Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Good people !
Those who think that good people do not exist in this world surely don't know about Wikipedia, youtube and torrents :)
Reservation for backword classes and why I support the idea
This question is haunting me ever since Arjun Singh announced the increased reservation for the OBCs which took the percentage of the reserved position in all government institutions to 50% approx. I saw many debates regarding this and now I have some opinion on this.
There are two aspects of this issue. One is the about the idea or the concept of reservation itself. Should there be any reservation at all or should there be not? If the answer to this question is affirmative then the second question comes into picture that is how should it be implemented?
Initially I was against the very idea of reservation, especially during my 10th and 12th standards. But, now as I think of it, that opposition was because of me being denied an opportunity of studying in a good institute and not because I thought one can not and should not compromise on quality, which I claimed to be my basis for the opposition to this concept. Now I support the idea of reservation.
Let me explain. When I used to say that students should be given the admissions on basis of their marks only and not on basis of their cast, I was ignoring one big issue that we have here, that is the cast system. Say I have 90% marks and a person from a reserved category has 85%, I used to say that I should be given preference for admission.
But what I did not consider is how I got my 90% marks and how he got his marks. I think my upbringing played very important role in this. The culture at home matters a lot. My father is a doctorate in microbiology. My paternal grandfather is a lawyer and my maternal grandfather is a doctor. Now, compare this with the other guy whose forefathers, for centuries, did nothing but cleaning of roads and gutters. So it boils down to one question, Is the development of a human being because of his nature or his nurture?
By development because of nature I mean that a human being is what he is , in spite of his upbringing and the environment which he grows in has no effect on him whatsoever. I don't think so. I believe that what goes around does play an important role in an average person's development. So crude comparison of marks is not the fair way to judge merit.
Next part is about the implementation of this concept and how can undeserving people be left out of this benefit. I think that if a person thinks that he needs reservation, he is the one who needs it badly. There will be a time when people will think that they don't need reservation. And then only we can do away with it.
There are two aspects of this issue. One is the about the idea or the concept of reservation itself. Should there be any reservation at all or should there be not? If the answer to this question is affirmative then the second question comes into picture that is how should it be implemented?
Initially I was against the very idea of reservation, especially during my 10th and 12th standards. But, now as I think of it, that opposition was because of me being denied an opportunity of studying in a good institute and not because I thought one can not and should not compromise on quality, which I claimed to be my basis for the opposition to this concept. Now I support the idea of reservation.
Let me explain. When I used to say that students should be given the admissions on basis of their marks only and not on basis of their cast, I was ignoring one big issue that we have here, that is the cast system. Say I have 90% marks and a person from a reserved category has 85%, I used to say that I should be given preference for admission.
But what I did not consider is how I got my 90% marks and how he got his marks. I think my upbringing played very important role in this. The culture at home matters a lot. My father is a doctorate in microbiology. My paternal grandfather is a lawyer and my maternal grandfather is a doctor. Now, compare this with the other guy whose forefathers, for centuries, did nothing but cleaning of roads and gutters. So it boils down to one question, Is the development of a human being because of his nature or his nurture?
By development because of nature I mean that a human being is what he is , in spite of his upbringing and the environment which he grows in has no effect on him whatsoever. I don't think so. I believe that what goes around does play an important role in an average person's development. So crude comparison of marks is not the fair way to judge merit.
Next part is about the implementation of this concept and how can undeserving people be left out of this benefit. I think that if a person thinks that he needs reservation, he is the one who needs it badly. There will be a time when people will think that they don't need reservation. And then only we can do away with it.
Monday, August 17, 2009
It's not that big deal !
Today I open every Indian news paper site and I see the news of Shahrukh Khan being detained at New Jersy airport allegedly because his name was Khan. We had a similar story some days ago when our former president Dr. Kalam was frisked before boarding a US bound flight by the concerned airlines officials. That time also the incidence was blown much out of proportion as it is being done this time. In fact there are some valuable lessons we can learn from these incedences.
I personally respect Dr. Kalam a lot. But I am not mad at airline people for frisking him despite the fact that he was once the President of India. It's part of the security process that they follow strictly and I don't see anything wrong with that. I guess that is why there have been no terror strikes in US post 9/11. These people value the lives of civilians over some age old ,utterly rubbish protocols. And I never read anywhere Dr. Kalam complaining about that. The process has to be consistent. Just because a person holds or held a high position or is a celebrity should not allow him to bypass the security system. If I am frisked and so are many others, everybody has to undergo the same process. And it's same principle these guys follow.
It's we, the Indian people, who have some kind of colonial hangover. We have all these classes of VIPs and VVIPs and what not. Why should there be any exception to the security process when the internal security is the most important issue that we have at our hand here. People are talking about giving the same treatment to people like Hillory Clinton , Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie etc etc as a revenge. It should have been done ages ago. Not as a revenge , but as a routine process which is aimed at improving the internal security. Its high time that we take terror attacks seriously and not just some news we read along with sports and business.
I personally respect Dr. Kalam a lot. But I am not mad at airline people for frisking him despite the fact that he was once the President of India. It's part of the security process that they follow strictly and I don't see anything wrong with that. I guess that is why there have been no terror strikes in US post 9/11. These people value the lives of civilians over some age old ,utterly rubbish protocols. And I never read anywhere Dr. Kalam complaining about that. The process has to be consistent. Just because a person holds or held a high position or is a celebrity should not allow him to bypass the security system. If I am frisked and so are many others, everybody has to undergo the same process. And it's same principle these guys follow.
It's we, the Indian people, who have some kind of colonial hangover. We have all these classes of VIPs and VVIPs and what not. Why should there be any exception to the security process when the internal security is the most important issue that we have at our hand here. People are talking about giving the same treatment to people like Hillory Clinton , Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie etc etc as a revenge. It should have been done ages ago. Not as a revenge , but as a routine process which is aimed at improving the internal security. Its high time that we take terror attacks seriously and not just some news we read along with sports and business.
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