The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : When silence becomes eloquent

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

When silence becomes eloquent

—PHOTO: P.V. Sivakumar

Toeing the sentiment: With zealots of separate Telangana demanding a ban on ’idlis’, few hotels like this five star hotel on Greenlands Road has rechristened the names of dishes.

Silence was quite eloquent for all the hearing impaired women who attended the recent state level meet. The ease with which the women spoke among themselves in sign language and applauded when V. Janaki, the president of the ‘People with Hearing Impaired Network’ put some demands before the Principal Secretary Chaya Ratan, was amazing.

With the interpreter not very good in his business, all those who had normal hearing including the IAS officer were gazing clueless as the speech of the president, her hands dancing in the air, proceeded with great fervour. In fact, it proved that a normal person could become as deaf as a hearing impaired person when the latter begins speaking-- in sign language. And husband of a network member said that the women communicated so well among themselves that each piece of news would be transmitted in the network circles within minutes! That makes one proclaim ‘Silence can speak’.

With the dry spell continuing, the monsoon season, is more like an extended summer. While anxiety is mounting for farmers , people are reeling under power cuts that are back in the capital after comfort of uninterrupted supply at least in State capital in the last couple of years.Ominous signs indeed for a ruling party in the run up to the election year!

But Agriculture Minister N. Raghuveera Reddy appears unfazed. “We are still hopeful that monsoon would revive,” he declares with relish even as the worried government gave orders for the cloud seeding operations to commence in a week.

He reminds one of the year 2006 when monsoon was not active till July-end but that year turned out to be the best crop year for the State. “This year could be no different,” he says drawing similarities. One hopes his optimism turns true !

Drive towards the Secunderabad Cantonment Board and one finds the trees ‘decorated’ with green boards of the GHMC which read “ Each one plant one”, the municipality’s way of creating environmental awareness to avoid ‘green murder’. Guess what material these boards are made up of? Plastic! Are the officials not aware of bio-degradable material like cardboard or paper? So much for the awareness!

The joining of actors Rajasekhar and Jeevitha was a big event for vernacular TV channels.

The actor couple was in such a demand that they hopped from one studio to another to participate in talk shows. It was indeed an opportunity for them to highlight why they joined the Congress party, why people should support their party, so on and so forth.

In one of the shows, the anchor requested Rajasekhar to repeat tagline of the TV channel - “Prathi kshanam pratyaksha prasaram kosam chustoone vundadi…” (for round the clock live telecast, watch…). But Rajasekhar fumbled and repeated…“Prathi Kshanam Pratyaksha Pracharam Kosam…).Obviously, he was not aware of the difference between ‘prasaram’ (telecast) and ‘pracharam’ (propaganda). Well! What ever whether propaganda or not, their purpose is served.

Guaranteed surprise gift, ‘Up to 50 per cent off’, ‘Buy two, get one free’ and what not. These are some of the tactics to lure the customer into buying something or the other.

The other day, a famous shoe company put up a notice that there would be a compulsory surprise gift for each purchase.

But the surprise turned out to be a gift voucher worth Rs. 250. “But the voucher can be redeemed only when another purchase of another Rs. 2500 worth goods is made”, the shop assistant informed. Guess it would be worthwhile to enquire about the surprise gifts before one purchased anything.

SWATHI.V,

M.L. MELLY MAITREYI,

D.V.L. PADMA PRIYA,

K. SRINIVAS REDDY

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh