Ramble On !!!!!

Do we need RESERVATION?

Indian society has been stratified in various well demarcated castes for around two thousand of years. Hindu India is divided into 4 castes. Brahmins are the highest caste, they are the priestly caste. Then comes the Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (traders), and lastly Sudras (menials). A fifth group the untouchables lie outside the caste system. The percentages of each of these factions are disputed and varied numbers are stated by different forums depending on the side they belong to. The caste system follows a basic precept “All men are created unequal”.  This inequality results from the deeds in the in the past lives and wrong doings results in being born into lower castes by which one pays for his misdeeds.

With this basic idea let’s move to a society that we live in which still believes the caste system that is based on ideas mentioned above.  The idea of rebirth is somewhat philosophical and I would leave this on readers to decide. In the modern world being born to someone or in some sect should not be considered in determining the ability of a person. It is very much possible that any person that gets the best of education and facilities will be competitive to any other person with any lineage. Consider an IAS officer who belongs to a so called lower caste has a son. This son by no means has any facility not available to him which will be available to any other person belonging to so called higher caste. On the contrary there might a remote village where irrespective of the caste everyone has a setback. I would like to ask who needs a reservation the son of an IAS officer or the son of the farmer in that village.       

The time when India got independence the society was still in world where Varna System played a definite role. How long do we want to continue with this system? Caste based reservation were needed that time because then nobody had the idea that they were being exploited and oppressed for reasons that were pretty much philosophical and way off from reality. Today if we provide the same basic education, health, information and all civic amenities, the question of reservation is itself farce. But this ideal situation in a place like India will definitely take time and I feel that we are still not ready. There is a big chunk of population that has no idea that they are being exploited for all the wrong reasons not only because they were born into a caste but because the development has not been similar. It’s time that we realize that caste is not something that determines ability. Yes reservations are needed but not because someone is born to family that belongs to a caste.

Let’s not use caste reservations for easy access or shortcuts. Let’s not brand someone by his birth but by his ability. Let caste reservations be used for the purposes that it was meant for “to bring the disadvantaged people into the mainstream”.

Let’s make India a homogenous society where the second name is just a name and not a legacy.

The ideas in this article are mine and not meant to hurt any sentiments. I am open to any comments or suggestions. 

 

What is easy?

What is easy? I guess the answer that you expect it “it depends”. I think one thing in life is easy is being single. You don't have to do anything being “single”. You can be the lazy guy and still you can be single.

 

I guess it is seriously easy to be single and I don't need a analytical proof for that. I agree there are tempations that you need overcome. The bond, the love, the partner for your life .... after a point out are all by yourself ...all your friends will vanish ....... and guzzilion things like that but you can be single by just being lazy.

 

Charms of being single!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Do what you want with your life or with whatever... there is nobody to stop you!!!!

 

Be a wanderer all your life!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Be a free bird !!!!!!!

 

But there is a price to pay....... and there is no escape ...... you are going to lonely all your life .... nobody to question ..nobody to bother... nobody to cheer .... nobody to talk

 

 

You have to make friendship with nobody!!!!!!!!!

 

Be friends with your laptops, iPods, tablets and what not!!!!!!!!!!

 

Are we still human ?

Guajarat Riots happened in the year 2002 and this picture of Quttubuddin Ansari is something I could never forget. I don't know what are circumstances that create situation like these but it is something that happens more often then we realize.  

A good friend of mine whose family had to face the partition of 1947 and had to leave Pakistan and come to India to start afresh from nothing. He says that the people who talk about the pains and the pangs are not the one who have faced it but the ones who have been safe. I feel he is much more secular attitude than most of the people who have only heard about it, seen in movies or read in the books.

Riots  can never be good, doesn't matter what has been the cause. Humans take pride in having the capability to think, the only animals who can think but is that a truth. I am not sure what conditioning of mind would create situation like these. The fundamental organization try to put the seeds of hatred quoting history of which nobody is sure of, quoting present that is misleading and far from truth.   

My dream will be to see a country where the religion would not culminate to riots and the only country that I can think of is India. Why? Because we have the diversity that nobody else has. We are the people living together and not united by language, neither by religion, nor by race.

"All beings tremble before violence.

All fear death.All love life.

See yourself in others.

Then whom can you hurt?

What harm can you do?"   - Buddha

 

 

Warning Bells

 These days whenever I log into Facebook I see pics of someone’s marriage with someone with  hundreds of likes and thousands of comments.  That’s the kind of norm these days. In my events I  have nothing else but invites to marriages, and the queue replenishes as soon as soon one gets  over :). Marriages of frens, seniors, juniors, acquaintance and who else not.

A thought came to my mind to check the statistics of my list of friends for marital status but Facebook doesn’t provide the facility or maybe I am not that privy with the way to do that. So I did a random sample and sure enough the numbers were favoring the people who have taken the vow.

 Should it be a warning bell for me? The other day a good friend of mine called me up after long time and he started his story of searching for the ONE and how difficult it is to get it right. He was really worried about how he is going to get through these turbulent times? I wish him luck in his Endeavour and know that he will come out happy with the kind of perfectionist he is. That friend was getting worried for me as well and I could do nothing to pacify his thoughts. He went to the extent of opening an account for me in a matrimony site. You won’t find people who think that much for frens these days.

I feel when something is running on your mind you kind of see it everywhere. I was reading TOI and saw an article about “Lonely Shy? Mentally ill Tag awaits you”. I could not gather the courage to go to the nitty gritty of the article though there was some psychological conference that is going to coin a word for this dis-ease dysthymia. I would consider myself both lonely and shy but would not like to be called mentally ill for that reason. I would like to be part of the sane world :).

Hoping that the all the “Lonely and Shy" will come together (sounds oxymoron :D) and fight against this discrimination. We will fight the war until the last blood. Amen :)

 

Road Ahead

Sometimes when things are not in control 

Nothing goes the way you want it to go 

Everything looks so unpredictable

How do you cope? What do you do?

 

You want to set things right

but don't know how

If only there was a magic spell

That could make things right, bright!!

 

Life takes turns that nobody knows

You don't want pain but you get

Don't don't regret,its you only you

Who will have to come out of it

 

You don't know what life brings..

What god has in store for you

But whatever it is, GOD will make you fight for it

It doesn't matter it finally brings joy or pain

 

You are going through a path.. a road to nowhere

Still you want to go .. go ahead

Unless you don't take it..there will be a urge to take it

I can only wish all the best for the road ahead!!! 

Life's a Predicament

Sometimes when everything seems to go right

Everywhere you see people hale and hearty 

And thats when you blink for a while 

Only to find things have changed forever

 

I am not sure about us being happy in this world 

I am not sure that there exists something great apart from this world 

But I hope there is something better, greater where you have already left 

We are left here to cherish your fond memories

 

I would think that you have been lucky enough 

to leave this mortal place spreading nothing else but joy 

With whatever small time you spent with us

And your soul was pure untouched

 

With Lots of Love 

~Raj

Save India ...... :(

Are we really affected by the bomb blasts that happens in India. Blast in Mumbai ....200 killed. Blast In Bangalore ... 10 killed ... blast in Jaipur 100 killed ..... blast in Guwahati .. 30 killed ..... Blast in so and so place ... so and so people killed .... latest blast in pune .... 10 killled ..... Do we really care in India that innocent people are getting killed while watching movies ... while enjoying trips with their families ......while enjoying the things that everyone loves to do. I feel that the people who do realize that something has happened that should not have happened are the father's, mother's, brother's, sister's. wife's, son's, daughter's who have lost someone. Someone who was dear and very near without whom their life will always have a vacuum that cannot be filled.

TV... News channel will flash the images for couple of days ... but everyone including me will pray to god that nothing happened to me, my family, my tree. Everyone will have sympathy ... but things turn normal waiting for another blast to happen.

Are we ever going to raise our voice? The guy who died while eating a chat in hyderabad? The person who died while buying cycles for his grandson? The people who suffered while doing the things that they did everyday?

The people of India will have to raise and fight that human life is cheap but not so that anyone anytime anywhere can plant a bomb and kill many innocent people.

Unity in Diversity

All the fingers are different , all five of them
but when they play a piano everyone is speechless
everybody loves it no matter who they are, what they do

All colors are different as they can be
but everyone loves the rainbow that come out
with the mix of all the VIBGYOR

All the seasons are different as they can be
Everyone loves the change in season
Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring .....

All the notes in music are different as they can be
but when they merge they create magic
Magic that mesmerizes all

Then why can't we enjoy the difference in people
Why do we have to say Black, White, Caucasian, 
Asian, American, African, European .....
Enjoy the difference ... Love the diversity

India - Country of many villages and few cities

India has been and still is country of villages. About 70% of Indian people live in villages. When I talk of villages don't mistake for a beautiful countryside with all the basic amenities like roads, electricity, drinking water, schools and lot of other things that the modern day world needs.

Villages in India by and large lack these basic amenities. Various governments have tried and will keep on trying for the betterment of the villages.The politics of India is not decided by the people of the cities as the majority of them do nothing else but talk about it, but these villages decide the politics. The absence of basic amenities is compounded by the traditional social division, the caste system which finally rules the politics.  

India shows an economy growing every year by 8%, one of the fastest growing economies.I don't want to get into the details of GDP and method used for calculating these numbers moreover I am not very sure also :). I am in no way trying to be skeptical about it but I am trying to bring the attention to other side of coin that exists. The largest Indian democracy is based on the verdict of the people who belong to these villages and the decision that is made is not on the merit of the candidate but on the caste to which one belongs ( I am being a little cynical about it but to some extent this is fact).

India will shine when these villages will have good roads, electricity (many second tier cities lack that), schools, drinking water and all this can happen when the little money that government spends really gets in work and is not looted by officials or the contractors due to the rampant corruption. Once the villages will have the work where youths can get themselves engaged constructively rather than moving out to cities for some kind of work. Also the people who have gone to the cities will love to come back and spend their vacations and their retired lives.

I want to see this happening in my lifetime and would love to get along and do something to make this true.All the big stories about India will remain stories unless these villages are uplifted from the backwardness.

Finally the goal is I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other which is missing the in overburdened cities of India.

"Boredom"

Boredom creeps in your life a number of times and its not that you don't like it all the times. There are times when everyone just want to lie their into the boredom. I am not very sure how you start getting bored of things that were once so dear to you.

The kingdom of boredom is widespread whose citizens are always on move.There are people who get into it and then come out. Its a phase with a rise and decline, because we always find something that takes us out of it and then again plunges us back. So, it is a kind,I would like to use hackneyed term, vicious circle.

I remember when I was a quite young I used to look at my seniors, guys in 10th or 12th, and would always think how good their life is. I also reached the same phase later, I did tend to love it for some time but again the as the time went you plunge back. Something very similar happened when I went to college, the final years would be very wonderful, once you are on the job life would be cool .... but what every time you plunge back to same old boredom.

I think its not a problem faced by everyone.. maybe its just me .. because I am always lost where I should never have got lost by any means. I tend to look back and enjoy the days that are passed and would like to get them back but those days are the days that I was in the boredom.

I am not very sure if I am making sense at all and I should stop this crap :-)

But there a good little quote by a great mathematician philosopher Bertrand Russell said "The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time" 

Di--visions

The world today is divided in continents, continents in countries, countries in states, states in counties and districts, then cities, towns and villages and the division continues. The division that I am worried about is the division due to religions. I worry for the innocent people who suffers.

Sometimes all this forces me to think that the beast within us that is made dormant by the layers of blanket of civilization sometimes cannot help in maitain the dormancy and the beast comes out. The so called progress looks nothing but a mere ornament that can be thrown in no time. Not very long ago there used to small tribes that used to fight relentlessly and kill each other just for nothing.

Is there a solution for this division? I think if each one of us give it a thought and try to get into the shoes of people who have faced it, we might come to point where our minds can figure out this in a better way.

 

Its all in the mind's game.