quotas and classes

So it's back. Indian politicians are back with the age old agenda. Quota system. A system which adds marks to your educational merit because you belong to a certain class which is broadly defined as "backward" or "scheduled". A system which reserves places and posts for you because you're born in a family with a certain last name. A system which was probably introduced with good faith (but myopic sight) at the time when India became newly independent but now which only serves as vote banks for politicians who cajole the vast majority of rural population through such shenanigans.

Is this the right way of bringing prosperity to the a family classified in one of these castes? What if it was already prosperous to begin with? What about the unfairness caused to the one who missed the opportunity because he/she wasn't born in a scheduled family? If you really want to uplift the downtrodden, shouldn't the system be rather based on providing monetary support for education to the financially backward, when they are kids rather than gifting them an automatic seat or a position regardless of their abilities when they have all grown up in to nothingness?

How does the politicians plan to spread equality when they are hell bent on dividing the country based on such technicalities. But we all know this already, don't we? The Mulayam Yadavs know it and the Arjun Singhs and V.P. Singhs are aware of it. While the constitution must be respected it could also be amended to remove the clauses that allow such things to unveil. But it is definitely not happening today.

views on views

A lot of people don't believe in 3-dollar coffees. Neither do I. But that has not stopped me from throwing money on countless mochas at the neighborhood Starbucks. I mean after all it is called "Starbucks". Should have seen it coming. (But that's another topic altogether.) Unlike some, I do not share the fascination with coffee. Nor am I taken by the really disconnected and mostly shoddy music that plays at high pitches than required at those joints. I guess I can blame the capitalism that has sucked me into their mochas (or was it the other way round).

We can blame the capitalists, the lobbyists, the leftists, the rightists, the propaganda-ist. It's not that hard really. And if we say that we are better off or not with them around, it is a personal opinion and nothing to do with the current state of the world.

Like Superman said, that he doesn't drink before he flies and as I say I don't fly before I drink. Your view really depends on who you are. And what makes you is nothing but an aggregation of your viewpoints. That's the recursive definition of a person. But again, that's my view.

What are so relevant but often ignored are the reasons behind holding those views close to the heart. Developing an opinion is a gradual process - one that is a summation of your environments. Switching it is almost instantaneous as all it takes is a jibe at your belief brought upon by a one-off experience. While a gradually developed view has a lot of room for change, one that is created overnight becomes carved in stone.

And erosion of those stone carvings can come only by chipping away at the stone. So it's upto you to mould a sculpture or quarry the stone.