Tag: discrimination

  • Deserving vs Reserving

    In movie halls, flights and trains, restaurants etc, there are those who are fighting for space at the last minute, and there are those who calmly walk in and take their seats… the latter deserve to do so, because they had the foresight to reserve the space .. the point to note here is that both sets of people started out on square one, some before the other, and that made the difference.. and so everything is fair.. now, if someone in the late entry set got in by just knowing the right people, thats perhaps unfair…
    and so, if we apply the same scope for reservations in the educational/ job system,. everything would be fair if everyone started from square one.. but that isnt the case, and so it makes sense to reserve places to level the scales… but what if, over a period of time, the reservations have done their job and further addition would start tipping the scale against those who normally occupied square one.. thats exactly what is happening… and that perhaps is unfair, because the regular folks havent gotten there by unfair means…
    and so perhaps it would be a good time to go back to square one, examine it and define it properly so that reservation is done only for people who are eligible even after multiple filters are put in, and since i am no expert, i can think only of socio-economic conditions as the key parameter… there have been too many changes these past few years for caste to be made a criterion.. a case in example would be that the erstwhile ‘upper castes’ in kerala are in a much poorer condition than the so called ‘lower castes’…
    it is absolutely fair that a person should not miss the chance of an education and a good life just because he doesnt have the finance for it… but in the same breath, it is absolutely unfair that a person should cede his right just because he made the most of his adequate finances and worked hard…there is an argument i made quite sometime back on the subject of meritocracy… if educationis the key to a better life, then, judging people by their intelligence levels is also perhaps unfair.. for only so much of intelligence is self gained, most of it is installed without our having a say in it… and so we are back to the theory of survival of the fittest.
    until next time, who is fit to decide what is ‘fit’ ?

  • We don’t need no India Shining

    thats probably what the IIMs want to be singing after the govt slashed their fee structure….. i am actually confused, and have very ambivalent thoughts on the issue…on one hand, i dont like the govt sticking its hands into something thats an established brand, and has shown thats its perfectly capable of handling its business, it looks like they wanna have a share of a good thing, maybe even use that in the ‘india shining’ campaign…. on the other hand, i also feel that a govt influence might make the IIMs more accessible….
    btw, the election commission has warned the govt not to spend the revenue from taxes for the campaign, so we might get a breather.. 🙂
    speaking of IIMs, i just had a thought, humankind protests against all kinds of disparities – race, sex, age etc..but arent institutions like IIMs promoting discrimination based on intellectual aptitude…. at every level of academic life, we strive to take tests and pass, arent we therefore subjecting ourselves to a screening for checking our levels of intellect….they are just standards that suit the majority… i get admission in a good college coz i performed well in school, i get a good job coz i did well in college, the list goes on….but what gives us the right to discriminate against those who arent as bright?? … is it right to condemn them to a life of misery, self doubt and frustration just because they cant utilise their brains to the extent we can?? but we do, coz if we dont, a lot of existing systems would crash!!
    saw “plan” during the weekend, expectations were close to nil coz of the reviews, but surprise, surprise, it wasnt that bad, which goes to show that you cant trust reviews all the time….sanjay dutt seems to be perfecting the ‘comic don’ character…. the movie has some corny shayari, courtesy, dutt and mahesh manjrekar, who has also done a good job..think this one takes the cake “sher ke saamne sher bolne se chooha sher nahi banta; bache paida karne hote hain, god lene se koi baap nahi banta”……. 🙂
    been reading a whole cartload of articles on ‘outsourcing’, am actually wondering whether He has outsourced sustenance to someone, that would answer a lot of questions regarding the way humankind is evolving, the ‘quality’ issues….btw, have a look at this link, a good read.which brings me to
    manuscrypts triviadont remember where i got it from, but its good
    In The Adventures of Griswald Gnome: A Fairy Tale for Children of all Ages, the magician gnome starts by saying, “I am a Peristaltic Basaltic Cabalist.””A reformed deformer, searcher for research, a regrind grinder, one who once faltered, but reflated and did rejoin as a joiner. If I might presume, I’m going to lecture you. This statement is my testament: my supreme objective is to preserve the perverse,”and the usual quotes
    “To a large degree reality is whatever the people who are around at the time agree to.”~ Milton Miller
    Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. ~ Einstein