The perfect entertainment channel

Often over the weekend, i find myself surfing the tv programs constantly.  I can’t watch a single program for more than 5 – 10 minutes as they are not entertaining or interesting or educative .. basically nothing worth watching. It’s a frustrating experience to find something worthwhile to watch.

Then i landed upon the NDTV 24×7 news channel. The news channel had everything packaged into one, there was sports; movies; fashion parades; advertisements; movie trailers; mindless debates and discussions; gossips; so i don’t have to flip any other channel. Every 10 minutes, there is something new. But wait a minute , did i say it was a 24×7 news channel !!!

Yeah, i did say the news channel. It has everything in huge doses, except for the indepth news coverage. The little news that’s shown is mostly on the lines of “Who said What” ; “How one reacted to that”. Ofcourse, the most favorite line up on the news channels are the live coverages of a grave tragedy.  It’s amazing how fast the channel bring’s out it’s subject experts ( no matter what the subject is ) and stage a live analysis of the siutation. Oh and there is one other thing, that the news channel in depth, the celebreties.

for instance:

1. I know who designed the clothes for Aishwarya Rai for her marriage. But i don’t know anything about the arrest of Binayak Sen.
2. I know all the places our Indian cricketers visited when touring New Zealand, but i don’t know anything about the trips the farmers have to make to the government offices to keep their families alive.
3. I know everything about the “Operation Taj”, but i don’t know anything about the “Operation flood relief”.
4. I know everything about the huge elephant structures that Mayawati is building in Uttar Pradesh and i know nothing about the houses that were supposed to be built for the slum dwellers and the displaced.

and I can go on …… the news basically covers everything, but an honest and sincere indepth coverage of the “News that Matters the Most” is what is missing and is missing BIG TIME.

And I also feel the news channel should even be given the “A” rating, as the language spoken or the content shown is not appropriate for kids.  So it’s a perfect Adult Entertaining Channel. It’s not just NDTV, i’m sure there are other channels, but like i said, i just got stuck with NDTV.

 

The GHMC elections

GHMC elections are just around the corner or in other the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation  Elections. So for a total 150 divisions located in five zones and 17 circles, a record number of 2500 candidates are likely to compete.

So why are these elections important or why should I and you be interested in them.

I grew up in a Colony in Sainikpuri and lived there for almost 21 years.  Our colony happens to come under the Defence Colony Ward, which is under the Malkajgiri constituency.  Growing up as a kid, the colony was a save haven for all the kids and most definetly for all the parents as well. The colony boasted of a school that if you get admitted to you can go straight from kindergarden to post graduation. It had one of the greatest temples of the twin cities, the Kalibari temple, which was renound for it’s dusherra and diwali celebrations. It had large playgrounds; it was a bustling neighbhor hood. Still is.

However, there have been changes. Just like any other place in Hyderabad, my colony has also undergone tremendous change.  What used to be large vacant play grounds have been turned into huge apartment complexes.  From being a colony that relied on the borewell for it’s water, now has to rely on the manjeera water supply that is only twice a week. Ofcourse there have been other developments such as nice pucca roads, plenty of general stores, a regular bus line etc etc.

The basic problems of the area still remain. Water scarcity, supply of or lack of supply of electricity especially during the summer, the traffic, the rapid ( illegal ) constructions ( both commercial and residential )  etc etc. Anyways growing up i never much paid much attention to this.  Now I can let the trend continue so that my kids are left with much less water,  even less open play grounds and basically much less resources than I had.

Or, I can do something about it.  I make my concern ; my opinion; my voice heard.  JUST VOTE !!! The “Right to Vote” was not a fundamental right that was given to us by birth, it was fought for and fought for very hard. Our ancestors laid down their lives for this. So if we don’t value their efforts and don’t realize the power in the “Right to Vote”, then I’m afraid my kids will have to do what my ancestors had to do. And certainly I don’t want that to happen.

And since I believe I can do more than VOTING, i want to make campaign and make sure the right candidate gets voted for this job. It doesn’t mean that once the candiated gets voted, he or she will do the job. The onus is on me and YOU to make sure that that gets done.

the GHMC elections are the elections that would define the present and the future of my neighbhorhood and your neighbhorhood.

AP flood relief updates

Clothes have been donated in abundance and also the teams working @ the ground level have advised not to send any clothes. You can also see the state of clothes distribution in one of the pictures below.
http://picasaweb.google.com/masades/KurnoolFloods

Items that can be shipped from overseas
1. Blankets/ Bed Shirts
2. Cooking Utensils / Plates
3. Shoes
4. Wax Candles
5. Financial Support
   a. To buy chlorine dioxide tablets ( powder) : for water purification.
   b. To buy grains, salt, sugar and other cooking essentials.

 For a complete update on flood affected areas , please click here . The link also has contact information of all the village heads .

The teams that are currently working on the ground level

1) Rakesh/Umesh/Paresh: Bhumi

2) Kiran/Suresh: AID India Hyderabad

3) Suresh: VMRG Foundation

4) Prasanthi – TMAD

5) Sushmita – AMIGOS

6) Pravesh Jha: Lead India 2020

I plan to keep regulary updating this blog posting.