Hemantha Kalam - 73 'Uno Uma'

What makes your happiness?

For some, it is making money, for some it is watching soap operas, even while most of the sitcoms are cruel and tragical. Every one could bring out any ideas from myriad thoughts and ideas and activities.

 

My happiness is made by many sources, important among them being travelling or reading travelogues, watching travel related films, videos and vlogs (video blogs or video logs whichever way you wish to interpret – if the new generation kids take liberties in creating new words can’t we at least take liberties in interpreting them? Surely, we should!).

 

As I am now grounded at home, thanks to the COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease of year 2019) without stepping out of my apartment for almost 6 months, my feet are literally itching. As I am under the strict care of my daughters in absentia and my dear wife in presence, I am left with no recourse but to satisfy my travel itch by reading books on my Kindle and going to many countries virtually, through YouTube.

 

Thanks to many vloggers, during these five months, I have travelled to many countries by watching videos that range for a duration of 90 seconds to 50 plus minutes. After going through many of them and analysing, I found that there are three types of vloggers.

 

1)  Those who take 20 minutes to say what can be shown and said in two minutes, rendering the video boring and tiresome

2)    Those who need to explain more, cutting off incompletely and

3)    Those who spend the optimum time in showing and explaining.

 

I notice that it is the last type who gets many followers and more subscriptions, naturally.

 

Among those vloggers, I like watching the series made by Drew Binsky (https://www.youtube.com/user/thehungrypartier), a young American, who has travelled across 197 countries and who makes daily videos (some 760 + so far) one of the very few who might have done this and no wonder he has about 1.84 million subscribers across the globe, for his videos.  

 

The second person, whose vlogs I like to watch, is all this blog about. He is Uma Prasad, originally from Krishna district but sort of settled in a village near Tenali of Guntur district, both in Andhra Pradesh, India (https://youtu.be/b8oxnIaw4Og).

 

He is currently working in Mali, a landlocked country located in the north-west of Africa. He works in a water plant in a village some 35 kms away from Bamako, the capital city, earning less than US $ 500 per month (about INR 35,000 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMcQgn6sMHY).

 

Now what I like in his vlogs that are titled ‘Uma Telugu Traveller’ is that he is a pioneering vlogger, vlogging in Telugu language, using no fancy gadgets like a ‘GoPro’ (yet, at least) but using his mobile phone, which apparently seems to be a Samsung Galaxy  A71 (https://www.youtube.com/c/UmaTeluguTraveller) and a mobile selfie stick. The picture and voice clarity seem to be fine.

He has been maintaining a visual diary of all his day to day activities (those permitted) giving in an insight into Mali and life for a normal worker in Mali.

 

He always has a smile, his Telugu is easily understandable and steadily he is supplying so much of information. His vlogs are not too long or too short. He has that innocence in his conversation and an eagerness to share information of a country which is hardly ever heard of by many. All his videos starts with a greeting “how are you all, I am fine here” (in Telugu). He literally makes you a part of his home and activities in Mali seamlessly. Perhaps it is this quality that has earned him 190,000 subscribers as thousands visit and watch his vlogs on YouTube videos.

 

What I admire in him and am inspired is that though his pay is not high (rather low for international standards), he seems to be happy most of the time in the videos. Apart from managing his office work, cooking and household chores etc., he seems to be interested in discovering as much Mali as he can, chronicle and share them. Where there is a will, there is a way, for happiness.

 

In retrospection, I wonder why I never indulged in such activities. Now I don’t have equipment, but there were times I had equipment with me. It is sheer lack of will power and laziness, I guess.

 

So, I respect these guys that much more, as they are able to make things happen and are bringing the world to your palms, virtually and literally.

 

Well, aren’t they? Do let me know what you think!

 

Till then, adios amigos!

 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Dhanyosmi (Sanskrit), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Dhanyabad (Oriya), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic), Shukriya (Urdu), Bohoma Sthuthiyi (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai), Dankie (Afrikaans), Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino), Tack (Swedish), Fa'afetai (Samoan), Terima Kasih (Bahasa Indonesian & Malay), Tenkyu (Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea), Malo (Tonga) and Vinaka (Fiji).

 

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Chennai, India