blogubagu

Each day we are welcomed with the flood of reports on leaks from different parts of the world. One is WikiLeaks, which is by a whistle blower non-profit organisation founded by Julian Assange. He or his organisation could not be labelled blackmailers or armtwisters in disseminating the information contained in cables and wires sent by the diplomats the world over. It definitely makes an interesting reading as you get an access to what happens behind the cosmetic cover of the niceties and pleasantries in the diplomatic circles. Some are amusing while some are shockers of their kind. People have a right to know these form, in some cases, a trove of information to the general public. Assange and his team had to face a lot of pressure and were discouraged constantly from revealing the contents of the cables dated till 30 years back. The servers were crashed and there was hacking and he was booked on a petty case and later arrested. Then comes a story akin to a daily soap in the name of Rad...

We have our daily dose of the scams, scandals and the corruption charges. To borrow the word from my friend Srinivas, we have our preoccupation with the GAFLAs(a hindi translation to the word SCAM). So much so that our appetite for the new gaflas is increasing with each passing day and we gratify by reading and knowing about more and more scams happening in this nation. Trust our politicians, they would never let us down. They all would ensure that we do not starve and get disheartened by not giving us something new gafla to read and crib about. What is the end result, is anybody's guess. We write, talk, read, discuss, watch elaborately about the gafla till the time we find someone unearthing a new one from thin air. We hear so much about a particular scam and start counting zeros in the gafla amount. Then we start justifying, based upon our own personal affiliations, leanings and beliefs that this gafla is bigger than the previous ones and so it is worth cribbing about. Then the j...

There was the story of some great emperor who had a wise minister as advisor, couldn't recollect well if it is Akbar Birbal duo or some other combination. One day two ladies come quarelling to the king's court claiming a baby to be their's and not belonging to the other one. The Court had a tough time deciding the true mother among those two. The wise minister tells a way out of this and then suggests to the king that the baby boy be cut to half and divided equally between the two ladies as both their versions seem to be genuine. On hearing the judgement from the king, one of the ladies offer to the lordship to withdraw from the claimon the baby so that cutting her baby could be avoided. On hearing this, the King concludes her to be the real mother of the baby and punishes the other lady for coming to the court with a false case and wasting the court time. This is in short the story I read in my childhood. Fortunately then, there were no experts to judge this judgement.Othe...

There is a big bungalow in a city which is proudly owned by an owner for whom the place is not just an asset but a matter of legacy and remembrance of his ancestors. That bungalow was vacant for some time and this owner could not keep it secured. In the due course, an aggressive and powerful person with the blessings of the people in power has unlawfully occupied the bungalow and taken its possession. When the owner has realised this, albeit lately, the unlawful tenant did not vacate and this tussle went on for 12 full years. At that point of time both the owner and the tenant have gone to the court. Fed up with the process of the judicial delays and complexities, our owner friend has taken the help of the professionals who have assured this man that by persuasion or coercion they would vacate the premises. One fine day they sprang a surprise by turning up at the site and throwing out the unlawful tenant alongwith his furniture and belongings. Then came the much awaited day of the Cour...

Primary and high school teachers play a significant role in moulding one's life in the formative stages. If it is a language teacher, it is even a bigger impact. Such is the influence of a language teacher. This article is dedicated to one such great person for whom there is no such thing as a remembrance, as he is never forgotten. Dr. Pingali Jagannadha Rao was my telugu teacher from my 6th standard to 9th standard before I moved out of the school due to my father's occupation. He is the one whom I admired the most in my high school days. He was a double M.A. in those days from an Oriental College. He was simple and knowledgeable, a man of letters, I must say. Apart from his command with the language, he used to be very much aware of history and influence of other languages on Telugu. He was our Class Teacher for those 4 years of my schooling and he was remembered for his equanimity. Once he starts teaching Telugu in our Class, we used to be awestruck with his mellifluous rend...

In the recent times the State of Andhra Pradesh has been a platform for the political yatris. Many party leaders starting a tour on some pretext or the other. Odarpu Yatra, Telangana Yatra and fact finding yatra. It all started with Jaganmohan Reddy, son of the former Chief Minister of A.P. Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy starting the "Odarpu Yatra" to console the bereaved families who have lost their dear ones in the aftermath of YSR's death, supposedly unable to bear the grief of seeing their dearest leader depart. I have no comments about the authenticity of this count and the reasons behind their deaths. The tour started well and he has braved the scorching heat in search of his fortune. There is an undercurrent of sentiment attached to the yatra, you know. Whoever has taken up the "padayatra" has been successful in the past. The best case to prove it is none other than Jagan's own father. Taking a leaf or two from his father, from whom he did not get just his blo...

Today there was a call for Bharat Bandh, a call given by the main opposition parties and supported by fuse friendly opposition parties. The bandh was to protest for the increase in Petro prices or rather phased de-regulation of petroleum product prices. There is a lot of mechanism going on in organising these bandhs and making them successful. At the end of the day, there would be claims and counter-claims about the bandh being successful and not so. But what is the impact of these bandhs on the so called aam aadmi like you and me! Deregulation of Petroleum prices is good economics and bad politics. In the global economy how can you run the show with Administrative Pricing mechanism. So today or tomorrow it was to happen. The rueing is how the decontrol or deregulation would do in India. What if the Oil Marketing Companies form cartel(as if they are not doing so now!) and manipulate the prices when they sit for chai pani every fortnight when they revisit the prices? Is there a foolpr...

We all need break from the rigmaroles of our routines. I hope everyone is with me on this premise. One would be rejuvenated after having a planned holiday. And one needs to go on a holiday once in a year ideally. This summer I could not plan my trip to any hill station. So I chose an ill station instead. Not exactly, but going to Visakhapatnam in the month of May is not a joke. I had a feel of it once again. But the reason for being there is to be at my brother's place at Vizag Steel Plant, which was overdue of sorts. The weather was very tough on us with high humidity levels which we are not used to. Added to this I had to come to Hyderabad for a couple of days for my official commitments. We have been to Simhachalam, Arasuvelli, Sri Kurmam. We have also been to the famous temples at Vizag, Sampath Vinayagar koil and Kanaka Mahalakshmi temple. Going to beaches was definitely mandatory and we went to Ramakrishna Beach and Bheemili Beach. My daughters enjoyed the stint. We were back...

Today the two streams of summer camp has concluded with the valedictory function at R.K. Mutt, Hyderabad. I was late to the office as I stopped to see the event on the way to my office. But there are no regrets as the occasion was such a great one that I could not resist from skipping it and I am only a phone call away to my office. There were two streams of the Summer Camp at Ramakrishna Mutt; one a 3 week long programme for kids between 10 to 15 yrs and the other one a 2 week module for the ones between 8 to 10 years old. During the Camp Slokas' recital, Yoga and moral stories are taught to the younger ones. An added attraction would be a varied range of snacks after each day's session. Children like this no less than other things. The timings are from 8.30am to 11.30 am. Much stress is given on imbibing discipline and inculcating moral education in the children. The function was presided by the Chief Pontiff of Hyderabad Mutt Sri Jnanadananda Swamiji. The Chief guest was Mrs...

Miracles do not happen too often! Once again it's proved. India is out of contention of the World T20 Cup officially now. Quite expectantly India lost its way midway through the tournament when it was trounced upon by the mighty looking Aussies. A typical case of peaking too early in the tournament. The last nail in the coffin was hit by the match against the West Indies. It was a case of being outplayed in all the departments of bowling, batting and fielding. The match against Sri Lanka was only of academic importance. No regrets really! Was it a case of overkill of cricket, particularly the T20 format one? The services of the likes of Sehwag not being available to turn the fortunes in favour of the team? What motivates the team the most? Is the timezone difference made so much less of viewership? So many questions crop up in my mind. It is a classic case of the IPL taking the cake of cricketing fun and eating it too. The natural charm of the sport is lost in making it a mockery....

There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel, who knows if we could finally see anything in that light, at last! There seems to be some swift action about the murkier affairs of the IPL. Let us wish that some thing positive emerges out of these knee-jerk reactions, to say the least. Let us leave it to chance. Human beings, by nature, are great believers in hope. Sometimes it works as oxygen and sometimes it gives them many a lifeline. What else they can do, if not hope for better things to happen- better administration, better civic sense, better civic amenities, better environment, etal. When I write here about better civic amenities, what strikes me more hard is the travails of the road users making things more complicated with each passing day. The other day there was a proposed "Chalo Assembly" for which traffic police have devised a way out for fizzling out the protestors' plan. They have literally turned Hyderabad into a fortress. It was very tough being a vehic...

The news flow about the IPL new franchisee for Kochi team reads more than that meets the eye. First let us go through the chronology of events regarding this controversy, named IPL, biggest Indian tamasha, where sports only takes a back seat. (Event Chronology: Courtesy: ET) March 7 : IPL franchise auction is called off after objections over stiff financial clauses March 21 : Auction re-staged; Sahara wins Pune bid, Rendezvous group wins Kochi for .33 million. Shashi Tharoor, an MP from Kerala and junior foreign minister in the Congress government, plays facilitating role. Interim : Reports suggest Rendezvous' surprise win has upset bigger players. Tharoor reportedly meets Congress leaders, asks them to ensure pressure eases on Kochi owners, says he has no personal material stake in franchise. April 9 : Media reports say BCCI has raised questions over shareholding pattern, asked Rendezvous to clarify its ownership structure. April 10 : Kochi owners meet Modi in Bangalore...

I know that the title appears to be a straight lift from the Samsung catch line. Let me be candid in admitting that it is purely intentional. I did not find a better one either. There is nothing which could be called WASTE in absolute terms. What made me to comment thus! I have learnt long ago that cattle excreta could be used in various ways, one among them being the production of Gobar gas. Then came to my knowledge that the waste that we through daily as rubbish and that the "chettabbai"(waste collector, shall I say!) religiously collects it and dumps it at a centralised location where it is processed for generating power. Interesting isn't it? Then there is an interesting article in Business Standard which inspired me to write this post. So much of history & geography involved in this one. Urine consists of a lot of inorganic salts, which produce gases which cause odour only when mixed with water. On the other hand, when urine is oxidised, it also gives that stink...

We all know the story of the four blind men going on describing how an elephant is. With a sense of brevity let me put it here for the benefit of those who would have forgotten the story. To be honest to myself, I can only reproduce the story loosely here. Four visually disabled persons(being politically right would be prudent these days) feel elephant and describe thus. The first one feels the elephants ears and says, "it is very wide like a big leaf". The second one feels the tail and says, "it is think and short". The third one feels the trunk and says, "it is flexible, long and tube like". The fourth one feels one of the legs and says, "it is like a pillar". While all the descriptions are true, the bigger picture is missing here. Why I get reminded of this tale now! When I went through the Apex court judgement about the Khushboo's case, I was amused by the reasoning given in the text of the judgement. The revered bench said that while the...

I keep wondering how often we do care about others when it comes to driving on the road in particular. As a typical Hyderabadi with the " light lelo " attitude, we are not bothered to consider the incovenience we cause by violating traffic rules, signal, lane discipline among others. Jiyo aur jinedo is supposed to be our slogan. But it has taken the twist of Jiyo aur marnedo in the present day context. Most of the time you are discouraged to follow any traffic rule. If you stop at a red signal, the bus wala with his bumper closest to yours, would nag you by honking so much so that the next time you would easily take a call when you are facing the signal. Why to take the trouble of following a rule and then getting nagged! To be humble on my part I cannot claim to be a 100% stickler to traffic rules. I too find excuses as justification to my small small violations(defintely they are small, I assure you). Anyway no one is coming on the side where the signal is green, a 100 met...

To follow up with my blog on the 3G service, I thought it fit to mention here the link for the blog that gives much authentic, lucid and plain description of the 3G service by my colleague. It would clarify all your doubts about 3G. I have become much informed with the latest one by him. Hope you too would follow and further clarified about any of your doubts about 3G or even mobiles, as he is, on his own admission, a mobile freak. Bye for now. Here is the link to Swamy's blog. http://mobilekrizzer.blogspot.com/

For some strange or unexplainable reason, I have started liking the Women's Reservation Bill in the legislative houses from the time of its infancy. I really could not explain why? All the odds are stacked against supporting it. 1. Reservation in any form kills the spirit of competition, equanimity and level playing field. 2. There is no guarantee that reserving the seats for women would empower them - the so called biwi(rather biwiyaan, as politicians are notoriously known for their polygamy, atleast a vast section of them), bahu, beti brigade would be fighting the electoral battles as proxies to the existing male ones. 3. What is the guarantee that women behave differently than their male counterparts in and outside the legislative houses what with the experience of corruption, nepotism, crime and rule violation(traffic rules is the best testimony for this) showing up from the fairer sexes too. All this apart, per se, I felt from the very beginning of the proposal of the bill tha...

At the end, all is not well with the Indian national sport, Hockey. Probably the expectations were misplaced what with the first encounter against Pakistan. First things first. Indian hockey has to endure so many struggles, if not battles, before it faces any big international event. The arrogance of authority by the likes of Gill, the political greed of the likes of Kalmadi, the meagre reward associated with taking up Hockey, or for that matter, any sport in our country leaves much to be desired. The careers of the legends like Mukesh kumar & Dhanraj Pillai stands testimony to why a sport like Hockey has lost its eminence in India and why people do not like taking up sport as a profession. The present hockey team had to fight for their compensation just before the world cup. It has showed up in the lack of preparation of the team. Traditionally asian hockey and european hockey have been altogether different ball games, figuratively though. European hockey is called power hockey wi...

There was widespread coverage about the clandestine activites of Kalki Bhagawan(so called) and channels are competing to grab the TRPs. Everyone has his own stuff of exclusive coverage with panelists from followers and followers turned critics to take calls from the public followed by a out-and-out SMS poll for some questions. Overnight everyone would wake up with so much of awareness and start opining their views about everything. Today a video clipping of Swami Nityananda in compromising positions, a la ND Tiwari, with a tamil actress was shown with looped video film. What is my take on these so-called godmen! It is simple. Being a firm believer in the Almighty, I do not believe in any of these godmen. These are fiefdoms and empires supporting out business lobbyists, politicians to get their activities going in the guise of some super power. Add to this the madness and greed of people who want some quickfix solutions to all of their miseries. You have a system which support these cul...

Today at 11am BSNL AP has proudly launched the 3g Mobile services at Ravindra Bharathi. I was invited for the function which was inagurated by the Governor of AP, Mr. VSL Narsimhan. BSNL is the first service provider in the country to launch 3g Mobile services and the credit goes to A.P. for being the frontrunner. What 3g mobile means to us, the users? I would try to put it in a layman's terms, being one of them myself. Presently we all are using the 2g mobile services, irrespective of the service providers. This 3rd generation or the 3g Mobile service, as is popularly called would provide for higher bandwidth, video phone calling(why just hear the caller when you can hear him too!), TV on mobile, Multi media and multi-person video gaming among other features. Today incidentally is the birthday of Graham Bell. But there is a catch here. When you want to make a video call, you need to have a 3g compatible phone and also the other side person also should be using a 3g phone. On top ...

For quite a long time writing a blog has been at the back of my mind and it has been that. Today is a day when I have decided to have the 'Arangetram', the first performance of an artist. My blog is titled 'Blogubagu'. The idea is to present a feel good factor being a commentary on the contemporaty subjects(in telugu, bagu means 'well' and the goal is to have a blog which is 'bagu' as well). Feedback is welcome. "Krushitho naasthi durbhiksham" goes thus the adage. I hope with sincere efforts and constructive feedback from all I could prove this blog to be of substance and relevance. Just a small beginning......