I've been following the anti-reservation protests in India, thanks to our desi television channel Headlines Today that's available in Canada. I've read several of the news articles on the internet. Yesterday I got an email that talked about the movie 'Rang De Basanti', linking it to the likes of the ongoing protests. And only once did I hear anyone say the most meaningful thing, and they were cut off by the interviewer, because they were running short on time. Now, I'm compelled to express my view. While I'm not as educated on this topic, I've read books like India Unbound, and understand the need for reservation.

In almost 60 years, the Country has made attempts to give an equal opportunity to the under-priviledged, by economic and other means. These would include free electricity, housing, jobs, and reservation in education and jobs in the government and public sector enterprises. Now the ongoing protests are about reservations in post secondary education. Selection for most graduate and post secondary levels is largely on merit (common entrance tests). At present, government-funded colleges have to allocate 22.5% of their seats to the Scheduled Castes (SC) and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and the proposed 27% reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) students with the existing 22.5% would take the total seats under the quota category to nearly 50 percent, leaving only half of the total seats for the General category students.

I have the following 3 points to state.

1. It seems to be that SC/ST/OBC students who have reached the post secondary level are not as academically strong enough as the general category students, and thereby the government provides quotas for them, bypassing the merit based system. But one basic point worth highlighting is that if a student is not meritorious enough after being provided complete primary, secondary and higher secondary education under a reserved quota, then the government is missing something somewhere. I should quote a report from the prestigious IITs to prove this. The report said that only 50% of SC/ST reserved seats are actually filled in the IITs, the other 50% quota goes vacant, thereby denying deserving general category students those seats. Of the 50% of the SC/ST seats that are filled, only 25% of the students actually walk out of IIT with a degree in 6 years, when the course is for 4 years; the rest 75% drop out or fail. These are the same prestigious IITs that produce the countries best brains, who have made the Country proud, bringing the global recognition to India. The crude way to say this is, if at every step you tell a person that you have a quota and you don't need to be as good as the general category to get what they get, the person will pretty much get used to this quota, and only 25% of the time will ever be up to the mark as the general category person. It's like breeding incompetence. The next thing the government will do is introduce quotas in private sector jobs.

2. While I have been following the protests on television, all the coverage has been of the student protestors, who are against the quotas. Not one time have I seen any non-political student representative of the SC/ST/OBC making a point about why the quotas should be there. Maybe if the government or those who seek the quotas opened up the communications channel and told the general public about the story behind, things would make more sense.

3. Like I said, I understand the need for reservation. But I also opine that the quota system should be gradually phased out, or at least such a plan should now be formulated. The past and present governments have implemented many initiatives to provide for the under priviledged, including guaranteed jobs, free food for children going to school and free primary schooling, and the quotas seem to work hand in hand with the governments objectives to work towards the upbringing of these people. However, at some point the system will become unsustainable, because the government is only increasing the quotas, which will result in the number of people in this quota only growing, never reducing. In a crude way, for how many generations does the government intend to keep a backward family backward, will the government never achieve its objectives of raising them from their status to the general category?

Whew! What a spew.

These views are my personal views, and while I try to be accurate with any quotes, I could be wrong. If you find any errors, please do add a comment to this entry.

Cheers
Mayur Poddar

I've not flown in 2 weeks now. Why??? What happened? Well, nothing much happened. Just that besides the flying, I have to study a bunch of theory as well, and write exams. So that's what I'm doing now - studying. And sitting down with books after a so many years, it takes sooooo much effort to get every little bit into my head, it's not funny. I'm spending much of my time in the public library, or at home. And there's so many wierd things I have to study - air laws, regulations, all the aircraft physics, weather, what not. Trust me, if I get through this, I'll be competent enough to be a weather forecaster too. There's so much.

The other night, went downtown Vancouver with my school buddies - Santosh and Ankit. We ate at this place Sammy's Hot Wings. Oh blimy. The food was fabulous. Maybe I liked it all the more because I was eating out after a long long long time. This place was a like a mini sports bar. Had only about 8 tables in all, they served beer, and all this fabulous food. The chicken wings were too good, except that they used so much red chilli that my lips were burnt. And when your lips are burning, there's 3 things you can do to extinguish the flames. First is the most natural thing - water. Unfortunately, water doesn't come free out here. Second is the other natural thing - sweet lips (smack!). Fortunately, I'm not that handsome looking (eeeee!!!). Lastly, ICECREAM! So Santosh treated us to the best icecream I've ever had in my entire life. Better than Corner House, better than Baskin Robins, better than Hagen Das. It was an Italian icecream joint - Mondo Gelato. I took Dark Chocolate, the others took regular Chocolate. And that was bliss. Extinguished the flames, and it felt like eternity. After a little lick of dark chocolate, the others were so disappointed at their choice - everybody should have taken that. Better luck next time. On Saturday night, Santosh and I went back downtown, just to eat icecream. We reached too late, the shop had closed already. So we found another eatery, that made crepes. And what do we get - nothing less than Dark Chocolate Crepe. Bliss.

In the middle of all this, also try to keep my life balanced. Some exercise, some yoga, some bicycling. Actually lots of biking - I do a 12 KM track every other day. And it gets me tired. Some day I hope to do the track twice. And some movies. I borrowed two movies from the library - Pink Panther Series: A shot in the Dark and Link King 1 1/2. Enjoyed both the movies. The Pink Panther was hilarious. So it does seem like I'm just having a huge gala time here. Sometimes, shouldn't you? And that's why, life is uncertain ... eat dessert first.

Cheers
Mayur Poddar

I was on the bus, from Richmond to downtown Vancouver. A very pretty old lady, I'd guess she was about 70 years old sat besides me, most of the way. Now I don't remember how the conversation started, but we talked for a good half hour. She told me about her family, about where she lived in Vancouver in the 1950s. We spoke about the numerous 'FOR SALE' signs outside houses all along the way. I told her about my family, what I was doing in Vancouver. And then we spoke about the future of aviation in Canada and India. Then she told me how she would get off a stop after the one she should, because that would give her a better chance to find a place to sit on her connecting bus. I don't know what it was, but I felt so nice to be able to talk to a complete stranger and not feel awkward about it. Maybe it was because she was a very sweet, warm hearted person. She really was. I wished her, and hoped to have her blessings, as she disembarked.

It's so strange. We can meet somebody for the fist time, and have an instant bonding. It wasn't that either person wanted that. But it happens. Just like that. For no explainable reason. And yet, I believe that there is always a reason for everything. Maybe we're just so lost in our own world, in our busy everyday lives, that we don't recognise the importance of the little incidents that take place with us, around us. And it's not everyday that I will write about such incidents. It was just one of those days when I felt so strongly.

Anyways. So I went downtown, and the stupid things that I can do sometimes, I forgot to take my camera. So no pictures! Sorry about that. Now I've learnt my lesson. About downtown Vancouver. It's nice, pretty here and there, I believe the ocean front is the most exciting part of downtown. But otherwise it's not nearly as magnificient as New York, romantic as Ottawa, powerfully attractive as Washington DC or glittery as Tokyo. And don't start frowning at me just yet. I know this is a rather restrictive set of places to compare Vancouver with, but that's about all the big cities I've been to.

Flying is going great. I've started to fly solo and that's great. I've gotton more comfortable with flying itself. I think I'll come out of this just fine.

Another serious line of though that's been tickling my neurons recently, is marriage. It's been a point of contention back home, about my getting married. I'm almost 29, and it's only now that I've matured enough to realise that life is so short, and 29 years have already gone by. I'm not going to have enough time to do all the things that I want to do, not in this one short life. And marriage is something I'm not in a hurry for. With all that brewing in my head, a dear friend MK emailed me, asking if I had any new girlfriends. Here's the quote from my reply to him:

MK, I keep looking around, but I've run into some trouble. I'm so busy with studies, so no time to look around and do some hanky panky - the only friends I've made are at school. Then I'm a little confused about what I should be looking for in a girlfriend. You know, it is quite a bit tricky for me, being the kind of person I am and my crazy past. I mean, so far I wasn't even considering anything, but now I keep my eyes and ears open, but then, when I get the chance to ponder over it, it gets so bloody muddled up. I'll gradually figure it out. Of course, you guys will know. Who else will I share my little insipid life with. Also, 'girlfriend' is not the word my family would like to hear at this time

Now that's a situation when one would actually want the bonding with a stranger phenomenon to take place. But how often do you get what you want? And something this obscure! Very rarely I'd say. But life plays games, it tickles you, it teases you. It's only about ..... can you play back?

Cheers
Mayur Poddar