How about Dr J Geeta Reddy?

This is an open letter to Mrs gandhi jr. (gandhi and jr used deliberately to contrast with the Senior Mrs Gandhi)

apropos: appointment of Dr J Geeta Reddy as chief minister of andhra pradesh

But before we get to that, a re-look at an old post (on Bakr-id). Now it is Ramzan, but this one (blog) seems to be one I can carry into my corpus oeuvre.

Bakrid Greetings from Bobby George Abraham

Bobby George Abraham is a friend in the technical writing fraternity - based in Trivandrum, Kerala. He is a god-loving (not god-fearing) Christian. As always, as it happens with Bottomline, the Bakrid issue went out without greetings (without the feature itself, in fact). This morning, however, I received Bakrid greetings from Bobby George Abraham. It did not matter that he was a Malayalee Christian and I was a Telugu Hindu. The festival stands for sacrifice, sharing, and charity.

Eid al-Adha (in Arabic) or Bakr Id (in India) is the "Festival of Sacrifice" which is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Isma'il) as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead. [Remember Tukaram, who was so engrossed in his praise of the lord as he was stomping on the mud for making pots that he did not see his little son getting into the melee and getting crushed? Remember how God returns all that he lost because of his unflinching faith in God? "Vithala, Vithala, Panduranga Vithala! Sarvam (all) neevani (you are) thalachiti (I thought). Karun-inchavemayya (why don't you pity me)?"]

Back to Bakr Id: the meat (of the ram) is divided into three parts: the fambly [I love that word more than family] retains one third of the share; one third is given to relatives, friends and neighbors; and the other third is given to the poor and needy. Or, the needful.

Holy Ramzan, Bobby George Ibrahim.

The piece on Tukaram above is added today; that is what happens when you revisit your oeuvre before it becomes work.

Has the time come for a change of guard in AP?

[At the time of writing the following, Kiran Kumar Reddy was not 'decided' as the cm of ap. In Bottomline, the column I wrote for about 6 months for Trust News, I recommended Dr J Geeta Reddy as the appropriate candidate. The idea then did not catch on: I think it is time for everyone to relook at that suggestion. I have not changed anything from the earlier blog, just to retain the 'topicality' of it. Read on...]

Speculation is rife that someone from Delhi will take over as the Chief Minister at the end of this week. In the Indian National Congress (INC), it is unusual for a minister or a Member of Parliament to be sent to the home state as CM. But we just had a deviation from that good tradition in Maharashtra. So also, people say that Mr S Jaipal Reddy can be deputed as CM of AP. I beg to differ: Mr Jaipal Reddy is not a true-blue Congressman: he dallied with the Janata party and then the Janata Dal for quite some time. Mrs D Purandhareswari is required in Delhi.

It is going to be a local, very likely a Telangana woman. If Dr J Geetha Reddy is nominated, remember that you have read it first in Bottomline – Trust News.

[This prediction did not come true, of course. I don't really care: it was not a prediction; it was (and is) a suggestion.]