VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

Our Town Hall in VIZAG, India was built in 1904 and has witnessed the high points of Vizag's social, cultural and literary events. During India's freedom movement our town hall has played a central role in hosting important meetings. Today it lies in dilapidated condition. Thankfully our Greater Visakha Municipal Corporation (GVMC) has taken the first baby steps in preventing further deterioration by cancelling the lease of the  premises to a person who was renting it for weddings. It had become a filthy and stinking hell hole. Now it is not dirty inside but it is in a rundown condition. Our corporation has good intentions to revive it but as in several cases intent and implementation is miles apart. Despite many assurances from our Corporation, the town hall continues to be a neglected monument of Vizag's illustrious past. No one knows why it is not being done. No will? No management skills? No money? We have money to blow up on transient events on the beac...

Senior volunteers wanted My article in the Times of India Dated 3 January 2016 In a vast country like India there is always plenty of work to be done. There are farms to be maintained, water to be provided for agriculture and for homes, power to be generated and distributed, children to be educated, people and things to be moved every day, newspapers to be printed, babies to be made and delivered, the sick to be attended, financial services to be provided, politicians to be elected and Arnab has to shout for a couple of hours every night on TV. Plenty of work We have work to do because, we are 1.3 billion of us on a land mass of 2,973,193 square kilometers. We are in dirty crowded villages and teeming dirty crowded cities. We have a humongous 179.6 million folks below the poverty line in our ancient country and that my friend is 20.6% of planet earths poorest. One in four Indians are completely illiterate and Government schools with their “pass-them-anyhow” policy a...