Difference in Revolutions

Lately, the revolutions are sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. Triggered by the success of non-violence revolution in Egypt that resulted in outcast of years of dictatorship, fueled the revolutions in other parts of the Middle East and Norh Africa, like Libiya, Bahrain, Iran, Yemen etc.,

The start and sustain of these revolutions happened through the social media like Facebook, Twitter etc. Since these social medias are popular among the younger generations, it can be comfortably said that these revolutions are started by Youth, as they are frustrated with years old tyranny rule which was gushing them and their country to nowhere. With youth taking the charge, all walks of life have joined their lead and have achieved of something not short of a miracle, the true Democracy.

Me being settled in a foreign country, can only dream of something this big to happen in my country which is the largest democracy in the world, India. Even though it is democratic, this country is only ruled and getting ruled by age old families (like Gandhi's). Even if the later generations of these families might somewhat of better nature and character, they have to follow the illegal paths, to cover-up the cow-dungs their earlier generations left behind. So, as long as these families rule, there would be no democracy even though we are called democratic nation.

India ranks very high in one of the top most corrupted countries and since it is democracy each and everyone is part of the blame. It is no strange to have no unity to fight against one common cause as each and every one in someway or the other is associated with it, take for ex. Corruption. Not only in politics, the corruption is so inherent part of all most everyone's life in India. So when everybody is at fault, one will point finger at another and in this situation how it can be imagined, that all these fingers will point at one common thing which is at fault and will fight for it with unity to correct it. NO WAY.

So, even though I dreamed of the similar type of revolution in India as in Middle East, my analysis of reality pushed me out of my dreams. Even though I consider myself as part of younger generation, far from fighting, I even stopped dreaming about revolution or change in India.

But, Lately this Gentleman has proven me wrong  and has instilled in me a ray of hope of some type of revolution or change in India. I am not sure to be ashamed or feel proud that this revolution has started by a 77 YEAR OLD man rather than the YOUTH that lead the revolutions in other countries. With his pure heart and strong determination, this old (but young at heart) man has started and fore-fronting this revolution that is shaking each and every political party. Looking at this OLD Gandhian determination, every one who has integrity has got inspired and supporting his cause. He is fighting for a cause which is to get a LAW (called Jan Lok pal-common people rule) which entails to give the authority to people to judge the politicians if they are found corrupt. It is so strange that there is no rule till now to even question (far from punishment) the politicians if they are found corrupt. As the politicians are at the root of all corruptions, having a law to chop them when they are found guilty is very important. And slowly after chopping the roots, this spirit will spread to other governmental agencies, eliminating all the branches of corruption.

Even though eliminating corruption is far from reality yet, it is good noble start, which is starting from the roots. And this start is made by 77 year old man, and this man name is "ANNA HAZARE". The major difference in this revolution from others is that this one needed an old man to start but not the Youth or social media, even though they are becoming part of it now. So, Anna Hazare my head bows to you and wish you a long life.   

Cast Away from blogging

To all millions of followers out there, I am sorry for being away for so long...just kidding. I don't have millions of fans and just saying this to myslef. I started with good spirits but later somehow got dwindled due to many reasons, the top most of all is my laziness. As one of my colleagues say that I have mastered the art of being lazy, come to that point there is some truth in that. There are so many more things out there to keep me lazy and top most of all is TV. NBA season being closing in towards play-offs, the games are getting more and more interesting and getting me hooked, and adding some nice layers of fat underneath my clothes.

I have to admit that I have this tendency of getting fired up all of sudden and do things in the spur of the moment. And me writing this post is also one of those moments. I am not good at planning ahead, which I do only when I am going on some adventurous trips with my wifey or with my friends, otherwise I am not a planner and like to do things spontaneously. Its both good and bad, I feel planning well ahead and drawing out all the details minute by minute, takes the thrill out of things while doing those things as per the plan. Because you would have lived those moments while planning and re-experiencing them while execution doesn't give any kick. The bad  thing is without planning ahead, most of the times you end up doing nothing.

Anyways, at least coming to blogging I will try to plan to stay in touch with you and myself very frequently than being casted away for long long times.

And one more thing, I was thinking about some movie story that I am planning to write. Till now, I have just come up with title....."Same LOVE but different STORY", howz that sound??? 

Small budget movie - "Broker"

I never thought I would see a movie titled "Broker", but I did. I know the chances of Telugu people knowing anything about this movie or related to this movie is 0.01%. The reason behind this is, the movie made on a small budget and with offbeat artists.

The movie inspired me to write this blog article. The movie talks about the social awareness. There were numerous movies made on social awareness aspect in the past, but this movie stands apart as it delivers strong and effective message discussing about problem and the solution. Most of the social awareness movies I have seen does offer a solution, but this movie provides a very convincing solution.

The movie is directed by our own sleazy music director R.P. Patnaik. I was very hesitant even considering watching the movie directed by this guy, as I found his music as slapstick most of the times (but he did deliver some everlasting chart busters). I got this movie for free from a grocery store after spending the required grocery limit, and so just played the movie to accompany me during my dinner.

The movie kept me engrossed from the start. The screenplay of the movie is very tight and apt. The movie has great moments in it and showcases the complete working system in the state. It talks about the corruption in true and realistic forms happening, starting from birth (how corruption is needed to get your birth certificate) to death (which can be certified only through corruption) and everything in between. You personally connect with the movie so well, as you identify your self being victim of the system at one point or the another, and how you have misused the system to get your priorities taken care ahead of the rest.

The characters of the movie played by the veteran artists (Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Dharamavarapu Subramanyam etc.) really put their heart and soul in the movie. Each and every scene acts as a integral part of the movie, and no reel is wasted on cheap comedy. R.P. Patnaik, surprises me in each and every aspect of the movie except in acting (he played lead role of Broker), he did not do a commendable job in acting department but in all other departments his efforts are really appreciable. He has scored two amazing background songs and one item song which surprisingly seems very situational and part of the movie.

I am assuming he would have approached big established hero's in the industry to play the lead role, and since there is no scope for masala duet songs with heroines and no scope for heroism, they would have sweetly turned it down. Since the movie does not have noted artists, even reviewers does not care to see and write a review. The movie would have performed well overseas as it is very sensible and people here are so tired of seeing same old dumb formula movies. But with no big actors and no media reviews a good movie like this does not get recognized to its potential. I wish online reviewers like (Idlebrain.com, Greatandhra.com) find movies like this, write reviews and recommend movie to the viewers, as overseas people heavily depend on the reviews (at least myself) to watch movies like this.

I sincerely recommend to all Telugu readers, whoever come across this article, to see the movie, and I beleive you would agree with me.

Imagination

The power of imagination is endless. But is this power getting weaker or stronger with current generation? When I was growing up, my imaginative power was quite acknowledgeable. But lately (I mean past 6-7 years), I seem to have lost that touch. My world has become very practical, no complaints though.

While growing up, I used to hear news from radio, and was able to imagine of how that could have occurred in the real world. I used to hear lots of stories and gossips from friends and family and relate to their experiences in my imagination. I used to just lay back on my terrace and imagine about the life inside the Aeroplanes flying above in the sky. Until my entry to United States, every news about the other countries was pictured pretty much in my imagination, like how they spend their day to day life, what they eat, how they communicate, where they go for vacation, etc etc...

But lately, with so much improvement in technology everything is presented in picture, leaving none to your imagination. For ex, when you hear a good song, you would like to picture in your head about the feelings or expressions expressed in the song, but now I tend to hear songs only by looking at their videos where nothing is needed to be imagined. Also with the availability of 24x7 reality TV shows, WIFI enabled phones, portable video players, everything is available to you in visuals, completely disconnecting you from your imaginative world.

The major issue I see with lack of imagination is, it makes your mind dumb and not to work hard, eventually removing any kind of creativity your mind might have had. As a prevention to this, necessary steps I am taking is to reduce TV watching, read books, and hear news than watching them. This way at least I can try to open imaginative doors in my head.

Reading about something, picturing in your head, and then watching it on screen, provides a different level of happiness. It is so cool to see how your imaginations match to the reality on the screen. How I can say this is, I read only one book till now (I mean complete book) that is "Kite Runner" and watched the movie on TV and felt kinda strange happiness when my imaginations of places and characters came to life on the screen. Even though the book is far better than a movie, I still had great amount of excitement watching it. May be, that is the reason why there is cult following for the movies made based of popular books  like Harry Potter, where people go watch them to connect their imaginations to the reality.

Without the technology, these movies could have never been made, so that's why I am not sure whether the technology is having positive or negative influence on your imagination. To me, I like to experience in my imagination first and then use technology to experience my imagination.

ఓ చిన్న స్టొరీ

హీరోయిన్ మరి హీరో అల నడుచు కుంటూ వెళ్తుంటారు....
హీరోయిన్ హీరోని ఇలా అడుగుతుంది...(హీరోయిన్, హీరోను కలవడం ఇదే మొదటి సారి)
హీరోయిన్: మీరు ఎం చేస్తుంటారు
హీరో: ఓహ్ నేనా (పెదవి రెండు సార్లు చిలిపిగా కొరికి, కొంచం అటు ఇటు చూసి, కొంచం మది లోనే proud ga నవ్వు కొని)..ఊఉ.... paint చేస్తుంటాను..(అని బుజాలు ఎగరెస్తాడు)
హీరోయిన్: Face పైన నీరసమైన expression పెట్టి హీరో వైపు వెటకారపు నవ్వు నవ్వుతుంది కాని (మనసులో..నీ అబ్బ, నువ్వు పెద్ద హీరో కొడుకు వి కాకా పాయింటే "చెప్పేతి కొడితే చిప్ప ఎతుకునేవాడివి"...అని అనుకుంటూ వుంటుంది)...
అప్పుడు బాక్గ్రౌండ్ లో "గద్దర్ లాగ ఒక్కడు పంచ విత్ నో షర్టు స్క్రీన్ మీదికి వచ్చి ఇలా paata అందుకుంటాడు..
"చెప్పేతి కొడితే చిప్ప ఎత్తు కొంటావు చినోడా ఓహ్ చినోడా,
రూపాయి నెత్తి మీద పెడితే పావుల కి పోతావు చినోడా ఓహ్ చినోడా,
ఎంత చక్కగ వున్నవయ్య చక్కోడ, నీవు ఎంత చక్కగ వున్నవయ్య చక్కోడ,
అటు ఇటు కాని వాడ మా ప్రాణాలు తీస్తావు తోడ తోడ"
he repeats same charam again, then

సడన్ గ స్క్రీన్ మీదికి మల్లి హీరో హీరోనీ వస్తారు..
హీరో: హే em ayindi...గుడ్లు తెలేసావు
హీరోయిన్: ఆహ్ ఎం లేదులే, నీ జాబు ఎంత ఇంట్రెస్టింగా అని ఆలోచిస్తున్న..

This was written just in reference to the "Orange" telugu movie characters.

Character, what defines it?

I know this topic is very subjective. But I always wonder about what defines the "Character". Can the character of the person be changed? what defines a good or bad character? I definitely don't know answers to these.

I always wonder, after playing so many hero type roles in the movies, do they have an impact on the person's original character who is playing the lead? Even though I cant speak about all of them, but in majority based on my opinion, the people playing good Samaritan roles in movies would not be affected by them. Here I have to say about one such major Hero I know.

In recent Assembly (Congress) elections back in my state, this big hero started his own party (yep, my fellow Americans, it's that easy to start your own political party in India, all you need is MONEY, thats all). He expected that his party would sweep the elections and he could become Head of the state (called Chief Minister (CM), even though there is Governor above CM, he doesn't not have much control over politics and he is there is just to sworn in the CM and his party after elections).

He contested from two places for two seats of Assembly. With his huge fan following from movies, he expected to win from both places, HANDS DOWN. But to his surprise, he could bag only one win, and his party lost miserably with less than one tenth of the seats in the assembly. After this disastrous defeat, he lost all the interest in politics and forgot all the promises he made to the public during campaign. During campaign, his political party's only agenda was "Change" (same as Obama's) and provide Social justice.

He was cribbing about all the injustice done to the people by the ruling party and he should be given a chance to serve people. He even decided to quit movies and satisfy his undying urge of serving people. But after his defeat, it was so astonishing to see, as how he could care less for the people and their worries. He, even though won one seat, paid no interest in taking care of the dire needs of the people in that constituency. The place lacks basic things like clean air, food and shelter. The major public use areas like bus and railway stations looked like garbage damping grounds. This did not bother him even a bit, and now he just decided to come back to movies, as thats the only thing he is capable of.."acting and fooling people" on and off screen.

People like this, prove that how much ever influence you have from outside (in this case, from positive hero characters in movies), the intrinsic CHARACTER will not Change. The character is formed and defined during your budding years when you get some awareness and some clue of whats happening around you. During these years, your family and friends have huge influence in shaping your character. Once formed, the Character is not easy to change.

I remember one of the saying from one of my dearest friends of my Bachelor days about character which is "Character is everything and if you don't have Character, you will be thrown out of the society". I remember him and his saying all the time. Even though I agree with each and every word of his, somehow I feel it is not applicable to everyone, at least not to the one I mentioned above. Even though he was thrown out of the politics, he is still hanging in there making huge bucks via movies.  I honestly feel with the influence of MONEY, the CHARACTER can be shadowed.

Economy vs War

As you might or might not be aware that US has spent close to 900 billion dollars on the Iraq war and has lost close to 4500 American lives and 100,000 lives of Iraq civilians over the span of 7 years. The war happened on the premise that Iraq is holding on to weapons of mass destruction, harbouring Al-qaeda, and financing Palestine suicide bombers who instigated the chaos between Israel and Palestine.

Even though President Bush vetoed the bill to retrieve the troops from Iraq, after Obama took over, he kept his presidential campaign promise of retrieving the majority of American troops by Aug-31-2010. There are still 50,000 troops who have stayed back to train Iraqi soldiers and make them self sufficient in sustaining their country's peace and security.

Along with 50,000 troops in Iraq, there are about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. So, it is still becomes first and foremost priority of US government to support the troops and maintain their safety by providing all the financial support they need, and also provide emotional support to their families back home.

But interestingly during the midterm and after the midterm elections, neither of the parties (republicans and democrats) mentioned about anything related to the troops or their families serving for their country. The media found it very strange and it had open group discussions with different panel board members to understand this. I have chanced on one of these panel discussions where I heard one of speakers mention the  political reasons behind this issue. He said that the reason neither political parties referred anything related to war was due to American people not being very keen to hear about the war and troops when they are themselves suffering back home with no job and health benefits, as the Economy is worst hit only second to 1929 great depression.

That really caught my eye and thought. I realized that no matter how proud we can be about the troops fighting for our safety, when things get tough or ugly on a personal level we do not bother about the soldier who is sacrificing his life for his country and people. This is where we put our self interests in front of anything else.

This proves that after all we are the most selfish creatures ever made, and I feel that there is nothing wrong about that. What do you think?