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It’s Ctrl Alt Del for Chandrababu

It is a takeover that Andhra Pradesh ‘chief executive officer’ Chandrababu Naidu will never have dreamt of. The Congress and its allies — the Telengana Rashtra Samithi, Communist Party of India-Marxist and CPI — on Tuesday bagged 226 seats in the 294-member assembly.

I have never been very plugged into Indian politics much, let alone the politics in my home state of Andhra Pradesh. I should still say I am pretty surprised by the loss of TDP to Congress by such a large margin, considering I have heard nothing but good things about TDP from my relatives and parents back home. I wonder what went wrong! I am not exactly sure this is going to be good for the state in the long run -
Naidu’s exit not to hit IT: Nasscom

Information technology companies and executives are quite nervous about Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu’s dramatic ouster in Andhra Pradesh. Many feel that IT may he hit hard with the logging out of Naidu as investors may decide to keep away following the defeat of an investor-friendly government in Andhra Pradesh.

The Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies) President makes all the right noises, but it is hard to see how Congress is going to keep Naidu’s policies going strong while claiming that they are nothing like him.

Score one more for my city!

Say what you may about Chandrababu Naidu (our Chief Minister), he has been pretty successful so far in attracting some good investors to setup shop in various parts of Andhra Pradesh. I wish more of the politicians were like him than like the Laloos, Rabris and the Mayawatis. Vision and education is what should make one Chief Minister - not the caste they were born into.

Volkswagen keen to set up shop in Visakhapatnam

HYDERABAD: German automotive major Volkswagen AG may locate its green-field automobile plant in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. After holding discussions with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, a high-level team is visiting the city, where it wants to set up the plant in the proposed Special Economic Zone.

Go Vizag!

Vizag (also known as Waltair and Vishakhapatnam) is the city I was born in and lived for 22 years of my life before I left for the US. It used to be a beautiful town - green hills, blue ocean - when I lived there. I have heard it turned a lot more cosmopolitan and way more populous in the recent days, but looks like the beauty is still there :)

AP bags the honours for best run cities in India - The Economic Times

Hyderabad, Vijaywada, Visakhapatnam were joined by Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Indore and Nashik as the winners of the first Crisil Awards for Excellence in Municipal Initiatives.

Ugadi

Mee andariki maa haardhika Ugadi Subhakankshalu

We wish you all a Happy and Prosperous Telugu New Year (Ugadi) :)

Starved for Telugu culture

For people who are as starved for some Telugu patriotism and nice Telugu songs we sang in school, here is a good site - Maa Telugu Talli Ki

This was one of my favorite songs in Telugu and actually inspired to me to write a song myself, that was sung in our Schoold-Day celebration, when I was in 9th-grade.

I know it probably comes as a shock to many people to see me so nostalgic for Telugu and Andhra and India. The other side of me has been this feminine girl, who loved Lata, Rafi (my absolute favorite), Jikki, Ghantasala, Susheela and others. My mom is a carnatic-music singer and played the Veena. My dad didn't train classically, but still sang pretty well.

It was that influence which got me interested in music very early in my life. I trained on-and-off in classical music and Veena - just never stuck to it long enough. I also loved "rangoli". I did the whole 30-day thing (nelagantu) before Sankranthi and my mom and I fasted every monday in the Karthikamasam. I even did the whole no-onion, no-garlic, no-non-veg, bathe in cold water every morning at 5:00 - thing for a whole month once.

All that is still part of me - I have never regretted it and I love that I had the chance to enjoy my childhood and adoloscence as fully as I got to back in India. It was a simple time - we led a simple life, and I feel all the richer for it. Oh well, just blame it all on the telugu songs I found, that put me in such a nostalgic mood.