Sudhiksha Enthralls her School! During Diwali Celebrations!

For the Diwali Celebrations at School our six year old granddaughter, Ch. Sudhiksha was chosen to give an introduction to the Festival and convey Festival Greetings through an English and Hindi song. And she was also selected to perform a Dance Drama. The videos below are of her performance.

The first video is of her speech and songs. The film we shot at school was not clear so on returning home we asked her to repeat her performance in our small garden. And this time the video was OK but the sound was distorted by the noise of wind and traffic. So I superimposed the video with her voice recorded separately. You will find a slight lag between the video and audio, but I am sure you will still enjoy it. And the second video is of her Dance Drama with her classmates, with hundreds of her lovely schoolmates as audience.

DIWALI GREETINGS!

Dear All,

Wish you all a VERY HAPPY DIWALI / DEEPAVALI.

You may click on the following link / URL to see the above Greeting Card come to life with heavy animation of diyas, sparklers, crackers and the melodious commentary and songs by our granddaughter, Sudhiksha:

http://srisrilara.glogster.com/happy-diwali/

You may click on the ‘Pink Play/Pause Button’ available on the Greeting Card to listen to Sudhiksha once again.

Regards,

N. Raghu.

P.S.

You may see my earlier posts on Deepavali by clicking on the links below. I hope you will find them interesting and informative.

Deepavali Harathulu:

http://srisrilara.blogspot.com/2009/10/deepavali-harathulu.html

Deepavali Bommala Koluvu:

http://srisrilara.blogspot.com/2009/10/deepavali-bommala-koluvu.html

The Joy of Crackers & Sparklers:

http://srisrilara.blogspot.com/2009/10/joy-of-crackers-sparklers-and.html

Deepavali Greetings:

http://srisrilara.blogspot.com/2009/10/deepavali-greetings_6740.html

Chain-Snatchers are making a mockery of thousands of Policemen around us!

In spite of thousands of heavily armed Policemen on every road, lane, nook and corner of the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad  and all over Telangana, the incidents of thieves snatching gold chains from women folk has become very common.  With the price of gold on the rise and the enthusiasm, dedication and sole concentration of the Policemen on curbing the ongoing agitation, the Chain-Snatchers are having a field day. Yesterday evening, at about 7:30 PM when my friend and his wife were in the busy Begumpet area on the opposite side of Stoppers Shop, thieves on a Motorbike approached them and violently pulled out his wife’s Mangalasutram-gold chain and rode away. The incident caused a minor but painful neck injury to her and a loss of very sentimental gold Mangalasutram, weighing 70 grams.   

I really do not know what the Policemen are doing to prevent such crime, which is a great cause of worry to each and every girl and woman, as they are bound to have on them some amount of gold jewellery. My mother is a victim of such theft in broad daylight in front of our house at about 10:30 AM on 10th June 2004. She lost 11 Tolas that is 110 grams of gold which is worth about Rs. 2.90 Lakhs today. I have produced below the Police Station’s FIR – First Information Report, giving details of this theft. Another reason for producing the FIR here is to let readers who have never seen an FIR before to get an idea about it. My mother’s complaint was given hand written and in Telugu, but what you see in the FIR is in English and not entirely a true translation.

What exactly happened that day and is reported to the Police is as follows: Two well built men posing as Policemen confronted my mother who was then 85 years old on the busy road in front of our house. They cautioned her not to move out with gold jewellery as there are thieves on the prowl in this area. And in spite of her resistance, they insisted that she take off her jewellery – a gold chain and 4 gold bangles, then they packed the jewellery in a piece of paper and asked her to tie it to the pallu of her sari and go home safely. Soon after that my mother came home and when she opened the packet in front of us there was only a piece of flat and round stone in it! Immediately we rushed out of the house along with my mother to trace the thieves but in vain. We then approached the Police.

They initially gave us hope of tracing the thieves and restoring the ornaments to us but ultimately they did nothing in all these 7 years. I do not know whether thieves are ever caught, and if caught what happens to them and the recovered jewellery. But when it comes to even peaceful rallies by students, women or men to demonstrate against injustices done to them and their region which are not being addressed by the authorities for decades, they are violently prevented from protesting, arrested, tortured and criminal cases filed against them. May be they are right from their point of view but as long as I see their inhuman behavior on TV, the unabated chain-snatching spree and the dumb response to our complaint against theft of 11 Tolas of gold I can never form a good opinion about them.

Politicians need to be judged and punished for their misrule, misdeeds, breach of agreements and promises...

The above video shows Sonia Gandhi – Supreme Leader and Chairperson of INC, Manmohan Singh – Prime Minister of India and Abdul Kalam – President of India, assuring and explaining the necessity for the formation of Telangana State way back in 2004.

The above video is of Chidambaram – Central Home Minister, announcing the formation of Telangana State, on behalf of the Government of India on 9th December 2009. 

Merging Telangana with Andhra State against the recommendations of First SRC- Fazal Ali commission and against the will of Telangana people was a big mistake of the Congress party in 1956. Since then contributing or turning a blind eye to the misrule of Telangana in each and every field and breach of every agreement, formula and assurance given to the Telangana region has been mostly by the Congress Party, as the local Telangana leaders were tamed or tempted by favors to remain silent spectators. All along it was the local people who suffered, raised issues and agitated. Realizing that this injustice, neglect and suffering cannot continue for long, the Congress Party assured in 2004 before and after the General Elections that they shall form the State of Telangana.

After winning the elections in 2004 nothing was done in the following five years but once again during 2009 General elections, Telangana was promised again. Finally the formation of Telangana State was announced on 9th December 2009. The Government then went back on its announcement and since then seems to be only whiling away time with idle talk as the people of Telangana belonging to every section of society are agitating for a separate State. Frustrated with the deceitful and indecisive attitude of the Government and harassment by the authorities, over 600 people have committed suicide all over Telangana region. It is in this context that the criminal case referred and explained in the attached English and Telugu newspaper clippings has been filed in Court and with the Human Rights Commission. I hope the judgment will teach the politicians to behave and pave way for the formation of Telangana State.

Witness fascism at its worst!

Come to my city to witness cruelest fascism in our region, a deadly fascist combination of our plundering neighbors, factionist neighbors and ever deceiving few “Khaddar Ghaddaars” - traitors of my region. Come and see for yourself the lust for money, power and land and decades of deceit by this fascist junta and their cruel intolerance towards the freedom struggle of my people.

Witness for yourself; decades of deceit, neglect and cruelty that we are suffering and please pray for our deliverance from these wicked rulers and evil.

Our Family Videos - 15/Oct/2011.

The first of the two Videos below is of our granddaughter; Sudhiksha, rendering the “Vodafone Jingle” – “Every day I want to fly, stay by my side….”, with my son; Srikanth, on the guitar.

And the next Video is of Sudhiksha and Srikanth rendering a popular song: “Give me some Sunshine, give me some Rain…” from the hit Hindi film – “3 Idiots”.

I hope you will appreciate them.

To remind friends & myself; of all the benefits of exercise.

It is common knowledge that regular exercise supports physical and mental well-being. Despite this knowledge many people tend to remain inactive and people like me tend to skip regular exercise for some reason or the other. I am writing this article to remind myself and friends of the various benefits of exercise and motivate the inactive people and the others to religiously stick to an exercise schedule, whether it is brisk walking, jogging, stretching, yoga, swimming, playing games like shuttle badminton or table-tennis and of course compulsorily breathing exercises.

Here is a collection of the benefits I have noted down over a period of time to motivate myself to exercise regularly. Some of them are repetitive but serve the purpose of highlighting the benefits:

Exercise enhances body and soul. Mind and bodies are not separate entities.

Moderate exercise helps reduce the risk of hypertension, osteoporosis and heart disease. Exercise lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, increases metabolism and improves body’s ability to dissolve blood clots. 

Exercise raises HDL (high density lipoprotein) - the good cholesterol. It lowers LDL (low density lipoprotein) - the bad cholesterol.

Exercise burns body fat and raises metabolic activity.

Exercise makes your heart a more efficient pump and tones it up.

Exercise lowers blood pressure.

Exercise normalizes blood sugar.

Exercise increases the flexibility of joints.

Exercise increases the bone mass.

Exercise maintains muscle fat ratio.

Exercise helps you to fight infectious disease.

Exercise protects against degenerative disorders of old age.

Exercise can improve the functioning of the brain.

Exercise can improve vision.

Exercise can prevent and cure backache.

Exercise is a mood lifter.

Exercise lowers blood cholesterol.

Exercise improves appetite and digestion.

Exercise keeps you young in mind, body and looks.

Do what you enjoy. Walking is an excellent exercise that works the entire body, is easy on the joints and is good for the young and aged and other people who cannot go for other forms of exercise.

Workouts as brief as 10 minutes, if done enough, can help increase your fitness level and keep you fit. Thirty minutes of continuous exercise will further boost your fitness level, so a minimum of thirty minutes exercise schedule every day is highly recommended.

Sighting a ‘Pala Pitta’ bird on the occasion of Dasara Festival is considered auspicious.

Today is Dasara Festival. Since ancient times sighting ‘Pala Pitta’ bird, an ‘Indian Roller’ also known as the ‘Blue Jay’; on the day of Dasara Festival is considered to be very auspicious and a good omen. The bird is very beautiful as you can see in the above pictures and it is a very popular bird in India. It is the “State Bird” of four States that is Telangana, Karnataka, Orissa and Bihar.

As it has become difficult to see the bird in recent times and impossible to find it in the cities, some people from the villages used to catch these birds and roam around the towns and cities on Dasara Day showing them to people for money. However, since a few years, this practice has been banned, but still, a few villagers were bringing the birds into the city secretly and carrying out their business. Call it tradition or superstition, we also believe in seeing ‘Pala Pitta’, today, though it is not possible nowadays even in the wilderness. The attached pictures are from a long time back when there were no restrictions. The bird you see in these pictures, we bought it from the villager and later took it far out of the city (a joy ride for us) and freed it amidst plenty of trees.

The pictures above are of my nephew, Dr. Sudheer, my son, Srikanth and my wife with the ‘Pala Pitta’ we set free. I am sure the ‘Pala Pitta’ is safe and happy even today. We were very happy to see the bird flying away, the villager who gave it to us was indeed happy, and I hope all of you who care for the bird are also happy and will not find fault with what we have done.

VIDEO:

HAPPY DASARA.

H A P P Y   D A S A R A

May decades of

deplorable-dictatorial- disorderly rule,

deprivation, deceit, draught

& daily deaths due to disgruntlement

end soon.

Goddess Durga,

Bless my people

with a better life,

to live in dignity

& as masters of their life,

 livelihood and land.

Bless us with freedom & self-rule.

A Letter to Lousy Leaders; nay! Traitors of Telangana.

Please CLICK on the following link to SEE in detail & LISTEN to the above GLOG:

http://srisrilara.glogster.com/lousy-leaders/

Lousy Leaders,

For petty posts and favors that are thrown at you, you cling to the monsters who continue to deceive and torture our province. You know that you have come to occupy these posts election after election; by making promises to people, promises that you perennially postpone giving fresh hope after every postponement. You are not leaders; you are traitors, deceivers, characterless goons of the monsters.

We may excuse you and trust you if you move away from the monsters and fight for us. Act before it is too late or you will go down in history as lousy leaders who could not protect the interests of their people and as betrayers.

GOD bless you with good sense and kind hearts.  

- N. Raghu.

Vegetarian Or Non-Vegetarian? - Vegan? Pescetarian? Or Flexitarian? Or …???

Are you a Vegetarian or Non-Vegetarian? Is a frequently heard inquiry among new acquaintances, at home, at Restaurants and at Parties in order to seat them as per their food preference or isolate them into groups at a buffet. Non-Vegetarian preparations are served separately and with caution as the Vegetarians should not be inconvenienced. Today with Veganism picking up in the west and slowly creeping into India the problem has become more complex. The popular Vegetarian category – Paneer, Curd, Ghee, Butter, Khoya and honey preparations and many more such delicacies are not acceptable to Vegans. So they should be served a different food, separately and very carefully. Perhaps to avoid chaos at meals; the population of Vegans and the other Vegetarians in India who do not eat even root vegetables such as potatoes, onions, carrots, radish, other roots and tubers is a very small percentage as of now.

I am not sure whether Vegetarianism is picking up in India in spite of large scale news and articles appearing regularly, explaining the advantages of Vegetarian food and of avoiding Non-Vegetarian food. I am making this comment based on the parties I attend in the family and friend circles where majority of guests enthusiastically opt for Non-Vegetarian food and from the ratio of Exclusive Vegetarian Restaurants to Non-Vegetarian Restaurants in the Twin Cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad which may be 1:100 or 1:150.

As 1st October is “World Vegetarian Day” and October Month is being observed as “Vegetarian Awareness Month” in the West, articles have started appearing locally on advantages of Vegetarianism. In spite of all the canvassing, people may not avoid Non-Vegetarian food altogether but would certainly reduce consumption and be selective, less of red meat and more of poultry and fish; for health reasons. And I fall into this category. I was never a Non-Vegetarian on a daily basis but a Flexitarian; meaning a Vegetarian-predominantly, having Non-Veg. food just on six to eight days a week. Except Beef I am permitted to eat all commonly available Non-Veg. food and I must say that I relish them.

I have mentioned Pescetarian in the title, which refers to people like most Bengalis who have fish and shellfish but not meat and poultry. I am not fully aware of more such terminology categorizing food preferences or should I say restrictions. But from Airline catalogs I know that they offer a variety of meal menus like – Moslem meal, Kosher meal, Jain meal and so on.