Telangana – Wild fire and the dumb media!

In my earlier post ‘Who ignited it?’ that I wrote on December 1st, I was very clear that whoever ignted this passion had no clue what they were doing! As I see it today, the fire has spread to every village, every hamlet across Telangana. People traveling into villages are coming out with reports of how the smallest and remotest villages had relay hunger strikes and other forms of unique protests going on. At this point I would like to quote a person who has generally been against the idea of Telangana but seems to have changed his stance recently, as stated in a comment on one of Sujai’s posts (I am presenting it over here as it is, you can find the same comment on Sujai’s post that I linked to, all credits to the commenter and Sujai) -

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I would like to share some personal experiences. Upon my doubts regarding Telangana a close Telangana friend invited me to his home in Cheryal, Warangal Dt. We started from Hyd & went to Bhongir & then Yadagirigutta & then Cheryal. For the benefit of Andhra people I would like to clear of few things from personal experience.

Politicians are leading this movement
Blatant lies. In all my journey I saw no political leader leading the masses. It sounds funny, but anyway let me state it. Politicians are coming like guests to the rallies, functions, paying some lip service, getting themselves photographed with the masses, & politely excusing themselves from these rallies. They are afraid to speak more than whats required.

T movt started recently
Its ignorance & selective attention by media. My friend's father is a journalist & he informs me tht in KU already many people have done their Ph.D on Telangana & many are still in pipeline.

Telangana is KCR/TRS. Others are ignorant

I was viewing T Dhoom Dham, & its common folk who talk abt exploitation by Andhras thru ballads.

People are quite angry & were infact using the same language as Sujai uses in this blog. (calling Andhras oppressors etc etc...very strong language)

Atleast so far, no Andhra settler has been harmed. There was talk by some misguided people to attack them. But the leaders brushed this aside.

Unlike my native town, (WG Dt) the area hardly receives irrigation facilities. Infrastructure is very low..

Whatever the causes, people are very angry & feel that separate state would solve problems. The educational drive is surprising rather. Most of them quote in detail the statistics.

I think its time to reconsider my & our position. I suggest others to see these agitations from close angle to form their opinions rather than from media.

']

 
So, that’s what a person from West Godavari district had to say about his recent trip to Warangal. However, yesterday, when news media across the country splashed their front pages with “Telangana ignites again”, I could only reiterate how dumb the media has been. Again? You think it ever ended to start affresh? Well, I get their point – they want violence, they want those news scoops, shots of burning vehicles, mobs throwing stones and that’s the only thing that will grab their attention! How mean, how sick!!

Well, I have had some extremely shocking experiences in the last one month with the way news was covered in most of the national news channels. Reporters were being completely one sided most often, completely clueless of the real scenario, barely having the gutts to venture into towns and villages of Telangana! So, that’s what gives the impression to the rest of the country that it’s the students at OU who are creating all the noise! Yes, they are taking the “initiative”, if you might want to call it. But the fact is that there is so much more going on a daily basis. It’s just that the national media has it’s camera fixed on one place, the Osmania University. May be they just can’t gather the gutts to go and do some investigative real time reporting on what is it that the people of this region really want, why is it that they are asking for a separate state!

Sudhir, Rajdeep and many more have commited blunders in their reports/blogs about this issue. At times I did send in corrections, but who cares – they want it their way! For Rajdeep, it was still Potti Sriramulu who was responsible for creation of Andhra Pradesh – won’t blame him completely, but he just shouldn’t trust his reporters on the ground over here, who could in everyway be biased! He should have definitely done some research before venturing out to state his views on this issue. More importantly, when someone corrects him, he should respond to that and stand corrected! But, no, time is money for these guys – just take some dumb stand that sells, and get away with it, that’s how it works.

Last month, even after the movement started to gain ground in the first week of December, most national news channels had decided to skip it all. But one fine day, they had headlines all of a sudden – and that was about Renuka Choudary’s house being attacked in Khammam by some unknown miscreants as part of the agitation. So, until something like that happened they didn’t feel there was anything big about it! There was a lot going on, but what seems to have bothered them the most was that Renuka, a celebrated studio guest for most of those channels was targeted! That’s the way the news channels work, because may be that’s what sells best to their target audience, the middle class Indians who generally have this ‘goody goody’ opinion about themselves – the ‘we know it all first class citizens’ of this country who live in their own make believe world! These are the same people who can gather in thousands to show solidarity for a girl’s family who ended her life almost a couple of decades ago, but just don’t have the time and patience to investigate into real burning issues of today!! We as a nation are definitely going the wrong way, the make money at any cost way – sell what sells, make money, let everything else go down the drain! Label people as terrorists/separatists the moment they open their mouth and sideline them (huh, remember that dialogue from Avatar?)!!

Telangana – Now a revolution, not just an agitation

December 7th, 2009 – Day 9 of the agitation : It would have been just another day of peaceful demonstrations at OU with the students peacefully carrying out their performances, songs and speeches at Osmania Arts College, just as they did through the last week. But the police had a different plan, they had crystal clear directions from ‘you know who’ – no, not the Home Minister, not even the CM, they hardly have any power in this state !

One of my friends has taken the risk of following all the moves at OU from ground zero. So, he was there too – in fact he had a choice to stay away as the police had sent in a huge number of RAF personnel early that morning to the campus, some of them armed with sophisticated weapons! Here’s an insider’s story – I will try to present it as it is, as it happened, truth and nothing but the truth, uncensored, but in my words based on the bits of information provided to me! This is especially for those people who have been blacked out by the biased reporters covering for the national media (this will be another post – there’s so much to talk about on that aspect)

“

On reaching the university I had seen a huge number of policemen (mostly RAF personnel) at the Tarnaka entrance to the campus. It was overwhelming, it would definitely be unwise to try that route, very risky, since you never know what’s on their agenda for the day. Sunday was largely peaceful, wonder what prompted them to deploy such a heavy force!

Anyway, I knew all the possible ways to get inside. I decided to take the path through the cricket grounds from behind. It seemed to be a good pick, but soon enough I had to face a few policemen. The senior most guy called me, and I went on to talk to him. He was a Telugu, but a non-local (you know what it means). He asked me what I do, and asked me to go back home and study. That was not reason enough for me to return, why should I not be allowed inside, I insisted I wanted to go in, there was no legal reason to hold me off. Just then one of them seemed to loose patience, and I agreed to move back.

There was yet another route, through a residential area called Manikeshwar Nagar. I went into that area, and saw a group of students who too had failed to enter the campus. This groups was singing songs, and raising unprovocative slogans. And just a few meters away there was another contingent of RAF guarding a small opening into the university. I decided to stick with these guys, it was after all a peaceful demonstration, so nothing could go wrong, or at least that’s what I thought.

For 15 minutes, everything was fine, and the songs and slogans were continuing. But, suddenly the police started moving towards us, completely on their own, I guess they were desperately waiting for an opportunity, but did not get any so far, so they lost all patience. In the next few moments, they scared the life out of us, all of a sudden they charged at us and started hitting us with their batons to drive us away from there! We ran, ran for our lives, my first such experience in life! After running in for over half a kilometer, some of the local residents came out in support of us and the crowd swelled to over 500. This is when we realized that we could chase away the police, and get into the university. We turned back and ran into the policemen, which obviously made them retreat and go back towards the opening they were guarding. But our group did not stop there, and this is where a few people from the crowd started pelting stones at the police until they left the opening and ran towards the bigger contingent of RAF. Some of us took that opportunity and successfully entered the campus – what an achievement, but I have no clue why it had to be so tough, there was no legal reason what so ever! I came to know that several people including MLAs and MLCs were illegally detained at the Tarnaka gate, so my decision of not taking that route was sensible!

Now I was inside, but to my horror the situation inside was even more tense! Thousands of policemen, in full gear, some with sophisticated guns stood there, completely outnumbering the two hundered students and professors at the Arts College. It was the sound of silence, complete silence! Somehow I made it to the tent with the gathering. The discipline and restraint shown by the students over there was remarkable – there was this sense of pride that engulfed me! The instructions by the JAC were clear, no slogans, no opportunity should be given to the police, they could even resort to firing if given an opportunity. But for me, I knew that even that might not help, in fact I had just escaped from an unprovoked lathi charge. I suddenly started feeling that I shouldn’t have been here. Thousands of policemen, just 50 meters away, and the concern that they may be moving closer – It looked like there was no escape, I wouldn’t be able to escape this for sure! We all sat there, completely tensed up, but none of the others were showing any of the tension, remarkable again!

Just as I was loosing all hope, I don’t know what to call it – a miracle, a divine intervention, whatever! Out of the blue, we saw hundereds of lawyers dressed in black and white, running towards us, and with them were hundereds of other students freed from the hostels by the lawyers who stormed in from the gate towards Vidyanagar! The emotions I went through during those exhilarating moments will be with me as one of those greatest highs in my life – unbelievable, something I could only relate to as a scene from a dramatic movie! As the lawyers reached our tent, there were hugs and hand shakes! At this moment, we thought it’s done, now no one could come in the way of statehood! This spontaneous show of strength by over 750 lawyers (as I learnt later on), was nothing short of certain key turning events in revolutions that we learn about in our history books! I thank each one of them, they knew it was risky, they knew we were all alone, they were of all ages – young and old, and they teamed up and took on the police for us, and for the larger cause!

In minutes, everything changed! The media seemed to regather too, after having to bear the brunt of the lathis themselves – one of them was badly injured I heard! Very soon, State Human Rights Commission sent a representative to bring things under control. Once the HRC arrived, the police began to pack up and move away, a clear indication that they knew they were not supposed to be there. Finally, the police left.

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So, that’s what my friend had to say. We talked about a few other things, including clear cut conclusions on who was responsible, and who is really in charge of the government, of how certain local policemen were not even willing to do what they were doing! Now, decide for yourself, what’s going on? How can one person with an aspiration to sit on the chielf minister’s chair, and with sole interest of safeguarding his commercial interest in Hyderabad misues his influence of money and power in such a horrible way!? God knows! But for all of us who know the people behind these atrocities, we will never let go a legal chance to take them on!

[updated on Dec 13th, based on some corrections suggested by my friend, after his review]

Who ignited it?

Having been born and brought up in Hyderabad, I have heard a lot about the years of struggle for a separate Telangana state. However, over the years I have generally been very indifferent to the concept of statehood for the Telangana region – but at all times I have supported the need for taking care of several socioeconomic issues within this region – from respecting the local dialect to reviving industries and irrigating the lands – there are several issues, but for people who don’t understand the seriousness, here’s my attempt to point them to what went wrong and why certain sections of people are so desperate for a separate state. Please don’t mix this up with other regional issues being raised by selfish politicians around the country.

History

It all started way back in the 1950s, when the State Reorganisation Committee recommended that the Telugu dominated places from Hyderabad State should not be combined with the then Andhra state, stating that the people in Hyderabad would not want to accept that. Culturally both these places were miles apart – one was ruled by the Nizam, and the other was under British rule. But as you can read over here in this Wikipedia article, Andhra state had a stronger presence of Congress leaders as it was under the British rule, and those leaders obviously chose in their interests, and created the state of Andhra Pradesh by merging Hyderabad State and Andhra.

Within a decade people in Telangana realized that things were not in their interest, and in 1969 a huge movement was started demanding for a separate state, and over 300 students died in that movement, and things cooled down only after a presidential order was issued to safeguard the interests of the region – the 6 Point Formula .

However, not much of what was promised was implemented. In fact it was only later in mid 1980s that the government assured  job security for the people of Telangana through a GO – 610 GO. But unfortunately it took another 20 years before that GO was partially implemented, though people tell me that the GO was actually never implemented the way it had to be – most of the governments chose to ignore it, because at most times the lobby opposing it proved to be heavier! So, for more than 60 years, people of this region seem to have been deprived of whatever they were promised.

So, now what?

I believed that if all this is taken care of, then there would be no reason for a separate state to be created – it would definitely be such a costly affair to redraw the boundaries! But, for the first time, in the last couple of days, based on a lot of things I experienced over the last few weeks directly and indirectly, I might have developed a soft corner for the statehood of this region.

2009 – What’s up now?

Over the last two days, the series of events that took place in various parts  of Telangana have definitely disturbed a lot of us. Well, the funny thing is that almost everyone started to believe that KCR will really stick to his ‘fast unto death’ call! Well, so much so, that even the government pretended to believe that he might die fasting! I have nothing for or against KCR, but it’s just that I don’t trust him easily.

I do respect KCR’s decision to declare a ‘fast unto death’ for the cause of Telangana. In fact that would be a very peaceful and strong act to emphasize the need for the statehood. There is definitely nothing against the law in carrying out such a demonstration. But then, our beloved government did not think so! They wanted to prevent him from going ahead with his hunger strike, and hence decided to arrest him, in spite of knowing that it would spark unnecessary tension across the region! And well, they did not stop there, they messed it up big time, and invited trouble by taking on the students at Osmania University, the hot bed of the movement in 1969!

Hidden agenda?

So, do I feel the government really did not anticipate all this? No, no way! There is more to it than what meets the eye. Then wasn’t it the government that messed it up? Well, yes, but not exactly. It’s complicated! Not everyone has access to the dozens of Telugu news channels, so it might get confusing here.

Ok, this part is more of a speculation, because there will be no way to prove this. But here’s the deal – Sakshi TV, which served as the Congress party’s mouthpiece all through the elections suddenly turned out to become anti-government and started focusing on how brutal the police were on the students. It almost seemed as if Sakshi had a huge stake in the Telangana movement! Really!? No way! Look at it this way – until 3 days back the burning issue on most of the local news papers was the OMC mining issue. Anyone covering it today? Nope, no one! Awesome, so this violence has achieved for Sakshi’s Y.S. Jagan what nothing else could – move out OMC from the hot seat! So, fanning up the fire at Osmania was awesome for them! No wonder they repeated scenes of students being caned in infinite loops, as if they were a sincere channel working for truth, and nothing but the truth! And no wonder, they engineered the plan of sending an SMS stating the death of a student to students live on air in their studio to fuel the fire further!

The Y.S. family still has a great stake in the government, and they still call the shots. Take the recent Congress meeting for instance where the CM told one of his colleagues that he was completely unaware about all his ministers traveling to Pulivendula in support of Jagan’s mother’s filing of nomination for the by-election!

It’s unfortunate that congress leaders are so dumb and numb, and can’t even realize what’s going on around them. Oh, or are they just pretending to be dumb and numb? I would go with the latter!

So, down to the main issue – who ignited it?

Police should never ever have arrested KCR in the first place, he would not continue with the strike for more than 2 days anyway, and the whole thing would go bust just like it did a few years back at Jantar Mantar in Delhi! Arresting him was to strike the matchstick on the matchbox!

And worst of all, police should have known that irritated students could be more dangerous than a dozen KCRs. What happened in the last 48 hours is an indication as to how a real movement can start and push out all the non-sensical elements! Students were intentionally targeted by the government, but I am sure that neither KCR nor the government had any idea as to what was in store by irritating the students.

Once visuals of KCR sipping a glass of juice were broadcast, many people were dejected and disappointed. I pity them for having believed him. But they know better – within minutes the Joint Action Committee of students (formed over the last 48 hours) declared that they are on their own, and that the agitation now no longer belongs to any political party! 5 students will do a relay hunger strike starting December 1st. Over a lakh students plan to get together for a rally on January 13th! The Joint Action Committee of employees of this region will continue with their pen down agitation too. Will this really last? Only time will tell, but something tells me it will!

They ignited the passion, but who? KCR by declaring fast unto death? YS Jagan’s misfired attempt at diverting attention away from the OMC issue (only speculation, but still)?  Congressmen who kept making statements that irked the students? The incapable police department working under the Home Minister, who is a puppet in the hands of KVP and his henchmen?

Whoever it was, they had no clue that playing with fire could burn their own hands – and if they haven’t already, they will now. KCR has already tasted it, he was turned into a zero from a hero in minutes, and I won’t be surprised if he comes back to continue, that’s the only way he can face his people now! So, who ever it was, they ignited the passion that was tucked away for 40 years!

Hyderabad 10K Run – 2009

I came, I ran, I conquered – that’s what the official T-shirts screamed as people gathered at People’s Plaza on Necklace Road on the fourth Sunday of November, for the 2009 edition of the Hyderabad 10K Run. I was of course wearing my Greetos shirt!

Compared to last year, this year’s 10K was slightly low key in certain ways, but it was still great fun. I basically missed two things – the para-jumping and bottled water. I guess the sponsors wanted to cut down on the spending, but not an issue, it was still so much fun.

They did still have these bands playing after every kilometer – live music definitely revs up excitement among the participants. With me, I had my brother and four first time runners, all of whom enjoyed it to the core – Murali, Kumar, Veerender & his wife Sandhya – I wouldn’t be surprised if this newly wed couple was the only couple to have finished the 10K together this year!

I was already fatigued from a cricket practice session on the previous day, and a long walk two days before that, but I managed to run better than last time. I and Murali finished together and clocked approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. For me, this being my fifth year, it was my best timing so far. Aashish, who was with us last year could not make it due to an injury. I definitely missed Amrik again this year, he was in LA this time! Also missed Satish who ran with me in 2007 – he missed running with us so much, that he actually ran the full 10K in Singapore all alone, and sent us a pic of him after finishing it up in just around 45 mins – he could barely keep up with me in 2007 but it’s the other way round these days!

We got back together after the race, had Chole Batura at Eat Street (had the same thing last year too), and followed it up with a movie at Prasads.

11 years – BCA, OU

November 16th, 1998 – it definitely wasn’t just another day! It was my first day at IIMC (no, not IIM-C) – Indian Institute of Management & Commerce. I got to pick this college to take up the all new course introduced that year by Osmania University – Bachelor of Computer Application, a three year course, to be followed up by a two year course – Master of Science in Information Systems.

The curriculum and course material for BCA was the best possible at that time. In fact, for each semester, the syllabus would only be finalized 15 days before the start of the semester. The prescribed content was so new that our college could hardly find people who could teach us, so in most cases we would always have to learn it all on our own!

However, socially, among people in general, BCA has always remained to be a poorer cousin of BE/B.Tech – which is very unfortunate. Actually, there was hardly anything to compare during that period – BCA was such a superior course, we would often see engineering graduates crib about it – well, many of them envied us for getting to take up such a superb course without having to bother about the stupid engineering entrance test, which in my opinion was just a memory test (well, we just use Google to do the memory part these days anyway)!

Today, on 16th November, 2009, when I look back at the 11 years since the first day in college, I am proud of whatever we achieved through that course. Among all things, one thing that stands out is the friends I made during those days, whose friendship has been invaluable all these years, and I hope it will continue to be that way for a long long time to come. Some of us were lucky to meet up during the weekend of 14th of this month to celebrate 11 years of our friendship!

I also need to especially mention Effigent, and thank all my friends over there – it was the very first company to start recruiting students who pursued Master of Sciences in Information Systems (3 months before our course finished). And last but not the least, I need to thank Prof. Subba Reddy, then the dean of Dept. of Informatics at OU, for being the person who envisioned the course itself and made it a reality – people say if he completely had it his way, it would have been even more greater.

So, what’s with 11 years? Why did I not bother to write up about all this when we completed 10 years? Well, my roll number in BCA was 11! So, that’s that – 11 is special, very special to me!

On my Android phone, finally!

I have been waiting for BSNL 3G for over three months now, but unfortunately BSNL just doesn’t seem to care! Well, it’s amazing that BSNL has decided to ignore both the tech savvy cities of Hyderabad and Bangalore so far! I definitely see something fishy over here.

I would have still continued to wait for them to roll out their 3G services, but over the last weekend I got my CDMA phone’s circuits fried in salty sea water! So, I was left without any mobile connection! Now, I didn’t want to buy another CDMA phone, especially since I had my Android phone waiting for me! So, well, that’s when I decided, enough is enough! I would rather take a reliable GPRS connection and start using my phone rather than wait endlessly for BSNL’s 3G service!

From all the options available, AirTel’s GPRS connection seemed to be the most reliable. So, that’s that then! Just got my phone activated with GPRS from AirTel! However, the only down side is that I have a new number now, and I need to make sure everyone gets to know about it.

1-0-8

Not so long ago I wrote about the lack of respect for value of life in our country. Well, things don’t change overnight. However, things seem to be improving, at least to an extent. 1-0-8 (an emergency number for any distress situation in some specific states in India starting with Andhra Pradesh) has played a major role in this regard! For instance, before 1-0-8 was introduced I would have never had the guts to report an accident, I wouldn’t want to get into a mess with the police and all that!! But with 1-0-8, you can be assured that once you report a case, the emergency team only follows up with you until they get to the victim, and after that they just won’t bother you. Their focus is only on saving a life!

Personally, I called 1-0-8 a couple of times to report a couple of accidents on Necklace Road, and the way both these calls were handled was really good! This is what happens generally – you call 108, they quickly take down the details (remember that 108 is not specific to your city, and you might need to be a bit more elaborate), the operator messages the nearest ambulance and let’s you know about it, within minutes one of the paramedics in the ambulance gets in touch with you for more specific directions and tips until they get to the spot, and once they reach the spot they take over the case and make sure that the patient gets all the needed medical attention!

1-0-8, which intends to serve us on the lines of 9-1-1 in the US, is the brainchild of Ramalinga Raju, founder of Satyam, and was backed by late Y.S.R. Reddy. Though both of them might have been neck deep in all kinds of controversies, this is one great deed that we should always remember both of them for!

But, do remember, never hesitate to call 1-0-8 when needed! Your call could make a difference between life and death for certain victims. Further, make sure you respect those ambulances on the roads – make way for them!

Input tags of type ‘image’ & forms

Someone randomly complained to me that an input tag of type ‘image’ was acting like a submit button on the form. We spent around 10 minutes doing various things to check why it was happening, and after making sure that there was nothing wrong with the code, I finally decided to crosscheck on the web, and what we found was slightly embarrassing – “input tags of type image ARE supposed to have a form submit action by default”. Why else would you use an ‘input’ tag for an image!! Ooops! It’s amazing how certain small and trivial things like these can be overlooked by us when we start debugging an issue randomly!

Android Dev Phone is simply superb!!

I finally got myself a smart phone, the Android Dev Phone 1 (basically the HTC Dream) and I just can’t wait for BSNL to launch their 3G services in Hyderabad. I have been using it at home connected to the home network, and so far it feels great! It might not be as sleek as an iPhone, but it feels a lot more ergonomic. The camera takes good pictures, and the video quality is decent too. GPS works just fine too!

Pros

• Physical keyboard – I just love it, so much more practical than the on-screen keyboard!
• Android interface – It’s perfect, I like the way they made space for widgets!
• Openness – It’s so open, you could directly download media files from any website and use them as ring tones, wallpapers and do a lot more! So much more closer to a desktop
• Overall usability – It’s more usable than an iPhone (no kidding, serious, iPhone suddenly feels so handicapped in comparison)

Cons

• Slow – It does not come with a powerful processor, and is definitely a bit slow at times.
• Restriction on buying apps – The developer version cannot be used to buy apps, but that really isn’t a huge issue.

Well, this is not a complete review, but this is just to endorse the fact that Android rocks! I will keep writing about it, and hope to write some apps for it too, when I get some free time.

Reviews can be positive too!

Have you ever tried checking for reviews while searching for a product or service? I do it all the time, and generally do it more often for electronics and consumer durables. One thing  that I have realized recently is that it is really difficult to buy an India-centric product/service based on these reviews. The reason seems to be pretty simple, I asked myself if I ever wrote a positive review myself, and if I know enough Indian friends around me who take their time to thank someone for a good product. Unfortunately, most of us in India, are always there to caution people on not buying a product, but we hardly ever go out there and tell people that something is good – yes, may be by word of mouth we do, but for some strange reason, we don’t like to write positive reviews. I have tried to check reviews for several products/services on Indian sites, and they hardly have anything positive about them, so I can weed out certain bad ones, but it’s difficult to pick the good ones. People express themselves only when they are frustrated about a product! There are a few who do write in their appreciation, but that’s very rare! Check out the reviews on MouthShut (where you can review Indian products/services) and compare them to what you see on American websites like  Amazon or Yelp, and you will know what I mean.

Well, I believe this needs to change, so I will try my best to write a positive review when I really like something, and so should you!