Andhra recipe - Plantain Pokoda

Ingredients  

1. 2 small plantains { 2 Arati kayalu } 
2. Senaga Pindi-  1 Cup 
3. Rice flour - 1/4 Cup
4. Turmeric powder -  1 T. spoon  
5. Cumin seeds - 1 T. spoon 
6. Green chilli Paste - 4 T.spoons 
7. Coriander leaves  cut into small pieces  - 1/4 cup  
8. Onion pieces  and add  sufficient salt 
9. Oil  for deep fry .  

Preparation 

Take a bowl and pour 2 glasses of water  and put 2 Plantains and boil it up  for 15 minutes. Then waiting for 10 minutes  peel the plantain  and smash it down and mix all the above ingredients except the oil. Now the dough is ready . Take a pan on to the stove and pour 1 litre oil and let it be heated. Then make the dough into small balls like and put into the oil for deep fry. Wait till they get changed into brown colour. Then take them into a plate. Now you get very  very crispy Plantain Pokoda ready to eat .If you want still more aroma you can add mint leaves also .And now you can serve it to your lovely   family with coconut chutney or Tomato chutney.                                                               

Try out this recipe and have Fun !!        

Mohali World Cup Semi Final India Vs Pakistan

When It's a match between India and Pakistan, it's always a battle between these two ferocious nations. What would happen if these two nations clash for a berth in World cup Final. It's going to be even more interesting. Yes! On 30th March 2011, at Mohali Stadium, amidst of the huge crowd, this very battle was started again.

                      Vs       


This time, the cricket battle gained even more prominence as Prime Ministers of both nations were present and watching the match. Political queen, Sonia Gandhi, her heir Rahul Gandhi was also present at the time of the match. Many more Movie stars, Business people attended the match.

It was certainly an exciting match with an overall performance from all sides. But there is only a single winner and guess who ?? It's India again. India remained as an undefeatable champion for pakistan in World cups again.  So far, India and Pakistan played 4 matches in World cup and India remained the victor in these matches. With this match adding up to the tally, India continued the trend with 5-0 victory statistics against pakistan.

The match started with a good partner ship between Sachin Tendulkar (85) and Sehwag(38). Sehwag got out early at 5.5 overs. That is when Indian batting stumbled with slow run rate from Gambhir, Kohli. Yuvraj was a surprise shock for India as he was bowled out duck for the very first ball he faced. After Yuvraj, Dhoni couldn't continue the rhythm. Suresh Raina stood at last and remained as a perfect finisher for the match. With all the effort put from Team India, India put a score of 261 to Chase for the other team.

Pakistan's Innings started good  but kept losing wickets steadily in regular intervals. Indian bowlers Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh led the charge and sealed the victory. Yuvraj shined with bowling by taking crucial wickets and Harbhajan Singh showed his presence with tactical bowling. The three pacers also proved useful in this match.

Finally, Sachin Tendulkar won the Man of the Match award for his brilliant Innings of 85 under pressure. And this is how India entered the World cup final in 2011 thrashing Pakistan to victory !!

Japan Earthquakes

Japan is the easternmost island/country present on a world map. Inspite of being such a smaller country, Japan is one of the most advanced countries in the world. It is a land of many popular electronic industries. It is a country which has the highest expenditure rate in the whole world. It exports many electronic/electrical components to many countries in the world. It is already, a permanent member of UN security council and is also one among the VITO powered nations, a member of G8 nations.

 

Japan is always threatened by earthquakes and volcanoes. That is why people of japan always build their houses in wood. This time, Japan was attacked by a massive earthquake of rictor scale 8.8. This massive earthquake led to a Tsunami which flooded the southern Japan. Many towns, cities got washed away by its effect. Lots of people were injured and many were claimed dead by this catastrophy. 

This disastrous earthquake has shattered many towns and villages covering a considerably larger landmass than a usual earthquake would do. This has led to death of around 2000 people so far and many thousands missing. Literally there are villages/towns that were washed away from the Japan's political map.

 

Japan's fate was far worser than expected. When people were feeling a sigh of relief when the Tsunami ended, another earthquake of rictor scale 5.5 hit the other parts of Japan and an another Tsunami was stimulated. With the first quake, government has already closed most of the nuclear reactors in the Tsunami hit places. Even before government could start the rescue operations in the Tsunami hit areas, another quake hit the eastern nation.

 

When the Tsunami hit the shores, the tides forced into most of the coastal areas and submerged many cities. Out of these cities, many reactors which were feared of explosions were also affected. Some of these reactors have exploded during the coolant's failure. This led to massive explosions in those areas. The amount of radio-active material let out was unknown !

 

When you start counting the amount of material damage and the property damage, it would take a year to first estimate the loss. Then assessing this lost would take a year more. 

 

Many cars/ buildings/ massive materials floated with the ocean water. The floods have caused people lose their property and would take at least a year to recover from this loss. Many boats, ships were waved into cities due to the effect of tides.

Hope the nations across the world extend help to this suffering nation and bring it back to the normal state !!

Growing Resistance against Media

Any incident that has gained prominence anywhere is recently updated on electronic media very soon. We can observe the proliferation of new electronic media these days. There is at least one news channel set up every year in every language. I guess there is no need to talk about why ?

Everybody is concerned about what's going on in the world rather than theirs. Facebook is the best example of this growing interest. People spend at least 80% of their time in learning about what's happening around them. So, electronic media has gained prominence as well as popularity in telecasting every news, gossip, information to people of all classes. In fact, this has become a great race among all the media on who telecasts every bit of news in a faster, tastier way !

 

Lot of good has come out of it. Many scandals exposed, many scams investigated, many loop holes exposed. And there are a number of considerable disadvantages too. But there is no way that these can be restricted as this can happen only when they self investigate their processes and values.

Coming to the advantages, lots of scandals were unearthed in the recent decade. But, we are unable to know if those scandals are properly given verdicts. It is not clear that the people behind those scandals are punished strictly. We often hear biggies caught in these issues, but they never get arrested. Even if they were arrested, they will be bailed out somehow. And media doesn't or doesn't have to followup the case and hence we don't know what happens in the background. In the recent days, we can see a lot of scams exposed by the media.

Now, One question arises in my mind. Are people not afraid that they may get caught by the media ? or Are they not afraid of getting caught ? I'm starting to realize that these political frauds are building up resistance to media and are still committing crimes. This definitely is an alarming issue !! Until one realizes this and clears their own conscience and stays truthful in the society, it is difficult to out number those scamsters !! Let us all try to be good and make this a Good World to live in !!!

Kakinada Thermal Plant

Power generation is generally done using either Water or Coal. Water has become a precious resource these days. There is not enough water for us to drink, how can we expect that we have enough water to produce electricity? So, the other option is Coal !

We know that Coal is an organic product and burning coal produces lot of carbon compounds like carbon monoxide which are extremely dangerous to our health. And that is why first preference is always given to Hydro-electric power plants than Thermal power plants. Now that we observe water scarcity everywhere, it is practically impossible to setup a Hydro electric power plant.

And that is why Thermal power plants are setup. It requires coal which generates fire which in turn produces electricity. So, a thermal power plant produces lots of heat around it. 'Ramagundam', the hottest place in A.P. houses a Thermal power plant of 2400 MW power. And the normal temperature of Ramagundam is always around 40C. To set up a thermal power plant like that, it is mandatory that atleast 20km radius is totally evacuated as it doesn't support healthy environment.

Recently, government has started working on a new projects at 'Kaakarapalli, Vizag' and 'Kaakinada'. Two people were shot dead for revolting against the set up of power plant at Kaakarapalli. People around the area started to migrate to other places. But the poor farmers who live on agriculture had to suffer and hence the revolt started.

Same is the case in Kaakinada. Its huge indeed. The power plant planned at Kaakarapalli was 2400 MW yielding one. But the one at Kaakinada is of 6300 MW, which is almost 3 times the ones at Ramagundam and kaakarapalli.

Kakinada is a port city. It is home for around 4 lakh people and there are around 30 villages around Kaakinada. The place where the Thermal power plant is going to be set up is just 10Km away from Kaakinada which is very less compared to the mandatory requirement as that of the 2400MW plant. One can imagine how harmful it is going to be !

It all started when government of Andhra pradesh lead by Y.S.R.Reddy sanctioned permissions to set up these plants at Kaakarapalli and Kaakinada in 2005 to GMR. GMR was the company that was in charge of construction of the thermal power plant. This power plant requires around 36 lakh tonnes of coal every year which is provided by 'Coal India'. It produces around 18 lakh tonnes of ash yearly which is buried God knows where !!!!

It's really worse that these kind of things go unnoticed in the government reports. It shows up the magnitude of corruption prevailing in India which doesn't even care the lives of a whole district !

History of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

Andhra pradesh was formed in the year 1956 after getting separated from Madras state. It was formed by combining three regions on linguistic basis. The movement was initiated by a number of regional leaders among whom 'Potti Sri Ramulu' became one of the main reasons for the state formation. His continuous fast which prolonged for days together and ended with his brave death lead to the separation from Madras state and the formation of Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra pradesh was formed from three regions - Rayalaseema, Coastal Andhra and Telangana. Prior to A.P. formation, the region 'Telangana' was considered a separate part of India which was under rule of 'Nizam' kings. During the formation of A.P., people from all the regions came into a 'Gentleman's Agreement' stating that they will stay united until all the regions get mutually benefited. A lot of struggle was made to unite all these three regions and finally Andhra Pradesh was formed.

Madras state comprised of the green and red regions prior to A.P. formation. The red regions of current A.P. were Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra.

 

After Andhra pradesh was formed, many leaders ruled this land. A.P. was the home for lots of national leaders like P.V.Narasimha rao, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, G.M.C Balayogi, etc. Many sports persons from A.P. like V.V.S.Laxman, Koneru Hampi, Pullela GopiChand, Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal powered India's fame in the world. 

Even USA president visited Hyderabad when he visited India and world's reputed IT organizations set up HITEC City in Hyderabad and Hyderabad became one of the most favorite IT destinations to many organizations in the world. Some of them would be Microsoft, Google, Oracle, IBM, Dell, etc. Satyam Computers, Now Mahendra Satyam, the 4th largest IT company of India, is from Hyderabad. 

A.P. being the centre of business in many fields attracted lots of investments during 1995-2005. With lots of organizations setting up their footprint in A.P., it went to become India's most productive state. But what was the only problem it had ?

Farmers in A.P. were not treated as good as others. They were neglected and no proper care was taken to ensure their welfare. This led to agitations among the farmers. And since the Chief ministers were always from Rayalaseema and Coastal regions, people of Telangana felt deceived and started protesting for their welfare. Due to the political pressure, not much development could be focused on farmers and many voices started raising only from Telangana region. And so the telangana people started believing that theirs was the only region that was deceived despite the Truth that it was all the regions that were deceived in the politics.

The one who takes advantage at the right moment always wins. So did KCR of Telangana. He ignited fire in youth who believed his words and went on to protest and sacrifice their lives for this movement. This is the real story. Telangana was not the only region that was deceived by the dirty politics. It was all the three regions that suffered great loss. And this is the TRUTH !!!

P.S. : I shall discuss the pros and cons of Telangana formation in my upcoming posts.

Peanut sized happiness

Every human being in this world wants to be owner of a beautiful villa, with 5 luxurious cars and few bank accounts with surplus and never ending flow of money. It is the mindset of a common man. A man aspires all these things hoping that these things would make him happy all his life. If the man aspiring these had ancestral property and he being the only heir of his property, his dream has already come true. What if the person aspiring these is a common man struggling to reckon in this society ?

Yes, these are the hopes of a common man in today's world. His hopes are high, dreams are huge but his efforts are meagre and that is the reason for his backwardness in the society. A bag full of dreams without a Zip is such a waste. Unless you have the Zip of Zeal to bring out your dreams, you are no less than a locked bag.

And how guaranteed are you that you'd be happy forever after you achieve these ? Gandhi lived his entire life in little garments yet he claimed he was the happiest person in this world. Is it these material things that make you happy. Say, I buy a huge villa. Will that make me happy and stop my dreams. No! The next day I start dreaming of having the same huge villa on Moon. Is that possible ? May be Yes, but are you stopping BTW ?

Dreams are like forest fires. They catch very fast and do not stop so easily until and unless you control it with your pure water like mind ! World is crazy about winning. You don't always have to win. Even if you win, you haven't won the feeling of having lost ! So, don't gear up for unnecessary dreams that doesn't leave you happily in the end !

As a person sees the world growing around him, he tends to lean into its growth and assumes that he is growing. But, in fact, the world is growing and not him. To observe growth, one must define his limits and stay with in them, otherwise he is deflating into a PEANUT !

Is it necessary to strive this hard to achieve Peanut sized happiness ?

Salaray Hikes in 2011 !!

2011 has been a great year for business people. Most of the companies that were severely disturbed by the Recession in 2009 started recovering in 2010. Gradually, companies started recording profits by the end of 2010. And by 2011, most of the markets recorded great profits !

So, what is the one thing that every employee of a company expect ? Yes, you are right ! It's Salary Hike !! So, with growth rate inclining upwards, companies started seeing profits again. In the last quarter that ended December 2010, many companies observed more than 25% y-o-y profits. Obviously, what does the company have to do ? Share their profit !! right ?

Markets reveal that there will be more growth as numerous projects are expected this year. All the clients that remained passive after the recession struck, are coming out one by one. With increase in flow of projects, industrial growth will be on track just as it was during 2005-08.

People of those days always used to get hikes in double digits. When recession hit, the same people faced cuts in their wages in double digits. Some even lost their jobs. But this scenario has changed when the major recession hit year passed. Recruitments, walkins started pacing up.

Now, with the stabilizing markets and increasing growth rate, employees started looking at companies for hike in their wages which were bifurcated/trifurcated/polyfurcated during recession.

A recent survey revealed that most of the companies are planning to hike their employees salaries to control attrition rate in their respective companies. As the job options have increased once again, the fear of attrition has started once again in the HR departments of the companies. And that is the reason for this Hike News. A survey from Hewitt revealed that there will b a hike of around 12.9% in salaries in India across all levels. On an average, the salary of a fresher is going to increase by around 10%.

So, All the best with your hikes. Let me know if you had a major one !!

Inflation .. Inflating !!!

Inflation in India is totally out of control. Prices of necessary commodities have already doubled. With increase in Petrol prices every month, we are now in a position out of control. Inflation itself is inflating !! How does the government this people can survive with this growing inflation ? Are they expecting us to live by these rising prices ?

More than 70% of India is from middle economic and lower economic classes which constitutes to 70 crores. With 70 crore people suffering to live, how can government stand still without lending help. It is really a great disgrace to India that government refuses to reveal the list of people with illegal swiss bank accounts even when the bank is ready !

With the 'Raja Spectrum' scam, 'ISRO Spectrum' Scam, 'IPL Scam', 'Land Scam', 'Banks Scam', India has become a Scam hit nation. Is there no gentlemen in this country ? Not even few brave people to unearth the culprits ?

How are these related to Inflation ? Let me tell you an example !

There were Tigers, Deer and a pond in a forest. Deer used to drink water. Tiger used to feed on Deer. When clouds rain, pond used to fill. When all Tiger stopped hunting the deer and started consuming the same food as the Deer, food in the forest exhausted and Deer started to die. But the Tigers are still left with an option of feeding on the Deer. But once all the deer were dead, tigers started killing each other and at last, no animal was left in the forest !

When the natural process is deviated, the species at the lower level in food chain get affected. This will have a slow yet definite impact on the entire ecological balance. Same is the case here in our context. With all the influential people getting corrupted, people of lower classes are getting affected. One day this will definitely impact the people at higher economic levels definitely.

Unless everyone realizes this fact and strives to prevent anything that is illegal, India can't advance !!

Mercy Killing !

Mercy Killing ! Really ??

Everybody is afraid of their death. There is not a single person on this earth who can say 'I'm ready to die' (except for a class of people - Saints). Would any one welcome death into their lives ?  Certainly Not !!

Even in dream, one would not aspire to die under any circumstances. We are always fond of cheating death and winning life. But there are few people in their life who live in a position where dying is the only option left. So, In those circumstances, would you encourage them or help fight their death ?

Well, Supreme court has expressed its opinion  - No plea for mercy killing will be accepted. 

We are humans, the breed that are the dominant predators on the whole planet Earth. We've defeated many species, climbed up the ladder. We are more than 7 billion and growing. We have many civilizations. We travelled into outer space where we don't have air. We have created miracles with some atomic element named 'Silicon'. We have digitized ourselves. We can make Anything POSSIBLE !!

This is who we are ! But, Mercy Killing ? Not our way. Accepting defeat and letting someone die ? Come on ! We are not that cowards/losers. Every life is valuable. 

 

When we are unable to save a life, we've got no right to end it either ! Even if one wants to die, we should never help but encourage them to live, teach the life's value. Life is colorful, If someone doesn't know how to live, his fault is not knowing how to live but not the life itself. So, one should learn the art of living. 

If one has failed to live, it's not just his fault. It's the problem of the entire society around him that is unable to help him live. When you see a herd of cows attacked by a tiger, at least the defenseless cows try to protect each one of them. We, being the most dominant predators on Earth, are unable to protect our species. It's a shame not helping others. Let us be helpful to others !

Life is beautiful experience. Don't end it yourself !! Let it be a natural event. After all, it's all part of the nature !

Indian Reservation System

This is a very popular topic in many group discussions, debates, extempores. There were several times when this issue was fought between political parties in assemblies and parliament. Many protests were made regarding the reservations for down trodden people. There were several instances when government had refused certain reservation pleas and fell off the rule. India's reservation system has a long history from its inception after independence.

It all started when Dr.Ambedkar has prepared constitution for India. He formulated certain principles to help the backward groups attain development. He set certain regulations to promote and encourage women in India. When India was declared independence, India was pratically a shattered nation. In order to create balance, leaders of those days created reservation system to help backward people. This reservation system continued to live for decades together but yielding very less amount of throughput eclipsing the intent of its implementation.

Since then, people of certain sections of backward groups have benefited themselves out of this scheme but, The Rich got Richer ! and the Poor got poorer !! No one wanted to interfere into this system as the rich could manipulate its use and the poor couldn't know the benefits of the reservation. And hence the system gradually and eventually got into the hands of these people who sold India to their later generations. Thus, even after 60 years of Independence, even with a record GDP growth rate, even with a greater Global footprint in any kind of industry, India still has slums !!

How can this be Changed ?

- India has to now focus on its 'everlasting' slums and try to weed them out.

- India's reservation system based on caste has done more than enough justice to backward caste, but the better way to implement reservation system is 'economic position' based ! I know that it is not a new solution proposed but it is the only solution if India's aim is to eradicate poverty.

- No excuses should be made regarding the inflating prices but should definitely bring socio-economic reforms to restrict the prices.

- Corruption has to be strictly and publicly punished. More awareness has to be brought among citizens especially for people at lower economic class levels.

I hope that we could see poverty free India some day. I'm afraid that I might end up like some of those great leaders who aspired the same but couldn't see the good India in their life time !!

Indian IT Industry

India's software Industry is the most renowned IT-BPO Solutions provider all over the world. There are more than 500 companies in Indian that provide IT/BPO consulting and solutions. It is the only industry that has seen a rapid growth and has attracted numerous foreign companies in the recent decades. It constitutes about 7% of India's GDP. Some of these companies are Asia's leaders and Global players in IT solutions - TCS, Wipro, Infosys. Though 2008 hasn't been a good year for most of the IT, Banking sector related companies, India's IT industry has proved a remarkable growth during those tough times. Due to their strict regulations and strategic changes, they could adjust their revenues to record growth during those times.

After the recession ended, as claimed by the IT giants, the growth rate in these companies seemed to crawl up even more faster. A number of major deals ranging from hundreds of millions of dollars to billions of dollars were  made after this period. IT is increasing !! They've started hiring like they did in the pre-recession period. Salary hikes/ Promotions also started gearing up. Now the IT industry has an employee strength of more than 5 lakh engineers and is expected to grow at a faster rate.

If we consider this year's recruitment news in India, TCS planned to hire 37000, Infy to hire 25000 and Wipro to hire another 15000 employees by the end of 2011. Apart from our home players, Global players like IBM, Accenture also have declared to hire around 20000 employees. So, one could imagine the growth rate of IT industry in India.

What are my concerns ??

With the rapid growth of IT industry, India's GDP increases. Great ! India starts moving from a 'Developing Nation' to 'Developed Nation'. When this transition starts, the rupee value raises against the dollar value. When this happens,

- India's IT industry that is majorly centered on foreign revenues, will be greatly affected.
- India's young blossoming IT talent will be affected
- India's GDP will be affected due to the lag of IT sector, unless new revenue strategies are implemented

So,
IT grows -> India grows -> Rupee Raises -> IT slows -> India slows ->Rupee falls -> IT grows

This could be the situation if current IT revenue sources are considered. But I dont think I'm 100% correct regarding the IT slowdown once rupee raises. I guess, by the time Rupee raises, India becomes digitized and could become a hub for IT projects.

CVC SCAM

CVC, the Central Vigilance Commissioner, of India is a prestigious governing body to avoid corruption and crime related activities. Government has recently appointed a Commissioner which  has become headlines in the news. Why was this appointment a controversy ?

P.J.Thomas was already in trial for a case against him which involved smuggling of illegal goods into Kerala. At the same time, government was trying to appoint a CVC. The committee to appoint CVC consisted of majority of congress leaders and a BJP leader . Though the BJP leader suggested about this case against Mr.Thomas, decision was taken to appoint him as CVC ignoring the BJP leader's remarks, which led to a Controversy !

Finally, this issue was petitioned in supreme court by Mr.Lingdo. With no proper evidence to prove his innocence, Thomas was proved ineligible for the position. And thus the Supreme court has issued orders to PM to immediately remove P.J.Thomas from the post of a CVC.
                          
CVC's scam is probed out. The post is restored. The opposition party BJP's word did not go waste. After the judgement was delivered, the news  reporters tried to talk to him but he dodged and  refused. The truth is still alive because he  is proved guilty. Now a days these kind of scandals have been probed but not completed. Let us hope that the these kinds of issues are taken care of.