New Dawn

I walked into the Airtel store well prepared to wait for a long time. They seemed to have gone astray in the customer satisfaction of late. The last time I visited for a piece of information, I waited for 30-45 mins and all the customers next to me were people visiting second or third time for complaint redressal. Therefore, I was not expecting any thing better this time.

Today I watched patiently (waiting for my turn) the poor senior executive trying to satisfy each of those dissatisfied customers pouncing on him. He was switching between calls, pacifying the customers and escalating the issues. I kind of empathized with him.

Two of the customers, senior citizens to be more precise, flared up. They were completely justified in being indignant and called them all names.  One of them  was angry with every one, he scolded all including Anna Hazare and walked away shouting "India can never change". This is my tipping point. I could see the executive, helpless as he was, composed and doing his duty and trying to attend the other customers. A young man, just as I am, working hard in his own career with his own aspirations and ambitions.

The two of them symbolized two Indias for me; One still pessimistic (and may be rightly so) because there is so much that needs to change in this country and the other working at all odds to make things happen. I am not sure where will it all go. The times are exciting and important. Everyday seems to bring with it new challenges and therefore new excitement. I am sure that by the time I am walking with the help of a walking stick, it would have all changed; the nation will reach a state of equilibrium. It is very hard to tell whether that would be of prosperity or anarchy; and both of them seem to be equally probable to me. I only hope that I am/will be part of that group which wants to take India towards the former.

Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny - II

This is a sequel to Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny.
In the good old days(I am referring to India in particular) we had weekly village fairs(సంతలు) where people would go around walking, bargain and buy what they want. However, with passage of time we got into going to grocery stores and buying things. Though the old form is still existent, to me the new avatar is the shopping malls.

During ancient times in India we had the Gurukul system when the student's education is complete when the Guru says it is complete. The Guru would monitor each student as each one is unique. We know what has replaced it and know about the current system(at the time of writing this blog) of education. But today, with so much e-Learning boom  individual based learning is on a all time high.

Role Models - Reel Models

Is your role model a film star only because he can hit ten goons in a single shot? Or, is he a cricketer who is your favourite only till he is in form? And if you have no intention of contending this idea - it is better you skip this blog. Do you have any role model(s) from the same profession as you are in? Then you don't require to read my blog because you have passed the test. This is not to insult anyone- I am a fan of Sachin, Rajini, Amitabh and the list can go on and on but my reasons may be different from many.


Many times, I am intrigued by the fact that a vast number of people who have changed the course of mankind, in whatever degree it may be, go unnoticed all through their life; sometimes even after history is written. And at another extreme, a huge number of our so called "Celebrities" may not manage to make it into the memories of people beyond a short span(or a generation in many cases).

The same Venky Ramakrishnan who won the nobel prize in chemistry giving lectures in India saw huge multiplication of his audience after he won the prize; and people turned to see him, not to listen to his lectures. And I am very sure that there may be a huge number of Phyiscs graduates in India who wouldn't even have heard of  Sudarshan even remotely. I, Sasikanth Gudla, don't even know the name of an accomplished Kuchipudi dancer from Andhra Pradesh(hailing from Andhra Pradesh)! The only person I have heard of is Mayuri Chandran because there was film on her.Why is that some stupid(and sometimes nasty) reality show hosts get more popular than eminent citizens who have life time of work behind them? Why is it the bulk of us know only the names of Cricketers, Cinema Stars and Politicians only? And horrible enough the last group of people don't even figure in lot of people's role models!

I have always wished if regional media could air atleast a 15min programme(or a short interview) once in a week or atleast in a month about an eminent personality of that state. Or the popular FM Radios could have a five minute slot mentioning someone and his achievements once in week- if that is not too much of an asking.


Barack Obama became famous only in a year's time and went on to become the president of U.S.A. Anna Hazare was unknown before April 2011 to 95-98% of the nation.  It is a different matter that he had even the Padma Bhushan in his kitty almost a decade or two ago. I know of only these two cases when Media did a good job and only the latter at a personal and more gratifying level.

Today the young and children in India need role models who are soldiers, scientists, entrepreneurs, economists, farmers etc... and not just Celebrities.