Save Our Tigers | Join the Roar

Title: Save Our Tigers | Join the Roar
Link: http://gotaf.socialtwist.com/redirect?l=-517250362568021478221

Are our Leaders really a Reflection on our Society?

As our country once again witnesses the Dance of Democracy, electing its representatives for another term in the Lok Sabha, one cannot help but wonder whether our representatives truly are a reflection of who we are. Does Sonia Gandhi really represent the poor farmer in Rae Bareli, or is Advani a true representation of the vibrant and cosmopolitan Ahmedabad/Gandhinagar.

Aristotle once said, 'A society is not just a collection of Humans, but is another being, with its own Body and thought, independent from its constituent beings'. I firmly do believe in his words and I trust that who the members of a society choose as their leaders, do not necessarily reflect the characteristics of the society itself. My root assertion is in the fact that nowhere, never does a society really 'chooses' its leaders. Even in the most perfect of democratic societies, leaders evolve, and, to say crudely, are thrust upon the rest of them.

As much as we would like to believe that leaders are 'elected, not selected', I think, we all know that a society never has full, or sometimes even a little control over who will lead them. Leaders are naturally selected. We can even apply Darwin's assertion here. It is more or less a process of natural selection. The men and women, who have the talent of charisma, and the willpower to decide for the masses, are naturally predisposed to lead their fellow people, who have no way but to give in to their natural instincts and follow the 'chosen ones'. Choice rarely, if ever plays a role in the populace selecting their leader.

If one really intends to understand the character of a society, there is no worse a way to do so than examining the character of its leaders. It is like saying that a human being is defined by just his/her brains, and nothing else. We all know that not to be true. To characterize a society, one needs to study the individuals that make it up, and the interactions between them, something which we like to call culture. Culture in a society can be seen as analogous to connective tissue in a human body, an amalgam of behaviour and beliefs that hold the individuals in a society together. I understand that what I have said may be very difficult, even impossible to do, but that is how understanding the character of a society is. Brilliant minds have spent years and decades trying to do so, and are yet to come to a satisfactory answer. And hence, I assert once again, saying that one can understand a society's character simply by studying its chosen leaders, is like saying that one can tell what a person is like, just by looking at the anatomy of his or her brain.

The Children of Recession

Its 6 AM, and I am packing. I am packing for my final journey from IIML, into the real world, into the professional arena, where there will be no one to look after us, and it will be baptism by fire. I am overcome by such emotions, when I suddenly spot something sitting on the top shelf of my cupboard. It is an unopened bottle of fine "Moēt-Chandon" Champagne. I requested Chitta to bring it when he was on a trip to NY. I had imagined we all would celebrate with this once all of our gang got jobs.

Well, it is almost 45 days since it has been sitting o the shelf, with 5 of my best friends yet to be placed. I read in the newspapers everyday as to how the recession is affecting people across the globe, and it reminds me of the time when the dot com bubble had burst, how thankful I had felt not be in the eye of the storm. Well, the second time is not so lucky. Here I am, with all my classmates here at L and other B-Schools of the world, standing in the midst of what is being termed the worst economic downturn ever.

However, it is not a feeling of resentment, or of helplessness, that has overcome me, it is of anger. Anger at the way we are being treated, anger at the liberties firms are taking at our expense. Even if I have a job, and arguably one of the best on offer, I still am bursting with anger at the way my buddies are being treated. The cream of the country is being treated like dirt, and like some cheap, poor hooker, they suit up every morning, go to see n number of processes, only to return dejected and distraught in the end. The next day is the same ordeal all over again.

Let me justify my anger by illustrating one incident which happened not so long ago, right here at L. A particular company, which normally is not welcome at even B-Grade schools, let alone the IIMs, was on campus to hire, and had proudly proclaimed that it is looking at a large number of candidates, and that it will offer meaty roles, but had declined to disclose the salary structure. It shortlisted everyone who had applied, and mapped out a lengthy recruitment process, much to the chagrin of the PCom, who are bunking their classes to help us get placed. After running the process for more than 15 hours, the firm told the PCom representative that they, "sadly" could not find anyone who was a "fit" for them, and so did not make any offers. One of my colleagues heard the guys from the company laughing and commenting, "Serves them right, they never let us in, now it is us who kicked them out."

Well, sir, I have only one thing to say, the IIMs are a giant, they may falter and occasionally even fall down, but they will always dust themselves up and walk like the giant they always were. And if you decide to take a swing at us when we are down, Sir, you are in for a surprise as to how resilient we, the Children of Recession, can be.

All this, reminds me of a poem I had written a few years back, which is apt for the IIM Student, Class of 2009, the Child of Recession

Fighting crying eyes

Look deeper than I might

Break away the sad mind

Feel the force behind

The fighting crying eyes

Sadness no more

Fight back and galore

Time for annihilation

Some kind of war

Fighting the crying eyes

Mine is the face of rebel

Crushing the devil

Rising above the hell

Fighting the crying eyes

No more, No more

Tears no further

Rock in my blood

Rock in my heart

Rocking the messed up

Fighting the depression

Always I am the rock

Always I am the rock

Fighting

Fighting

Fighting the crying eyes

Iron addled my brains, in a good way....

The “Iron Curtain” was a figure of speech used by Winston Churchill (well, actually Joseph Goebbels, but let us not indulge in nitpicking), to describe the parting of ways between the communist bloc of eastern European nations from their western counterparts. Apart from the political and military differentiation, something else happened, something which has resulted in something good for all of us visiting Europe post the communist meltdown. These newly capitalist nations have developed slightly differently from their western buddies. They retain their mysticism, unlike the crass commercialization in France and Italy. Also, there is an aura attached to these nations, one of adventure, mainly because they were largely inaccessible to tourists only a decade and a half back. I, happened to visit a few of these countries and I was fascinated. The people are friendlier than the rest of Europe, and not nearly as anal.
The countries I toured were Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Poland… And of course, Berlin, from East Germany, formerly the GDR. Prague is by far the most beautiful city in the whole of Europe, Budapest the grimiest and liveliest, Bratislava the cheapest and quirkiest, Ljubljana the cutest, and Krakow and Zakopane with the most history and adventure in them, respectively. And of course, Berlin has its wickedness to cash for. The point is, each of these cities has a lot of character, and somehow are stuck between the principles of socialism, and the good life that the newly found capitalist way of life offers. Amazing experiences each one of them, including the road trip to Poland in an Opel Zafira, they have certainly modified my “30 things to do before 30”.

There is a voice ringing in my head right now…. “Must visit Russia, must visit Ukraine, must visit Belarus, must visit all the other SSR countries….”… should I? Or rather can I?

Getting Lost in Brussels...

From the time I landed in Brussels, I am in love with this city, and Europe in general. The weather is so awesome, the streets, well not so clean, the people so friendly....and the chicks!!! For the past three days, I have been roaming around Brussels, mostly on foot, and its been an amazing experience. We saw the Palais de Royale (Royal Palace), Grote Plce (Grand Place), Victory Gate/Triumphal Arch (which is right beside where we stay BTW), and the most impresive, the Atomium and Mini Europe. To the exchange students who wish to visit Brussels, here is an Itinerary i woud suggest,

• After getting down at Brussels Central Station (Gare Du Centraal), take the metro line 1A to Heyzel from Centraal Station. Atomium and Mini Europe are right by the Heyzel station. One trip ticket on the Metro costs 1/70. Mini Europe entry fee is 12/36 per peson, but do not miss it cuz of the high cost, its awesome. Atomium is impressive only from the outside. It is a relic of the 1958 world fair, and do not spend 9/00 going inside.
• Opposite the Atomium is the Belgique Congres (Seat of the Belgian Government). Its an impressive building with beautiful gardens.
• From there, take the metro back to Centraal Station, get out towards Hotel Le Meridien, cross the underpass, turn right and you are in the Grote Place MArket. Explore this area on foot. The De Villa Place (A pentagon surrounded by medieval buldings) is the most impressive sight here. Look for the Manneken Pis (Brussels' Icon), which is pretty small and hence tough to find. It is on the crossing between Rue de l'Étuve & Eikstraat. If you cant figure out, ask, everyone is more than willing to help out.
  
• On the diaonally opposite side of the grand place is the Jeanekke Pis, the female equivalent of Manneken Pis. Its tougher to find as it is less famous. It is on a blind alley to the north of Rue De Bouchers.
• The Palais Du Royale is a 20-25 minutes on foot from the Grand Place. It is the earstwhile residence of the Belgian Royal Family.
  
• After you are satisfied exploring the Grand Place, take the metro to Merode (this is where we stay). Immediately outside the station is the Triumphal Arch (very similar to the Bradenburg Gate in Berlin), also called Parc du Cinquantenaire. It is surrounded by the beautiful Jubilee Parc, and a couple of meuseums incuding Autoworld, Military Meuseum, Temple of Human Passions Etc.

And of course, do not forget to taste some of the famous Belgian Beer, waffles and of course the Pralines (Belgian Chocolates).
Am waiting for more people to fall in love with this beautiful city's character, where even the poshmost of cars stop and signal you to cross the road before they drive on!!!

This one, just cuz' you asked me too....

It was just another normal class, though not entirely at that. It was Prof Himanshu Rai's class, so something HAD to happen. He began auctioning a hundred rupee note, asking for bidders at various prices. THere were a lot of us, till he reched a price of Rs100. Even though, one of us persisted. In fact, he was ready to buy the note even at Rs 110. It was then that Prof Rai shot his now fammous one liners....
"Are you buying this at a high price just because it was touched by ME???"
And the worst wasn't over, it was then that Prof Rai turned to m and said, in the most mischievous of tones... "THis is another one for your blog, Abhinav."... referring to the guffaws post of mine earlier....
Well... this one is for you sir....

Random Ramblings of the Mad BullDog....

Sitting in the classroom, the AC not really cooling me, though the weather outside is not all that bad... I am listening (but not really paying attention) to the random ramblings of a professor who loves to call himself the "BullDog". The topics could potentially be interesting, but it would be against the BullDog's ego to make us understand even a sliver of anything that he considers is "tough". BTW, did I mention, that by no stretch of imagination does he look like a bulldog, more like a chipmunk actually. You know, the ones with a hint of hair growth on the upper lip, of which they are supremely proud. But a chipmunk will always remain a chipmunk, hiding nuts and cones in the deep crevices of a tree, more of a thief than a hunter, which the "BullDog" claims to be.
Did I mention, our new batch of juniors has arrived on campus, well atleast most of it. and voila, 90% of the batch are what we call "Daddus", guys with tonnes of work experience. Some guys have very interesting profiles, including a cancer biologist, a DRDO scientist, armymen, and apparently even a 1999 batch IAS!!!!! Good God Almighty...
I feel even I have started to ramble..... rather than writing something interesting... well, atleast i didn't write anything about the Noida murders, which seems to be the national pastime these days...
Cya folks....
~~Stay beautiful~~~

Hyderabad!!!!

Its my Third week in Hyderabad, and I am already wondering as to why I had not visited this beautiful city earlier. Even though it has the usual pitfalls of an up-and-coming city, with traffic snarls, bad roads et al, it still manages to capture one's imagination in a way that few other cities can. The Hussain Sagar is very pretty, but only till you are a safe distance, get closer and your nostrils will face a volley of smells ugly enough to remind you of Yamuna. The people here are very helpful and simple, but then one does not get to see the opposite sex in a way one would do in Delhi or Mumbai. BTW, I have seen more cricketers in my hotel during the past two weeks than I have my entire life. And we are going to watch the IPL game between Hyderabad and Delhi later tonight, should be fun.
I have been enjoying work immensly, details of which I cannot disclose here because of McKinsey confidentiality policies. My team is an awesome amount of fun, totally disfunctional :D . I guess the next month and a half should be fun!!!! Will get back to posting....

Atithi Devo Bhavah????

The Goa debate seems to be moving away from the basic fact that Scarlett Keeling has been murdered. There is no way you can wish away the body and the report of the medical examination, which says that the teenager was raped before being killed. There is neither any evidence to link this murder to the beach resort's drug trade. Keeling's possible involvement with narcotic substance offenders and their clandestine business has nothing to do with the savagery inflicted upon her. In the end, it was more a crime of lust.

Let us not be led astray by the ongoing debate in Britain that Scarlett might have been the promiscuous daughter of a bohemian mother who lives life according to her own hippie norms. We have no right to sit on judgment on Fiona Mackowen especially when it makes us digress from the real issue in hand. The perpetrators of the heinous murder desired the fifteen-year-old because they had assumed she was unchaste and, therefore, sexually available. Probably, the motive was that if her boyfriend Julio Lobo could enjoy her physical company, why should others be deprived of Scarlett's feminine bounty.

This is the larger question which petty souls like home minister Ravi Naik don't want to answer. Goa has long been an international tourist destination but has still not been able to reconcile itself to either bohemianism or promiscuity. Goa's burgeoning hospitality trade can entice affluent customers with marijuana and barbiturates or even with expensive brown sugar. But when it comes to sensitivity to apparently deviant behaviour, even the average Goan with his long experience of hosting foreigners gropes in the dark. It is easy for the shack-owners in Anjuna or Baga beaches to use Caucasian white females, especially those from East European countries, as drug conduits or call girls. It is difficult for them to relate to their unpredictable nature, mood swings, their sexual candour with a few and refusal to sleep with the others.

Why blame Goa when Indian prudery has always misconstrued promiscuity as an invitation or a willingness to be an easy sexual prey? Scarlett's confused adolescent soul comes through in the pages of her diary. Neither she nor her mother is the epitome of immorality which the Indian establishment would rather have us believe. The family definitely subscribes to an experimental lifestyle but that doesn't mean they forego their individual right to choose their own partners. Being the daughter of a mother who has married five times does not automatically mean that the 15-year-old girl is obvious game for the male predator.

But such simplistic assumptions overpower the Indian subconscious. The maladjusted and the deviant are necessarily bad. We make moral inferences based on our own insular comprehension of life as we experience it within the boundaries of the subcontinent. That explains why tourists are sexually attacked so frequently in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and even Maharashtra. That explains why the absconding Biti Mohanty misreads a German acquaintance's apparent proximity as sexual consent. Our own repressed perspectives get entwined with our coloured views of Western customs and habits. The end result is a heinous crime like rape.

We have no idea that while we may still consider words like freethinker or libertine derogatory in nature but a forgiving West has long moved on and accepted nonconformists like hippies, cultists, beatniks, New Agers, commune inhabitants and flower children as part of the mainstream. What we deride as promiscuity is not looked down upon in the same way either in North America or Europe. To them, unabashed fulfillment of biological needs does not necessarily imply that a woman can be dismissed as a whore. Our xenophobic tendencies prevent us from rightly interpreting changing sexual mores in nations abroad.

Scarlett Keeling has been made to pay a heavy price not for her mother's past sins or recklessness in leaving her alone in a strange paradise. She has died because we aren't liberal enough, nor are we willing to change ourselves. Great tourist destinations are accommodative of global perceptions. We have miles to go before we acquire a transnational sensibility. Even a tiny Mauritius or Maldives has a broader perception of international tourist behaviour. Thailand is leagues ahead. So is China.

Keeling's death nailed a great lie that we try to perpetuate. Indians may flatter themselves into believing they are generous hosts but they actually aren't. The much-touted principle of Athithi devo bhava applies only to domestic tourists, not to eccentric foreigners. Otherwise, Japanese tourists would not have complained of being harassed by a guide at the Sun Temple in Konark. Otherwise non-resident Indians would not have felt like running away from the clutches of greedy pujaris at Kalighat in Kolkata.

Tourism is about opening up your own culture with due tolerance and utmost respect for the culture of the visitors. Indians are too immersed in their medieval ethos to understand the worldwide cultural crosscurrents of the twenty-first century. There's an old Chinese adage that says a closed mind is like a closed book, just a block of wood. We are indeed the wooden people.

The Cult of the Sex Goddess....God only knows why am I writing this now......

In its 60th year as an independent nation, India has just elected its first woman president. Yet the ascent of the demure Pratibha Patil - with her covered head and long career in "women's issues" - may not necessarily be a victory for Indian women. Today, in India, "women's empowerment" is a government slogan; it is a feature of every party manifesto. There is a ministry for women and child development. There are laws against female foeticide, domestic violence and sexual harassment in the workplace. The number of working women is exploding: businesswomen such as Kiran Majumdar Shaw and sportswomen such as Sania Mirza show that talented, determined women are making it in every corner of this traditional society - a society that was entirely male-dominated in 1947. Yet, in the first decade of the 21st century, Indian women - seemingly protected by law, celebrated by the media and nursed by activists - remain second-class citizens, most obviously in rural areas, but in some senses everywhere.

Crimes against women continue to escalate; female foeticide remains common even among educated women; stray incidents of sati still take place, with women either jumping or being thrown on to their husbands' funeral pyres. Arranged marriages are commonplace. The father is still the head of the family. And in the same year that Patil became head of state, Kiran Bedi, India's first female police officer, has been denied promotion to the post of Delhi's police chief. It seems as though only a certain type of Indian woman is approved of these days.

Meanwhile, for millions of Indian women, it is not women such as Bedi or Patil who are role models. Instead it is the heavily made-up and bejewelled women of the soap operas, with their hair full of sindoor and their minds full of domestic politics. Today, these are the women to be emulated.

In urban India, across income groups, there is another role model, closely related to the soap-opera ideal: the brainless sex goddess, whose freedom is expressed purely in her ability to show as much breast, leg and midriff as she can. This sex goddess won't question tradition - because she can't be bothered, because it will affect her marriage chances, or because she simply does not possess the power to think. In a popular advertisement, a half-naked beauty quivers helplessly next to her car's flat tyre because she's so sexy that she's forgotten how to be independent.

"Freedom" is increasingly defined as the ability to show skin or smoke and drink in public. When women here talk about individual freedom - as opposed to the collective freedom of equal opportunities in education and at work - the freedom they tend to be thinking of is the freedom to be constantly sexy.

So what went wrong? In the 1940s, India's freedom movement brought women into political activism and spawned a generation of female politicians. Sarojini Naidu, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and Aruna Asaf Ali were some of the educated, elite women who joined the Gandhian movement in large numbers. At that time, the social reforms of the 19th century had had only limited impact in places such as Bengal and Maharashtra. The colonial government had made sati illegal, but it was still practised in many areas. The male child remained the preferred first-born. In this context, the new Indian constitution, born with independence, was a radical document, promising equality before the law and handing voting rights to women. Legal reforms in the 1950s allowed women to inherit property.

However, the Muslim woman remained, and remains to this day, burdened by oppressive personal laws. The scandalous practice of "triple talaq" (where a man can divorce his wife simply by uttering the words "talaq talaq talaq" - divorce, divorce, divorce) still endures.

Feminist campaigners had many successes in the decades after independence. When a 16-year-old girl, Mathura, was raped in 1972, years of protests led to changes in rape laws. When 18-year-old Roop Kanwar jumped on to her husband's funeral pyre in 1987 - an act still defended by many politicians as a symbol of true "Indian culture" - it sparked a strong campaign against sati. In recent years, many cases of women being burned for failing to meet dowry demands have been investigated. The women's movement also campaigned against the widespread practice of sex-selective abortion, and even protested against male alcoholism.

But within this lay a problem: Indian feminism was and is largely unconcerned with western, feminist ideas of birth control, sexual freedom or opposing the patriarchal family. As yet, the movement has failed to develop an Indian definition of women's freedom, or create meaningful debates on sexuality, family or professional choices. No wonder, then, that many women are happy to accept role models who are beautiful, thoughtless beings.

The failure of the women's movement is partly down to the speed of its early successes, and the speed with which its activists were absorbed into the establishment - which led to a backlash. Among India's middle-class and lower-middle-class women, feminists are perceived to be unpopular conference-hoppers or political climbers. There is a reluctance to take "women's issues", when they are described as such, seriously. India's official feminists talk about dowries, not sexual revolution, and feminism has ceased to be a living force among women.

Meanwhile, the "westernisation" of India has led in some quarters to a more conservative mindset, and this has had an impact on women. Economic liberalisation from 1991 onwards brought the mall, the fashion show, the glossy magazine and the beauty pageant to India in new and dazzling Technicolor. But the west was to be imitated at one level, yet resisted on others. It became the norm to wear tight jeans, but not to question the wisdom of the arranged marriage, as this was a mark of "Indian culture" - a culture now perceived to be in danger from the advancing tentacles of the west. In a recent survey by Outlook magazine, 61% of young Indian people said they disapproved strongly of losing their virginity before marriage and 40% said they would prefer to marry someone from their own caste and state, leading a sociologist to comment that just as the economy was opening, the minds of India's youth were closing down.

With the threat of westernisation looming large, the traditional Indian marriage made an appearance in Bollywood. Films such as Hum Aapke Hain Koun or Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge popularised the designer traditional marriage. It became hip to be traditional.

The heroines of these "new India" films were presented not as individuals attempting to create their own lives in a new economy, as millions of women across India were doing. Instead, the films showed young brides following religious ritual down to the last detail - viewing the moon through a sieve, praying before their in-laws' photographs, and spending their girlhoods working towards getting a husband. When I met students at a prestigious women's college at Delhi University last month, the majority told me that they wanted to get married to a rich man and have week-long weddings, with all the rituals, because that was part of "Indian tradition". They didn't want to be the "feminist type".

That doesn't mean that all Indian women are happy with the status quo. Thousands of young women today are searching for their own identities: what is the right choice between Indian culture and western freedom, they ask. But there is no one to provide any answers. Between the soap-opera beauties and the establishment figures of "women's empowerment", the Indian woman is floundering for new ideas about herself and her destiny, unclear about what freedom means, at a time when east and west are clashing at every shopping mall. And most Indian men are quite happy to let her flounder.

The Mythical Bridge to voters in INDIAAHH!!!!

In the Valmiki Ramayan, the character Ahalya, was transformed from a stone into a beautiful woman because Lord Rama merely stepped on her. In a similar way Lord Ram has once again breathed new life into our normally stony politicians, who though immovable as rocks on issues such as floods and and poverty reports have been galvanized into new life by the mere touch of Lord Rama.

The sangh parivar is looking far busier than it has in months. A saffron fatwa has been issued by Ram Vilas Vedanti calling for Karunanidhi to be killed. Pravin Togadia of the VHP has materialised from oblivion, yelling furiously that Hindus will be avenged if the Ramar Sethu is damaged by the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project. Another sangh stalwart, Murli Manohar Joshi, until recently grumbling on the sidelines about the perils of sex education, is blazing forth again, his tilak redder and more defiant than ever, even spearheading a resolution at the BJP national executive held last weekend in Bhopal. Narendra Modi has found new strength to his anti-Sonia campaign. Rama was not born in Italy, he shouts at his rallies nowadays.

Karunanidhi normally silent on the graver issue of the day such as the manner in which the DMK is able to destroy the constitutional integrity of the union cabinet by reserving ministerial berths, is roaring like a bloodthirsty lion. He too has been transformed from stone to life by the touch of Lord Rama. His atheism and Dravida war cry was never more ostentatious, his anti-Ram pro Ravana ideology was never louder. Rama has transformed Karunandhi into the god of Indian atheism. The Congress, heading into assembly polls in `hindutva' Gujarat is also in a shashtang pranam at the feet of Lord Rama. Ambika Soni, by all accounts a fine minister of tourism who has traveled the world trying to bring tourists, finds herself confronted by asuras in her own cabinet who want to slay her for not being devout enough.

What explains all this hectic political positioning over Rama? The answers lie in the 1991 Ayodhya movement that transformed the Hindus into a "votebank". The Ram Janmabhoomi movement took the BJP from being a marginal force in Indian politics in the 1980s to the status of a dominant national party by the mid 90s. For the first time, the Congress received an ideological as well as a political challenge and the BJP was successful as Advani has often claimed, in at last creating "the second pole" in Indian politics. The NDA victory of 1999 was the triumph of this new political idea. Jai Sri Ram was the new emotive slogan seen to yield rich political dividends.

Undoubtedly, the Ramayan remain fundamental to the Indian cultural identity. In times of globalization, the dominant feeling is one of loss. The loss of our culture, the loss of our values, our languages, our family systems, our festivals, all of it being steamrolled by the seeming juggernaut of the shopping mall, the naked ladies, and the glossy mass media, robbing us of everything we hold dear. The fears are perhaps not exaggerated. Large numbers of 21st century urban youth are not just semi-literate but growing up focused mostly on the nearest ATM machine and the candyfloss Bollywood film with little knowledge of their own traditions. The thousands of smses, emails and blogs that are being sent and written on the need to defend the Ramar setu shows that Ram, when posited as a symbol of an endangered identity, has found a ready echo in many many hearts. The point is however a little different: we all love and respect Rama, but will we necessarily vote for him? There lies a reality check. Ram as a political project is now subject to the law of diminishing returns.

Economic reforms are creating their own kind of politics. India's voting preferences and the issues that drive people to actually cast their vote are radically different from what they were in the last century. The politics of emotion has given way to the politics of expectation and the politics of aspiration. The NDA defeat of 2004 showed that a Hindutva government was not able to retain cultural passion. By the end of its term, it was the Vajpayee persona, standing for moderation and development that had become the NDA's trump card, not the Advani persona of ideological purity. Lets glance at the elections that have taken place this year. What explains Mayawati's victory in UP? Mayawati was able to convey that the BSP is no longer just the party of ideology, but also the party of opportunity. A party where the sarvajan samaj-all castes--can find patronage, jobs, social mobility and a better life. A pure attachment to ideology may have thrilled the BSP cadres, but the public at large was attracted to Mayawati not because of ambedkarite slogans but promise of a better life for all. Why did Captain Amrinder Singh, chief minister of Punjab lose the election? Whatever promises he held out the raja was seen as far too remote, far too arrogant, far too distant from the people. "if he can't even come for my daughter's wedding, why should I vote for him?' was the question. Today the Indian voter demands a political manifesto that holds out opportunity and inclusion. Appeals to pure emotion or pure ideology may be interesting to talk about, but are not considered worth voting on.

Inspite of the DMK agitations and the BJP's protests, the streets of Tamil nadu are quiet. The VHP bandh in north India got a lukewarm response and was called off in a couple of hours. Why did the "national integration" rath yatras of Advani and Rajnath Singh of 2006 fail, when the idea was galvanise "Hindu rage against the UPA's "minorityism." Simply because there are no takers for rath yatras anymore, there are no takers for "hindu rage" anymore. Advani's 1990 Somnath to Ayodhya rath yatra occurred at a time when India was not as global as it is now, the Indian was not as aspirational and still liable to be swayed by provincial passions. It could also be argued that for many thousands of kar sevaks at that time Rama was about finding a job or getting a business opportunity, not necessarily about ideology. Importantly, Advani's rath yatra took place before 24 hour television news. Today the coming of the new economy, the new media, the smses, the bloggers, the mmses and the citizen journalists, have created a voting public far more interested in immediate issues that directly impact them and directly affect their future. Today, even Narendra Modi is shedding his hindutva tag and relying more on his development record. Narendra Modi's preferred identity is of "vikas purush" , someone who harps on his road construction, rural development and his women and child welfare schemes.

It is time perhaps to recognise that, as the forces of the new economy sweep in, the notions of the big ideas that work and those which do not are rapidly changing. Ram as an idea and as a political project has run out of shelf life. The Ram issue is similar to the Left's attempt to whip up anti-imperialism ideology on the Indo-US nuclear deal to galvanise its cadres and hang onto survival. Ideology and the cultural war may be very sexy. But they will yield limited political returns at a time when Indians are more worried about their life on earth rather than their place in heaven or in the socialist utopia.

Are we really humans???? Crime & Punishment....

Sin & retribution, a concept as old as the greeks themselves. So how many dogs' lives does it take to make up for the death of 2 humans: 20? 50? a 1000?!

Reports say over 200 dogs in Bangalore have been 'culled' (scientific term meant to explain the gross tilt that we've created in the ecological balance, that we then set about 'correcting' by systmatically exterminating animal polulations).

Today scores of pariahs in bangalore are paying for the deeds of a few feral cousins, victims of the un-sanitary conditions we created in the first place.

And thats one part of the picture .. snakes in multi-storey buildings, the monkey 'menace' in Shastri Bhavan, two leopards brutally beaten up for straying into human habitation.

I wont go into specifics of culling, over-population, the depleting forest cover, or the latest canine witch hunt..that's better argued by conservationists and animal activists.

I have a more elementary question.

Are we inherently racially prejudiced? While we're making a show of treading the line of equality among men, we've not only claimed a position of superiority over other species, we've even dismissed their basic right to their space under the sun.

Do we really believe that we own the planet and owe nothing at all to everything else living on it except what we accord them in the form of charity? (Read; animal rights campaigns).

How dare the wild tread into our space when we've accorded them a forest close-by? Nevermind that that 'protected' land is a fraction of the original space they owned or currently require. Nevermind that our dreadful ways are driving some them into our towns or have caused an over-population of others.

Author & naturalist, Gerald Durrell once called them 'the voiceless voteless lot'...maybe that's why its easy to blame (even punish) them for walking into our homes and on our roads and sit in judgment on their 'unnatural' behavior (often deviations borne off human design).

The zoo in Cologne perhaps got it right when it set a large mirror as one of its exhibits--- with a placard reading "the most dangerous animal on earth".

And whats a fitting retribution for that? The doomsday theorists may have an answer.

Finally...... Something on my Life @ HelL

Its been almost two and a half months since I have been at IIM-L, but never had the time or the energy to post this.... Well life has mostly been good here, though there have been times when I felt that UC was so much better....I am now a member of 'Intangibles', the creative design committee at L, and am enjoying the work thoroughly. i really wanted to get into Manfest, but somehow things did not work out. Anyhow, no regrets.

And BTW, Our team won "WHACKOPRENEUR" the annual entrepreneurial challenge for PGP1's here at L. Our team was called "FROZEN BALLS" and our product was called "SUCK THY BALLS" [Tee hee]... we were more or less sure that we would not win, cuz the other teams' products were very high tech and very well thought out, albit not as whacky as ours. But, as it turned out to be, all the other teams got screwed regarding the technical feasibility of their products, and we, having proposed a very simple, cocky product, were let off on that front. Me, Sugam and Bitch [Hrishabh] were ecstatic, celebrated with dinner at Fauji and a trip to the city yesterday.
After coming back from our outing, I remembered that we had a section party going on at TITANIC [OH YEAH!!!]... joined it and boozed away to glory..... some people got really drunk and their antics were side splittingly funny... Most of the people got 'Bump-ed'.... Rishabh 'Placecom-Tappy' Tapadia got hit so hard, he was limping even today, Arvind got bumped many times over, People got frustrated trying to lift Vipul, and the best of all, Varun Reddy broke his tooth in half when he bit Nirav, who was trying to lift him for bumps.... All in one night!!!!
Oh shit, I forgot, Hell is definitely not all about fun, we got two quizzes on Friday, and tonnes of deadlines looming right in our face.... Gotta run.... Study OM & BIO.... Do projects for ITC.... and design a something for some committees...
WHOEVER SAID LIFE @ HelL was fun..... SADIST BASTARD....

Post Independence Day musings.... flag burning????

To my mind [please avoid thoughts of our venerable Prof. Panda], there are three levels of a society's maturity:

Level I:

Allow the people to hoist a flag whenever and wherever they want.

Level II:

Allow the people to use the flag whichever way they want (like: turn it into T-shirts, Caps, Neck-ties, Aprons, Under-garments etc. and sell them commercially.)

Level III:

Allow the people to burn, tear, mutilate, disrespect or desecrate the flag whichever way they want.

It took India 52 years of Independence to attain the first or primary level of maturity. On January 15, 2002, a young and aspiring scion of a famous industrial group in India, Naveen Jindal, won his long-drawn legal battle against the Government of India and the Supreme Court of India. It was a tireless battle that he fought for 10 years single-handedly, and finally the Central government issued an Executive Order, giving "freedom" to all Indians to fly the national flag whenever and wherever they want.

In stark contrast, the United States of America had already achieved its third level of maturity (flag-burning) by the virtue of its great Constitution that allows liberty to a common man to desecrate the flag as a form of protest (his freedom of ex-pression.)

The American people made widespread use of this freedom of ex-pression during the Vietnam war, and protested against the atrocities of the war by burning their national flag on the streets. As a natural political response to these protests, exactly 40 years ago, the U.S. Congress passed a "Flag Protection Act". Almost all of the 50 states too followed quickly with similar Acts to protect the flag.

But the U.S. Supreme Court systematically dismissed all such political attempts to bypass the "freedom of speech" enshrined so deeply in the U.S. Constitution.

The strong and consistent stance of the U.S. Supreme Court has left their government with only one option: to amend the Constitution (i.e., to demolish the letter and spirit of the Constitution) and take away the citizen's freedom to desecrate the national flag. Almost every year now, the U.S. Senate attempts to get this amendment passed, but fails to attain the required majority votes favouring such amendment.

With each passing year, the noises favouring the amendment continue to grow louder, and the gap between conservatives (read: hypocrites) and liberals continues to narrow. The most recent attempt for this constitutional amendment was made in the U.S. Senate last year in June, 2006. The attempt failed by just one vote.

EPILOGUE:

Once America achieves this amendment, it would lose its "maturity advantage" over India.

Though it would not be that India has suddenly leap-frogged in terms of maturity. It would simply be that America has finally decided to go back to its medieval roots of slavery.

Once that happens, India and America would have become gigantic equals at least in one critical sense -- immaturity.

So what if they couldn't become equals in maturity.

KARAT & STICK: The Parliament ain't a college campus...

We always knew the Prime Minister had a mind of his own. Now, we know he's finally added some muscle. When the history of Dr Manmohan Singh's prime ministership is written, the week of the 60th anniversary of Indian independence will go down as the period when the Prime Minister may have finally celebrated his personal liberation. By dramatically daring the Left to withdraw support over the Indo-US nuclear deal, he finally drew a lakshman rekha in his relationship. The big question will now have to be answered in the weeks ahead: was this only a fleeting moment of muscle-flexing madness or is this a genuine turning point in the relations between Dr Singh and his Left "allies", a moment when the Prime Minister finally realised the power and weight of the Prime Minister's office.

In a sense, a parallel can be drawn between Dr Singh and his predecessor Atal Behari Vajpayee. In his first term in office in 1998, Mr Vajpayee did not enjoy the freedom to choose his own cabinet, which is why Jaswant Singh was kept out from the finance ministry on the firm instructions of the RSS chief K S Sudarshan. It was only in 2002 when Vajpayee had been prime minister for four years that he was able to make the shift in North Block without consulting the sangh leadership.

Prakash Karat is not Sudarshan (thank god for that). He is an articulate, scholarly leftist, who is careful with his choice of words, has written and edited three books apart from being on the editorial board of The Marxist. As a student leader at JNU, he was twice arrested and spent eight days in jail during the emergency. Known for his personal integrity, he has been a permanent fixture in the party's central decision-making bodies for three decades. It's a curriculum vitae that is impressive enough for him to be the youngest general secretaries of the CPI-M. Unfortunately, these qualities are not enough for him to be seen as a leader suited for the age of coalition politics, where ideological dogmatism must necessarily be reconciled with shining pragmatism.

Contrast Karat's tenure with his predecessor Harkishen Singh Surjeet, a communist who believed that politics was the art of the possible. His critics saw him as a deal-maker, but at the same time, there was a recognition of the genial sardarji's immense utility to stitch together coalitions. Karat, on the other hand, has had a more doctrinaire approach. Then, whether it is reading out the riot act to squabbling Kerala communists, sending out periodic warnings to the UPA government, or even denying the Left's very own Somnath Chatterjee a shot at presidency, Karat's style of leadership has been more like a boarding school headmaster than a party leader. And while he might have restored a moral gravitas to the left, he seems to lack the common touch that is vital to engage in mass politics, especially when circumstances have made him one of the most powerful politicians in the country.

Perhaps, Karat still carries the ideological baggage of history, which has allowed the Indian Left to remain frozen in time. As an apparatchik of the party at the central level, Mr Karat did not have to contest an election every five years and make any adjustments in his political style or beliefs to suit the electorate. For the Left too, there has never been a persistent demand to look beyond its immediate political goals in Bengal and Kerala. The Bengal communists, and to a lesser extent, their Kerala bretheren, adjusted to coalition politics because they needed to. A Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in West Bengal needed foreign direct investment because he was in a competitive environment. The CPI-M central leadership had no such compulsions. So much easier to write stirring editorials in Peoples Democracy and dismiss foreign investment as neo-colonialism. An elitist debating society in New Delhi versus a pragmatic government in Kolkata: the Left appeared comfortable with the dichotomy (and the hypocrisy) of the situation.

2004 changed all that. In a remarkable psephological accident - it can only be described as such - the left found itself in the vantage position of being able to shape the contours of the new government, despite having got barely five per cent of the popular vote. A hung parliament gave the left the opportunity to play a decisive role in government by sitting on the political high table. Three years later, it is apparent that the Left saw the split verdict as an opportunity to exercise virtual veto power on the UPA government. The CPI might have liked to join the central government, the CPI-M was wiser: why not exercise power without carrying the odour of responsibility? Then, whether it be public sector disinvestment, insurance and pension reform, banking or labour reform or civil aviation restructuring, the Left has sought to dictate terms to the central government.

Ironically, while more than twenty state governments have favoured pension reform, the move has been stalled simply because the Left leaders at the center are disapproving. Coal sector reform has been stalled because the Left-run coal sector unions will not allow it. Labour reform, so desperately needed, has been prevented, again because the Left fears that it will lead to a loosening of its control over organised labour.

That the Left would push its economic agenda was to be expected: opposition to market economics has been fundamental to the Left identity. The shift that has taken place is that the Left's opposition has now moved from the economic to the political. The presidential election provided the clearest example of just how much three years of pussyfooting by the UPA had emboldened the Left. Virtually every candidate of the UPA was vetoed by the left, further undermining the authority of the ruling arrangement. If a Shivraj Patil could be rejected because of his proximity to Sathya Sai Baba and a Karan Singh because he headed a spiritual "Hindu" body, then it was apparent that the Left was determined to leave its ideological imprint on all levels of governance.

The Left opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal must again be seen as part of its attempt to impose its ideology on the country's political agenda. This is not about the details of the 123 agreement any longer, not even about a robust discussion on the country's energy needs, this is simply now about the unseen "dangers" of forging a closer strategic relationship with the "Evil Empire" in Washington. For those Left ideologues who have spent a lifetime seeing the world through the prism of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union has not meant the end of ideology. If anything, it has reinforced their belief that the Indian communists remain the last bastion against the "Americanisation" of the world. While the ideological debate might make interesting listening at a late night meeting on the JNU campus, its relevance in the contemporary political context is less appetizing. It reflects an unwillingness to grow up, to recognize that while one has the legitimate right to oppose, the nature of the opposition cannot be such that it begins to resemble a spoilt brat who is being denied the entire cake of power.

The Left is now faced with a stark choice:either it learns to co-exist in coalitional politics through a process of give and take. Or withdraws support, brings down the government and is reduced to a member of a third front rump. Or worse still, suffers the embarrassment of getting phone calls from the original "enemy number one" L K Advani seeking support for joint action. Maybe Mr Karat and friends need to realise that parliament isn't a college campus.

Quotable Quotes... the Guffaws of Profs @ IIM L

"You are not above the laa. Noone is above the laa. Not even the laa-makers. After all, it is the laa."
Prof. D S Sengar

"Why are you stuck on BODY-STRUCTURE. You are an OBSCENE man!!!"
Prof. Himanshu Rai

"Bahut neend aa rahi hai? Raat bhar MANAC ke saath the kya?"
Prof. Manoj Kumar

"I am not a mother yet!!!"
Prof. Himanshu Rai

"Paavlov did thaa aaxpariment with thaa daag. Daag hear footsteps and start salivating."
Prof. Shailendar Singh

"Why in the BLAADY HAAL do you want to put the MAANEY of the CAAMPANY here"
Prof Manoj Kumar

"Why are you sleeping? Oh, you had fever? I am sorry... please go back to sleep."
Prof Hrushikesh Panda

"Matlab kuch bhi bol dooge tum presentation mein?"
Prof. Himanshu Rai

Induction Rocked..... no respite since then...

We got over with our formal/informal induction to IIM-L last saturday.... Details i cannot disclose coz of the insti honour code :).. but it was awesome fun.... top it up with the amazing insti party... with unlimited booze [yeah, unlimited] flowing.... and the DJ belting out number after number.. the best part was that the party was in an AC hall, Samanjasya, otherwise we would have just melted away in the Lucknow heat. On Sunday, we had a session with our Chairman of the Board, Dr. Jamshed J Irani, Tata Sons. Amazing personality, I was totally in awe of him. Even though I did not agree with most of his views regarding management education [neither did most of my classmates] , still I enjoyed listening to his amazing experiences n life.
Monday... formal classes begin... first class, BIO [Behavior in Organization, for the uninitiated]... man, the prof was deathly boring... I thought, this, this is it... this is how I am going to die... from boredom driving me closer to St. Peter.... but thankfully the session lasted only [!!] for 90 minutes, and then i rushed to my room for a nap... I was thinking, why are the IIMs so revered, the profs here are just as [or even more] boring than the profs at med school.... but then Tuesday showed me why... We had a CFM [communication in management] session... the prof was amazing... energetic, knowledgeable, in sync with the present generation and had an amazing sense of humour....
Just as I was gloating, MANAC struck, then QAM, then LAM... and then god knows what... Assignments, Groups, Presentations, Projects.... the deluge literally shoved me to the edge.. then i recalled, i am in helL.... gotta run now... have to analyze Aventis Pharma's Annual reports for the past four years [WTF!!!!!!]

1st post from helL...

Hey people, this is my first blog post from IIM Lucknow, AKA IIM-HelL.... before coming here i had these dreamy thoughts about a great campus, awesome facilities and a really cool and intellectual crowd. Well, realities are a little bit different. My excuse may be that dreams really never come true, but I contend that I may have over expected, but not too much from one of the top institutes of this country. Some dreams really did materialize into reality, as in, the campus is breathtaking, an idyllic mixture of manicured lawns and densely forested areas, and some really wonderful artwork at display. The academic facilities are unparalleled too, with one of Asia's largest management library and a well and adequately equipped computer center. The classrooms are fab, so is the mess, for a change I didn't feel nauseous after having hostel food. But now comes the pitfalls, sports facilities are nowhere near even good. They just "are there". The soccer ground is just an unkempt lawn with bent water pipes for goal posts with torn nets, the basketball court is a concrete one and so unkempt that it is pretty easy to fracture a bone in the body after taking a fall, and there is no surrounding mesh wall, the lawn tennis court is also concrete surfaced and the net is in shreds, the pool table in H12 is in a pathetic state too. The only saving grace are the badminton court [indoor, wood surfaced] and the TT hall in H12.
The commercial plaza is adequate for one's daily needs, but they really rip you off. The canteen/fauji dhaba is exorbitant beyond measure.
Now to the most important part, the people.... well to be frank most of the people I have seen are really studious and keep to themselves all the time, a small minority is really cool, maybe even good at studies and are really helpful, but a sizable number of the junta consists off eggheads and I-am-too-important a**h****. And to tell you the truth, these more than compensate for all the goodness existing at L..... one always feels like telling them, UP YOURS!!!!

Without reservation....every caste would be a forward caste...

To rule India -- with her huge size and population -- the British hit upon a simple yet brilliant idea: divide and rule, with the State playing the crucial role of an arbitrator between various warring groups.

The government of Independent India is largely a remnant of the British Raj with one crucial addition: the ruling elite, comprising Marxists and pseudo-Marxists, largely understands the collective psyche of Indians far better than our colonial oppressors. After all, poverty of ideas invariably leads to politics of poverty.

Accordingly, subsequent governments in India have first ensured shortages, and then played Santa by rationing the insufficient. Quotas fall in this genre.

OBCs: No discussion, please

Having adopted this paradigm of governance, it was necessary for the Government of India to turn the majority against the minority, Muslims and Christians were to be pitched against Hindus, the 'higher' castes against 'lower' castes, the OBCs against the MBCs (Most Backward Classes), the BCs against the Dalits, the Hindi-speaking against the non-Hindi speaking and so on and so forth.

Else, a system that was predominantly modelled on the lines of the British style of governance -- highly centralised, with little accountability -- would be unworkable in India. And given this broad idea of dividing Indians, the caste system in India was an obvious candidate.

It may be noted that by the early twentieth century the British had already begun dividing the nation on these lines -- forwards and backwards. The governments in independent India merely carried the British agenda forward.

One of the popular assumptions built by the British and nurtured subsequently by Marxists about castes is that it is hierarchical and creates a rigid and vertical social structure. And that justified reservations, first for the Dalits (who are not the subject matter of this discussion) and subsequently extended to the backward castes -- OBCs.

The nature of competitive populism in contemporary politics makes it extremely difficult even for a cursory discussion on backward castes, their composition and genesis of their backwardness. On the contrary, every government aided and abetted by a pliable media, biased intellectuals and an indifferent public have repeatedly suppressed, distorted or de-legitimised scholarly studies about OBCs.

The truth needs to be told, facts debated and our assumptions re-calibrated.

Backward castes: What's that?

Whether caste is associated with vertical hierarchy or not has been the subject of great study by many historians, analysts and sociologists. 'Interrogating Castes,' a study of Dipankar Gupta, an eminent scholar and historian of great repute, shows that no caste considers itself to be lower in status, when compared with other castes.

In his essay, Gupta recalls an encounter with 'low caste' women who claimed that her caste was really Rajput -- a higher caste -- and was turned into a lower caste after a defeat in war.

Gupta further adds, "This encounter nearly twenty years ago led me to wonder how many low castes have elevated opinions about their caste origins. A new world was revealed to me as I read account after account of those who are customarily called low castes denying their lowly pedigree. Sometimes they said that were Brahmins of a certain kind, on many occasions they claimed Kshatriya status."

Stumped? Read on.

Arun Shourie, in his latest book -- Falling Over Backwards -- reveals something sensational. He quotes two Census Superintendents of the 1931 census who state, 'The feature of interest is that the claim is always for a more dignified title, for admission to a higher caste or exclusion from a caste which is considered low in the social scale.' Shourie further goes on enumerate repeatedly all through this book as to how Sainis and Malis wanted to be classified as Saini Rajputs, Gabits as Marathas, Bedas as Naiks, Blacksmiths as Panch Brahmans, Barias as Kshatriyas, Talpadas as Padhiar Rajputs, Devalis and Bhavins as Naik Marathas. . . the list seems endless, and Shourie's scholarly attempt is replete with such examples of the so-called lower castes seeking a higher caste appellation.

Surprised? Read on.

Lower castes or elite of the ruling class?

The late Gandhian, Dharampalji through a painstaking study spread over several decades in India, England and Germany established that before the British rule in India, over two-thirds -- yes, two-thirds! -- of the Indian rulers belonged to what is today known as the OBCs and conclusively proved that it was the British and not the upper castes who robbed the OBCs of their power, wealth and status.

Dharampalji also exploded the popularly held belief that most of those attending schools must have belonged to the upper castes and again with reference to the British records, proved that the truth was other way round. For instance, during 1822-25 the share of the Brahmin students in indigenous schools in Tamil-speaking areas accounted for 13 per cent in South Arcot to some 23 per cent in Madras, while the OBCs accounted for 70 per cent in Salem and Tirunelveli and 84 per cent in South Arcot.

Shocked? Another study by Christophe Jaffrelot, a French scholar -- India's silent revolution: the Rise of the Low Castes in North Indian Politics -- corroborates the findings of late Dharampalji.

While the subject of the book may be out of context to the discussion on hand, the matter of interest to the extant debate is the historical perspective provided on the status of OBCs in nineteenth and early twentieth century. Some of the important factors highlighted in the book with respect to OBCs are:

All available historical evidence shows that almost none of the OBCs considered themselves to be backward, in any sense of the term, at least till the beginning of the 20th century.

Most of the rulers, both at the local as well as larger regional levels in different regions of India during 16-18th centuries, seem to have come from these OBCs.

Further, most of the professions that sustained the vibrant economy of India, which was considered a great agricultural and industrial nation till early 19th century, were peopled and managed mostly by these communities.

The de-industrialisation of India by the British and the subsequent suspension of all local support systems led to widespread deprivation among all sections of Indian society, notably the OBCs.

Four scholars, perhaps with differing ideologies have arrived at similar conclusions. Yet, look at the specious arguments that have fashioned our debate on this issue.

Look what have we done to ourselves.

The net impact of the above is that we have turned OBCs -- the supplicants in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries -- into applicants for posts of clerks in government offices, thanks to the reservation policy.

This would be perhaps true of earlier historical periods also. And most of them -- from Lord Rama to Krishna, from Maharana Ranjit Singh to Chhatrapati Shivaji to Veerapandia Kattabomman -- would in the scheme of our government invariably fall in one of the two categories: OBCs or MBCs!

Due to a conspiracy of coincidences, OBCs seem to have forgotten their glorious past. What else would explain their behaviour of being on all fours before successive governments -- and to curry favours? Today they are so used to the standard arguments of being exploited by forward castes (FCs), leave alone OBCs, even the FCs are loathe to buy contrary arguments.

The net result is that OBCs on the one hand are overwhelmed with an inferiority complex and thus find psychological comfort only in reservations. On the other hand, the upper castes, tutored through tortured history, live constantly in a guilt complex of having wronged their OBC brethren.

In short, our population comprises people who live either on guilt or on an inferiority complex -- what a wonderful combination to challenge the world!

Significantly, this is a perfect setting for our politicians, especially the Marxists, to exploit.

If there were 1,000 IIMs, IITs and AIIMS. . .

All these are pointers to a crucial issue -- the manner in which we are governed and the sinister idea of dividing Indians to rule Indians continue in the same manner as the British did to us till Independence.

The Indian politician perfectly understands the system and the Indian psyche. Leveraging the power of the government, our politicians prefer rationing a few thousand seats by constricting demand rather than considering the grand idea of increasing its supply.

For sixty years since Independence, we have one AIIMS, seven IITs and six IIMs for a billion-plus population. Even that tiny speck in the Indian Ocean called Singapore would have more educational institutions for its 4 million population.

Obviously, the idea is to constrict supply and play on the pent up demand. And in the process if history has to be distorted, so be it.

It may be noted that the Marxists would be at hand to lend credibility to any such distortions of history -- our silence would be their next ally. Needless to emphasise, it is these distortions of history that rationalise reservations, not the 'historical backwardness' of any castes. But if supply were increased as suggested here, what would our politicians -- Marxists and pseudo Marxists -- do? They would simply be jobless, as it would mean end of their brand of politics!

And precisely for these reasons, the current policy of reservations and with it dividing people through castes would continue.

Moral of the story: Without the powerful incentive of reservation every caste in India would be a forward caste.

Disclaimer: Copied from rediff.com

The mantra........

God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but he did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.
Disappointments are like road humps, they slow you down a bit, but you enjoy the smooth road afterwards. Don't stay on the humps for too long. Move on!!
When you feel down because you didn't get what you wanted, just sit tight and be happy, because god is thinking of something better to give to you.
When something happens to you, good or bad, consider what it means. There is a purpose to life's events, to teach you how to laugh more and not to cry too hard. You cant make someone love you, all you can do is be someone who can be loved, the rest is up to the person to realize your worth.
The measure of love is when you love without measure. In life there are very rare chances that you will meet the person you love and who loves you in return. So, once you have it, don't ever let it go, the chance may never come your way again.
It is better to lose your pride to the one you love, than to lose the one you love because of pride. We spend too much time looking for the right person to love or finding fault with those we already love, when instead we should be perfecting the love we give. When you truly care for someone, you don't look for faults, you don't look for answers, you don't look for mistakes. Instead, you fight the mistakes, you accept the faults and you overlook the excuses.
Never abandon an old friend. You will never find one who can take his place.
Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

> Free your heart from hatred.
> Free your mind from worries.
> Live simply.
> give more.
> Expect less.

No one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.