ATM

Recently I flew off to New York to meet Shashi Tarur and console him on the issue of his recent failure to become the Secretary General of UNO. He is a well-known person in the circles of literature and intellect in many parts of the world. Such a genius needn’t worry on trivial things of this kind. It was a two-day official tour for me sponsored by the Government of India. One afternoon I was sitting in a beautiful park looking up into the naked sky. A beautiful girl came to me and said, “Sir, I am a research scholar of Asian studies. I like to know something from some Asian tourists that come to this city. I feel that you belong to a special category of people of India. A young person is looking into the sky keeping many attractions around implies that he is either a tasteless fellow or an intelligent guy. I voted for the second after thinking for a few seconds. Tell me something about ATM. I may use this information for my research”. I took her a bit away and ensured that nobody was able to look at us. We sat comfortably facing each other in a delightful close-up style. I told her, “I don’t mind being kissed by a damsel like you. I like your liberal culture and lifestyles a lot. In India not a single beautiful girl kissed me during the last 30 years and I consider it a great loss in my solitary life of creativity and romanticism. I appreciate your intelligence coexisting with noticeable wit and traceable insight. By ATM you mean Andhra Telangana Movement and you want my comment on this present burning issue in a state of India. Coincidentally and unfortunately I belong to the very state of Andhra Pradesh where this issue is burning continuously like a big candle in a small room. I am basically against any tendencies or movements that are centered on regionalism and separatism because I am an idealist and visionary with an element of creativity. I felt disturbed when Uttaranchal (soon to be known as Uththaraakhand), Chattishgarh and Jharkand were born as separate states from the wombs of their big mothers. I believe that beauty of appearance and character lies in unity and bigness. I lost love for many Indians after observing these narrow-minded ideologies and regional movements aimed at breaking India into many fragments. Learning undesirable lessons and deriving unhealthy wisdom from these past movements in India, K Chandra Sekhara Rao took up the age-old issue of Separate Telangana afresh. He is not as genuine and committed in his thought or fight for his goal as veteran Potti Sreeramulu had been 50 years ago. He desires to become the Chief Minister of the new state once his strong dream gets realized. He is a cent percent politician in body and spirit. Because he started that movement and participating in it actively, even other broadminded politicians, artists and ordinary people of this region began keenly observing and admiring him. He won the recent by-election in Karimnagar with a bumper majority. The success of a contestant in the present elections in India depends on masses and they would be influenced by the inspirational speeches and attractive activities of their leaders in the localities concerned. The same happened even in this case. Ordinary people of Telangana are more innocent and good-natured than those in Andhra region. I don’t like to blame them for these unhealthy political developments in our state. Our state loses the good image it has been maintaining for the last 50 years in our nation and the world as a big state if these fellows of separatism and magic win the race in course of time. When the other fellow keeps telling us “I hate you” in response to our repeated utterance of “I love you”, we too stop loving him and start hating him. I belong to Andhra region and so let me share my sincere feelings as a regional fellow because the testing situation demands it. My region is rich and beautiful in many ways. We can live very happily and comfortably without depending on Telangana for anything once the separation takes place for devil’s sake. I would go to Srikakulam to experience the beauty of innocent and ignorant masses; to Vizianagaram to learn lessons from the scholars and artists there; to Visakhapatnam to enjoy the richness of industrial development and natural beauty; to East Godavari to see the vast stretches of lush green rice fields, to West Godavari to learn the values of kindness and humility from the humble farmers and rich businessmen living there; to Krishna to plunge in the holy waters of the river and do the darshan of Goddess Kanaka Durga on the Indra Keelaadhri Hill; to Ongole to salute the people of patriotism and idealism; to Guntur to admire the people of hospitality and high learning and lastly to Nellore to sleep in their front yards with a rich feeling of security and self-respect. Our region as a whole is second to none in quality or quantity. We have everything in our places and hearts a healthy body and creative mind can depend on and delight in. We showed our brothers and sisters in Telangana how to cook tasty food and how to cultivate their lands to become rich and live proudly. Hyderabad developed a lot during these 50 years in its special status of the capital city of the state. We don’t mind if they want to live separately leaving the twin cities as an independent region that belongs equally to the whole state. Otherwise they should give us net cash amounting to 50 billion rupees. We too remained backward for the last 50 years to a great extent only because major part of the funds meant for the overall development of the state were routed to the development and beautification activities in Hyderabad because it had been the capital of our state. These selfish fellows of Telangana started singing the song of separatism after ensuring that the Telugu film industry is firmly established in Hyderabad. We cannot imagine the picture of Hyderabad forgetting the extraordinary contribution made by liberal and rich people of my region for the last 40 years. Once they separate from us, they can sit on boulders and keep eating grapes day and night. If we are living together with them for all these years, it is not because we are poor in intelligence or natural resources but with affection and possessiveness for them who cannot live happily without our help and amity. The contribution from the people of Telangana to the world-famous Telugu film industry would not be more than 10% and one can check the present scene of the actors, actresses, technicians and artists to believe in this truth. We love the ordinary people of Telangana forever even if we find them in a separate state owing to our bad luck in future because they are not responsible for this regional movement or the results thereon. The selfish and snobbish political leaders that started this game recently should be blamed seriously if this separation takes place because they stand for venom and gloom that are going to spoil the lives of many innocent and ignorant people in this region and tarnish the image of great India with its genetic qualities of nationalism and unity in diversity. How can we stop them when they are so serious and hell-bent on arranging a beautiful graveyard for them for their future needs in their backyard itself? Let me see what the hell is going to happen! I mean what can I do more than this when absolutely narrow-minded and self-centered policymakers are making the rules of the game to pull the innocent and ignorant masses to play it helplessly?!” Her bright face turned dim by the time I shut my mouth. There was nobody around us. I kissed 20 times passionately in every corner of her face and told emotionally, “I could not find a better way other than this to appreciate you. There is no time with me to write something for you or feed you something in some hotel. I love your voice and beauty. I hope we meet sometime in future. I forget the faces of people very fast. Remember me and identify me if I ever come across you because I like it. Thank you for being such a cute creature in the nature of God”. Her name is Lucy Kay. Is that Ok for you!!!

Datla Chiranjeevi Raju