Unasked Reservations

         Reservations in India has been existent for more than half a century now. It was then, the need of the hour, to close the gap on discrimination. Throughout the tenure of existence it has for sure made a lot of impact on the lives of almost every Indian, be it good or bad. Some of its notable impacts are as follows...

• It has given way for the people from the backward classes (which was also the economically backward class, when this was introduced) an equal chance to be able to pursue education at esteemed institutions as well as be able to get reserved opportunities to have a shot at the employment prospects at all Government  and PSU establishments.
• It has been a very effective political tool to win elections since then, till date.
• It has failed to completely bridge the discrimination on the people's mind but has been aiding communal clashes both big and petty.
• It has made any government employee reap benefits (everything or nothing) resulting in a divided mindset on this concept.
• This has paved way for a few truly potential individuals and many incompetent individuals to rise to higher levels in the organizational ladder.
• With bribery and falsehood at ease, another very important impact is that countless people have doctored their caste identity to fall under one of the backward castes to harness its benefits.

          It's certain that a politician will neither raise a voice to, if not abolish but even alter the reservation rules based on the present needs nor will he allow any other person who may try to do that, be heard. Also they (The Politicians) have already started looking at roping in other MNC based employment sectors to abide by these reservation rules as well, to boost up their political presence 

                 Since the idea of reservation was started for the equality of opportunities in education and employment. There has been a few other sectors which hasn't been incorporated into this system for a long time and I would like to throw some light in that direction.

In Politics

• Why not the 825 (280 in RS & 545 in LS) seats in the parliament be apportioned and alloted based on the reservation quota rules?
• Why not every state election strictly abide by the reservation rules. E.g in Tamil Nadu the 234 legislative seats must constitute the combination of all castes summing upto the total count of 234?
• Another option for the previous one, every political party should choose their candidates with the mix of people, applying the reservation quota rules.
• The elections at reserved constituencies must be contested by the those of that caste only.
• During the vote counting in a constituency where the a BC candidate of a party and SC candidate of another party are contesting, the SC candidate should be given more preference even if lesser number of people have voted for him.

In Sports

• The playing team in every sport should be according to reservation quota policies for whichever level of participation, be it school, college, state or even representing India.
• If it's an individual sport, matches should take place between players of different castes, wherein the winner will represent the State or Nation in that sport. However the winning rules are different for different castes. For eg in a five game encounter, the upper caste has to win all 5 to move on further however the SC/ST are through to the next round even if they win just one game.
• In the IPL, every team MUST consist of at-least one of OC/BC/MBC/OBC/SC/ST. Also the at least TWO foreign players MUST have valid caste certificate belonging to any one these.

In Entertainment

• How about the lead role casts be chosen on caste based reservations? Why do they need to pick the cast and crew based on their skill, beauty or talent?
• The screening or the auditioning process MUST have the caste based preferences as the   entry criterion.
• Why to spare the beauty pageant shows from these rules?
• The reality / talent shows should not eliminate people even if they are voted out, if that person belongs to any of MBC/SC/ST.

            Whatever that is age old, needs restoration and renovation and the Reservation policies are no exemptions. It's high time that either the bureaucrats and the politicians woke up and wear their thinking hats for the true progress of the nation or make the nation uniformly go down the drain on all fronts (like the few which has been suggested above) so that there is no discrimination (which is the core mantra of the reservation policies).

For Registration

           After quite a time of deliberation, I finally made up my mind to get a bike for myself and decided to go for an Apache RTR 180. I approached the vendor and completed all the initial paper work and settled for the coveted Perl-White baby. Now I progressed into the phase of deciding upon the auspicious date to register and pick up the bike and it was my mom who did all the math and concluded finally on "The-day" for it. Now since The-day was almost a week away, I decided to pick a fancy registration number in the mean time.

        With a specific range of numbers to choose from, my mom started listing out a set of preferred numbers and after the passage of a few days and many rounds of shortlist, I had ten sets of available fancy numbers to choose from, for my bike. I picked my three choices from the ten and with lots of anxiety on whether those were available at that instant or has somebody taken it already etc as The-day was just two days away. Also the pressure started building in my mind on whether the registration be completed on the specific date and the bike be ready for delivery. To fuel my worries further, the bike vendor expressed there was a delay on the consignment that was scheduled to reach on the day prior to The-day. Not sure and anxious on the status of my registration number as well as the bike, I somehow managed an almost sleepless night, only to wake up on The-day hearing of the necessity to go to work soon (of all days only on that day)  and not sure how worst that is going to make my already worsened day.

         With the onset of the evening, neither I had a clue on what happened to my bike registration nor had I heard about it from anyone. Finally when I could find time to get out of work, I called the vendor and he just asked me to come to the showroom and disconnected without even bothering to answer my anxious questions. I was really cross on him and started off to the showroom. I reached the showroom still with the fury in my mind only to find him with all smiles and he lead me inside the parking lot without giving anytime for me to ask him anything. He broke the silence to confirm me that the register number of my choice has been registered to the bike and the number plate sticker work was all that's pending. He finally gave me the bike keys and showed me the white baby with a For Registration sticked on it.

            I was in a mixed emoted state and my phone vibrations brought me back to my senses. It was a girl whom I knew and she exclaimed happily that she was getting engaged, in a weeks' time and the marriage is slated to happen in six months. I felt a coherence in what she told me and the "For Registration" state of my bike and in fact I literally felt like having heard from her that she's up "For Registration" sans the visible tag on her though, unlike the bike.

Have you ever wondered

In numbers

• Of all numbers why and when was 100 chosen as the emergency number?
• Why nine rounds in boxing?
• Why eight lanes in track events?
• Why 0123456789 from top to bottom in telephones and TV remote while bottom to top on keyboards?

In day to day practices

• Why and when most of us started wearing watches on our left hand?
• Why do we walk holding and pushing the two wheelers always by being beside on the left side of it?
• While blocked in a signal why does many have the habit of moving up in front of all and wait for the signal to clear?

In beliefs

• Why was English used and being used as the official language of communication, mostly world over?
• Why was white and dove chosen as the symbols of peace?
• The irony in the term "Peacekeeping Force".
• Why everyone's last name is either the dad's name or the dad's family name or even both but nothing w.r.t mom's name or her family name?

In Socializing

• Why many of us are obsessed with the number of scraps, photo comments, testimonials and friends on Orkut?
• Why testimonials have never been of a genre apart from leg pulling, praise and accolades?
• Why does most people find it easy to convey their hate or dislike but not their love and likes?
• Why does mostly guys and moms or girls and dads get along with each other so well?

In food and tastes

• Why do we add green chilly to food stuff, when thats the last thing we want to bite and usually hand pick and discard it before eating?
• Of all the kinds of tastes why the oceans and seas are only salty?
• If tongue is to taste why are taste buds only on the tip?

In technology and practices

• Why left/right hand drives were introduced and two traffic patterns based on it?
• Why the human race invented machines and started polluting the environment and now trying to reinvent to get to that pollution free situation that was prevalent in the past, to save the world for the future?
• Why only google and why not other search engines?
• If auto rickshaws can have rear-view mirrors without protruding outside the vehicle, why other vehicles not have it the same way but have it protruding outside on either side of their vehicles.

In sexist practices

• Why does  movie scenes with  topless males go unnoticed by both censor board and general public on the grounds of nudity in cinema?

In other miscellaneous 

• How and why East, West, North and South came into existence and practice?
• Why is it that the world timezone is based on GMT?
• Why does the natural dye henna does not affect the skin color above the neck, when applied?
• When people frequently say something is a pain at all wrong places, why can't those places be categorized as the right places henceforth, as it happens at those places always? 

Aayirathil Oruvan

        Finally here we have Selvaraghavan's brain child, a couple of years after the resounding success and critical acclaim of Pudupettai. No doubt he has bettered himself (just himself) on the direction front.

The Sugar Coat

• The first and foremost thing that grabbed the attention was its sound track which was launched long back and still topping the charts.
• The detailing created to make a fictitious history, is laudable.
• The make up, locales and costumes have been really wonderful and hand picked and it reflects throughout the movie.

The Shell inside

• The story starts with the look out for the missing Prathap Pothan and apparently  post interval neither him nor Andrea Jeremiah play a role, in the movie.
• The sort of military force used throughout, though not named explicitly Indian Army anywhere as such, fails to paint a picture of a well trained force that is ready to face the fights and challenges, which can be seen throughout.
• The final war sequence caused some rib-tickling laughter in me, with the manner the "Warriors with guns" handled "The group with bows and arrows" and shelding the shower of arrows was a wonderful look alike from the movie 300.
• The portrayal of army men as a group greedy for molestation and sexual abuse, towards the end of the movie is rather too cheap and disgusting.
• The need for Karthik and his group of human wagons is just a stitch-in to make a role for him in the movie because the army men obviously must have undergone all those load carrying trainings and be capable enough to do that job themselves.
• The remix version of the whole Original அதோ அந்த பறவை போல song was too dragging and slow for the present.
• In the encounter with the red tribe, why did the Army head wait until the attacking tribal came too close and how come there was not a single instance of Reema Sen reloading her guns though being in the forefront, in the line of attack?
• Why Andrea Jeremiah did not inform or share the information on any traps and risks prior to her talking about snakes?
• Andrea Jeremiah remains grief stricken from the beginning and seem to be a person of few "sane" words and the expletive conversation with Reema Sen doesn't actually fit in for her character portrayed prior to that or even after that.
• Kathik has demeaned the basic man instincts on all the occasions where either Reema Sen or Andrea Jermiah slapped him.
• The liquor found by Karthik seemed to be very less and the following song  shows it in increased quantities at some scenes. Were everyone  too drunk to notice this detail?
• The graphics is excellent at some scenes and many other scenes its evidently pathetic and primitive. 
• Selvaraghavan hasn't yet found someone who can actually make the blood graphics look real, I think he should have taken cues from the movie 300, on this front.
• Not sure whether it was to avoid protests and controversies from Blue Cross or something, a disclaimer on Animals is put up in the beginning and  some of the scenes that shows birds and animals lack clarity and its clearly visible that those are a cut and paste from elsewhere.
• Why and how would a single camel be found at a place which does not have any source of food or water or even shrubs?
• After a slave gives the Army head, a message from Reema Sen, he appears to search for signal to make a call. If it was supposedly a satellite phone he shouldn't have made such a gesture or if a normal mobile phone how was he able to get a signal at a place where there is no sign of any signal source within miles of his vicinity?
• When he was able to perform the act of strangling Reema Sen  via her shadow, why couldn't Parthiban perform miracles on the battleground?
• How the water (drunk by the Chola warriors) became poisonous just because Reema Sen added a few drops of her blood onto to it?
• The sudden "drinks break" for the Chola warriors during the final battle was " a poor directorial connect"  to the fact that Reema Sen had spilt her blood in the water earlier.
• The movie's end was neither a conclusion to the story which originally began as the conquest to find Prathap Pothan nor on the front from Reema Sen's quest for her lost goddess idol.

The Verdict...

         ஆயிரத்தில் ஒருவனை கானுபவர்களில் ஆயிரத்தில் ஒருவனாவது பாராட்டுவாரா ??

Modern Arthashastra

        Arthashastra is regarded as one the best bets, to master the art of politics and rule a state competently. However with time and research, as on date there is a Modern Arthashastra that can be mandated as the heart of political science. The following is the comparision of the chapters of the age old epic with the modern one.

    The various chapters of the Modern Arthashastra are collectively the core values of any political party in India and are listed below along-with the original ones in brackets (courtesy Wikipedia).

• I Defining the Conduct of the Party - (Concerning Discipline)
• II What the Leaders of ruling Party (shortly as WLP) can exercise at free will whereas others cannot - (The Duties of Government Superintendents)
• III WLP feels like, depending on the cases against the Party Leaders - (Concerning Law)
• IV The Art of the removal of Jaswanth Singh kind of. -(The Removal of Thorns)
• V The DOs and DON'Ts of the non significant members - (The Conduct of Courtiers)
• VI How to keep the party on the lines of the Leader's Heirs - (The Source of Sovereign States)
• VII  The Art of keeping the six stated above, intact - (The End of the Six-Fold Policy)
• VIII Art of staging sponsored agitations  - (Concerning Vices and Calamities)
• IX The Art of concerning and "controlling" foreign interventions - (The Work of an Invader)
• X The election strategies -(Relating to War)
• XI Art of providing grants and exemptions to foreign investments - (The Conduct of Corporations)
• XII How "not" to succumb  to the "friendly foes"  -  (Concerning a Powerful Enemy)
• XIII The Art as exhibited by fast till death, by certain people - (Strategic Means to Capture a Fortress)
• XIV Making people believe what is not true (Ex: KCR 11 day fast) - (Secret Means)
• XV The Art of exposing the demand for a new state when the Party is neither stable enough to win the elections nor has the credibility in the region - (The Plan of a Treatise)

Divide and Rule

           The Divide and Rule is not something new to hear about, at least for someone in the Indian-subcontinent. It has been used here in the past as one of the most effective and successful policies of all, in the world. All those who don't have a clue of their middle school history lessons can have a look at here and others can continue further on.

The Present Divide and Rule policy

     What's it all about? - The divide and rule policy at present is very less, in the lines of what was prevalent in our country under the British rule. However its a clear, violent and tag less civil war. There are a few perspectives to look at and they are as listed below in the order of precedence from the least to the most, which is the reason for the divide and rule as such to materialize. 

• Social and Geographical edge : The cultural impact, standard of living of the people,  social standard and of course the geographical inhibitions of the terrain and the Human as the resource, in large numbers, is the LAMP.

• Economical edge :  The economic status, growth and prospects w.r.t other regions surrounding it and at most times highlighted as the most important reason. This is ideally to be considered the OIL for this policy.

• The Political sphere : The people who're so vehemently protesting for this to happen, speak in terms of the importance and necessity of the two stated above however what they really have in mind is the lust for power and position more than anything else. Hence this leads us to what the FIRE is, that burns the OIL in the LAMP.

        After the proposed "divide" is complete, the "rule" starts and the FIRE being blown out with the LAMP and OIL taken care similar to the candle on top of a birthday cake, after its blown out.

Western We - Part II

...continued from Part I

What we have learned from the Western World

1. The moment we're adolescent, we "expect" ourselves to be treated on par by our parents and others, in opinions, decision making, being independent etc.
2. To deal with terrorism we've set up the NIA ( National Investigation Agency), supposedly the dubbed Indian version of the FBI.
3. We appreciate The Academy Award as the best recognition a movie can get, be it in any language, in the world.
4. Being a part of one of the hundreds of BPOs and KPOs around in our country, we would've definitely come to know  about how "wise" are the western customers and how we shouldn't be, the next time WE make a call for support, as a customer.

What we have failed to learn from the Western World

1. However adolescents in the western world groom themselves to be economically  self-reliant to a certain extent at the least and "make" themselves eligible for such on-par treatments.
2. Yet there isn't any agency or force in our country that is mandated to work and make decisions without the political intervention.
3. Understand that The Academy Award is an appreciation for a movie based on their set of likes and guidelines, expectations and feelings however our National Award is the one for an Indian movie which is adjudged by a jury who understands our genre. No clue  how people here as well as the Academy Award jury felt that the music was so worth-it in  Slumdog Millionaire that was NOT in Lagaan.
4. We, at the BPO or KPO industry are not given a job for what's up there inside the skull but just that we're a cheap alternative to a fellow Westerner in terms of cost and we may end up losing it if the few "real wise" Westerners finds an even more cheaper alternative.

             If it so has been the tradition that we've have seen, yearned for, adopted or even worshiped the numerous unlisted cues ONLY from the western world, be it good or bad, we also need to think about and realize how much and what good have WE been of an impact as a Western country (apart from being geographically) to all those countries that are to the east of us.