Andhra Pradesh

Dangerous experiment

Driving schools are mushrooming in the city with their vehicles making ubiquitous presence. In the past, they were found mostly on the beach road but now the Seethammadhara-Madhavadhara hill-side road parallel to the National Highway behind the port stadium has also become a training ground.

But some of them stray into narrow residential lines frequently.

On Saturday, one such driving school vehicle was seen with a woman-learner at the wheel near the new LIC apartments in HB Colony.

Suddenly, the vehicle stopped while going up on the road and swerved to the right as it began sliding back, only to nudge at a car which waited long enough behind the learner before deciding to overtake. It is time the driving schools are advised against indulging in experiments on the main roads.

Real estate promotion is really going big guns. Two firms have recently organised high profile entertainment programmes to market their ventures.

The guiding principle seems to be think big, do it big and rake in the moolah.

With the affluent looking forward to varied and fancy options and not just a home within four walls, the focus is shifting to a more leisure-oriented life.

If one were to go by the fancy launch of a recent project that brought film stars and comedians, the cost of promotion itself is quite high.

With the cost of projects running into hundreds of crores (excluding land cost) and with several ventures in the offing, one can imagine the kind of investment

that would pour into the region.

In real estate alone, it is running into several hundreds of crores of rupees. Every promoter is gushing about the serene and virgin beaches, hill view and unlimited growth options. The expansion is not limited to Visakhaptnam district alone but to the entire north Andhra.

Truly, the growth corridor seems to have arrived at least for real estate.

Have you heard of a reward for recommending a candidate? Yes, it is encouraged with incentive in Infosys, one of the leading players in software industry. The employees are given cash rewards for every accepted candidate.

The logic perhaps is to avoid man-hunters (placement agencies) and holding job fairs to get suitable youngsters and sometimes avail assistance to verify the academic credentials of the candidates by some private firms specialising in it. Indeed, it’s a welcome initiative.

A large number of young boys were involved in dangerous antics on their bikes, like a scene straight out of the Bollywood crowd-pullers Dhoom-I and Dhoom-II, much to the dismay of the passersby on the R.K. Beach the other

day.

The youngsters were fined, said Deputy Commissioner of Police P. Vishwa Prasad.

The police, however, surprised everyone by giving a piece of lecture to the youngsters, who were racing and honking their vehicles, that the future is dear to all and that they should take care of their lives.

Policemen even cited an example of a youngster who was killed in an accident due to rash driving and showed his photo to them.

Later, an oath was administered to the boys who vowed not to repeat such acts.

The boys were really touched when police treated them with kid-gloves and pressed upon them that if something happens to them, their family would be badly affected.

Kudos to the city police who went out of their way to counsel the raucous teenagers.

The police truly donned the role of a true friend on Friendship Day.

(Prabhakkar Sharma, G.V. Prasada Sarma, Santosh Patnaik and Manisha Garg)

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