that is lost before things are argued on court.  The recollection of things that transpired gets changed and often difficult to assimilate as the time goes by.  When a celebrity is involved, the whole world would already have an opinion on what happened (as if they were there).  The press, social media and general public would have already have made up their mind on the accident and many times during the course of time would have changed their opinion on what they believe as facts (as if they were there in person), and changed their mind on the same many times.

What will not change is the life of the victims and the accused.  Whatever the cause of the accident; the difference is with the life of accused and the victims.  Someone died or got hurt, be it with negligence or accidental, whatever the cause it does cause damage.  The damage to property and the human suffering itself is immediate.  For someone to wait for decades to have closure and receive any compensation for the loss is more painful and damaging than the accident itself.

Most of the high profile accidents get a lot of publicity just because of the celebrity status of the individual involved.  What happens to the victims after the initial hoopla? What happens to the accused?  How does both the parties deal with the prolonged legal process?  The uncertainty is not just with the Indian legal system, but with just about every legal system in the world.  Even if the right facts come out after the prolonged wait and then the legal proceedings, who will actually get justice?

Does the victim who has lost life or suffered injuries and can no longer support his/her family get any justice by simply jailing the accused?  Is the system simply prolonging the suffering for the victim and uncertainty for the accused?  Why isn’t the government mandating the insurance to protect all the parties involved?  There are so many more loopholes to the process than just a prolonged and uncertain legal process.  The fact that both the parties to the case continue to suffer; one with human suffering and other with uncertainty.

Everyone involved and every system that is involved really needs wholesale changes in the process of handling the accidents; be it involuntary or voluntary.  Victims of prolonged delays in handling the case, and not having the insurance to help cover the accidents and health related issues should be dealt with, with at most care.  People who buy vehicles and pay for registering them must also be forced to pay for insurance to cover the damages and health related issues that follow the accidents. While we want to have a developed transportation system, we must also enforce the insurance that covers any loss of property or loss of life.  If we don’t then the entire population becomes victims of the system that simply doesn’t know how best to handle the vehicular accidents.