Continuing to long of Indian Utopia-Andhravilas

Continuing to long of Indian Utopia

Vasu Reddy From Chicago

It has been some time from my last weekly column to this. Simply unable to write something of interest on a weekly basis, and working odd hours to be able to sit down and convert thoughts to words.

First and foremost to celebrate the Mother’s day this Sunday.

“Happy Mother’s Day to all the folks out there”

There is no alternative to the comfort of one’s mother’s love. Another mother’s day is on us on 5/12/2019. For me, it is not any other day of the year. This is my first mother’s day without a mother. She passed away fighting cancer on 3/25/2019. While cancer took her away from me and the rest of the folks she touched, she probably is no longer suffering and is in a place where peace prevails.

We also have a general election in India, which has been going on for a few weeks and should be done in the next couple. This time around I don’t have any predictions, as the general consensuses is that 2014 will be repeated, although with a lesser of a mandate. The NRI community is as divided as their native community. Nothing really changes to the psychology of politics with Indians. We love to differentiate simply based on our age-old mindset. The country seems to be chugging along; more people, more disagreements, more politics; but same issues. As with last election cycle, my main draw will be no scams. It is the same for this next election. We should always elect someone who will be 100% scam free and divert the resources 100% to the public needs. My choice of words is very careful in writing “Public Needs” as each citizen has needs, irrespective of the wealth bracket that they belong to. Better infrastructure, better education, better sanitation, better water, better power, better health, better everything; even incremental will make society a better place for conditions of comfort and livelihood.

As 10,000 miles distance doesn’t foster a 20/20 vision of home on a daily basis, I still think of PM Modi as a very good manager of Indian politics and resources. No matter what I read or watch, I think the man is scam free and continues to keep family away from politics and national narrative.

Personally, I admire his simple mother and their affection towards each other. I know critics will argue why she is not with him, but my own mom always chose to be on her own, despite a large family. People visiting her and calling her gave her great joy, rather than she living with anyone. So, Modi and her mom living on their own are probably at her wish rather than Modi ignoring her. God bless her as she seems like one tough lady and a great mom. Once again my experience is that any amount of distance will not be a hindrance to mother/children’s affection. My reflection of Modi the man is probably based on two specific points:

Modi seems to have very little interest in wealth accumulation. If we look at comparable politicians. This alone in my personal opinion is a great indicator for someone who is little interested in personal gain. He has kept his family and friends far away from his position of power. My vote is always to find someone with no interest in money or personal relationships; both which are counter-productive to public service.
His relationship with his mother is the same as most of us normal folks. Absolutely a positive and completely normal. Once again Modi has always kept his priority of a son intact despite his stature, and his affection for his mother similar to any normal child. I can’t find anything that doesn’t endear a heart more than a normal mother and son relationship.

I can’t vote in India. I have very little political knowledge except for an outside observer and a part-time writer. I don’t speak of politics as a point of discussion. I don’t donate to any political party in India. I actually don’t ask anyone for updates, or inputs on politics in India. My only source for political information is what I read and what I watch.

But I know every 5 years, India keeps making positive global strides. The economy grows at a better than a global average. More Indian origin men and women are spotlight as the global achievers. In fact, the who’s who of Industry and politics has a fairly large Indian Diaspora. My search engine, my word, and my bank and whatever I use on a regular basis, has one of our own managing and influencing. I don’t think of being an Indian American much, life has been what it is, and hyphenating the countries or cultures is not really on my mind.

I know my thoughts will not convince anyone to choose politics. I really don’t need to influence any Indian, as I believe all Indians have politics in their psychology. They are politically aware and opinionated. They don’t need mine.

My desire for betterment is for my state of Andhra Pradesh. It needs a big brother. The bifurcation of the state before the last election has not done much to help with its resources and management. I hope the new election and possibility of a government at the center and state working together (perhaps harder) to allow my old state to have the infrastructure and resources for full-fledged development.

Come May 21, 2019, we will certainly have the excitement for hope and opportunity. I sincerely wish for a stable 5 years government as we did the last one. I don’t want to keep reading about coalition and uncertainty for another 5 years in India.

My whole like I thought of Utopia as a concept, but never a dream. With age and time, I seem to desire for an incremental Utopian society, rather than a Utopian world. I know that India had made positive strides in the last 5 years (in fact every 5 years prior) and each of the government’s might not have made the progress at the speed the public needed. But fewer scams and less corruption (100% free of corruption is probably completely Utopian) will lead to better management and allocation of public resources.

My wish for this mother’s day is for a peaceful and progressive India and also for a government that strives to allocate all available resources for the public needs.

“Jai Hind”

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