Bhutan - A mysterious land

An Indian Geologist Mr. Vara Prasad who visited Bhutan to survey  and to study the environment  as a part of construction of ACC cement factory  shared his Bhutan experiences with Venkat poolabala.

Here is the story in brief. Bhutan is a remote and mysterious region for many people.  Those who see from remote countries only hills there. They might call this land locked country.  Being close to Bhutan  Indians should not  miss this opportunity of visiting  this exotic area with its unique culture, rich history and very friendly people. This is a rare opportunity not to be missed! Bhutan is a country without noise.  Bhutan has wonderful culture and calmness.  When Hyderabad population was 14 lakhs the population of Bhutan was 7 lakhs.  Slowness and peace are the two rivers that flow through the lives of Bhutanese.  You can make the most of you visit.  Bhutanese were quite traditional. Television was banned( now allowed) not many newspapers  but Schools and colleges are plenty in Bhutan. Bhutan also hires Indian teachers. Mr. Vara Prasad met a few Indian teachers in samdrup jonkar.  Samdrup Jongkhar is located in Bhutan - about 208 km East of Thimphu, the Bhutanese capital.  The unexplored terrain certainly deserves the attention of nature lovers as well as tourists.   From Gauhati Sandrup jonkar 65km by train. It is the district Head quarters full of flora and fauna.

Yes  it is the policy of Bhutan government to maintain forest land and nature.  Sixty  percent of the country should be forest.  Sounds great!! Doesn’t it?  The land of the thunder dragon kingdom is a travelers paradise and an environmentalist’s dream. With 72 percent of the country under forest cover. The men and women of Bhutan have their traditional dresses. They should wear them. It is mandatory. We can see the ascending  roads  pass through a variety of vegetation zones in the Himalayan foothills. Looking back we get a distant view of the Indian plains. The roads are so high that we may be above the clouds! The roadside is rich in plants including ferns, rhododendrons and primulas. Women wear traditional dresses.  

Among many things of decent attraction, the culture is the biggest attraction.  If you visit Bhutan it gives you a chance to see how Bhutan has managed to hold on to its cultural traditions.  Bhutanese are Buddhists.  Mahayana Buddhism provides the essence of a unique identity for the 700,000 people of Bhutan. They don’t crave for western culture like Indians.  Their ability to respect their culture is remarkable it is reflected in retaining their culture. Archery is their national sport not cricket. India and Indians must learn from Bhutan.

Crazy out door shootings and Accidents

The Boy was disappointed. I said, "NO disappointments only appointments".  So the result is "location change" We moved to another CD store. The conversation was recorded successfully.  But in that same music store I got the chance of meeting Mr. G.S Rao the head of Career Campus. It is really a memorable day. He took some snaps of in the music store.   This is a still( photo) from the French conversation. I never imagined that this meeting would lead to learning Italian language.   I was thinking of learning Turkish or portugese but I was drawn into Italian. Meeting him is merely an accident. but sometimes accidents leave behind not only wounds but also sweet memories. My Italian learning was an accident. but I am absorbed by sweetness of Italian which also sustains my interest till today. 

Of late I have jumped off the wall of EFL Eazy Foreign Languages and started shooting small conversations in French and German in different locations of the city. You know that the ambiance plays a vital role in making the videos more effective. EFL has a small studio of its own with limited facilities.  Out-door shootings are fun but it requires mobilization of actors. Permissions and incidental expenses and safety of the child actors make it tough but there are thrills in out-door shooting. Sometimes outdoor shooting can be very disappointing as well. Recently I planned a French conversation with one of my French students Manoj. It is about buying a French CD.

When Our home studio ( shooting at home) is not suitable for the conversation  I go out with the students to out-door locations such as apartments, friends’ offices, parks. I always had permission to shoot in advance. In rare cases I sought permission a few minutes in advance. However well planned or ill planned there is always a possibility of a fiasco. This time It is a French Conversation. We planned it in a local CD shop at Benz circle. It is a posh looking music store with nice decor. We (My actor student Manoj and I.) reached there. When we were ready to shoot the permission was denied. That was the disappointment for the boy. I commandeered a smile in a situation that seems to be a tragedy.

Later we had many out-door shootings with countless number of children in places such as Radio stations which finally culminated in shooting videos in Andhrapradesh state cultural centre situated in Malakshmi towers in Vijayawada with the patronage of Dr. Emani sivanagireddy who is The CEO of Amaravathi Cultural Centre.  He is aficionado of arts and French language. He also Introduced me to the director  Mr. Bhaskar rao. My Italian  is merely an accident

Home made videos by venkat

I have the desire to make videos for teaching English as it interests people in general and children in particular. My idea is to give native touch to the content while giving English touch to the language. So I created a story around the months of the year with our Indian festivals. please give me your feedback. that gives me strength to create such videos. please download and use anywhere you want.

Add colour to your language - training Free

The sound of English bewitches my senses and the rhythm of English enchants my mind and the accent steels my heart.  I am growing a garden called "Eazy Foreign Languages" that offers 6 foreign langua ges in Vijayawada.   The garden is full of exotic flowers - French, German, Spanish, Italian and English. Japanese is still budding. I am the chief gardener garnering the fragrance of flowers to garnish my poems, stories, conversations songs and the like.  I am a drummer and fifer when I train people on English fluency and accent. very rarely people come to learn accent, until then I sit in the emptiness cursing the cold breeze. Then.. suddenly comes a sweet singing bird that trills new melodies into my heart. 

                                    

This is my recent educational video "Add color to your language."  I made this video cd for Spoorthi Videos. This CD  offers English conversations plenty of idioms and phrases with clear explanation of English idioms in Telugu.  The Cd is about speaking English fluently with good pronunciation and accent. I wrote 200 English conversations but only 50 conversations were selected for this 2 hour Cd. The Shooting is over and the editing work is in progress. Soon It will be available in the market. I am presently training people on English, French and German.  

 

Training Program with VROs

The gentlemen in the picture are VROs. I trained them on Communication skills in G.Konduru near Ibrahimpatnam. The program was conducted with the  auspices of the MRO in his office on Saturday the 14th April. The training session was aimed at improving their communication skills. I began the program with Chinese whispers. It is a small game in which the trainer passes a small piece of information to the first member of the group. He passes it to the second member. The second member passes to the third member. The message is passed on till it reaches the last member. The last member passes it back to the trainer as he understood. The problem in any group is that the message gets distorted as it passes. I gave to the first member of the group a message. I wrote it on a piece of paper in Telugu and gave it to the first member.  the message is " రోడ్డు మీద తప్పు మార్గం లో వెళ్ళే వాళ్ళకంటే సరైన మార్గంలో వెళ్ళే వాళ్ళకే ఎక్కువ యాక్సిడెంట్స్ అవుతున్నాయి. Naturally I got the distorted message. The message I got from the last person was " You can avoid accidents if you go in the right route. That's how the cookie crumbles. I showed the slip to all members of the group. They all laughed. It was a hearty laugh. That's how the program began. I focused mainly on their day to day needs of reporting. The program is all about giving and taking information.
1. How to send brief messages using cell phone.
2. How to understand the messages sent by high officials.
3. Oral communication in Cell phone.
 What is the good of IT if we do not know how to communicate. Lunch was provided in the MRO's office. Mr. Bikshu is a courteous man. He is an exemplary officer who offered this program to all his VROs. with foresight and dynamism. That's why his team always stands first in reporting. I thank him through my blog for the opportunity he gave me. All the participants in the program paid utmost attention and really guided me well. They extracted what they wanted. It has given me immense satisfaction.  

Life in London

Life in London

London  gives a wow not only to the visitor but also to the writer and the reader who writes or reads about it. Many people wrote about it many times. Yet, each time it made a difference. This interview focuses on the education system, social life and culture in U.K  Mr.Sravan from Vijayawada who studied in London speaks on Life in London. People in England, like other parts of the world hardly need to blow horns of their vehicles but still accident rate is very low. In India sparing the horn is wrong. you can blow off the brains with your horn. Horn is not only expected but also demanded. In UK people fly off the handle when horn is blown at them. They may gift the blower a slap. In India we often experience loud talk talk in small hotels, especially at tiffin and meals sections but people in England are silent in public places in contrast with the noisy people in India. In London or the U.K for the matter if the customer is not satisfied with the food served, if he expresses his dissatisfaction the hotel management will not charge money. Here in India once I said the same thing to the hotel management when the food was bad.  The hotel management picked up a quarrel with me. Time is precious in London. They respect time and follow it. Any function or any program in the UK starts on time. But here in India we wait for the last man, the late comer, as if his time is more important than that of all others who came in time. We need to ask ourselves a simple question " Is the time of the late comer more important than those who came early? Education in England is very practical. They assign the work to the students and the students are expected study and write on their own. Learning by heart or copying or downloading from net attracts serious warning and punishment. If two students write alike the professor will not accept. Compare the lakhs of students in India who read the same guide with students in the U.K. Mr. Sravan said that  he was made to stand before a committee(as we see in movies) and expiate for using internet stuff. Minors (children until 18) are taken utmost care of by the government. Even nail polish is not sold to them. They have the complete protection from the law. Even scolding them is a serious offence. Sometimes Mr. Sravan and friends have seen minors begging when they were on the way to the university but they were scared of scolding  them.  Adult beggars in London are different from those in India. They don't beg showing their poverty or misery as Indian beggars rather they show their art. Some beggars play the guitar while others paint on a canvas set on easel.  There is grace and dignity, silence and puntuality, dignity of labour and respect for customers in the UK. What they don't have is plagiarism and we have it here plenty. 

The trace of good culture

Prabhakar Venkata

Mr. Prabhakar Venkata who works in Meghalaya in a small town near Shillong extended a telephone interview last night from 9.00 pm to 9.52pm. I thank him for sharing the information and narrating his experiences. The interview began like this: 
Poolabala: Sir, thank you very much for sparing your time and calling me. Where are you from?  How and when did you go to Meghalaya? 
Prabhakar :I hail from Mopidevi, a small village in Krishna district. I went to Meghalaya in 2004. I work in a construction company as a manager. To facilitate easy reading the gist of the long telephonic interview is given for you.
It is a place where Woman can move freely at midnight without a man’s assistance. Woman can walk through the darkness of midnight all alone. She can even work at a wine shop at night and can reach home safe.Woman is safe. Society is secured.  NO movies, No exposing. No crime, No thefts, No cheating, No corruption, No politics at least. There is not a single statue of  any leader. There is no greatness attached to anyone. All are equal.  It  is a place where woman is respected and free from male domination and acid attacks-  no blade attacks no love sick students. No dirty cinemas. No feticide, No dowry.  A woman can marry with just 50 paise. She offers 50 paise in betel leaves and that completes a marriage. Certainly Meghalaya is beyond compare. In many aspects it is far better than the other parts of India especially south India. It is a different place.  Don't say "Are you dreaming?  Is it a story? Come on don’t be silly be practical. It is impossible."  Maybe it is impossible in Andhra because the day has long since past where we had three murders and six rapes a day.  Now we are going steady with six murders and a dozen rapes each day. Meghalaya is entirely different from India.  Yes may be they are tribals. But they have a good culture, a culture that allows them to live with certain values and communion.  A commoner can sit beside the Chief Minister. No long Convoys. Just one or two cars in CM’s convoy. They live as one community. The headman in villages takes decisions for the welfare of their community. Individuals don't take decisions. They still abide by them. Marriages are strictly with in the community. Meghalaya thrives with a true culture of their own.