VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

With the heavy rainfall, it is natural to forget the tough times we had with water earlier this year. But everything is not tickety-boo. There is a constant decline in the water table and we are running out of water. We must focus on this issue and should never become complacent.

FORGET BHEEMILI UTSAV GO FOR STEADY DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM AMENITIES

World GDP history and where INDIA figured  India and China ruled the high growth economies for several centuries. Will our time come again? Let us see

ILLEGAL MINING IS DESTROYING OUR HILLS Everybody knows it is going on but nothing is being done to stop it! Click to see the video

WE WERE BLESSED BY ARAKU AND THEN  PROMPTLY TURNED IT INTO A FILTHY SLUM Araku Main Road after nightfall. Is this a hill station or a paradise for Dengue and Malaria? Click on this link to see what it is about. https://youtu.be/XPVk-7SobCE The sad thing is that all we have one God-given hill station which we keep milking in the name of tourism. Yet we are unable to maintain it. Araku main road is a filthy disaster. 

Plaster of Paris Ganehas, painted with lead-based paints, being immersed in the sea is a threat to our coastal waters. Please click on this link and see the video https://youtu.be/P9HMbxKTPak Ganesha idols made of Plaster of Paris is a menace to our sea. They are generally painted with lead-based synthetic enamel paints. After the festival, the Ganeshas are immersed in our water bodies and sea. The paint additives damage marine life due to their toxic nature. The old fashioned mud and clay Vinayakas are best. Let us ban PoP idols and go only for mud and clay Vinayakas from now on. GVMC and our AP Pollution Control Boards must take a tough stand on this issue.

21st September 2019 was INTERNATIONAL COASTAL CLEANUP DAY! Lawsons Bay Video Click on this link to see the video: https://youtu.be/D6q8oQ1O9ZY Here is what our famous Lawsons Bay looked like on International Coastal Cleanup Day. See these pics and the attached video. With so much rubbish landing up in our sea transported by our stormwater drains every day,  plus all the plastics in the sea coming back with the waves. it is impossible to ever clean up our coast. We have to stop plastics from getting into the sea in the first place.

PLASTIC EXCUSES This attached newspaper report gives multiple reasons why the corporation is unable to deal with the plastics crisis. 1. "The territory is too big" 2. "The quantity is too much" 3. "There are too many shops - it is difficult" 4. "80% is illegal, not locally made", (sounds like we are dealing with the NARCOS or arms dealers) 5. "The recycling facility is too low". (Why did you not make more and bigger facilities earlier?) Every issue has been discussed from years, in fact from 2008! Recently,  suggestions made by communities have been scoffed at or ignored. The corporation, despite appearances,  hates to acknowledge or accept citizen's inputs. GVMC themselves have pumped 8,00,000 plastic water sachets in a single day into the ecosystem during the recent  Giripradikdhana. The Simahchalam Devasthanam, supported by the administration, have pumped another 12,00,000 water sachets into the city a...

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO SEE DUSSERAH PANDALS IN KOLKATA 5-6 OCTOBER 2019 https://youtu.be/6PfxkThF8P0 Thanks to my hosts Sonali and Shivaji Gupto Roy, I got a chance to see some marvellous Puja Pandal art. I would have never imagined the beauty, the creativity and the spiritual passion this festival invokes. Truly Kolkata has been an eye-opener for me. Here is a video of what I saw. https://youtu.be/6PfxkThF8P0

Heritage walk - Ross Hill, Vizag Click on this link to see a video of the Heritage Walk https://youtu.be/x7ZB_L6FlSw Ross Hill Chapel, Mother Mary’s Church The entry to the harbour navigation channel of Vizagapatam is bounded on the west by the Dolphin’s Nose hill and on the east by three hills and the central and the highest hill amongst the three is named after a Mr. Ross who was a Sub-Judge who built a bungalow about 1848, on the hill which bears his name. In 1866, the then Bishop Msgr J.M. Tissot acquired the bungalow and on August 15, 1867, an altar was erected and blessed as a chapel,  by the then Vicar General Fr. Richard. Cyclones in 1870 and 1876 wrought havoc and affected the chapel too. Consequently, on 1st May 1877, a new statue of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart was placed upon the altar. The Church underwent many renovations to accommodate the increasing number of devotees. It was found that the Chapel on the Hill was too small, so Fr. Contat who w...

Click this link to see the video https://youtu.be/N2TgOuINXEg The world is deeply concerned about the misuse of  Single-Use Plastics. But our Simhachalam Devasthanam hasn't heard about it ... please watch and share this video. If you have access to the Devasthanam authorities tell them to forbid single-use plastics from their temple complex Click this link to see the video https://youtu.be/N2TgOuINXEg

Click the link below to see a video of despair and neglect Lawson's Bay, Vizag - once pristine now a filthy cesspool LAWSONS BAY - ONCE PRISTINE - NOW A NEGLECTED CESSPOOL Our beaches are destroyed by massive arrivals of rubbish from Vizag city via the geddas and nallahs (natural stormwater drains).  Our once pristine Lawsons Bay Beach is now a stinking cesspool of filth.  The solution is simple - capture every last bit of plastics and other rubbish before it reaches our beaches and shift it to landfills for recycling.  Increase the capacity of all Sewage Treatment Plants to handle present and future sewage arriving from our growing city.  Our GVMC talks so much bullshit but cannot get its act together on this simple basic requirement. It appears that they are insufficiently funded or incapable of getting the job done. Perhaps it is time to take this to the National Green Tribunal. Click the link below to see a video of despair and neglect Lawson's Bay...

Mr Buckley is out ... but come right in As kids in Vizag, most of us lived in "Soldierpeta" as Old Town Vizag was then called.  The area was well known for the active Anglo Indian community. We stayed in an old house (now pink - see pic) next to Mr Micheal Buckley' s home. Click this to see the video I have only fading memories of Mr Buckley. I remember him as a sunburnt man with kindly blue eyes. He generally wore khaki shorts and was frequently bare-chested as he pottered around keeping things in order. He worked around the house all the time, repairing things, making footpaths with bricks and cleaning drains himself in front of his home. He had a beautiful polished piano which he played to relax. He kept his house immaculately clean. A good man who made a lasting impression on the area with his work ethics. We, children, learnt early that we should never hesitate to do our own work -  even menial work. His once beautiful house, now in ruins, filled me with...

BARRICADED Vizag police have been barricading our roads for more than a decade. When NH5 was made to run through the populated parts of the city, many people trying to cross the road from the populated areas on either side would get hit by speeding vehicles. It would be proper at that time to make several pedestrian underpass or overbridges. But that did not happen as there was no money with the NHAI to do this type of work. So CMR started advertising on barricades which were placed on certain sections which would slow down traffic and provide cover long enough for pedestrians to scurry across the road. Later the police started saying that these barricades were put up to slow down fleeing Naxalites, making a gateway from the city, say after robbing a bank or a police armoury. Eventually, this theory was jettisoned. And a new explanation was offered saying that it reduced accidents. This was the most blatantly silly reason because one could see that these barriers incre...

Girijan Vaibhavam Book Launch 12 July 2019 This video records the launch of the book titled "Girijan Vaibhavam". meaning "Tribal Glory". This book is was researched and commissioned by Jayshree Hatangadi and written by Mr B.V. Subba Rao. Four thousand copies of this book were printed for distribution free of cost to the tribal school children of Araku, Andhra Pradesh, India. The publishing of this book was made possible by the generous contributions of friends and family.  The book presents the heritage, traditions and culture of the tribal community of the Eastern Ghats. It is written in a simple interesting manner that encourages everyone to read and refer to. We are hoping that an English language version of the book will also be published soon. Want to know more about the book? Write to Jayshree Hatangadi at hatangadi@gmail.com

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