What's keeping me busy....(Mar -May ' 09)

I've been keeping myself busy myself spending some time on social networking site (with some difference), watching the IPL matches (and yes Deccan Chargers win made me proud for I am very much a Hyderabadi) and last thing I am currently hooked to is a new found love for web-based browser game called Travian.
Geni.com

The Geni craze for me started in the month of March with an invite sent by my Wife's aunt and a bit of tinkering around in the application made be a big fan of this site. Geni is a social networking site intended to connect family members and fill the family tree. Launched in January 2007 by Web 2.0 company Geni, Inc with over thirty million profiles created in a span of one year.
I was hooked into this site for good 2-3 months fetching collecting data about the family members and putting up their photos personal information etc. I added more than 550+ profiles in this while inviting close to 50 profiles. It's been a good time collecting to know the faces of our wide family. An overall good time experience.

Travian

Travian in a web-browser based war-based strategy game. Created using PHP and Ajax this is the hottest game on the lines of Age of Empires (sans graphics and sound). This is completely an online game where players compete for domination in the virtual world. The game lasts for 300 days till from the date the game is initiated with multiple servers serving multiple players.

I ended up on this game from a banner which claimed this to be the best online-strategy based games. It wasn't before this curiosity changed to full fledged addiction. Its been over a month I have been playing this and am such an addict that I keep checking the status of my virtual city through my mobile Internet connection every 2 hours. I sleep late watching the troops and city grow and wake up early to check for any attacks from other co-players. Lots of literature study and lots of wiki and forum guides fill up my empty time between those long waits while my resource fields or infrastructure is being built or while waiting for my troops to return from a mission.

Secondly as per Alexia.com which is the premier internet traffic tracking site; Travian server is the 19th most popular side for 2 months running (April, May 2009) you can check them out yourself for India category. Was pretty surprised at this rating as none of the other popular countries (Arabia, Turkey, Italy,America, Germany - Top 5) have no Travian in the their top 20. Its one feat for Travian.

My girl curses the game heavily as its eating a bit too much beyond her fancy into her life as the game seemingly is getting more priority over her; which rightly pisses her off.

For me Travian has ensured that I was away from the stock market while I was actively trading and making money in the months of March and April; and the opportunity driven due to the election results was the biggest led down as I was busily researching my Travian guides, and storyboards and forums. Lets see how long this craze continues.

Travian ruins my personal life as I have hardly watched any movies, have not ventured out of my house for long hours nor currently planning given the future plans of my future empire.

Nature Cure / Naturopathy

What is Naturopathy ?
Naturopathy is a preventative approach to health care - it aims to balance the body so that illness is less likely to occur in the future.
Naturopathy is built upon the dictum of Hippocrates, the father of medicine, who declared "Nature cures; not the physicians". Naturopathy is a combination of different methods of natural healing in addition to it being a way of life. It is known by different names - Nature Cure, the natural methods, the New science of healing and Healing from within.
Approach towards Diseases...
Naturopathy believes that all forms of disease are due to the same cause, which is the accumulation of waste materials and toxins in our bodies that are steadily piling up. The primary cause being an unhealthy lifestyle. As in other treatments its suggests avoidance of a diet high in fat, salt and refined Carbohydrates, smoking , excess consumption of alcohol and high stress levels. Its core focus is to Identify and remove the causes of illness, rather than eliminate or suppress symptoms
Naturopathy advocates a new life style with corrective habits such as exercise, a good diet and a moderate approach towards all things Naturopathic life style should be viewed as a method of disease prevention. In Naturopathy, the fundamental healing force is considered to be nature itself, that is the power of the individual to defeat disease.
Essence of Naturopathy
Naturopathy is a system of medicine aimed to diagnose and treat any human ailment, pain and injury through the use of natural elements, mainly 5 in number - Space, Air, Fire, Water and Earth - Also known as Panch Bhootalu.
Naturopathy believes that all the 5 elements combine to form the living form in the world. Similar to any life form man is derived as a combination of these 5 elements in appropriate ratios; an imbalance in these ratio's leads to an eventuality of systematic breakdown of the human body and gradually paving way to diseases. The process of maintaining this healthy internal balance is called homeostasis
Pancha Bhoothalu(The Five Elements) and life
For life to evolve and sustain a symbiotic relation between these elements is quite essential.
Space - The largest of all the 5 elements without which none of the other elements exists. Its only if there is space there is a scope for growth; and scope for replacing old with new/
Air - The air occupies the majority of the living world and is engulfed by space. Air sustains life and the quality of the air reflects the quality of health of the beings in the environment. Air carries the PranaVayu to sustain various organs in the body similar to various life forms on the earth.
Water - Water makes up 70% of the earth and 70% of the human body too. Water is an essential element to awaken life. Water is the only element which triggers growth of new life forms be it plants from the seed or cells in the body. Its also an universal solvent/cleanser which has an ability to wash off any toxins and wastes.
Earth - The carbon form is required to give shape and build anything from a lifeless stone to life form. Life all around the world is carbon-based; Imbalance is of sufficient Earth in the human body also leads to various imbalances in the healthy functioning of the life forms.
Fire - The celestial element is required to convert and utilise the various other elements in a meaning full manner and to sustain life. It is this elements which develops the synchronisation between the elements.
Nature cure starts with trying to understand the deficiencies in these elements and then filling up as required to restore balance. Once the balance is restored and enough of time is give to the body it starts the self healing process.
Basics start with cleansing process involving starving just surving on few essential juices for close to 20 days (detox). The intent is to creat Space in the system which has been filled completely with unwanted toxin giving space to the system to start the self heal. Parallel to this alternative treatments like sunbath, mudbath, steam bath etc are undertaken to induce removal of toxins through the skin. The intestinal system is flushed clean during this 20 day process and then subsequently overhauled with ingestion of raw/steamed vegetables without oil, sugar or salt. If one sustains this process and continues with this lifestyle of nil to near nil consumption of salt, oil based and sugar based products the benfits of the thearpy can be sustained.
Naturopathy is a two stage process

1. The Treatment - (Therapies - Mud, Sun/Chroma, Pranayam(Ozone), Hydrotherapy, Steam, Fasting etc as bare minimals in the course)
2. The Lifestyle - (The lifestyle habits one is supposed to follow for the rest of the life to sustain and enjoy the benefits of Naturopathy)

Benefits

The benefits of a full and dedicated follower of this lifestyle are immense and requires a disciplined approach towards life.

• Diseases are eradicated by attacking the cause of the issue hence preventing the recurrence of the disease. Probably there would never be a need for a doctor.
• Zero dependency on drugs and costly hospital treatments and surgical procedure.
• Severely Reduced risk of major diseases like Cancer, Diabetes, Cardio Vascular, Digestive issues...
• Overall well being of the body

Drawbacks -

• The treatment takes atleast one month to begin from cleansing and detoxification; This makes the treatment unpopular in the current generation where time is money.
• Extreme lifestyle changes, withdrawal in terms of habits keeps people away.
• Sustenance of adapted new life style is difficult to sustain in the current social scenario.
• High amount of will power and determination is required

Big Mac has never been this awful

Today I messed up to drop in at Big Mac. A couple of colleagues from office ventured out of the office beating the sun to have some delicious meal at Tammanna (not the heroine!) restaurant; Thanks to Friday frenzy we found ourself queing up at the guest bench. Guess the hunger had no control which had us drove away a kilometer towards the McDonald in Hinjewadi.
It was as any other eat-out filled upto the brim. 10 minutes into the waiting I got to place my order; Yes full 8-10 minutes of waiting. And what more the guy at the counter doesn't accept credit cards (ahem!!!) I want to offload some amount in the Visa Food card. I found it quite amazing for the fact that a US Multi-National refuses to use credit cards; what a shame for a country which lives on plastic and credit doesn't do the same in its Indian arm. I wondered I should have preferred a Domino's or Smoking Joe's they atleast accept cards.
The food menu is very much Indianised; and only thing American seems to be the Happy Meal though the menus are again customised to meet Indian tastes.
A medium cool drink costs 27/- !!!! Way too high to a retail shelf price. I bought Paneer Wrap with Sandwich Salad. The first one is more of paneer tikka wrapped in a dosa with some sauses and vegetables; while the Sandwich salad was more vegetables sandwiched in a burger bun. Nothing special on these two; but I found the taste quite unlike to my liking and had a gut feel that I was ingesting something which was totally unhealthy and junk. This bothered me even furthering my displeasure towards the taste as I continued to nibble. Once out of the McD I've decided a never to have a things at McD few pointers...
Credit cards not accepted...
Waiting during peak hours...
Unhealthy Junk food culture...
Its nothing American it's more Indian...
Why the hell should I feed an American MNC when I have good Indian options...
Anyways few things I didn't consider were about the Quality of Service, Standardisation, Ambience, Brand, Youth/Yippee factors.
Disclaimers - I have been to McD not more than 4 times earlier. Once in Delhi, thrice in Hyderabad.

Misuse of Pharmaceutical Drugs ???

Typically when Ria took her 7-year-old daughter to a doctor to check on her fever and sore throat, and was prescribed seven drugs, including antibiotics and medicine to prevent febrile seizures.
As experts would say it as another classic, but only too common, case of over-medication, or prescribing drugs patients do not need. Here, the antibiotic was unnecessary, as was the drug to prevent fever-related seizures as the child had no history of such attacks.
Experts warn that driven by profits from selling medicine, many doctors overprescribe medicines, a practice which will be disastrous in the longer term.
Polypharmacy (overmedication) means use of lot of medicines which are unnecessary, like prescribinh many types of antibiotics for a cold.The consumption of multiple drugs triggers drug reaction and unpredictable side effects. Worse, it gives rise to bacterial resistance.
The most recent example of growing resistance involves the drug oseltamivir(Tamiflu), which researchers in the United States found was now ineffective against 98 percent of the H1N1 seasonal human influenza virus strains. (Swine flu and bird flu)
Apart from eventually reducing the effectiveness of drugs, exposing bacteria and viruses to drugs unnecessarily also has other serious consequences.
A general observation is that most parents rush to treat symptoms, not the disease. Doctors may feel pressure to give treatments, even when it is not necessary or in the best interests of the child's health.
It's upto to us to know understand and adopt to the human body needs and support it to build resistances to various microbiotic organisms. Its important to enable such a strenghtning process within out system by means of adopting a few lifestyle changes and taking a positive approach towards moving away from Allopathic treatments which are primarily based on chemical compounds which act on inhibitting the symptoms/giving relief or directly act on behalf of the human immune system to tackle infections.
A traditional form of treatment is a stream called Naturopathy which revolutionary to the contemporary medicine (Allopathy and Homeopathy) and also slightly unadvanced compared to ancient medicines (Ayurvedic, Unani, Accupuncture). The main focus of this form of treatment is more preventive and comprehensive than reactive treatments.

Walnuts and Fish Protect Against Heart Disease

In healthy individuals, walnuts lower cholesterol more than fish, while fatty fish lower triglycerides. Both can reduce the overall risk of coronary heart disease.
Following the qualified health claim issued by the Food and Drug Administration, researchers found that incorporating approximately 40gms of walnuts (a handful of whole nuts or about three tablespoons of chopped nuts) into the daily diet lowered serum total cholesterol by 5.4 percent and LDL (bad) cholesterol by 9.3 percent compared to a control diet based on USDA recommendations. For this study subjects were randomly assigned to each of the three diets for eight weeks over a 24-week schedule. This gave the researchers a chance to compare the effect of each diet on each participant.
Source - Loma Linda University research just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

List of Telugu Channels

As I was trying to cut across some time, I picked up the task of analysing the current Telugu TV media space. Interestingly I found a micro India kind of presence in terms of channels that are floating around the airways. The Sun TV run Gemini TV with its 6 sister Channels are the leader of the pack; Gemini has dethroned the innovator in TV media Eenadu Television run by Suman son of Media baron Ramoji Rao. The reputation of ETV has lost due to possibly tasteless emphasis and portrayal of Suman's own taste didn't convert into viewers taste. While ETV couldn't capitalise on its journalistic base and span; lots of channels proped up as its competitors in the Current affairs and News section. While TV9 continues to top this segment, ETV2 follows it as its competitor. ETV also failed to launch new segments and penetrate deeper into the growing viewer base and lost its viewership to competitors like Gemini and new entrants like Zee and Maa TV. Lack of innovation, creative thinking has lead to an erosion and gradually lead to fragmentation of the Telugu Media.
New segments are being formed and creating a niche for themselves while current segments as the General Entertainment sections is getting highly commoditised.
While the 2009 Parliamentary and Assembly elections added an entire new equation of Politics driven media with launch of Sakshi, and likes of Studio N and Mahaa TV; its to be seen if an Tamilnadu like segmentation on politics backed and driven media channels emerge and make a foot holding.
Comedy Channel - 1
Children Channels - 1 (Excludes Jetix, Disney TV)
Movie Channels - 1
Music Channels - 2
Devotional Channels - 2 (excludes Missionary Channels)
General Entertainment - 11
News - 10
Social Channels - 2

Overhauling Life - Sprouts for Better Health

You know what fascinates me? Life! Life as an individual’s journey on this planet, that begins with birth and ends with death. Hinduism talks about cycle of life and death and says that there is one more life, its life after death!
But think about it, all these beans and lentils usually go though two transformations. First one is when they are young and fresh. All those bouncy and fresh ones jumping and running around with high energy. That’s their first life as child, adolescent and grown-up. And then there is a dried bean, all hard and tough skinned, as if it is dead and can’t feel anything that happens to it. When you soak this same bean in water, it re-hydrates and as a result it’s all round and plumps up. Take these same beans and sprout them and what you see is another life formation! Plant these sprouts in soil and with in few days you will see small plants sprouting and growing and producing new batch of crops. Isn’t it a fascinating process? Give it a thought sometimes and you will know why I said life fascinates me. Now, do you see the connection between my theory and the theory of Life-Death-Life after Death? Sometimes, I could be too philosophical with some random thoughts surfacing on idle days. I don’t want to go too philosophical today.
Why to Sprout
Sprouting boasts off the nutrition values contained within the seeds. On sprouting the seeds undergo a series of changes transforming hard to digest matter (aka enzyme inhibitors) into protein rich easily digestible food. The nutrient content difference between Sprouted and non-sprouted seeds is known to be atleast 3-4 fold.
The protein available in the sprouts is off the purest and most easily digestable form as its converted to pre-digested Amino acids, while fats and Carbs are broken done to simple sugars.
Water-soluble vitamins such as B complex and vitamin C are created. Through the miracle of germination, thiamin increases five-fold and niacin content doubles. Vitamin C, E and carotene increase. In fact, the vitamin C content becomes as rich as tomatoes. Sprouting is accompanied by an intense enzymatic hydrolysis of protein.
How to Consume
Best when consumed Raw, unboiled and without seasoning is the best combination.
For beginners semi-boiled (destroys minerals and micro nutrients) can be prepared. Can seasoned with lemon juice to taste.
How to Sprout Lentils, Seeds & Legumes .
Sprouts provide super nutrition for all, harvest quickly, and can be grown anywhere. Sprouting jars and lids are available at many places and can be made without help of these too.

Sprouting Instructions

• Place whole, untreated, lentils or beans in a clean, wide-mouthed jar and Soak them in purified water overnight.
• Cover the top of the jar with a screen, cheese cloth, or sprouting jar lid.
• Next morning drain the water from the jar. (Note this water is toxic for humans but nutritious for plants; hence can be doubled as fertiliser for plants).
• Distribute the seeds or beans around the walls of the jar evenly. Lay the jar on its site or tilted at an angle to allow the water to drain. Place the sprouting jar in a warm, dark place.
• Once a day Rinse sprouts, draining excess water.
• After the sprouts have grown to their maturation length, put the jar in the sunlight for the sprouts to develop chlorophyll.
• When the sprouts turn green, rinse, Drain and refrigerate.

Good for Sprouting

• Alfalfa Seeds (Lucerne /hindi-razka) - 4 to 5 Days - Rich source of minerals, protein, vitamins A, B-complex, C, D, E and K
• Black-eyed Peas (Lobi/Alsandalu) - 3 to 4 Days - Rich source proteins, minerals, and vitamins A and C
• Chick Peas (Kabuli Channa) - 4 to 5 Days - Rich source of proteins and also contain many minerals.
• Lentils (Red or Yellow) - 3 to 4 Days - Rich source of proteins and also contain many minerals
• Moong Beans - 3 to 4 Days - Rich source of protein, vitamins A and C, along with calcium, phosphorus and iron.
• Soybeans - 3 to 5 days. - Rich source of protein, vitamins A, B - Complex, Vitamin C and Vitamin E.
• Peas (White, Green, Black) - 3-4 days - Rich source of Proteins, minerals
• Sunflower Seeds (hulled) - 5-6 days - Rich source of Proteins, minerals, unsaturated fatty acids, and vitamins D and E.
• Wheat - 2 to 3 Days - Rich source of Proteins, Vitamins B, C and E. Alternatively grown for 4 to 7 days to produce wheat grass can be juiced or eaten for its high chlorophyll content. Wheat Grass juice is rich in antioxidants.
• Others - Barley, Corn, Lentils

Precautions on Sprouts

• Remember to dispose of water that has been used for sprouting.
• Indigestion problems/ gastric activity might be high and common due to high fibre content. Consume lots of water and ideally avoid masala's for the remainder of the day.
• Sprouts are more easily assimilated and less gas-forming than dried beans. Digestibility is vastly improved compared to regular beans.
• Ideal time for Sprouts - Morning, Afternoons - Never consume in night as dinner.
• Ideally don't mix Sprouts with cooked food/fruits. Have a gap of minimum of 1 hr if required.
• Soybeans sprouts should be only consumed after semi-boiling. Soya is believed to cause irritants and allergens if consumed directly due to toxicity.

Akshayá Tritiyá...The Gold Festival ??

Akshayá Tritiyá falls on the third day (Tritiya) of the new moon of Vaishakh moon month. This is one of the four most auspicious days of the vedic calendar (the other three being Ugadi, Vijayadashami and Balipaadyami).The word Akshaye, a Sanskrit word, literally means one that never diminishes, and the day is believed to bring good luck and success.
Cultural Significance
According to the Puranas, this day marks the beginning of the Treta Yug which is the 2nd out of four yugas(ages of man), This yuga follows the Satya Yuga of perfect morality and preceding the Dvapara Yuga.
It is on this day Lord Shiva is said to have brought River Ganges to the earth from the heaven, and this celestial river continues to flow on till date.
This day also marks the birth of Parashurama, the sixth incarnation of Vishnu.
A legend from Mahabharata talks about when Pandavas were in exile, Lord Krishna gave Draupadi a bowl called the Akshaya Pathram. The word Akshaya means that which never diminishes and this bowl is said to have given infinite food to the Pandavas.
Also associated with the Mahabarata, is that it was on this day that the Pandavas unearthed weapons that decided their victory over the Kauravas.
It is on this day that Veda Vyasa, along with Lord Ganesha, started writing the Mahabharata
It is also believed that Goddess Vijaya Chamundeshwari killed Asura on this day.
Biological Significance
The Sun and Moon are astrologically believed to be at their most exalted equal brightness on this day. The brightness is at its best at the west coast of India. Goa and Konkan regions, even today, are referred to as Parusurama Kshetra.

It is believed that by doing a good deed on Akshaya Tritiya one can earn Punya (merit) for life. This day is considered auspicious for starting new ventures and making new purchases.
Things to do

• One should give donations alms to poor, dakshina to guru.


• Anushtaans done for Sri Mahalaxmi, for year round prosperity.


• Visit Mahalaxmi mandir, and 4 coins should be thrown in all 4 directions, this will open doors to wealth.


• Kubera Lakshmi Pooja is done on this day alone which extends to daily recital of Moola Mantra 1 mala a day.


• Chanting Anang mantra "Om Hloum Hloom Anangaay Phat" makes one physically fit and reduces impotency problems.


• Married women wear a red thread with vermillion around their necks and invoke good wishes in a Shiv mandir for longevity of their husbands.


• Unmarried ones put it on the feet of Lord Shiva to get the husband they wish for.


• Visit Shiv mandir with neem leaves and after offering to Shiva put under the pillow of a sick person, the person will recover from his illness and evil eyes.


• It is the day of eternal prosperity for any auspicious beginning and buying valuables, gold items or remedial measures.

Intellectually onto the Political Expressway...

Freedom Fighters, Patriots, Socialists, Nationalists, joined the political stream and formed the part of formative political horizon; Followed by seasoned Criminals, Opportunists like Liquor Barons, Business Tycoons, and other similar socio-political classes. In small parts the main stream politics still managed to pull into their fold Engineers, Doctors, Economists, Scholars. Though there has been a presence of intellectuals in politics their voice seems to be always softened by the other lot. The Presence of few intellectuals up the chain failed to attract the educated to the seemingly non-glamours, corruption tarnished Political Scenario of the country.
Their seems to be a silent and seemingly interesting transformation in the country. The current generation, though its a minutely small fraction seem to be shoving off the Taboo related to politics and entering mainstream politics; Some Have even taken a step ahead to start off their own Political parties.

Reflecting a emerging trend, one student from IIM-Calcutta is all geared-up to in NDA Prime Ministerial-candidate L K Advani's campaign office this 2009 elections. Another from IIM-Ahmedabad has ambitions of interning with Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi. Ranjan Choudhary of IIM-Calcutta left a plush office and well-paying corporate job in Australia to plunge into the heat and dust of the Indian political arena. While Choudhary joined the Congress party in May 2004 worked with Rahul Gandhi, as a Political Strategist/Analyst. Choudhary joined BJP as he felt the party was not as focussed on youth as presummed to be. The trend could be traced back to Chepuri Krishna who started the trend of IIM students interning with political parties. A student of IIM-A, Chepuri inspired by CPM leader Sitaram Yechury's guest lecture as part of a course on the ‘Indian Social and Political Environment’. went on to intern with the CPM's central office in 2008 and produced a paper on the ‘unorganised workforce in the country’.

While studying, analysing and strategising Political scenarios is one level, entering and fighting it out in the open Political ground is altogether a different level. Emergence of intellectually strengthen and supported parties is a new outcome.

Bharatiya Punarnirman Dal
Formed in December 2006 by alumni of two of India's renowned educational institutions, the Indian Institutes of Management and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIMs and IITs) with the objective of making “Bharathvarsha a prosperous and powerful nation and re-establish it as the world-leader, a position, which the nation rightfully deserves”.The party is contesting about 40 Lok Sabha Seats under the banner of the Bharatiya Punarnirman Dal (BPD).

Lok Paritran
Paritrana meaning "To bring relief from the cause of distress" in Sanskrit, is a political party. The party was formed in February 2006 by a group of six graduates from IIT Bombay and IIT Kanpur. Lok Paritran was the brainchild of Shri. Chandrashekhar,an Alumnus from IIT Kanpur.

Lok Satta
Perhaps the strongest, oldest Politcal party is the Lok Satta Party from Andhra Pradesh. It's the brain child of Dr.Jaya Prakash Narayan (blog), a former Physician and Civil Servant (IAS Officer) who has quietly built a new political party Lok Satta with a clear motto - new politics for a new generation. Dr. JP Narayan joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1980 in the aftermath of Emergency and the failure of the Janata Experiment. During his nearly 17 years of distinguished public service in various capacities, he acquired a formidable reputation in the State of Andhra Pradesh. Lok Satta the political party is a direct offshoot of Lok Satta Movement which has grass roots from Andhra Pradesh with over 2,50,000 members in it. The Lok Satta Movement was an NGO aimed at creating a suitable environment to realise maximum positive potential through comprehensive reforms in the Indian governance and establish citizen-centered, democratic governance. For the 249 Legislative Assembly seats that the party is contesting, it has nominated 88 BCs, 42 SCs, 15 STs, 10 minorities, 28 women and 1 physically challenged candidate; while its contesting in all 42 seats for the Lok Sabha.

Unlike the former situation the silent revolution has already started, though in its nascence it is slowly but surely becoming stronger by a day. Inspite of parties trying their heart out for change and the candidates not going for costly advertisements which are cleverly camouflaged as news or that sections of the print media chose to virtually black out the party from their columns these political organisation continue to inspire and make indentation into the politics.

Voters should realise that they are the architects of their own destiny and that every vote counts and should not succumb to the poisonous propaganda that a vote to these parties would go waste.
With Vote India, Jago Re and several ways in which the younger generation is taking active interest, I do hope Indian Politics will change, and change for the better and more would be driven by the intellectual crowd.

Politically Misinclined !!!

In a couple of days some part of the country and the Andhra Pradesh State would go to elections. The first phase of elections kicks off on April 16th 2009.

AP would have coupled it assembly and Parliamentary elections this year owing to early dissolution of the state assembly 5 years back during the reign of N.Chandra Babu Naidu.

Things have dramatically changed since then. Towards end of Chandra Babu's term in 2004, there was droughts in the state causing a serious setback to developmental and in effect the popularity of Chandra Babu Naidu and lots of hostility by the severely suppressed and now eradicated Naxal/Maoist groups. Brewing popularity of Telengana sentiment ensured that Telugu Desam Party had its final blow giving a landslide victory to Congress, TRS combine under Dr.Y.S.Raja Shekhar Reddy.

In the last 5 years Telengana sentiment has taken a backseat, and TRS failed miserably while internally TDP lost more than half of its cadre owing to quitting of Devender Goud and emerging of Praja Rajyam under Chiranjeevi. What's left of TDP today looks more of empty vessel making lots of noise in terms of doling out innumerable social benefits which sound unrealistic, unasked and biased.

Schemes like Cash-exchange scheme, TV scheme which have mass appeal but eventually are luring people to vote for them in return for nothing. Schemes like a house for 1 Lakh, provision of land to the poor, reclaiming of area handed over to private owners for mining back to people are all on the cards of TDP. The party is hardly promising anything on growth, but is promising on returning the fruits of growth they sowed during their 9-year long tenure. TDP a very forward approached and growth focused party deteriorating to these cheap gimmicks is totally disheartening and shows extreme levels of desperation.

While the Congress has been in power from 2004-2009 there has been immense growth in the revenues for the state. Drought has ended, famers are happy, government was riding the global economic and financial boom without any caution. They sold/auctioned lands/properties/mines/minerals/sand and almost everything they can derive value from. Diversion of land rights for forests, bauxite & iron ores, coal, cement, sand where all calmly been sold to private players. While the CM YS RajaShekar Reddy claimed less than 30 Lakhs as assets owned by himself and in his family through an affidavit in 2004 has now crossed over 10,000 Crores as of 2009 comprising of holdings in Raghuram Cements, Jagruti Publications and over a half a dozen Power Plants across the country. Just a trivia for AP it took 50 Years to produce 12500 M watts of power from 213 MW in 1960s. YSR owned Athena Energy plans to generate 14000 M watts in 7 years more than any private player (Tata Power, Reliance Energy, GVK). In Raghuram cements YS Jagan's shares where worth 45 crores when bought after renaming it as Bharti Cements its worth 6500 crores.

List

Jagathi Publication (Sakshi Paper, Sakshi News Channel, Indira TV) - 3500 Crores

Sandur Power - 1000 Crores

Raghu Ram Cement - 6500 Crores

Athena Energy - 50,000 + Crores

Forest Plantation Ltd

Saraswathi Power & Industries

Pullivendula Polymers

Silicon Builders, Classic Reality, Caramel Asia Holding, Bhagavath Sannidhi Estates, Silicon Infrastructures

Janani Infra Structure.

The above list is not exhaustive and used to siphon in the corrupt black money into legal tender and pay heavy dividends to the share holders/promoters. Also companies like Asian Infra aid in achieving the money laundering channels and Tax havens for the family. Athena Infra holds most of the converted corrupt money routed through the hawala route through Asian Infra to East Coast Energy or Matrix G2/Sainz Hydro projects.

People are unaware at the level of corrupt ways of the people in power. The ever smiling CM I feel reflects a very averse and carenot attitude when he gives a wicked smile when asked to clarify on the same in the media be it Devils Advocate on CNBC or on NDTV or TV9. He brushes off all allegations made against him by the opposition with same wicked and arrogant smile. He is so extremely confident and God-like stature makes him feel invincible.

The party once famous for internal groupisms is quite numb the reason being all the hostility within the party has been closed and shut tight by the corruption and money they earned. The corruption has amassed at every level during this five years.

Coming to much hyped administration Schemes like Arogyasri, Jala Yagnam, 2 rupee rice are not corruption free. Arogyasri which insures all the people provide funds for critical illness and operations for the white card holders. Unfortunately this has come at the price of non-development of basic health care services. The government hospitals continue to get a step motherly treatment with falling quality, resources and facilities to treat everyone while the government funded private hospitals and feed them with exorbitant and possibly unwanted tests and diagnostic fees which went to the tax payers account.

The instances of diversion of the two rupee rice beyond the state borders with the enforcement people turning a blind eye to the same was common. The quality of the Rice was seemingly bad and quantity of 4kgs per month perhaps serves very little purpose in a big family of unfed.

Under the Jalayagnam scheme the canals restructuring only filled the pockets of politicians the contractors and engineers who worked on them whilst delivering substandard quality projects. While major of the projects still remain uncompleted the project connecting all the major rivers in the country was scrapped by the Union Government.

While all this went on there was high inflation sparked by petroleum but spread to essential food commodities which still remain high. The real estate prices has sky rocketed so much that its beyond the pockets of the common man to buy a decent house. Thanks to the cartel between the politicians, law-makers and the real estate developers. The government still seems to give attractive interest rate deduction schemes to lure home buyers and infuse life to the real estate developers instead of enabling the real Estate developers to drop the prices. I wonder if this government is for the people or for the Real Estate Agencies.

While all these devlopment seems to be taking place a much hyped and now controversial Praja Rajyam Party or Kingdom of People's emerged . This is headed by 54 year-old Padmabhushan Dr.Konidela Shiva Shankara Vara Prasad a.k.a Chiranjeevi (screen name) and operated by his rich uncle Allu Arvind (last produced film - Ghazini,Hindi). Though it has a slow and shaky start post its Mega Launch at Tirupati it has been widely strengthened by influx of seasoned Politicians from all the parties. The initial hype and propaganda doesn't seem to be holding the party for now. The politics, power Struggle within the party is comparable if not more than the already established parties. Tensions, political turmoil within the party has ensure that this was no different from the already existing parties. PRP runs on the star power of Chiranjeevi who seems to have drawn inspiration of likes of NTR on politics and wishes to replicate the same what Telugu Desam did in 1983. Unlike 1983 where NTR was viewed as unanimous choice beyond religion, class, creed and caste as a leader who would take them to growth, Chiranjeevi somehow doesn't live to the stature and charisma of NTR. Chiranjeevi would largely gains from a community of Kapu which he hails from and the Krishna/Godavari delta where the community is strong. There could be swing of fate away from congress as it stands to loose votes which were earlier came from Kapu community in this region. Loss of congress would be PRP's gain. The youth sentiment would also sligthly be pro-PRP as they still continue to idolise Chiranjeevi, Kalyan and Alu Arvind. The joining of Devender Goud with his Nava Telegana Party in PRP added more fire power for PRP with joining of Telengana BC votes. PRP with Devender Goud is much a stronger party than earlier and I too respect Devender Goud a lot !!

I personally feel that PRP is run mostly by Alu Arvind whose interests is in money making than in Social Service. He ideally would want to use the cloud of the government to engage in money laundering and hawala for his crores of Tollywood and real estate money hoarded else where. Chiranjeevi still would be no action cover boy of all this episode. I would rather be very happy with Chiranjeevi be elected and sit in opposition for 5 full years and learn the tricks of trade, prove his worth and dedication before staking a willful claim for the top position of the state. Rightfully I feel one should be compelled to come into social service or politics because someone has asked to one should come if one feels its his duty to serve the society and nation without expecting anything in return. The life of social service doesn't have takes and retakes and doesn't require Tagline like "Social Justice" "Social Telengana" words to appease and attract. It should be a party of action than party of taglines and words.

During this Time burecract turned Politican Jai Prakash Narayan coverted his Lok Satta to politcal party. A bit sad on the move but probably required at this moment seeing the unrealism, opportunism exhibited by the mainstream parties.

Its in a way good to see that parties like Chiranjeevi's PRP adapting shamelessly the main/core content and essence of Lok Satta idealogy with giving due acknowledgement. The fundamentalism and ideology of Lok Satta are quite unique, trend setting and highly growth oriented and majorly egalitarian. Out of 249 assembly seats its contesting it allotted mere 65 seats to Forward castes i.e. 26% while 184 seats where distributed among BCs and challenged classes (88 BCs, 42 SCs, 15 Sts, 10 minority, 28 women & 1 Physically Challenged). This probably overshadows the tall claims of PRP which says its given 104 tickets to backward classes and challenged classes. PRP is trying to cleverly mimic Lok Satta's ideology in every given form but with a different motive which is definetly not to give social justice or Social governance.

Personally there isn't much to comment on CPI/CPM or to that matter ever lying ever nagging ever opportunist TRS. BJP doesn't even seem to exist in the state and we are happy with that. For BJP we get to hear only Bandaru Dattatreya or an occasional Ch. Vidya Sagar Rao; else there is no impactable presence in Andhra Pradesh.

Anyways after such a long post my point is please people don't go for seasoned politicians and yes we are all sick of sorry stories and corruption and we are sick of new opportunists trying to come and join the mainstream politics.

Lets Vote !!! Lets come vote in big numbers !!! Vote for change and Vote for Growth !! Don't get bribed and lured by cheap politicians eventually one ends up bribing for the rest of the term. Aid democracy and heal the state of affairs of the country. Lets start by voting !! Be intelligent, choose intelligently for the future for yourself and for your family.