Am I Pessimistic??Oh!! Am I??Really??

Today, when I attempted to put a pen down to script ‘My Thoughts’, I never knew what point to start with. Some people may obviously judge after reading that I am in some sort of depression or anger while I am writing this down, but I have decided to share this after consistent research( in my day to day life). Even then if you feel the other way, just try answering these questions, and after that ask your conscience whether I am the only so called pessimist here.

1)      Do you ever think the (so) much Hyped Lokpal bill will be passed the way we intend it to pass?(whatever the Government is, NDA or UPA)

2)      Did you ever go to a MRO office and have got a work done without bribing even a peon?

3)      Did you ever happen to visit a Government Hospital and see it’s facilties?

And finally the final question

4)      Does this list not go unending??

When I was talking to someone the other day, he says implementation of technology can bring down corruption and add transparency to the system, try answering this question-

è Did you ever try to book a ticket online in Tatkal or at least at the reservation office?(If you think that you are not able to book them just because the server is slow, GROW UP)

The list goes unending.. Now let’s consider some words of an Optimist, Genius and a man who made this Nation proud- Abdul  Kalam.

“Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites. We are the second largest producer of wheat. We are the second largest producer of rice. Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.---etc ., etc--I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is: She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation.”

My answers to his questions-

When everything is negative here, why will the media not be?

So what are we doing with our strengths? Looting others…Ain’t it?

We are the first in Milk Production..True..but is the milk sufficient even for us?

Remote sensing is a joke in India..just used to loot all the minerals from this Land. (any doubts, refer KG BASIN SCAM)

Wheat, rice….are they sufficient for our own population?

For a nation whose boundary stretches from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, there will be some stories which will seem to be good. But is it not fact that there are exceptions for everything?

I will always remember the famous dialogue “if you donate a lakh to a beggar, he will beg in a golden bowl.”

I have to share an incident which happened in a city bus while I am commuting. I offered a seat to an elderly lady standing just beside me. After some stops, the one sitting beside the lady left. The lady started calling her son standing beside me to sit beside her. At that point of time, I could do nothing but ROFL. Let alone me, I can understand that lady. But if that ever happens to some other guy, will he ever help anyone else?  And to the core, are these people really fit to be helped?

Am I still trying to be pessimistic?? Ok..lemme narrate a few more examples. I pay 30% of my income as tax to ply on a pot holed road. For each and everything I buy, there is an indirect tax levied and so is the case with my cell phone. After I lost it, I complained it in the nearby police station, the reply was shocking, “we don’t take cell phone theft cases, there are enough already. You should take care of your cell” as if I have lost my phone just as a part of a game. Then why the bloody hell am I paying the taxes for?

The other day I had an argument with a friend on this topic and she says, “first be perfect yourself”. I said I follow the traffic rules, I always abide by the rules laid down, I pay my taxes, I vote. What else do you expect me to do??

TAKE SANYASA and Preach the nation??” like the so called Baba’s .

I will always vote, but am I not being given a choice between deaf, dumb and blind to rule us? Whom should I vote for now?

When I refer and read many blogs about tourism in India, the foreigners say that anyone from the west should visit India at least once, to respect their homeland and stop complaining about their own nation.

Perhaps, Churchill was right when he said that Indians are unfit to be independent. For us, democracy is just Alien. We are 60 odd years into democracy and still we fail to realize the intricacies of it. We are unfit to rule ourselves. We work at our best only when we are slaves.(Doubts??  Compare any Government sector with the Software Industry)

If it is anything that India had achieved over the past 60 years, it is only that it has managed to not rip itself apart successfully and become a 100 nations.

Finally, I always had a wish to do something for my Nation inspired by all the literature I read while growing up. But, practically are my efforts really worthy for these people, however small they are?

United or Divided!!!

By attempting to write this blog, I am fully aware that I might invite the wrath of my Telangana(geographically) friends as well as the Andhra &Seema Friends( Geographically Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema). The reason for which I have stated geographically specifically is we are all Andhra Pradesh(Geo-Politically)  atleast as of now. But please read it fully coz’ I have taken a dig at everyone.

When I first entered Hyderabad in 2005, I was amazed by its Cosmopolitan Culture and the warmth with which it absorbed me in itself.  What amazed me even more is that the make-over Hyderabad has been through in a short span of 10 years- from a city of pearls & nizams to a Hi-Tech city.Vizag was till then the most beautiful city with every film maker eyeing that city for any movie. We need not debate over who gave Hyderabad that ultra modern look because the answer is obviously  NCB Naidu (my favourite Leader)  who felt  that the Capital City of the State deserves to be so.

Those were the days, when political movement for a separate state was in a naïve stage. The one question that has been pondering in my mind since then is why do they invite all the industries right into the nose of  Hyderabad, when they quite clearly know that, the politicians from this region will claim a 100% share of the wealth created here as is happening now. Microsoft established its first R&D center  outside the U.S and in Asia in Hyderabad(leaving B’lore which already has a well established IT industry and HR by then in 1997) not because of the love they have for Telangana or Hyderabad, but because of extensive lobbying done by NCB Naidu so that it can act as an anchor for the rest of the IT industry. Situations further aggravated the tensions in my brain when a Fab City has been sanctioned to Hyderabad due to extensive lobbying done by YSR (My favourite Politician). But, thanks to background lobbying done by Tamil Nadu ministers for taking away the most important companies to their state, and now the project is only a solar power equipment  manufacturing  one, else it would have created even more wealth. Today the total wealth created by IT industry in Hyderabad alone is 38,000 crores, which is 38 % of the budget in the state.  I’ve heard many leaders from the T-region saying in many open debates that the development Andhra Leaders have done is for themselves and development is nothing but exploitation. Well, if they do not want to be exploited, then why do they not attack Hi-Tech city as a part of Telangana agitation which is exploiting big way? If they do not want to be deprived of their land, then why do they not ask the industries in Hi-Tech city to shift their bases from T to elsewhere?  Most probably, the people from the AR will be so happy to invite all of them to set up their bases in AR get exploited by these industries and also leave Hyderabad. T-people will then be a very happy bunch to get off from all the controversies and get Hyderabad with the status-quo of 1956 as they want ( both geographically and economically)(I seriously do not understand why status-quo 1956 and not 1947) and even without AR people. I forgot to mention a note of special thanks to my friends from TRS for the ruckus they have created in Hyderabad. Many of the exploiters who want to exploit the T-Region went away to exploit other states such as Tamil Nadu creating unwanted wealth for them.

But still, I fail to understand why the leaders from the AR-Region fail to implement the G.O 610 and the Gentlemen’s agreement made way back when T was united with AR?  Why the allocation of funds was very less for the T-region. May be, the leaders from the AR fail to realize that the process of give and take must be mutually acceptable.  Why did the leaders fail to address the concerns of T-people w.r.t water  which might be possible or might not be( the leaders from the A-region claim that the T-region is not very fit for canal irrigation. I am not so sound with the technical aspects of that. But, at least prove it to them if the land is not fit to be canalized.) If the lands are not fit to be canalized, then why do they not show them an alternative way to  agriculture such as drift irrigation which is so successful in Chittoor district. Why did they not solve the problem of Fluorosis  in Nalgonda and provide them with safe drinking water. In fact even the bid for supplying  entire Nalgonda with Reverse Osmosis treated   sea water from the coast has started in 2006 if my memory goes right. But I never knew what happened after that and why the project did not kick-start.

May be the people of T should decide their fate not others (at least they feel that AR are outsiders only and can never be insiders).  Revolutions don’t just come out of nothing. The sound of a clap is only when two palms gather momentum. Backwardness may not be a point of argument for T coz’ backwardness is everywhere.  Even if one of the above said problems was solved effectively, there would not have been a demand for a separate state.

But, the situation in the state has now come to a point of no-return, a separate state will lessen the tensions in T and people from the AR need not so much concerned about the water as the Central Government decides how much share should one get. Hyderabad be made mutual capital for a while and developing a separate capital for AR meanwhile. Building a separate capital is not just about building the Government infrastructure which can be done in a jiffy but also developing(exploiting in other sense ;-) ) it. If any leader from AR is seriously dedicated to developing AR, four such  Hyderabad’s or even bigger cities can be developed in AR alone. My choice of those 4 cities can be Kurnool, Tirupati, Vijayawada and Vizag considering the enormous HR and excellent prospects they have. But, while doing so, have a special focus on North Andhra with an inclusive development so that no further demand for states can arise.