MyVoice: Views of our readers 5th January 2021

Gods in AP enmeshed in petty politics

The Gods above must be aghast and amused also at the dirty politics being played around in AP. The vandalism of the temples is utterly despicable and condemnable. But the blatant attempts of political parties to capitalise the issue are still worse. Each one is throwing mud at the other without knowing who the culprits are. There have been such heinous instances in the earlier regimes too, but never was such brouhaha created.

The former CM Naidu was never seen as a hardcore devotee. He kept his shoes on while visiting sacred places unmindful of the time-honoured customs. It was during his rule, about a score of people perished in Godavari Pushkarams due to negligence of his government. Not many tears were shed and the issue was hushed up. The report of the committee never saw the light of the day.

Such being the case, his overnight transformation wearing a 'Bottu' on his forehead and his lament look so political. He is invoking the name of 'Sri Ram' to reap political benefit to the utter consternation of BJP who jumped into the fray claiming ownership to heap abuse. The government on its part needs to apprehend the criminals without any delay to ally the apprehensions, particularly as it claims to have evidence.

There are numerous big and small temples across the state. It is not practicable to deploy police force everywhere. It will be good to constitute Citizens committees to safeguard the interests. Looking at the overall picture, it looks like a conspiracy hatched by political opponents to defame and destabilise the government, considering the Christian origin of the CM. The Government will do well to expedite the investigation and bring the culprits to book, regardless of their religious or political affiliations in the interest of one and all.

Vinay Bhushan Bhagwaty, Hyderabad

Where are we heading for?

New Year means change, as New Year approaches everyone gets ready with new resolutions and new challenges to climb the steps of a success. Many of us celebrate New Year and also thank Almighty for blessing a new year again as chance to change for which we all enlist the new resolutions which will be new approach for change in life, which is really good but wait a second and ask yourself that how many years have passed away, how many calendars turned and how much you really worked hard to change? Is the New Year just a celebration holiday? Because I see many of us just celebrate on New Year night and from next day follow routine life. Isn't this the time to introspect? Corona pandemic was shocking and a very hard time; amid pandemic masses got addicted on social media, not only youngsters but also their parents.

Maximum companies and educational institutions shifted online. Overall, everyone was busy on Internet and its overuse made social isolation. Yes, no doubt that social media can sometimes be a force for good at the same time it also have many drawbacks. The rising research highlights the negative psychological effects of social media but in comparison girls appear to be at high risk than male teens.

Along with the other factors, the sleep deprivation, social comparison, and cyber bullying are associated with overuse of social media wreaks havoc on mental health, self-esteem, and teen body image. According to Global Web Index report, each day people between the ages of 16-24 spent an average of three hours and one minute using social media. However, research reported in journal JAMA Psychiatry shows that the adolescents who use social media more than three hours per day "may be at heightened risk of mental health problems, particularly internalising problems." Youth have lost their long-term vision, now it's became a trend of updating status, sharing pictures on social media, watching movie, playing game which is giving type of satisfaction of today's youth. In this trap we have forgotten that this is not a real world, the interest to be shown on self and work hard for reaching our goals have missing somewhere because our interest have been diverted to virtual world, everybody in one family are busy with their devices. We are present under same roof with different virtual worlds. Everyone have complaint about others for being online and not showing interest to the one who is present, truth is that "everyone want to change the world but no one want to themselves" "let's be the change want to see" for this we should allow ourselves to be a part of real world, lets starts with ourselves .

Yes, "Success doesn't come overnight" we need to work hard to reach our success, which is like climbing a mountain, here every step will become challenge to other step but remember it will take you to top. To start success journey you need just one step "even miles of journey will be started by a single step" so, to bring change in society we should be the change, then it will impact in our family and then one family will impact on society. Remember "The first of heavy rain is just a drop".

Syed Ahmed Ali, New Delhi