Copycats

I am writing this entry just as an observation. Remember the song tu hi meri shab hain from the Hindi movie Gangster? Well, that was sung by KK. There is a song called my heart is beating from the Telugu movie Jalsa. It is a song that one would say has been 'inspired' by the former. This song has also been sung by KK who in turn a Malayali. The music director might have thought that if he were copying the song, he might as well use the same singer :P It's a beautiful song though, both lyrics wise and tune wise (kinda different from the original, not a total ripoff :) )

This is the Telugu song.

This is the Hindi song.

This is an article on KK.

Update: From my cousin, Gayatri - this is the 'inspiration' for tu hi meri shab hain, Oliver Shanti & Friends - ‘Sacral Nirvana’.

Disrespect or Survival Requirement?

I am writing this entry after seeing a Kellogg's ad on the TV. This company has been trying to change the breakfast habits of Indians for quite some time now, as per my knowledge quite unsuccessfully. As a South Indian I used to have rice for breakfast. South Indians also have items like idly and dosa for breakfast. A North Indian can have paranthas and the likes. This is quite a healthy breakfast and a filling one too. But the company is adamantly fixated upon trying to change the Indians' eating habits.

Does this indicate a disregard or disrespect towards the local culture? Is the company trying to impose American culture just so that it can make money? India is a huge market no doubt. I have nothing against a company entering the country. I do not buy the argument that what the company is doing is for its survival. There is this item called muesli, which is a mixture of quite a few things (cereal, oats, dry fruits etc depending on the combination, read this for more details). I discovered this while I was working in Kolkata in my old job. I liked it quite some. But I preferred to have this as a snack, and not necessarily for breakfast. Why does not the company explore options like this instead of trying to impose corn flakes as a breakfast option? It might also find more success.

WTF are they thinking?

Pardon me for the language on a public forum. I cannot but say this as I see the things that are unfolding in Andhra Pradesh right now. Who does KCR think he is? Does he even have enough seats in either the Assembly or the Parliament to claim to be a representative of the Telangana people? I have heard a report which says that ancestrally he himself is from the Vijayanagaram district (coastal AP or the so-called Andhra).

Who the hell are these people to hold an entire state to ransom? Do they realize the toll the current situation is taking on the health and image of the state? The state road transport corporation was apparently just limping back to good health when this tragedy struck. Had it been a private company by now probably quite a few people would have lost their jobs. Fortunately or unfortunately this is not happening. I wonder what will happen if the RTC does stop paying salaries because of the current situation. Will there be public pressure on the RTC or on the protestors to give up their stand and let life return to normal?

It is easy to stoke the emotions of students. I am one, I can probably be depended upon to know this. Do they realize what they are doing? Every year in Osmania University, by this time the exams are over and some students are also placed. This time, the exams have been postponed twice already, and no company has yet come to recruit - it would be probably need to be stupid if it wanted to come. An NDTV reported asked a student about this. His reply was that there are jobs, but these are being occupied by people from outside. Does he realize the stupidity of what he is saying? If a person is not free to move around in his own state and in his own country, can the country said to be really free?

Telangana 'leaders' are saying that people from the other parts of Andhra Pradesh need not fear if Telanaga is formed. That however, does not seem to be the case. There are already demands for people to 'go back'. How can one expect a family that has settled there to simply pack up and move? Do they realize the kind of nonsense that they are talking?

There was some Congress guy who interacted with the media after talking to Sonia Gandhi. He expressed confidence that she would take the 'right' decision. If she decides that there will be no Telangana, will this person still be willing to take it lying down? There are calls for an indefinite bandh if the state is not formed soon. Did not the Supreme Court or some other court prohibit bandhs? Is the government wearing bangles and sitting in a corner (no offence to the fairer sex)?

For thebandh tomorrow 165 trains have been cancelled. One can only hope some sense prevails soon and that things return to normal.

A Coconut Shredder from Metal Junk

Take a good look at these two pictures. At first look this is a coconut shredder. Now I will tell you about the interesting part as my dad pointed it out to me.

The shredder is made out of recycled engine parts, yes, you read that right. See the arch in the first photo at the bottom? Now look at the other arch in the handle in the second photo. These two form a circle in which the crankshaft fits. If this is not innovation, what is?

Is Andhra Burning?

"Is Paris burning?" was a question Hitler had put to his chief of staff Alfred Jodl. He wanted Paris to be destroyed before it fell into the hands of the Allied Forces. Today the title of the post can be a question put to each other by anxious Telugus all over the world.

I am an Andhraite and I am fiercely proud of it. One very if not the most irritating questions that can be put to me is whether or not I am a Tamilian when I say I am a south Indian. And when I say Andhra I do not mean the coastal part that is referred to by that name by some people of Telangana and Rayalaseema. Instead I refer to a united Andhra Pradesh. I am from the city of Visakhapatnam. But I have also stayed in Hyderabad and to me, the city and region of Telangana is as much a part of the state of Andhra Pradesh as any other part of it.

Potti Sriramulu was a freedom fighter and Gandhian who gave up his life so that Andhra Pradesh could be formed. He went on a fast for the formation of a state for the Telugus, separate from the Madras Presidency that was in existence at the time of independence.

Nehru felt that the consolidation of an independent India was more important and he refused to accept the initial requests for the formation of a separate state. Even as Sriramulu's health was deteriorating he steadfastly refused to accept the demand for a new state. Finally after a long fast Sriramulu passed away and then all hell broke loose. A lot of public property was destroyed and quite a few people were killed in police firing. This was the background against which the state of Andhra was formed in 1953 much like India which had its independence marred by communal bloodshed. Later on Hyderabad was liberated from the Nizam's rule and thus in 1956 the present day Andhra Pradesh was formed.

Andhra Pradesh is divided into three broad regions - Telangana (north), Rayalaseema(south) and Kosta (coastal part). There has been some anger in the Telangana region that the region has been unfairly exploited and that people from otside the region have been coming in and taking away the jobs of the locals.

Now we come to the person at the centre of the whole issue, K Chandrasekhara Rao or KCR. He was part of the Telugu Desam Party or TDP, which was founded by N T Rama Rao. NTR is credited with giving the Andhraites a separate identity away from the Madrasi tag that is attached to all south Indians. KCR was part of the first government set up by Chandrababu Naidu. He was not given a ministerial berth in the second government, which was formed in 1999, but was made the Deputy Speaker. In 2001 he quit the party and set up the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS). So I now ask the question, where was Telangana when KCR was part of
the government?

There seemed to have been a broad consensus during the recent Andhra assembly and parliamentary elections about the formation of Telangana. The TRS performed quite badly and the Congress won pretty impressively. The late Chief Minister YSR was against the formation of a separate state. He in fact made a statement that was widely condemned saying that if the TDP-TRS combine came to power people from one part of the state would need a visa to visit another. Yet he was a person that was against the bifurcation of the state for whatever reasons he had. Today had he been present the situation might have been different.

So in my personal opinion the real reason behind the demand for a separate state is suspect. I have heard that if Telangana is formed it will not be KCR but his nephew or someone who will stand for the Chief Minister's post. But then, have we not heard about the concept of the power behind the throne? Also, how many times have puppet CMs not been put in place? The argument is that the region cannot develop as long as it is 'under' Andhra Pradesh and that it is being exploited. I am surprised by the student agitation to be honest. But is bifurcation the answer to all ills? Are there no other means to develop the region? Politicians generally go for solutions that pay immediate political dividends and may genuine interests be damned. Stoking student passions and demanding a separate state is an easy answer. Today there have been protests in Maharashtra about 'outsiders' encroaching on the jobs of the 'locals'. In AP these so-called outsiders are not even from outside the state. If the Maharashtra argument is stupid, the AP argument is beyond stupidity.

The Congress does not want to be seen as a party opposed to the formation of Telangana. In addition to this, fearing a law and order situtation the government has given in to KCR's demand, at least to an extent. If I remember right the Supreme Court had commented on a particular state government's inability to maintain law and order, saying that it was its responsibility and if it could not do so, it could very well resign. But the fact of the matter, do we have leaders who have such spunk in them today?

As I write this, 136 MLAs have resigned from the state legislature and protests have been going on in Rayalaseema and Kosta against the division of the state. The city of Hyderabad is another bone of contention. The argument to make it a UT or a joint capital does not exactly make sense as it is not practical to govern a state from a capital that is quite a distance from the state's border (which is what will happen if AP is bifurcated). The pro-Telangana camp is adamant that Hyderabad has to be part of Telangana. The brand equity of Hyderabad as a safe investment destination might actually come under a cloud now.Now the Congress is caught on two fronts. It cannot reject the demand outright. On the other hand its own MLAs are resigning in protest of the decision.

I personally do not want the division of a state that was meant to provide a separate identity for the Telugus for purely political reasons. The government can declare a special package for the region if it is indeed true that the region has been neglected. What is needed right now is effective leadership and a genuine concern to address the issues facing the region if not the state.
There was an article I once read which mentioned how the Andhraites were experts at dividing themselves into groups. In the US there two separate Telugu associations were formed - Telugu Association of North America (TANA) and American Telugu Association (ATA). The Telugus went all that distance away from their homeland and still found ways to divide themselves. I can but pray the state stays united peacefully and that better sense prevails among all sections of the society.