Praja Rajyam

That's the name of the long awaited political party launched by Mr. Chiranjeevi today.

Related links:

1. Mahalo
2. Idlebrain
3. India Today
   

An image of the flag



A video of the party flag hoisting

Shoban Babu passes away

Andhra's beloved actor of the yesteryear is no more!

From TOI:

Veteran Telugu actor Shobhan Babu died here on Thursday morning after a cardiac arrest. He was 71 and is survived by three daughters and a son. He has acted in over 100 films.

Born in Andhra Pradesh, Shobhan Babu began his acting career in the 1960s. After retiring from films in the late 1990s, he had settled down in Chennai with his family.

From Wiki a little background:

Sobhan Babu (January 14, 1937 – March 20, 2008), popularly known as Shoban Babu, was a Tollywood film actor.

Born as Uppu Sobhana Chalapathi Rao to a middle-class family, Sobhan went on to become a romantic icon and was the top Tollywood hero for two decades. He made his film debut with Daivabalam directed by Vasanthkumar Reddy, but his first film to hit the screens was Bhakta Sabari.

Demographics of Andhra Pradesh by Castes in Percentage

I am not sure how much research has gone into this paper by K.C.Suri for Overseas Development Institute in London, written in 2002. I am just presenting the statistics he mentioned in his report.

The following is the Percentage of population of AP by caste sort by decreasing %:

BC	35-40%
SC	16%
Kapu	10-12%
Reddi	8-10%
Kamma	4-5%
Brahman	2-3%
Vysya	2-3%
Velama	1-2%

Per Wiki,

Kapu and its subcastes(Balija, Telaga, Turpu Kapu, Ontari, constitute about 25.18% percent of the population of Andhra Pradesh, making them the single largest community in the state.

But no source was cited for that statistic

And according to another Wiki Article, here are the demographics:

1. FC: Forward castes are castes that are politically, educationally and financially well off and don't qualify for government reservations in educational and government positions. Some of the subcastes are actually backward castes. They make up about 35% of the population.
2. BC: Castes are classified as backward if due to their financial, educational and political depression need government reservations to help uplift their status. They are predominantly involved in small scale farming, artisans, small scale traders. They make up about 50% of the population.
3. SC: They are engaged predominantly in menial and manual labor and make up about 10% of the population.
4. Tribes: They engage in hunting and gathering, the primitive type of agriculture known as shifting or slash-and-burn cultivation. They constitute 5% of the population.

YSR in St Louis

Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Mr.Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy is going to visit St Louis. May 7th according to the poster and May 8th according to the Hindu.

Article in The Hindu

Update from Suram in comments:
One of the organizires just responded to my call. The correct time is 6PM on 7th May and no passes are required for the address. Additional parking is available at 415 Weldman Rd

A good start to end Noise polution

A no-honking Zone is going to be enforced around 100 meter radius of any school/hospital/educational institutions in Hyderabad. A good idea to start reducing the unbearable and useless honking situation in Cities. Obviously, they have to improve the conditions which would reduce the scenario's for honking. Such as, people crossing the roads where ever they want, vehicles parked in the middle of the road and such.

From TOI:

The 'no-honking' rule in identified silent zones will be enforced in the city after a month.

The government on Wednesday announced that a 100-metre radius around hospitals, educational institutions and courts will be notified as silent zones.

Annavaram - A Dud

Watched this Pawan Kalyan's latest movie yesterday. Nothing special in there. Its just a curry of all different previous successful formulae. Nothing in the movie was above average, The fights, The music, The sentiment, The romance. Everything is just about what you might have seen already. The only scene in the entire movie that touched me was the death of Pawan's close friend Narasimha (Venumadhav). That scene was very detailed in depicting the emotions of the people who loved him to see him dead. Especially his mother.

About the characters in the movie: The whole movie revolves around Pawan. Asin was given very minute role. Just a few dialogues or a glimpse before a song starts. There was no attempt by the director, whatsoever, to depict a relationship between the leading stars. The brother-sister relationship which was supposed to be the heart of the movie, was not fully developed. It was good in the first half, but after interval therez no relationship whatsoever. The sister (Sandhya) suddenly starts overacting, maybe to show that she is very naive as a contrast to the city people pawan deals with.

Overall, it is an average telugu movie. No need to watch it unless your only interest is in the people who acted rather than the characters, the script, dialogues and all that jazz :)