I have a dream - Article for the day 2 Sept

Everyone remembers the Martin Luther King speech. This detailed post by The Economist looks at how things have changed in the 50 years since. Reading through this I was struck by how we could say just the same things about Dalits today as was said about the blacks back then. Technology has made us much more interconnected they say, but then how does this persist? Another thing to note is that he didn't look for reservations but for equal treatment.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21583992-fifty-years-after-martin-luther-kings-speech-fixing-americas-racial-ills-requires-new

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

Narendra Modi for PM? - Article for the day 8 July

Over the weekend, my news feed on various channels (Twitter, FB,Google News) seemed to be talking about Narendra Modi. Either NaMo's internet team has done a very good job of publicizing the leader or all my friends seemed to have become suddenly a lot more politically savvy. 

That apart this article on why not to vote for NaMo is written in an interesting style. It is on the Vote4Modi website and is accusatory of the Congress.

This article, on the other hand, is well articulated. It talks about the pros and cons of all the other parties as well as Modi and his flaws. Authoritative and unable to take criticism have been highlighted. Some other articles even compare him to Indira Gandhi. But as the article concludes, he promises us change from the existing politics that have gotten us into the existing situation. Shouldn't we give him a chance ?

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

Obamania sweeps the world.

There seems to be no other topic of conversation the last few days. Everyone is talking about him. He seems to have won over the media and everyone is swooning over him.

I admire his charisma and the way he has the media lapping at his feet. I admire the fact that he got to be president of the country which was infamous for racial discrimination without the help of any reservations (India needs to take a few pointers here). However, I am not completely convinced. The anti-incumbency factor seems to have worked in his favor considering the mess that the financial system is. Fear seems to have been the prime driver IMHO.

I also want to see what happens once he isn’t the media blue-eyed boy. The media is fickle.

Till about 2 months back all Indian public figures were going on on how India is decoupled from the rest of the world economy. How the Indian growth story is still intact. How we should still be confidant and cheerful. How we should not fear.

In the short span of two months this “feel good” comments on TV have changed to dire predictions of recession. Of job cuts. Of how to protect your family and loved ones in times of crisis. Of how to prevent being laid off. Etc etc.

When the miracle that people are expecting doesn’t happen, that’s when we will see what Obama is truly made of. Till then lets enjoy what George Bush has been reduced to in the media.

Make sure you read the captions

Shilpa the CELEBRITY

Last week if I had said Shilpa, I would have been greeted with a Shilpa who? But today, I’d probably hear, “Oh! That poor thing. We should really teach these Brits a lesson.”

30,000 highly skilled Indian workers are facing expulsion from Briton because of their proposed new immigration laws. But our foreign minister prefers to talk to Chancellor (prime minister in waiting) Brown on “racism” on a TV sop!!!! Dude. It is a DRAMA series. NOT an intellectual discussion determining the fate of our country.

Heaven help us. When Shilpa decided to take up the offer, the news was buried somewhere in page 10. Now it is front page news. We even know the name of a previous Jane Doe. Guess it just goes to prove that there is no such thing as bad publicity. More and more eyeballs are glued to the idiot box tuned to “Celebrity Big Brother”. Viewer ship ratings of channel 4 have gone up along with the number of complaints.

Get a life people. I mean, its not like she didn’t know what she was in for. She is being paid 350,000 pounds for it!!!! But that would be pittance compared to what she can earn in the future. She has become a household name in England. Sponsors will be a mile long the moment she gets out of that Rat Hole. Why do I think so? Simple. 82% of the voters on the show voted to oust Jade Goody. And if this is any response to go by, Shilpa will probably win the episode on the wave of sympathy factor alone. If that isn’t enough, one well placed barb in Hindi from Shilpa and she will be able to milk this non issue for all it is worth.

And for the record, aren’t all of us moral cops racists? Have you never bad mouthed a neighbour or friend? Never called another person names? Caste, class & religious politics and policies are all racist. Stop venting your moral frustrations on a non issue. If you really feel so bad about the subject, then try to do something useful like fighting caste and other grounds of discrimination in your neighbourhood.

Lazy britons?

The Mayor of the London borough of Newham recently made a comment that the Britons are too lazy to work. His comments came as most of the 50,000 jobs created as a result of the 2012 Olympic Games to be held there were being given to foreigners. Not just the ones already in London, but hired in Europe and being brought over.

What relevance does this have to India? Well, his reasoning on why such a situation has occurred is that most people are mediocre in school and then tend to live on the unemployment benefits that the government gives. They are not employable and don’t have the motivation to work or the skills to work. This is a very interesting observation since it states that such schemes along with providing “dignity of living for its citizens” also promotes mediocrity.

Makes one think if reservations in schools and jobs in India which are supposed to “uplift the downtrodden and the marginalized” is really good for India in the long run

ant and the grasshopper

Got this from my sis


The modern version of ant and the grasshopper

The old esop fable:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MODERN VERSION...

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.



BBC, CNN, EURO-NEWS, NDTV, FOX NEWS show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.



The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?



Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house.

Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticizes the Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper.



The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper.

Opposition MP's stage a walkout. Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.



Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter.



The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Bush Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by BBC,CNN, AAJ TAK and NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice".

Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly...

Got The Answer...???

YES... You Got It Right...

Some call it RESERVATION n some call it QUOTA!

The nonsense file

Well, here I am watching the news and I see the court telling the students to stop striking, ministers telling the students to stop agitating, the Prime Minister and President of India appealing to people to stop agitating .................. But I don’t see anyone telling Arjun Singh to stop talking nonsense!!!!

Why do I call it nonsense???

He says we will make it 50% reservation. When we strike he says we will increase the number of seats so that the general merit students are not losing out. New seats are being created, but we are told that "NO!!! You can't have that seat. Its reserved." So if we aren’t losing out who is?

We complained that the quality of education would decline, he says he will hire more staff. Well, I have a different opinion. I have personally seen in my branch, back in KREC/NITK that even though we have a sanctioned staff of X members, we are much below that value, since the GOVERNMENT HASN'T GIVEN THE GO AHEAD TO ADVERTISE for those vacancies. I'm not talking about a week or a month. I'm talking of it being delayed for more than a YEAR.

Also, the original constitution envisioned only ten years of reservation to help the lower castes escape the atrocities that had been committed towards them. This has been extended for more than 50 years now. If it hasn't been possible in 5 times the set time limit, isn't it a valid point that the whole idea itself is inherently flawed???

However, I have a larger complain. Over the last few weeks of this controversy, I have seen thousands of chain letters and article FORWARDED against this reservation. But, I haven't seen this translate into more people actively working against this. Does our responsibility end with saying, no this is wrong???????

I see a lot of communities springing up all over the place like its the dot com boom. Everyone is saying this is wrong, we will do this, we will do that. But are we going to be able to sustain this???? I see medical students taking on the ridiculous policy, but I hardly see any engineering students take part in this. Are we also not going to be affected by this??? Or are we just going to sit back and say, no I’m on holiday, I’m not going to ruin my vacation on it???

Our very future is at stake and we say to hell with it, let me enjoy my holidays??? This, I believe, is the very reason why our country is going to the dogs. We expect divine intervention to sort out all our problems.

Arise, my friends. Its still not to late. Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.

The Generation Awakes?

Sometime back I watched an amazing movie called Rang De Basanti by Omprakash Mehra. I'm sure many of you would have too. Considering that it was one of the hit films this year catch line rang "The Generation Awakes" and I believed that it was just that. A catch line. Where will any one of us take on our politician?

Well, I guess am not the only one. Come elections and I have seen my own friends say, who will go and stand in the hot sun to vote? What will my one vote do? Elections? I haven't even enlisted myself on the electoral rolls. Let alone waste my time choosing between The Devil and The Deep Sea.

Guess as we sow, so shall we reap. Since we are not willing to clean up the mess, its only getting messier. Though everyone is busy playing politics in his or her own small way, no one is interested in entering mainstream politics that decides the fate of our billion strong country. Thus we ended up with a political "LEADER" coming up with the reservation of 50% of the seats in the IIM's and IIT's.

The furore that this has caused is amazing. Suddenly students everywhere seem to have woken up to defend our coveted portals of higher education. The demonstrations, the articles, the slogans, the interviews its mind boggling. Has the generation finally woken up? Our we going to try the clean up this mess in the corridors of power? Or am I just getting carried away by the media hype that I, oh so recently, criticized? I hope it is the former. I dream that maybe we can recreate the situation in Nepal where the autocratic rule was brought to its knees by a powerful public outcry. Or am I just dreaming ????


P.S. If you would like to check out what you could do to help, u might want to take a look at project coffee