Andhra Pradesh

Telangana and Musi — all in one family

The programme organised to observe the centenary of the great Musi floods drew people from different walks of life. Many of them read out poems portraying the tragedy.

One of the participants, P. Srisailam, surprised everyone by announcing that he had named his daughter Musi. A cheer went up when he presented his eight-year-old daughter. There was another surprise in store when he said he had named his elder daughte r after Telangana. Why the unique names? This is to highlight the indiscriminate encroachment of the Musi and the injustice being done to Telangana region, he said.

The city is gearing up for some heavy duty cricketing action in the coming few days. The star-studded Australian team has already touched-down to take on the Board President’s XI, to be led by Yuvraj Singh, at Uppal Stadium from Thursday. The tickets for this match are priced a reasonable Rs. 100 per day.

Immediately after that, the much-awaited ICL championship will kick-start at L.B. Stadium from October 10. With the home team lifting last year’s ICL trophy, surely, this season too, ICL would continue to attract hoards of die-hard fans to the L.B. Stadium. Sports lovers will also be eagerly looking forward to check-out the new Bangladeshi outfit in the ICL. Good times are ahead for cricket fans in Hyderabad.

The recent press meet by the opponents of the Hyderabad Metro Rail illustrated how genuine issues get shrouded when objections which border on irrelevance are raised. Arguing for the scrapping of the Metro Rail Agreement, the opponents said that there are better ways to improve the public transport and cited the lack of footpaths as an example. The sound pollution generated by the Metro Rail was another reason cited.

Despite their own gravity, both the issues apparently had no direct relevance in the context of Metro Rail Project. Are there no instances of other cities in the world which have tackled both the problems successfully while also operating train services? Should not the footpaths and the reduced decibels deserve a dedicated campaign all for themselves, rather than being tagged with the Metro Rail issue? Likewise, perhaps the Metro Rail agreement too should be objected for its own pitfalls, if any, rather than being associated with the existing problems.

With a couple of foreign companies toying with the idea of marketing music albums in micro SD cards, calling it ‘Slot Music’, it only goes to show that music companies are waking up to the alternative uses of storage devices. Users can plug the slot music SD card into their mobile phones and MP3 players and listen to music. Numerous discussion forums are being filled with views about slot music having a shot at the markets. But all these debates about storage d evices spell out one thing -- the era of small storage devices is here and when it comes to technology, small is good. Moreover, it may not be long when these slot music chips will replace the DVDs.

The financial crisis in the U.S. hasn’t really deterred the spirit of those wanting to set their foot in the ‘land of opportunities’. If the numbers that turned up at a seminar on US visas is anything to go by, America still is the dream destination for most youngsters. Attended by students, mid-career professionals and dependents of those settled there, several queries veered around the means to (mis)use different US visas and settle/emigrate there. So o bsessed was one girl with that country that she even tried faking her accent when asking a query.

These days’ senior government officials appear to have mastered the lingo distinctly used by members of the Fourth Estate. At a recent press conference, addressed by APSRTC MD V. Dinesh Reddy to brief about the details of the visit of a US delegation, said: “Memu samaanya prajala pai bharam mopadalachukoledu (We don’t want to impose additional burden on commuters).” He said this while replying to a question on increasing bus charges in the wake of s teep rise in fuel prices. “You exactly use this expression in your write-ups and I think it is certainly a press parlance,” he added.

J.S. IFTHEKHAR, M. SAI GOPAL, SWATHI.V, ABHIJIT DEV KUMAR, YOGENDRA KALAVALAPALLI, M.SRINIVAS

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