Did I loose my passion in blogging.I haven't opened my blog for a month.Admit , have a little problem with my English as I am a product of a local Mallu medium school of kyerala.But I was always passionate about writing(Ahem! am I?).
May be it's due to the over stress from the work place.I hardly get time to spend.You may find similarities between this post and my last post ,which was dropped over here last month.Not much difference form there.
Now a days I hardly find any news which pulls me into.Or ,Is there any change in the behavior of the world.Things have become routine.It appears that all the events happening in the world are manufactured and marketed by this media. Are we becoming fools by dipping our head into it?
I don't know .I don't know ,I don't know.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Thursday, September 28, 2006
In the month of september
This month was really different .Lot's of things have happened inside me(inside me? is that a correct usage?...depends,naah?).I have deviated from my aims.Started doubtfully staring at my goals .Had to undergo a minor surgery.
The fear about time has increased as like never before.In some days I woke up from my bed late in the night.Was not getting proper sleep on many days.I felt... the time is moving fast with a stop watch put near by.Seconds and minutes are changing rapidly.And I am doing nothing.Days and weeks are passing quickly... And I am doing nothing.The fear....the agony and the ecstasy....all types of emotions started rolling on me suddenly and unexpectedly....Am I getting slightly mad?
Each days are exact clones of the previous.Night is the only blockage of an otherwise continuous living.I was not posting in my blog for the last one month...Yes ,I feel...my priorities are changing.
Otherwise you may have to start a new journey from here.
The fear about time has increased as like never before.In some days I woke up from my bed late in the night.Was not getting proper sleep on many days.I felt... the time is moving fast with a stop watch put near by.Seconds and minutes are changing rapidly.And I am doing nothing.Days and weeks are passing quickly... And I am doing nothing.The fear....the agony and the ecstasy....all types of emotions started rolling on me suddenly and unexpectedly....Am I getting slightly mad?
Each days are exact clones of the previous.Night is the only blockage of an otherwise continuous living.I was not posting in my blog for the last one month...Yes ,I feel...my priorities are changing.
Otherwise you may have to start a new journey from here.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Bangalore: Hot and Hotter
I came to read this article by chance.The author is Tom Fidermann who is one of the most respected columnists in the world.If I recall correctly, once he had participated in the "Big Fight" of NDTV which was telecasted from Davos during the Davos summit.I guess the topic was "will India ever overtake China". He had made some interesting comments about both the countries. According to him due to the single party system,in China many good things can be started without any opposition.In India due to the democratic system , good policies may have to be reverted , but terribly bad things would never happen.
Have a look at his article.
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: June 8, 2005
Every time I visit India, Indians always ask me to compare India with China. Lately, I have responded like this: If India and China were both highways, the Chinese highway would be a six-lane, perfectly paved road, but with a huge speed bump off in the distance labeled "Political reform: how in the world do we get from Communism to a more open society?" When 1.3 billion people going 80 miles an hour hit a speed bump, one of two things happens: Either the car flies into the air and slams down, and all the parts hold together and it keeps on moving - or the car flies into the air, slams down and all the wheels fall off. Which it will be with China, I don’t know. India, by contrast, is like a highway full of potholes, with no sidewalks and half the streetlamps broken. But off in the distance, the road seems to smooth out, and if it does, this country will be a dynamo. The question is: Is that smoother road in the distance a mirage or the real thing?
At first blush, coming back to Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley, that smoother road seems like a mirage. The infrastructure here is still a total mess. But looks can be deceiving. Beneath the mess, Bangalore is entering a mature new phase as a technology center by starting to produce its own high-tech products, research, venture capital firms and start-ups.
"The ecosystem for innovation is now starting to be created here," said Nandan Nilekani, the C.E.O. of Infosys. For several years now, when venture capitalists funded companies in the U.S., they insisted that the R.&D. for the products be done in India. But now, increasingly, Western companies will come up with a new idea and then tell Infosys, Wipro or Tata, India’s premier technology companies, to research, develop and produce the whole thing.
As one Wipro executive put it, "You go from solving my problem to serving my business to knowing my business to being my business." What will be left for the Western companies is the "ideation," the original concept and design of a flagship product (which is a big deal), and then the sales and marketing.
"We’re going from a model of doing piecework to where the entire product and entire innovation stream is done by companies here," Mr. Nilekani added. All of this means that innovation will happen faster and cheaper, with much more global collaboration.
The best indication that Bangalore is becoming hot is how many foreign techies - non-Indians - are now coming here to work. P. Anandan, an Indian-American who worked for Microsoft for 28 years in Redmond, Wash., just opened Microsoft’s research center in Bangalore, which follows the ones in Redmond, Cambridge and Beijing.
"I have two non-Indians working for me here, one Japanese and one American, and they could work anywhere in the world," Mr. Anandan said. He added that when he got his engineering degree in India 28 years ago, all the competition was to get a job abroad. Now the fiercest competition is to get an I.T. job in India: "It is no longer, ’Well I have to stay here,’ but, ’Do I get a chance to stay here?’ "
In the past year, Infosys received 9,600 applications from abroad, including from China, France and Germany, for internships, and it accepted 100. I asked one of these interns, Vicki Chen, a Chinese-American business student from the Claremont Colleges, why she came. "All the business is coming to India, and I don’t see why I shouldn’t follow the business," she said. "If this is where the center of gravity is, you should go check it out, and then you become more valuable."
Even more interesting is how Indian firms are taking the skills they learned from outsourcing and using them to develop low-cost products for the low-wage Indian market: a medical insurance plan for the poor for as little as $10 a year, a $2,000 car, a $200 laptop, supercheap cellphones, a low-fare airline ($75 one-way for the three-hour Bangalore-Delhi flight) that sells tickets from Internet kiosks in gas stations. Indian companies know that if they can make money producing low-cost technology for poor Indians, it gives them an incredible platform to then take these products global. (Imagine the profit potential if they work in the West?) China is doing the exact same thing.
Indeed, I now understand why, when China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, visited India for the first time last April, he didn’t fly into the capital, New Delhi - as foreign leaders usually do. He flew directly from Beijing to Bangalore - for a tech-tour - and then went on to New Delhi.
No U.S. president or vice president has ever visited Bangalore.
PS: Ask the US Congress to invite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to address a Joint Session of Congress. Sign petition
Have a look at his article.
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: June 8, 2005
Every time I visit India, Indians always ask me to compare India with China. Lately, I have responded like this: If India and China were both highways, the Chinese highway would be a six-lane, perfectly paved road, but with a huge speed bump off in the distance labeled "Political reform: how in the world do we get from Communism to a more open society?" When 1.3 billion people going 80 miles an hour hit a speed bump, one of two things happens: Either the car flies into the air and slams down, and all the parts hold together and it keeps on moving - or the car flies into the air, slams down and all the wheels fall off. Which it will be with China, I don’t know. India, by contrast, is like a highway full of potholes, with no sidewalks and half the streetlamps broken. But off in the distance, the road seems to smooth out, and if it does, this country will be a dynamo. The question is: Is that smoother road in the distance a mirage or the real thing?
At first blush, coming back to Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley, that smoother road seems like a mirage. The infrastructure here is still a total mess. But looks can be deceiving. Beneath the mess, Bangalore is entering a mature new phase as a technology center by starting to produce its own high-tech products, research, venture capital firms and start-ups.
"The ecosystem for innovation is now starting to be created here," said Nandan Nilekani, the C.E.O. of Infosys. For several years now, when venture capitalists funded companies in the U.S., they insisted that the R.&D. for the products be done in India. But now, increasingly, Western companies will come up with a new idea and then tell Infosys, Wipro or Tata, India’s premier technology companies, to research, develop and produce the whole thing.
As one Wipro executive put it, "You go from solving my problem to serving my business to knowing my business to being my business." What will be left for the Western companies is the "ideation," the original concept and design of a flagship product (which is a big deal), and then the sales and marketing.
"We’re going from a model of doing piecework to where the entire product and entire innovation stream is done by companies here," Mr. Nilekani added. All of this means that innovation will happen faster and cheaper, with much more global collaboration.
The best indication that Bangalore is becoming hot is how many foreign techies - non-Indians - are now coming here to work. P. Anandan, an Indian-American who worked for Microsoft for 28 years in Redmond, Wash., just opened Microsoft’s research center in Bangalore, which follows the ones in Redmond, Cambridge and Beijing.
"I have two non-Indians working for me here, one Japanese and one American, and they could work anywhere in the world," Mr. Anandan said. He added that when he got his engineering degree in India 28 years ago, all the competition was to get a job abroad. Now the fiercest competition is to get an I.T. job in India: "It is no longer, ’Well I have to stay here,’ but, ’Do I get a chance to stay here?’ "
In the past year, Infosys received 9,600 applications from abroad, including from China, France and Germany, for internships, and it accepted 100. I asked one of these interns, Vicki Chen, a Chinese-American business student from the Claremont Colleges, why she came. "All the business is coming to India, and I don’t see why I shouldn’t follow the business," she said. "If this is where the center of gravity is, you should go check it out, and then you become more valuable."
Even more interesting is how Indian firms are taking the skills they learned from outsourcing and using them to develop low-cost products for the low-wage Indian market: a medical insurance plan for the poor for as little as $10 a year, a $2,000 car, a $200 laptop, supercheap cellphones, a low-fare airline ($75 one-way for the three-hour Bangalore-Delhi flight) that sells tickets from Internet kiosks in gas stations. Indian companies know that if they can make money producing low-cost technology for poor Indians, it gives them an incredible platform to then take these products global. (Imagine the profit potential if they work in the West?) China is doing the exact same thing.
Indeed, I now understand why, when China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, visited India for the first time last April, he didn’t fly into the capital, New Delhi - as foreign leaders usually do. He flew directly from Beijing to Bangalore - for a tech-tour - and then went on to New Delhi.
No U.S. president or vice president has ever visited Bangalore.
PS: Ask the US Congress to invite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to address a Joint Session of Congress. Sign petition
Friday, August 04, 2006
Keshav's cartoon on Israel_Lebenon crisis
Keshav is a well known cartoonist of India who is very famous for his sharp and critique cartoons.He is associating with The Hindu.
Friday, July 28, 2006
The Neocon Resurgence and Israel Lebenon Crisis
Today I have found an intersesting piece in "The Hindu" about Israel-Lebenon war.Every one knows Israel is a program sponsored by US. And almost all the US media is strongly biased towards Israel.According to them Israel is a civilized society and they would not do cheap tactics like extraditions which they are ascribing to Hizbollah.I am not going to state Hizbollah is a legitimate troupe.But we can't deny the fact that it's a very much accepted wing in Lebenon. It has a military wing as well as a political wing.
All these current problems happened due to the kidnapping of Israel soldiers buy Hezbollah.But nobody in US seems to be aware about the facts that lead Hezbollah to do so. According to Hezbollah sources,they are forced to do so as a bargain tactic to release the Lebenese women and kids from the Israel prisons. When somebody raised this point,I have seen comments from Americans in US forums alleging these women and kids as supporters of terrorism.
In this context the article which was originally published in gaurdian will be worth a read.
Have a look ..
ONCE AGAIN the Bush administration is floating on a wave of euphoria. Israel's offensive against Hizbollah in Lebanon has liberated the utopian strain of neoconservatism that had been traduced by Iraq's sectarian civil war. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has propelled herself forward as chief cheerleader. "What we're seeing here," she said, "are the birth pangs of a new Middle East." At every press conference she repeats the phrase "a new Middle East" as though its incantation is magical.
Her jaunt to the region is intended to lend the appearance of diplomacy in order to forestall it. As explained to me by several senior State Department officials, Ms. Rice is entranced by a new "domino theory": Israel's attacks will demolish Hizbollah; the Lebanese will blame Hizbollah and destroy its influence; and the backlash will extend to Hamas, which will collapse. From the administration's point of view, this is a proxy war with Iran (and Syria) that will inexplicably help turn around Iraq. "We will prevail," Ms. Rice says.
The administration has traditionally engaged in threat conflation — Al-Qaeda with Saddam Hussein, North Korea and Iran in "the axis of evil," and now implicitly the Shia Hizbollah with the Sunni Iraqi insurgency. By asserting "we" before "will prevail," Ms. Rice is engaging in national interest conflation.
This week has seen the publication of Fiasco, by Thomas Ricks, the military correspondent of The Washington Post, devastating in its factual deconstruction. The Iraqi invasion, he writes, was "based on perhaps the worst war plan in American history." The policy-making at the Pentagon was a "black hole," and resistance by the staff of the joint chiefs to disinformation linking Iraq to 9/11 was dismissed. After the absence of a plan for post-war Iraq, blunder upon blunder fostered the insurgency.
In one of its most unintentionally ironic curiosities, the Bush White House has created an Office of Lessons Learned. But the thinking that made possible the catastrophe in Iraq is not a subject of this office. The delusional mindset went underground only to surface through the crack of the current crisis.
There are no lessons learned about the blowback from Iraq; about Iraq's condemnation of Israel and its sympathy for Hizbollah; or about the U.S. unwillingness to deal with the Palestinian Authority that made inevitable the rise of Hamas; or the counter-productive repudiation of direct contact with Syria and Iran.
Indeed, Ms. Rice is ushering in "a new Middle East," one in which the U.S. is distrusted and even hated by traditional Arab allies, and its ability to restrain Israel while negotiating on behalf of its security is relinquished and diminished. —
All these current problems happened due to the kidnapping of Israel soldiers buy Hezbollah.But nobody in US seems to be aware about the facts that lead Hezbollah to do so. According to Hezbollah sources,they are forced to do so as a bargain tactic to release the Lebenese women and kids from the Israel prisons. When somebody raised this point,I have seen comments from Americans in US forums alleging these women and kids as supporters of terrorism.
In this context the article which was originally published in gaurdian will be worth a read.
Have a look ..
ONCE AGAIN the Bush administration is floating on a wave of euphoria. Israel's offensive against Hizbollah in Lebanon has liberated the utopian strain of neoconservatism that had been traduced by Iraq's sectarian civil war. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has propelled herself forward as chief cheerleader. "What we're seeing here," she said, "are the birth pangs of a new Middle East." At every press conference she repeats the phrase "a new Middle East" as though its incantation is magical.
Her jaunt to the region is intended to lend the appearance of diplomacy in order to forestall it. As explained to me by several senior State Department officials, Ms. Rice is entranced by a new "domino theory": Israel's attacks will demolish Hizbollah; the Lebanese will blame Hizbollah and destroy its influence; and the backlash will extend to Hamas, which will collapse. From the administration's point of view, this is a proxy war with Iran (and Syria) that will inexplicably help turn around Iraq. "We will prevail," Ms. Rice says.
The administration has traditionally engaged in threat conflation — Al-Qaeda with Saddam Hussein, North Korea and Iran in "the axis of evil," and now implicitly the Shia Hizbollah with the Sunni Iraqi insurgency. By asserting "we" before "will prevail," Ms. Rice is engaging in national interest conflation.
This week has seen the publication of Fiasco, by Thomas Ricks, the military correspondent of The Washington Post, devastating in its factual deconstruction. The Iraqi invasion, he writes, was "based on perhaps the worst war plan in American history." The policy-making at the Pentagon was a "black hole," and resistance by the staff of the joint chiefs to disinformation linking Iraq to 9/11 was dismissed. After the absence of a plan for post-war Iraq, blunder upon blunder fostered the insurgency.
In one of its most unintentionally ironic curiosities, the Bush White House has created an Office of Lessons Learned. But the thinking that made possible the catastrophe in Iraq is not a subject of this office. The delusional mindset went underground only to surface through the crack of the current crisis.
There are no lessons learned about the blowback from Iraq; about Iraq's condemnation of Israel and its sympathy for Hizbollah; or about the U.S. unwillingness to deal with the Palestinian Authority that made inevitable the rise of Hamas; or the counter-productive repudiation of direct contact with Syria and Iran.
Indeed, Ms. Rice is ushering in "a new Middle East," one in which the U.S. is distrusted and even hated by traditional Arab allies, and its ability to restrain Israel while negotiating on behalf of its security is relinquished and diminished. —
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Another sunday
Yet another sunday.Today I have some plans in my mind.I plan to go for a movie.Movie has not been fixed yet,but surely we'll go for one.
Then I have to spend some more time in the office. Just to verify the things. Nobody would be there in the office .Yes, House keeping people would be doing their works as if they don't have any Sunday . Even we can see some very young boys who would be on their early teens(or less than that?) working with them for feeding their stomach . The other face of the largest democracy !!...Oh the topic is changing . Let's have a break.
Then I have to spend some more time in the office. Just to verify the things. Nobody would be there in the office .Yes, House keeping people would be doing their works as if they don't have any Sunday . Even we can see some very young boys who would be on their early teens(or less than that?) working with them for feeding their stomach . The other face of the largest democracy !!...Oh the topic is changing . Let's have a break.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Sunday, July 16, 2006
It's Sunday
Yeah.It's sunday today .A nice day when we can take a short sabbatical from the official works . From morning onwards I was thinking about my sunday plans . I was alone in the room since all my colleagues went to their hometown as if to make sure that everything goes fine in their state without their presence.
Now time is 6.15 in the evening .My lazy mind didn't allow me to get up from the bed before 12 P.M. I haven't done any productive work so far.So I thought why can't I blog for some time . May be after this I can go back to my works.
Oh..regarding works,I have to clean up my room,Have to wash my clothes (I could have given it to doby(not thoby..he's a nice friend) ,but I thought I might be able to go home this weekend .Then I have to go to the town for some purpose,have to buy some things.should go to temple if time is there .....then..
Again my lazy mind(have to blame some one.right?) has started saying... oh,If you are thinking about works ,you can find so much of works ,which needs to be done.
So it's better to go back and curl under the bed sheet without uttering a single word about the duties.
Now,what should I do ?. Can I make my mind feel bad ?
Now time is 6.15 in the evening .My lazy mind didn't allow me to get up from the bed before 12 P.M. I haven't done any productive work so far.So I thought why can't I blog for some time . May be after this I can go back to my works.
Oh..regarding works,I have to clean up my room,Have to wash my clothes (I could have given it to doby(not thoby..he's a nice friend) ,but I thought I might be able to go home this weekend .Then I have to go to the town for some purpose,have to buy some things.should go to temple if time is there .....then..
Again my lazy mind(have to blame some one.right?) has started saying... oh,If you are thinking about works ,you can find so much of works ,which needs to be done.
So it's better to go back and curl under the bed sheet without uttering a single word about the duties.
Now,what should I do ?. Can I make my mind feel bad ?
Quote for the day
From Wikipedia:
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan strongly opposed the partition of India. While the Red Shirts were willing to work with Indian politicians, some Pashtuns desired independence from both India and the newly created state of Pakistan following the departure of the British. The Congress party under refused last ditch compromises like the Cabinet mission plan and Gandhi's suggestion to offer the Prime Ministership to Jinnah. As a result Bacha Khan and his followers felt a sense of betrayal by both Pakistan and India. Bacha Khan's last words to Gandhi and his erstwhile allies in the Congress party were: You have thrown us to the wolves.
When given a choice between Pakistan and India, most voters chose Pakistan by a margin of 9 to 1 in 1947. A loya jirga in the Tribal Areas garnered a similar result as most preferred to become part of Pakistan.
In February 1948, Khan took the oath of allegiance to the new nation of Pakistan. Shortly afterwards he addressed the Pakistan constituent assembly and announced his support for Pakistan, while at the same time his Khudai Khidmatgar movement pledged allegiance to Pakistan and severed all links to the Congress Party.
In his speech to the assembly he said:
"Whenever I had an opportunity to address the people in different parts of our province, I told them clearly that indeed, I was of the opinion that India should not be divided because today in India we have witnessed the result. Thousands and thousands of young and old, children, men, and women were massacred and ruined. But now that the division is an accomplished fact, the dispute is over?. " I delivered many speeches against the division of India, but the question is: has anybody listened to me? You may hold any opinion about me, but I am not a man of destruction but of construction. If you study my life, you will find that I devoted it to the welfare of our country?. We have proclaimed that if the Government of Pakistan would work for our people and our country the Khudai Khidmatgars would be with them. I repeat that I am not for the destruction of Pakistan. In destruction lies no good. "Neither Hindus nor Muslims, nor the Frontier, not Punjab, Bengal or Sindh stands to gain from it. There is advantage only in construction. I want to tell you categorically I will not support anybody in destruction. If any constructive programme is before you, if you want to do something constructive for our people, not in theory, but in practice, I declare before this House that I and my people are at your service?.."
Pak ISI hands on Mumbai 11/7
Forty-eight hours after bombs ripped through Mumbai, the needle pointed to Pakistan. Intelligence agencies on Thursday confirmed that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was the “mastermind” of the blasts that killed about 200 people.
The Mumbai Police, meanwhile, identified the trio who planned and executed 11/7: Rahil, Zahibuddin Ansari and Faiyaz, linked to the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Of them, Rahil had reportedly made an abortive bid to trigger a blast at Byculla railway station on March 11 — the eve of the anniversary of the 1993 Bombay blasts.
The agencies, which briefed National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi, said the blueprint for Tuesday’s blasts was made by the ISI while the “plan” was executed by “local Indian operatives”.
A senior intelligence officer said the synchronised explosions had the “hallmark” of an ISI operation. Militants operating in Kashmir were not capable of such meticulous planning and could only carry out fidayeen attacks or plant bombs in crowded places like markets.
“A lot of planning went into the blasts. This is typical of an ISI operation, as was revealed during the 1993 Bombay blasts,” said an officer.
Rahil, Ansari and Faiyaz could be the local operatives the intelligence agencies hinted at. Mumbai Police Commissioner AN Roy told HT: “We’re looking for Rahil, Ansari and Faiyaz who orchestrated the seven blasts.” Roy said Rahil, “a SIMI old-timer”, had been leading a LeT module, while Ansari and Faiyaz were wanted in the Aurangabad explosives-seizure case.
KP Raghuvanshi, chief of the Mumbai Police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), said Ansari and Faiyaz had brought in the RDX from Pakistan. Though the ATS arrested 16 operatives from Ansari’s module, he and Faiyaz gave the police the slip. Apparently, the module was receiving instructions from Junaid, reportedly ISI’s operations chief for India.
The police said the blasts could have been in retaliation of Gujarat riots
Source : Hindustan Times
The Mumbai Police, meanwhile, identified the trio who planned and executed 11/7: Rahil, Zahibuddin Ansari and Faiyaz, linked to the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Of them, Rahil had reportedly made an abortive bid to trigger a blast at Byculla railway station on March 11 — the eve of the anniversary of the 1993 Bombay blasts.
The agencies, which briefed National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi, said the blueprint for Tuesday’s blasts was made by the ISI while the “plan” was executed by “local Indian operatives”.
A senior intelligence officer said the synchronised explosions had the “hallmark” of an ISI operation. Militants operating in Kashmir were not capable of such meticulous planning and could only carry out fidayeen attacks or plant bombs in crowded places like markets.
“A lot of planning went into the blasts. This is typical of an ISI operation, as was revealed during the 1993 Bombay blasts,” said an officer.
Rahil, Ansari and Faiyaz could be the local operatives the intelligence agencies hinted at. Mumbai Police Commissioner AN Roy told HT: “We’re looking for Rahil, Ansari and Faiyaz who orchestrated the seven blasts.” Roy said Rahil, “a SIMI old-timer”, had been leading a LeT module, while Ansari and Faiyaz were wanted in the Aurangabad explosives-seizure case.
KP Raghuvanshi, chief of the Mumbai Police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), said Ansari and Faiyaz had brought in the RDX from Pakistan. Though the ATS arrested 16 operatives from Ansari’s module, he and Faiyaz gave the police the slip. Apparently, the module was receiving instructions from Junaid, reportedly ISI’s operations chief for India.
The police said the blasts could have been in retaliation of Gujarat riots
Source : Hindustan Times
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Islam's emotions
I posted the below things in a CP forum which was mainly dominated by pro americans and anti Islamic sentimentalists and oh my god in the next day i surprised to see more than 200 comments to this badly structured post of mine.
Post goes like this...............
Even If you beat your mother there would be two opinions.Can we formulate certain rules and ask others to follow this.Definitely there would be protests.
In western world the term Islam has become like a synonym of terrorism.We can experience this in the western newsgroups,media and everywhere ,where people madly abusing Islam by calling them as killers .Though I am not one of them ,I should say muslims are the most stressed community nowadays.Their rituals,customs,way of life and everything have been a source for criticism by others.Mainly because, most of their practices might appear too much conservative to others. But the discipline of the Muslim lifestyle is unimaginable (I often wondered when my Muslim friends offer their unchallengeable daily prayers and fasts without even having drop of water during Ramsan period).
The silent agitation against Muslims got stronger after 9/11. And we can see many instances after that where the whole community being crucified on daily basis .We could have definitely seen that the campaigning against Islam terrorism getting converted against the whole Islam.Whether it is the murder of an innocent brazilian by London police or the mass visa denial by U.S for those who have muslim names. It's understandable how much this would have hurt the majority of Muslims.We can imagine the mental stress of a normal muslim who is being viewed as a strange creature by the so called do-gooders.Even sikhs have been harassed simply because they keep beard and turban.
We can not see the Mohammad cartoons as a separate issue, rather it could be seen as the continuation of that campaigning against Islam. This and only this provoked Islamists all over the world. And as like supplying petrol to fire many newspapers republished the cartoons aggressively saying the issue of freedom of speech.But the community would have been respected if the protests had been peaceful. Some people would quote the comparatively mild protests towards Davinci code by Christians. But we should not forget that there is no coordinated campaigning towards Christianity and this was an odd one. But be it Pardha, liberation of women, shariah ;Everything in Islam has become a subject to criticism. And when they criticize they are forgetting that all religions in the world have black histories and all of them had built up on mere faith rather than concrete proofs.
Being religious is not a bad thing but religion by denouncing other religions is certainly unjustifiable.Most of the religious people have become so due to the spoon feeding which they have got about the religion during their childhood days.Those symbols cannot be easily erased from the mind of a human being.Almost all the religions are just providing a path for self realization.The ignorant people trust their religious tutors like gods and get indulged in madness.This is not only applicable to the terrorist but also to all of us who keeps hatred towards other's religion.
What we need is a mind to accept others, even if they are opposing our attitudes.And we should not forget that even the poorest of poor has an individuality and right to hold their opinion.
Post goes like this...............
Even If you beat your mother there would be two opinions.Can we formulate certain rules and ask others to follow this.Definitely there would be protests.
In western world the term Islam has become like a synonym of terrorism.We can experience this in the western newsgroups,media and everywhere ,where people madly abusing Islam by calling them as killers .Though I am not one of them ,I should say muslims are the most stressed community nowadays.Their rituals,customs,way of life and everything have been a source for criticism by others.Mainly because, most of their practices might appear too much conservative to others. But the discipline of the Muslim lifestyle is unimaginable (I often wondered when my Muslim friends offer their unchallengeable daily prayers and fasts without even having drop of water during Ramsan period).
The silent agitation against Muslims got stronger after 9/11. And we can see many instances after that where the whole community being crucified on daily basis .We could have definitely seen that the campaigning against Islam terrorism getting converted against the whole Islam.Whether it is the murder of an innocent brazilian by London police or the mass visa denial by U.S for those who have muslim names. It's understandable how much this would have hurt the majority of Muslims.We can imagine the mental stress of a normal muslim who is being viewed as a strange creature by the so called do-gooders.Even sikhs have been harassed simply because they keep beard and turban.
We can not see the Mohammad cartoons as a separate issue, rather it could be seen as the continuation of that campaigning against Islam. This and only this provoked Islamists all over the world. And as like supplying petrol to fire many newspapers republished the cartoons aggressively saying the issue of freedom of speech.But the community would have been respected if the protests had been peaceful. Some people would quote the comparatively mild protests towards Davinci code by Christians. But we should not forget that there is no coordinated campaigning towards Christianity and this was an odd one. But be it Pardha, liberation of women, shariah ;Everything in Islam has become a subject to criticism. And when they criticize they are forgetting that all religions in the world have black histories and all of them had built up on mere faith rather than concrete proofs.
Being religious is not a bad thing but religion by denouncing other religions is certainly unjustifiable.Most of the religious people have become so due to the spoon feeding which they have got about the religion during their childhood days.Those symbols cannot be easily erased from the mind of a human being.Almost all the religions are just providing a path for self realization.The ignorant people trust their religious tutors like gods and get indulged in madness.This is not only applicable to the terrorist but also to all of us who keeps hatred towards other's religion.
What we need is a mind to accept others, even if they are opposing our attitudes.And we should not forget that even the poorest of poor has an individuality and right to hold their opinion.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Will he make it ?
Atlast that announcement came officaially.Shashi tharoor would be contested for the U.N secretary General's post as an official candidate of India.Though,criticism started flowing form many corners , it was like a dream that comes true for many people.To be frank,I was one among them.
The possibility of Mr.Sahshi Tharoor's being appointed as the next U.N secreatary general was foreseen by Malayala manorama nearly two years before in an article .Even before that, I had become an ardent fan of Mr.Tharoor .Mainly because of reading some news pieces about the brilliant personality .I used to follow his famous sunday column "The Shashi Tharoor Column" in "The Hindu",keeping the dictionary in one side.He was a non relinquished Indian (as opposed to the Non Resident Indian) according to him.It really made me wonder when he wrote about M.T Vasudevan Nair and Women in Kerala both convincingly and authentically with tremendous ease .Normally it is being said that Keralites will forget their roots so quickly.But shashi tharoor would be an exception,though he had not lived in Kerala for a long time.I have seen about this in one of his column where he refers about this due to the influence of his father, late Mr.Chandran Tharoor ,whose flat in mumbai was literally like a shed for his relatives who are all coming to Mumbai seeking their future.
Everybody knows that being such a great intellectual and such an experienced person in international affairs ,he is an apppropriate candidate for the post whom any nation can blindly support.Lets hope that he will make it .
for knowing more about him,visit www.shashitharoor.com
The possibility of Mr.Sahshi Tharoor's being appointed as the next U.N secreatary general was foreseen by Malayala manorama nearly two years before in an article .Even before that, I had become an ardent fan of Mr.Tharoor .Mainly because of reading some news pieces about the brilliant personality .I used to follow his famous sunday column "The Shashi Tharoor Column" in "The Hindu",keeping the dictionary in one side.He was a non relinquished Indian (as opposed to the Non Resident Indian) according to him.It really made me wonder when he wrote about M.T Vasudevan Nair and Women in Kerala both convincingly and authentically with tremendous ease .Normally it is being said that Keralites will forget their roots so quickly.But shashi tharoor would be an exception,though he had not lived in Kerala for a long time.I have seen about this in one of his column where he refers about this due to the influence of his father, late Mr.Chandran Tharoor ,whose flat in mumbai was literally like a shed for his relatives who are all coming to Mumbai seeking their future.
Everybody knows that being such a great intellectual and such an experienced person in international affairs ,he is an apppropriate candidate for the post whom any nation can blindly support.Lets hope that he will make it .
for knowing more about him,visit www.shashitharoor.com
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Quote of the day
hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine
" Message to the Tricontinental" -Che Guevara
Che Guevara was an Argentine-born physician, Marxist revolutionary, politician, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. As a young man studying medicine, Guevara traveled "rough" throughout Latin America, bringing him into direct contact with the poverty in which many people lived. Through these experiences he became convinced that only revolution could remedy the region's economic inequality, leading him to study Marxism and become involved in Guatemala's social revolution under President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. Sometime later, Guevara became a member of Fidel Castro's paramilitary 26th of July Movement that seized power in Cuba in 1959. After serving in various important posts in the new government and writing a number of articles and books on the theory and practice of guerrilla warfare, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 with the intention of fomenting revolutions first in the Congo-Kinshasa and then in Bolivia, where he was captured in a CIA-organized military operation. Guevara died at the hands of the Bolivian Army in La Higuera near Vallegrande on October 9, 1967
(From Wikipedia)
" Message to the Tricontinental" -Che Guevara
Che Guevara was an Argentine-born physician, Marxist revolutionary, politician, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. As a young man studying medicine, Guevara traveled "rough" throughout Latin America, bringing him into direct contact with the poverty in which many people lived. Through these experiences he became convinced that only revolution could remedy the region's economic inequality, leading him to study Marxism and become involved in Guatemala's social revolution under President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. Sometime later, Guevara became a member of Fidel Castro's paramilitary 26th of July Movement that seized power in Cuba in 1959. After serving in various important posts in the new government and writing a number of articles and books on the theory and practice of guerrilla warfare, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 with the intention of fomenting revolutions first in the Congo-Kinshasa and then in Bolivia, where he was captured in a CIA-organized military operation. Guevara died at the hands of the Bolivian Army in La Higuera near Vallegrande on October 9, 1967
(From Wikipedia)
Thursday, May 25, 2006
How did Karan Trapper trap Arjun Singh
Exerpts from a CNN-IBN interview
Karan Thapar: Most of the people would accept that steps are necessary to help the OBCs gain greater access to higher education. The real question is: Why do you believe that reservations is the best way of doing this?
Arjun Singh: I wouldn't like to say much more on this because these are decisions that are taken not by individuals alone. And in this case, the entire Parliament of this country - almost with rare unanimity - has decided to take this decision.
"Parliament has taken a view and it has taken a decision, I am a servant of Parliament and I will only implement"
Karan Thapar: Except that Parliament is not infallible. In the Emergency, when it amended the Constitution, it was clearly wrong, it had to reverse its own amendments. So, the question arises: Why does Parliament believe that the reservation is the right way of helping the OBCs?
Arjun Singh: Nobody is infallible. But Parliament is Supreme and at least I, as a Member of Parliament, cannot but accept the supremacy of Parliament.
Karan Thapar: No doubt Parliament is supreme, but the Constitutional amendment that gives you your authorities actually enabling amendment, it is not a compulsory requirement. Secondly, the language of the amendment does not talk about reservations, the language talks about any provision by law for advancement of socially and educationally backward classes. So, you could have chosen anything other than reservations, why reservations?
Arjun Singh: Because as I said, that was the 'will and desire of the Parliament'.
Karan Thapar: Do you personally also, as Minister of Human Resource Development, believe that reservations is the right and proper way to help the OBCs?
Arjun Singh: Certainly, that is one of the most important ways to do it.
Karan Thapar: The right way?
Arjun Singh: Also the right way.
Karan Thapar: In which case, lets ask a few basic questions. We are talking about the reservations for the OBCs in particular. Do you know what percentage of the Indian population is OBC? Mandal puts it at 52 per cent, the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) at 32 per cent, the National Family and Health Survey at 29.8 per cent, which is the correct figure?
Arjun Singh: I think that should be decided by people who are more knowledgeable. But the point is that the OBCs form a fairly sizeable percentage of our population.
Karan Thapar: No doubt, but the reason why it is important to know 'what percentage' they form is that if you are going to have reservations for them, then you must know what percentage of the population they are, otherwise you don't know whether they are already adequately catered to in higher educational institutions or not.
Arjun Singh: That is obvious - they are not.
Karan Thapar: Why is it obvious?
Arjun Singh: Obvious because it is something which we all see.
Karan Thapar: Except for the fact that the NSSO, which is a government appointed body, has actually in its research in 1999 - which is the most latest research shown - that 23.5 per cent of all university seats are already with the OBCs. And that is just 8.5 per cent less than what the NSSO believes is the OBC share of the population. So, for a difference of 8 per cent, would reservations be the right way of making up the difference?
Arjun Singh: I wouldn't like to go behind all this because, as I said, Parliament has taken a view and it has taken a decision, I am a servant of Parliament and I will only implement.
Karan Thapar: Absolutely, Parliament has taken a view, I grant it. But what people question is the simple fact - Is there a need for reservations? If you don't know what percentage of the country is OBC and if, furthermore, the NSSO is correct in pointing out that already 23.5 per cent of the college seats are with the OBC, then you don't have a case in terms of need.
Arjun Singh: College seats, I don't know.
Karan Thapar: According to the NSSO - which is a government appointed body - 23.5 per cent of the college seats are already with the OBCs.
Arjun Singh: What do you mean by college seats?
Karan Thapar: University seats, seats of higher education.
Arjun Singh: Well, I don't know I have not come across that so far.
Karan Thapar: So, when critics say to you that you don't have a case for reservation in terms of need, what do you say to them?
Arjun Singh: I have said what I had to say and the point is that that is not an issue for us to now debate.
Karan Thapar: You mean the chapter is now closed?
Arjun Singh: The decision has been taken.
Karan Thapar: Regardless of whether there is a need or not, the decision is taken and it is a closed chapter.
Arjun Singh: So far as I can see, it is a closed chapter and that is why I have to implement what all Parliament has said.
"So far as I can see, it is a closed chapter and that is why I have to implement what all Parliament has said"
Karan Thapar: Minister, it is not just in terms of 'need' that your critics question the decision to have reservation for OBCs in higher education. More importantly, they question whether reservations themselves are efficacious and can work.
For example, a study done by the IITs themselves shows that 50 per cent of the IIT seats for the SCs and STs remain vacant, and for the remaining 50 per cent, 25 per cent are the candidates who even after six years fail to get their degrees. So, clearly, in their case, reservations are not working.
Arjun Singh: I would only say that on this issue, it would not be correct to go by all these figures that have been paraded.
Karan Thapar: You mean the IIT figures themselves could be dubious?
Arjun Singh: Not dubious, but I think that is not the last word.
Karan Thapar: All right, maybe the IIT may not be the last word, let me then quote to you the report of the Parliamentary Committee on the welfare for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes - that is a Parliamentary body.
It says, that looking at the Delhi University, between 1995 and 2000, just half the seats for under-graduates at the Scheduled Castes level and just one-third of the seats for under-graduates at the Scheduled Tribes level were filled. All the others went empty, unfilled. So, again, even in Delhi University, reservations are not working.
Arjun Singh: If they are not working, it does not mean that for that reason we don't need them. There must be some other reason why they are not working and that can be certainly probed and examined. But to say that for this reason, 'no reservations need to be done' is not correct.
Karan Thapar: Fifty years after the reservations were made, statistics show, according to The Hindustan Times, that overall in India, only 16 per cent of the places in higher education are occupied by SCs and STs. The quota is 22.5 per cent, which means that only two-thirds of the quota is occupied. One-third is going waste, it is being denied to other people.
Arjun Singh: As I said, the kind of figures that have been brought out, in my perception, do not reflect the realities. Realities are something much more and, of course, there is an element of prejudice also.
Karan Thapar: But these are figures that come from a Parliamentary Committee. It can't be prejudiced; they are your own colleagues.
Arjun Singh: Parliamentary Committee has given the figures, but as to why this has not happened, that is a different matter.
Karan Thapar: I put it to you that you don't have a case for reservations in terms of need, you don't have a case for reservations in terms of their efficacy, why then, are you insisting on extending them to the OBCs?
Arjun Singh: I don't want to use that word, but I think that your argument is basically fallacious.
Karan Thapar: But it is based on all the facts available in the public domain.
Arjun Singh: Those are facts that need to be gone into with more care. What lies behind those facts, why this has not happened, that is also a fact.
Karan Thapar: Let?s approach the issue of reservations differently in that case. Reservations mean that a lesser-qualified candidate gets preference over a more qualified candidate, solely because in this case, he or she happens to be an OBC. In other words, the upper castes are being penalised for being upper caste.
Arjun Singh: Nobody is being penalised and that is a factor that we are trying to address. I think that the Prime Minister will be talking to all the political parties and will be putting forward a formula, which will see that nobody is being penalised.
Karan Thapar: I want very much to talk about that formula, but before we come to talk about how you are going to address concerns, let me point one other corollary: Reservations also gives preference and favour to caste over merit. Is that acceptable in a modern society?
Arjun Singh: I don't think the perceptions of modern society fit India entirely.
Karan Thapar: You mean India is not a modern society and therefore can't claim to be treated as one?
Arjun Singh: It is emerging as a modern society, but the parameters of a modern society do not apply to large sections of the people in this country.
Karan Thapar: Let me quote to you Jawaharlal Nehru, a man whom you personally admire enormously. On the 27th of June 1961 wrote to the Chief Ministers of the day as follows: I dislike any kind of reservations. If we go in for any kind of reservations on communal and caste basis, we will swamp the bright and able people and remain second-rate or third-rate. The moment we encourage the second-rate, we are lost. And then he adds pointedly: This way lies not only folly, but also disaster. What do you say to Jawaharlal Nehru today?
Arjun Singh: Jawaharlal Nehru was a great man in his own right and not only me, but everyone in India accept his view.
Karan Thapar: But you are just about to ignore his advice.
Arjun Singh: No. Are you aware that it was Jawaharlal Nehru who introduced the first amendment regarding OBCs?
"I don't think the perceptions of modern society fit India entirely. It is emerging as a modern society, but the parameters of a modern society do not apply to large sections of the people in this country"
Karan Thapar: Yes, and I am talking about Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961, when clearly he had changed his position, he said, ?I dislike any kind of reservations?.
Arjun Singh: I don't think one could take Pandit ji 's position at any point of time and then overlook what he had himself initiated.
Karan Thapar: Am I then to understand that regardless of the case that is made against reservations in terms of need, regardless of the case that has been made against reservations in terms of efficacy, regardless of the case that has been made against reservations in terms of Jawaharlal Nehru, you remain committed to extending reservations to the OBCs.
Arjun Singh: I said because that is the will of Parliament. And I think that common decisions that are taken by Parliament have to be honoured.
Karan Thapar: Let me ask you a few basic questions. If reservations are going to happen for the OBCs in higher education, what percentage of reservations are we talking about?
Arjun Singh: No, that I can't say because that has yet to be decided.
Karan Thapar: Could it be less than 27 per cent?
Arjun Singh: I can't say anything on that, I have told you in the very beginning that at this point of time it is not possible for me to.
Karan Thapar: Quite right. If you can't say, then that also means that the figure has not been decided.
Arjun Singh: The figure will be decided, it has not been decided yet.
Karan Thapar: The figure has not been decided. So, therefore the figure could be 27, but it could be less than 27, too?
Arjun Singh: I don't want to speculate on that because as I said, that is a decision which will be taken by Parliament.
Karan Thapar: Whatever the figure, one thing is certain that when the reservations for OBCs happen, the total quantum of reservations will go up in percentage terms. Will you compensate by increasing the total number of seats in colleges, universities, IITs and IIMs so that the other students don't feel deprived.
Arjun Singh: That is one of the suggestions that has been made and is being seriously considered.
Karan Thapar: Does it find favour with you as a Minister for Human Resource Development?
Arjun Singh: Whatever suggestion comes, we are committed to examine it.
Karan Thapar: You may be committed to examine it, but do you as minister believe that that is the right way forward?
Arjun Singh: That could be one of the ways, but not the only way.
Karan Thapar: What are the other ways?
Arjun Singh: I don't know. That is for the Prime Minister and the other ministers to decide.
Karan Thapar: One way forward would be to increase the total number of seats.
Arjun Singh: Yes, definitely.
So,we can hope for it ,right?
Karan Thapar: Most of the people would accept that steps are necessary to help the OBCs gain greater access to higher education. The real question is: Why do you believe that reservations is the best way of doing this?
Arjun Singh: I wouldn't like to say much more on this because these are decisions that are taken not by individuals alone. And in this case, the entire Parliament of this country - almost with rare unanimity - has decided to take this decision.
"Parliament has taken a view and it has taken a decision, I am a servant of Parliament and I will only implement"
Karan Thapar: Except that Parliament is not infallible. In the Emergency, when it amended the Constitution, it was clearly wrong, it had to reverse its own amendments. So, the question arises: Why does Parliament believe that the reservation is the right way of helping the OBCs?
Arjun Singh: Nobody is infallible. But Parliament is Supreme and at least I, as a Member of Parliament, cannot but accept the supremacy of Parliament.
Karan Thapar: No doubt Parliament is supreme, but the Constitutional amendment that gives you your authorities actually enabling amendment, it is not a compulsory requirement. Secondly, the language of the amendment does not talk about reservations, the language talks about any provision by law for advancement of socially and educationally backward classes. So, you could have chosen anything other than reservations, why reservations?
Arjun Singh: Because as I said, that was the 'will and desire of the Parliament'.
Karan Thapar: Do you personally also, as Minister of Human Resource Development, believe that reservations is the right and proper way to help the OBCs?
Arjun Singh: Certainly, that is one of the most important ways to do it.
Karan Thapar: The right way?
Arjun Singh: Also the right way.
Karan Thapar: In which case, lets ask a few basic questions. We are talking about the reservations for the OBCs in particular. Do you know what percentage of the Indian population is OBC? Mandal puts it at 52 per cent, the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) at 32 per cent, the National Family and Health Survey at 29.8 per cent, which is the correct figure?
Arjun Singh: I think that should be decided by people who are more knowledgeable. But the point is that the OBCs form a fairly sizeable percentage of our population.
Karan Thapar: No doubt, but the reason why it is important to know 'what percentage' they form is that if you are going to have reservations for them, then you must know what percentage of the population they are, otherwise you don't know whether they are already adequately catered to in higher educational institutions or not.
Arjun Singh: That is obvious - they are not.
Karan Thapar: Why is it obvious?
Arjun Singh: Obvious because it is something which we all see.
Karan Thapar: Except for the fact that the NSSO, which is a government appointed body, has actually in its research in 1999 - which is the most latest research shown - that 23.5 per cent of all university seats are already with the OBCs. And that is just 8.5 per cent less than what the NSSO believes is the OBC share of the population. So, for a difference of 8 per cent, would reservations be the right way of making up the difference?
Arjun Singh: I wouldn't like to go behind all this because, as I said, Parliament has taken a view and it has taken a decision, I am a servant of Parliament and I will only implement.
Karan Thapar: Absolutely, Parliament has taken a view, I grant it. But what people question is the simple fact - Is there a need for reservations? If you don't know what percentage of the country is OBC and if, furthermore, the NSSO is correct in pointing out that already 23.5 per cent of the college seats are with the OBC, then you don't have a case in terms of need.
Arjun Singh: College seats, I don't know.
Karan Thapar: According to the NSSO - which is a government appointed body - 23.5 per cent of the college seats are already with the OBCs.
Arjun Singh: What do you mean by college seats?
Karan Thapar: University seats, seats of higher education.
Arjun Singh: Well, I don't know I have not come across that so far.
Karan Thapar: So, when critics say to you that you don't have a case for reservation in terms of need, what do you say to them?
Arjun Singh: I have said what I had to say and the point is that that is not an issue for us to now debate.
Karan Thapar: You mean the chapter is now closed?
Arjun Singh: The decision has been taken.
Karan Thapar: Regardless of whether there is a need or not, the decision is taken and it is a closed chapter.
Arjun Singh: So far as I can see, it is a closed chapter and that is why I have to implement what all Parliament has said.
"So far as I can see, it is a closed chapter and that is why I have to implement what all Parliament has said"
Karan Thapar: Minister, it is not just in terms of 'need' that your critics question the decision to have reservation for OBCs in higher education. More importantly, they question whether reservations themselves are efficacious and can work.
For example, a study done by the IITs themselves shows that 50 per cent of the IIT seats for the SCs and STs remain vacant, and for the remaining 50 per cent, 25 per cent are the candidates who even after six years fail to get their degrees. So, clearly, in their case, reservations are not working.
Arjun Singh: I would only say that on this issue, it would not be correct to go by all these figures that have been paraded.
Karan Thapar: You mean the IIT figures themselves could be dubious?
Arjun Singh: Not dubious, but I think that is not the last word.
Karan Thapar: All right, maybe the IIT may not be the last word, let me then quote to you the report of the Parliamentary Committee on the welfare for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes - that is a Parliamentary body.
It says, that looking at the Delhi University, between 1995 and 2000, just half the seats for under-graduates at the Scheduled Castes level and just one-third of the seats for under-graduates at the Scheduled Tribes level were filled. All the others went empty, unfilled. So, again, even in Delhi University, reservations are not working.
Arjun Singh: If they are not working, it does not mean that for that reason we don't need them. There must be some other reason why they are not working and that can be certainly probed and examined. But to say that for this reason, 'no reservations need to be done' is not correct.
Karan Thapar: Fifty years after the reservations were made, statistics show, according to The Hindustan Times, that overall in India, only 16 per cent of the places in higher education are occupied by SCs and STs. The quota is 22.5 per cent, which means that only two-thirds of the quota is occupied. One-third is going waste, it is being denied to other people.
Arjun Singh: As I said, the kind of figures that have been brought out, in my perception, do not reflect the realities. Realities are something much more and, of course, there is an element of prejudice also.
Karan Thapar: But these are figures that come from a Parliamentary Committee. It can't be prejudiced; they are your own colleagues.
Arjun Singh: Parliamentary Committee has given the figures, but as to why this has not happened, that is a different matter.
Karan Thapar: I put it to you that you don't have a case for reservations in terms of need, you don't have a case for reservations in terms of their efficacy, why then, are you insisting on extending them to the OBCs?
Arjun Singh: I don't want to use that word, but I think that your argument is basically fallacious.
Karan Thapar: But it is based on all the facts available in the public domain.
Arjun Singh: Those are facts that need to be gone into with more care. What lies behind those facts, why this has not happened, that is also a fact.
Karan Thapar: Let?s approach the issue of reservations differently in that case. Reservations mean that a lesser-qualified candidate gets preference over a more qualified candidate, solely because in this case, he or she happens to be an OBC. In other words, the upper castes are being penalised for being upper caste.
Arjun Singh: Nobody is being penalised and that is a factor that we are trying to address. I think that the Prime Minister will be talking to all the political parties and will be putting forward a formula, which will see that nobody is being penalised.
Karan Thapar: I want very much to talk about that formula, but before we come to talk about how you are going to address concerns, let me point one other corollary: Reservations also gives preference and favour to caste over merit. Is that acceptable in a modern society?
Arjun Singh: I don't think the perceptions of modern society fit India entirely.
Karan Thapar: You mean India is not a modern society and therefore can't claim to be treated as one?
Arjun Singh: It is emerging as a modern society, but the parameters of a modern society do not apply to large sections of the people in this country.
Karan Thapar: Let me quote to you Jawaharlal Nehru, a man whom you personally admire enormously. On the 27th of June 1961 wrote to the Chief Ministers of the day as follows: I dislike any kind of reservations. If we go in for any kind of reservations on communal and caste basis, we will swamp the bright and able people and remain second-rate or third-rate. The moment we encourage the second-rate, we are lost. And then he adds pointedly: This way lies not only folly, but also disaster. What do you say to Jawaharlal Nehru today?
Arjun Singh: Jawaharlal Nehru was a great man in his own right and not only me, but everyone in India accept his view.
Karan Thapar: But you are just about to ignore his advice.
Arjun Singh: No. Are you aware that it was Jawaharlal Nehru who introduced the first amendment regarding OBCs?
"I don't think the perceptions of modern society fit India entirely. It is emerging as a modern society, but the parameters of a modern society do not apply to large sections of the people in this country"
Karan Thapar: Yes, and I am talking about Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961, when clearly he had changed his position, he said, ?I dislike any kind of reservations?.
Arjun Singh: I don't think one could take Pandit ji 's position at any point of time and then overlook what he had himself initiated.
Karan Thapar: Am I then to understand that regardless of the case that is made against reservations in terms of need, regardless of the case that has been made against reservations in terms of efficacy, regardless of the case that has been made against reservations in terms of Jawaharlal Nehru, you remain committed to extending reservations to the OBCs.
Arjun Singh: I said because that is the will of Parliament. And I think that common decisions that are taken by Parliament have to be honoured.
Karan Thapar: Let me ask you a few basic questions. If reservations are going to happen for the OBCs in higher education, what percentage of reservations are we talking about?
Arjun Singh: No, that I can't say because that has yet to be decided.
Karan Thapar: Could it be less than 27 per cent?
Arjun Singh: I can't say anything on that, I have told you in the very beginning that at this point of time it is not possible for me to.
Karan Thapar: Quite right. If you can't say, then that also means that the figure has not been decided.
Arjun Singh: The figure will be decided, it has not been decided yet.
Karan Thapar: The figure has not been decided. So, therefore the figure could be 27, but it could be less than 27, too?
Arjun Singh: I don't want to speculate on that because as I said, that is a decision which will be taken by Parliament.
Karan Thapar: Whatever the figure, one thing is certain that when the reservations for OBCs happen, the total quantum of reservations will go up in percentage terms. Will you compensate by increasing the total number of seats in colleges, universities, IITs and IIMs so that the other students don't feel deprived.
Arjun Singh: That is one of the suggestions that has been made and is being seriously considered.
Karan Thapar: Does it find favour with you as a Minister for Human Resource Development?
Arjun Singh: Whatever suggestion comes, we are committed to examine it.
Karan Thapar: You may be committed to examine it, but do you as minister believe that that is the right way forward?
Arjun Singh: That could be one of the ways, but not the only way.
Karan Thapar: What are the other ways?
Arjun Singh: I don't know. That is for the Prime Minister and the other ministers to decide.
Karan Thapar: One way forward would be to increase the total number of seats.
Arjun Singh: Yes, definitely.
So,we can hope for it ,right?
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Meeting with a fellow creature
Today I had my morning tea from the farmacy in our campus.Since a table and some chairs were there outside the shop and nobody was occupying the seat,I thought it'd be better to sit there and relax for some time.Do I need to mention that I was alone?.some girls from the neighbouring hostel was there in the shop and I could see more people coming through the road.
After having my tea I droped the cup there in the ground itself as a normal Indian .
Suddenly a dog caught my attention.I dont know if the term 'dog' is the right one(But it was a small dog and its strange for me to use words like puppy).The dog was running towards my cup. He(gender is a guess) put his head into the cup .He tried to clean the cup though nothing was inside it.A face resembling like a sad human face came out of the cup.Yes,surely it would not have gotten its breakfast.probably,in the previous day too .After the first failed attempt,it satrted scanning throught the ground and licking the things which appeared like food to him(if you felt offended by the word 'licking' ,I am sorry,but it was doing so).but sadly not even a piece of bread was there in the ground.The only thing it got was some dead insects.With deep sorrow ,it gave a look at me.But the social animal in me was not kind enough to buy some food for that poor creature.
I watched the whole drama with a cruel sympathy.Perhaps thinking like ,one good thing done in a moment would not make you Gandhi throught the life.And when I thought over it again ,I recalled the Indian ideology of reincarnation.
And who knows,in the next life I may be in the dog's place and the dog may be in my seat ...
After having my tea I droped the cup there in the ground itself as a normal Indian .
Suddenly a dog caught my attention.I dont know if the term 'dog' is the right one(But it was a small dog and its strange for me to use words like puppy).The dog was running towards my cup. He(gender is a guess) put his head into the cup .He tried to clean the cup though nothing was inside it.A face resembling like a sad human face came out of the cup.Yes,surely it would not have gotten its breakfast.probably,in the previous day too .After the first failed attempt,it satrted scanning throught the ground and licking the things which appeared like food to him(if you felt offended by the word 'licking' ,I am sorry,but it was doing so).but sadly not even a piece of bread was there in the ground.The only thing it got was some dead insects.With deep sorrow ,it gave a look at me.But the social animal in me was not kind enough to buy some food for that poor creature.
I watched the whole drama with a cruel sympathy.Perhaps thinking like ,one good thing done in a moment would not make you Gandhi throught the life.And when I thought over it again ,I recalled the Indian ideology of reincarnation.
And who knows,in the next life I may be in the dog's place and the dog may be in my seat ...
Can we change the soceity?
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world: indeed it's the only thing that ever has!
-Margaret Mead
You must be the change that you want to see in the world.
-Mahtma Gandhi
Many, will laugh when they see a subject like this,because there are some beliefs which indeed got deep rooted among people's mind.Obviously,the answer to the subject will be a big emphatic "NO" by most of the people since evreybody has forced to believe that they are not that all important in the society. We can put it in another way - most of us believe that a single person can not change the world.But as quoted by somebody "each and every moment you spent were your opportunity to change the world".
Today I spoke with senthil arumugam(for knowing more about him "click ") and that was the reason for me to spend some time on this topic.Even though I was knowing only a little about his organization he spent time to gather comments from the maximum and hence I too had to share my thoughts with him.
-Margaret Mead
You must be the change that you want to see in the world.
-Mahtma Gandhi
Many, will laugh when they see a subject like this,because there are some beliefs which indeed got deep rooted among people's mind.Obviously,the answer to the subject will be a big emphatic "NO" by most of the people since evreybody has forced to believe that they are not that all important in the society. We can put it in another way - most of us believe that a single person can not change the world.But as quoted by somebody "each and every moment you spent were your opportunity to change the world".
Today I spoke with senthil arumugam(for knowing more about him "click ") and that was the reason for me to spend some time on this topic.Even though I was knowing only a little about his organization he spent time to gather comments from the maximum and hence I too had to share my thoughts with him.
Many issues are there in our planet which could be or should be resolved .It can be categorized into different groups.I think,we can classify the issues mainly into two types.
Enviornmental Issues:Issues such as the usage of plastics,pollution,waste disposal etc..
Social issues:Issues like food,shelter,dress,education etc...
Since all these issues have categories and subcategories it is highly unlikely for any person or any group to eradicate any of these issue completely from a region (not from the whole world). We can find the traces of all of these issues everywhere, but it may vary from region to region. So it all matters with the particular area where we are keeping focus into and the number of people whom we can associate with the plan.
Education:
I need not mention that education plays a crucial role in the overall personality of a person. According to a newspaper, many people in Bihar still believe that a king called Jawaharlal Nehru rules India. God’s grace! They at least know that India is being ruled by Indians.Let’s take the example of the so-called ‘banjares’ whose tents can be seen near almost every every towns of India.They might be doing various jobs. We can see most of them as the creators of wonderful statues. Some of them will be artists ,some of them will be singers.Some might even be thieves.
It is a common visual in an town that a boy carrying some statues or mats and knocking the gates of every home he sees. They do not feel election or OBC reservation as issues. They are not even going to the schools (though there is a law which ensures it). So, why should they bother about the reservations in IITs and AIIMS? .Since every human being spends considerable time for thoughts, what would be their thoughts? What would be their dreams?......who cares?
How can we bring them to the mainstream?
We can still see lots of children doing their work in hotels, shops etc. What is the probability for a beggar’s children getting proper education? They may not have been associated with a proper state. If today they are in Tamilnadu,by tomorrow they might be in another state. Suppose a group of dedicated people launched a plan to educate these children, by forcing them to attend the class or with the help of the authorities. Won’t they face challenges from the class, which they belong to. Surely they will. But all depends on the nature and the strength of the program, which is launched. According to communist manifesto there are only two classes-The upper class burgeous, and the lower class proletariat.
But is it so? The class, which I spoke about, is indeed out of these three. They are not bothering about the social set up.
They simply live...
Active participation: This is the solution for all the issues. Every human being despite of his profession should participate in the society actively. It does not matter whether he/she is an engineer, begger, shopkeeper or whatever he/she may be. If everybody started participating in this beautiful harmony of social life without considering them as a separate entity ,do we feel all these sorrows?
(We can even write a book but time is not permitting me to continue with this topic.....may be continued later)
Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can't be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people. (Quote is not mine)
Quote of the day
Some people like my advice so much that they frame it up on the wall instead of using it.
-Gordon R.Dickson
Gordon Rupert Dickson (November 1, 1923 – January 31, 2001) was a Canadian science fiction author. Although he was born in Canada, he spent most of his life in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is probably most famous for his Childe Cycle books. He won three Hugo awards.
-Gordon R.Dickson
Gordon Rupert Dickson (November 1, 1923 – January 31, 2001) was a Canadian science fiction author. Although he was born in Canada, he spent most of his life in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is probably most famous for his Childe Cycle books. He won three Hugo awards.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Mandal Revisited !!!!
Is reservation the best way to ensure the enlistment of the backward classes? That is the hot topic now. Yesterday from the bus I saw a poster at the bus stand, which describes the Aiims students as followers of Manu.
Was Manu that bad? Thoughts started rushing into my mind.
I know Manu is the name that is being misused in most of the cast based political stunts. And the funniest think is that,not many people know who exactly was Manu. They know only some sentences from manusmrithi such as "na sthree swathanthryam arhasi".
Since manusmrithi and Manu himself is a huge subject I am not trying to dig it more. Lets take it for another day. Here the important issue is reservations. The 27 percentage of reservation for OBC added with 22.5 % SC/ST seats would make a huge total of 49.5 % of seats of reservation. Can this be justified?
Let's try to summarize the major points, which supports reservation and oppose reservation.
* The depressed classes became so because of the depression, which persisted over centuries.
* 50 years of reservation is not sufficient to bring them back to the mainstream.
* The backward classes are still backward only.
The youth for equality movement by the AIIMS students which got some support from the intelligentsia opposes these arguments by saying .
* Merit will get back seated.
* Reservation will affect the quality of the premier institutions and eventually will also affect the country.
* Cast system, which is considered as the root of all the evils will again come back to the mainstream and cast based politics will gain momentum.
An independent observer can see valid arguments by both sides.But one think we can easily see that reservation had not done the desired effect so far.
Anyway as of now there is no sign of a full stop for the reservation scheme as any decision against it may hit a blow on the precious vote bank.
Out of topic: "yathra naryasthu poojyanthe.Thathra devatham ramanthe" : Manusmrithi
Thursday, May 11, 2006
I too created a blog
I wonder why didn't I do this before.May be due to my lack of knowledge about the creative possibilities of a blog .I think, I had been carrying that feeling in my subconscious that ablog cannot be marketed and it's a sheer wastage of time.
But I am reconsidering it.As a first step ,I created this and this will be the echo of my charecter,thoughts and everything(I hope..).If not ,what's the need of keeping a blog like this?
But I am reconsidering it.As a first step ,I created this and this will be the echo of my charecter,thoughts and everything(I hope..).If not ,what's the need of keeping a blog like this?
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