Reservations

In what is broadly seen as Mandal II, this is about the Indian Govt trying to implement providing reservations in the Private Sector for "Backward Classes" as per their UPA CMP (Common Minimum Program). Of course, the debate has taken new life with Azim Premji, Wipro's Chairman, commenting on it that he would firmly oppose the PM (Govt's) efforts in this regard.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1499633.cms

There has been a lot of debate about this within India and I was surprised that a lot of Indian students here at UW - Madison have strong views in this regard. A common comparison seems to be with the educational system here in the U.S. Of course, that is not a good benchmark since there is almost as much debate as to how "Affirmative Action" should work in US universities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4773425.stm

The immediate comparison being drawn is to the prevalence of Captitation fees/seats in Private colleges in India and the supposed prevalence of "reservations" for NRIs at IITs and the IIMs - Supposed prevalence because this doesn't seem to be true in the first place. --

http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/programmes/pgpapply_eligibility.htm
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2003/stories/20030214007506500.htm

An interesting observation by one person:

:::
Just to illustrate how poticians have a double standard in this issue, let's see what one ofthe most vocal pro-reservation politicians, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav said about 33% reservation for women about an year ago. http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1317532,0008.htm
"Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav onTuesday said his party was not in favour of giving 33per cent reservation to women in legislatures as this would have to be done at the cost of "rights of men".Yadav said his objection to the bill seeking reservation for women was based on the fact that such a quota would amount to the total number of seats reserved in Parliament rising to as much as 57 percent.
:::

The reponse for such divisive debates seem to be NDTV talk shows, editorial and op-ed pieces in news papers burgeoning or collapsing into anything from total apathy to bandhs, hartals and hunger strikes.The debate seems to be very predictable from the perspective of who is expected to be on what side of things, except this:

http://www.iitfoundation.org/msgboard/showmsg.php?&id=2999&sortby=thread&

It is unfortunate that politicians are trying to fix what is agreed widely to be a non-uniform representation of the various classes by wanting to pull down the merit bar rather than trying to improve lives, schools and educational institutions so that more people can clear the existing merit bar and in fact raising the bar in doing so.

This too is probably predictable and repetetive in some sense.

What I find interesting is the parallels with the thought process in the U.S. There seems to be very little thought in the minds of policy-makers regarding how policies will affect the next generation. Far-sightedness seems to be especially scarce and in many cases frowned upon when it comes to the qualifications and actions of people I expect to have that quality as their primary qualification.

Victorinox

Someone known to me only as "j" made a very nice observation about a year back and I write about it now. He (I assume) was in the presence of a group when they were asked a logic puzzle by another in the group. The puzzle involved ropes and the mention of a Swiss Army Knife to be used in the solving of the puzzle. The puzzle was adequately answered by a third member of the group. His answer just mentioned a knife without going into the specifics. The riddler heard but did not hear the knife being mentioned and raised the obligatory objection. "j"'s response was a brilliant observation and to the effect that it seemed an abomination to use the Swiss knife without mentioning its name.

From the time I first laid eyes on the Swiss Army knife when I was a boy, I have always wanted one. I have never met a guy, who was a boy at heart and did not appreciate the Swiss Army knife. The dream was always to own it; the dreams never included the use of the multipurpose pocket utility knife. Fantasies always involved having the "trusted" Swiss knife by my side as I did great things like scale the Kanchenjunga.

When I was in my 5th grade, the famed bookstore Landmark opened in Madras on Nungambakkam High Road and soon I learnt of its exitence and visited it taking the 29C bus from Adyar. Prior to Landmark, the only other widely known bookstore that catered to the general English novel reading public was the Higginbothams on Mount Road, but I always found that the Higginbothams had huge no.s of copies of books by Shakespeare, Bronte, Twain and Tolstoy and not enough Tintins, Asterixes and absolutely no DC Comics books. It was Mahagony lined, musty and smelled like my granfathers bookcase, not that that was not exciting in its own right; but "Oliver Twist" and "War and Peace" are not books for kids in middle school.

So, when Landmark came into existence with its fresh decor, airconditioned interior and targeting the younger audience, I was hooked. It became the instant favorite and after close to an hour of browsing thru the books, I came upon a glass enclosed showcase that displayed the various models of *authentic* Victorinox Swiss Army knives. Till that point, I had only read about these in novels and other books and seen some hanging in the small streetside shops of Burma Bazaar on 1st Line Beach (these, I was adequately warned by my other grandfather, were at best, fakes, reproductions that were made in Ambattur or Ludhiana or at worst, smuggled goods from Muscat and Dubai, where they had been used for shady purposes).

I stood there for another half-hour surveying the collection and trying to decide which of them I would buy if I had that kind of discretionary spending power. I decided on that day that I would buy a Swiss Army knife as a present to myself with my first month's salary on full time employment.

Fast forward some 11 years to the early morning hours of 11th September '01. I was in Grad school and woke up at 9AM (early for my routine in those days) and walked to my department and to my computer and started checking my mail. First, I was surprised to have received an email from a Professor with whom I didn't directly work with, who rarely sent emails on lists, who was and is something of a legend - highly respected, did some great work in Systems, hard charging and advised some of the brightest PhD dissertators in the Department. His email was simple and to the point and conveyed the tragic news of that unfortunate morning - that one plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center Towers. I thought to myself what an unfortunate accident this was. The day had worse times in store for everyone.

Fast forward a year to when I started working and some more to now, times have changed. I never did buy it. There are some rare moments on some days when a little glow of longing shows up in my mind but the resulting excitement is fleeting. One day, may be I'll buy one for myself, may be when time has gone by and I live close to or visit areas that have a little more geographical drama than this featureless Midwest... May be I will never buy one. At least not for myself, may be for a son or a nephew or for another kid at heart...