In Praise of Sushi!

Making Sushi they say is an art,

And it is so; very true indeed,

Made with foods close to our heart,

It is a rainbow bundled in seaweed!

So appealing to sight,

So lovable to the taste bud,

Once you learn to make it,

You can make everyone more glad!

Remembering School Reopening Days.

Today 10th June; is School reopening day, and so it has been for several years, unless it happens to be a Sunday. This has been a trend in Hyderabad even since my School days.

After a long summer vacation of 45 days or more, it is School time once again. It is a day of mixed feelings for children, a little sad that a long and very happy vacation is over, a little nervous as they have to face new teachers, new classrooms and some new classmates, but happy as they are going to a higher class, with new uniforms, new shoes, new school bags, new books and meet old classmates and close friends. But these new worries would only stick around for just a few days and everything would be normal afterwards.

This has been the case with me, my children, my nieces, my nephews and our grandchildren today. In remembrance of several School reopening days as children grew up; here are pictures of Sudheer, Uma Rani, Uday Bhasker, Sridhar, Usha Rani, Srikanth, Srinath and Sudhiksha going to school… mostly on School reopening days:

Fiat justitia ruat caelum.

Fiat justitia ruat caelum – Let justice be done though the heavens fall.

This rogue never blinks, and sleeps with his eyes open!

Afraid that someone would usurp his ill-gotten power,

Out of power for too long has made him a bigger villain,

His life is full of blatant lies and he is a damn schemer.

One such evil scheme has recently misfired,

All his misdeeds and false claims are getting exposed,

He is fighting a losing battle with blind believers and fools,

I wish this villain is punished soon; as truth and justice prevails.

My opinion on Telangana State MLC ‘Cash-for-Vote’ scandal.

On 31st May 2015 a sensational Cash-for-Vote scandal was exposed in Secunderabad and arrests of some persons made. Within minutes of the crime, very revealing and doubtless audio and video evidence was telecast on local TV Channels. Since that day more and more revealing evidence is being reported in the media about this Cash-for-Vote and now Cash-for-Votes scandal. In my knowledge this is the first time that so much solid evidence is being unearthed and brought into the public domain. Every un-biased and right thinking man will certainly go by this copious evidence and come to conclusions. One certain conclusion would be that this crime took place due to the directions of a big boss the main instigator of this crime.

In many high profile legal cases involving politicians and film stars the cases take decades to solve due to various reasons and then they may be convicted in one court, acquitted in another after few more years and so on. The reasons might be like lack of proper investigation, lack of proper presentation of evidence, lack of placing strong arguments, lack of sufficient proof, witnesses-going-back-and-forth and being unable to prove many lies and excuses that are put forward. These are my feelings as a layman who does not know these legal procedures thoroughly.

But in this particular Cash-for-Vote/Votes scandal, I and all those I know have a strong feeling that the naked-all-clear and strong evidence that is being shown and reported on TV should be sufficient to solve the case at the earliest and punish the main instigator and those who executed this crime. If everyone honours the evidence and sees the truth in it, it is Satyameva Jayate! Otherwise I do not have proper words to express…

My blog ‘Raghu’s column!’ attained 1,000,000 pageviews!

The above picture is a screenshot of ‘My blog – Statistics Overview of today’. You can see from it that my blog ‘Raghu’s column!’ - http://srisrilara.blogspot.in/ reached 1 million pageviews sometime last night. This is the official record but in reality the figure is certainly much higher than 2 million pageviews! This is because many computers and smart phones these days have complex firewall protection which does not allow Blogger Statistics to register all pageviews.

I achieved this milestone in a period of 6 years - 20th April 2009 to 4th June 2015, by posting 904 articles.

I am very glad about this achievement and wish to thank each and every one of you for reading my blog. I really appreciate each and every one of you.

THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN.

This is how we celebrated Telangana State Formation Day.

Today is the first anniversary of Telangana State Formation. We took a holiday today and celebrated this special day mostly by enjoying popular local cuisine and watching TV programs on Telangana State Formation Day Celebrations. Last night we went round to see the colorful illumination along the roads and of important buildings in few parts of the city. At midnight we watched on TV the beautiful fireworks organized at a number of places and the revelry.

Today morning we had a special and very typical breakfast of Hyderabad…Paya ki Nihari/Nahari (Lamb trotters’ broth) with Char Koni Naan (Flat square bread). Then we watched TV - leaders offering respects to Martyrs at the Martyrs Memorial, Gun Park. And then we watched the Main Official Government Function at Parade Grounds, Secunderabad…hoisting of the National Flag, a very impressive parade, very attractive Tableaus of various Government Departments and honoring of a large number of prominent Telangana personalities belonging to various occupations. Then we cut a Cake – a home baked Vanilla Bundt Cake with Vanilla Glaze Frosting, followed by lunch consisting of Mutton Biryani, Mirchi ka Salan, Onion-Cucumber-Tomato Raitha and the regular food items. Then it was time for a nap, followed by watching a very entertaining Hindi Movie on TV – Chupke Chupke. Late in the evening it was time for entertainment once again with a wonderful Cultural Program at People’s Plaza and fireworks at Hussain Sagar. And then dinner as per afternoon menu, followed by dessert of Vanilla Ice cream with Cake.

Enjoyed the day thoroughly, the food and Cake which turned out very well, all the programs, the movie and the family camaraderie as you can see in the photographs below: