India has proved it again. The Supreme court has approved 27 % additional quota for OBCs in all the premier institutions in India. The last vestiges of some intellectual fervor present in these institutions will all but vapourise. Institutes like IIMs, AIIMs, IITs are some of the last few places where an Indian could think of going by giving even the international institutes a miss. They are simply good because of the quality of students going there and the environment present. Where they lag far far behind other institutes is in infrastructure. One look at international campuses will show all the difference.
Now each one of them will have 27 % additional seats with almost the same infrastructure. One cannot imagine the overload on the already over strecthed infrastructure in these places. This is being done in the name of oppression and also in the name of humanitarian needs. It is all being done in the name of stinking bloody politics......Where you tell some one with 99 percentile to wait and admit some one else only on th basis of caste.
I am not against helping those who are oppressed. But, caste is not the way to do that. Recently while doing a project in rural gujarat, we realised that in about 42 villages of that area majority (80 %) were of general category. They had unimaginable hardships in life, no drinking water, no proper food and medical facilities. These people had 2 school rooms for over 400 kids being taught by just 2 teachers. Help them first, give them at least water to drink and yeah, give them a fast track full scholarship route to higher education. But admission is based only on the basis of merit.
What are we telling our future generations that it is provident enough to be born with a certain surname and it is alright not to be working hard...What do you tell some one from a middle class family who studies hard enough but only misses out on a life time of education ...Help some one like Kashmiri Pandits who have had a life on the run for a long time and have settlement pangs in a new world...Help out people who are landless laborers who do not figure out in any electoral lists but are in dire need of help..
No, but we shall eternally be grateful to caste politics. And people will even rush to take credit for such an action..
Where merit is cheap and politics sells
Rural files
It is strange how we take many things for granted in our lives. We never know the situation when one has to walk 2 hours to get drinking water from a muddy lake, watch your kids drink that and then those kids walk 4 kms one way to the village school where there has always been 1 teacher for all 7 standards and everyone squished in 2 rooms.. All this and the main occupation in the area is baval (wild shrubs and weds) cutting. Average daily wage Rs. 20 ($ 0.5) Well, that is life as usual for Okhamandal area in gujarat.
Inspite of all this, they would offer you tea when you go and insist on that. Will get chairs form their neighbours for you to sit and talk about their life in the village.
But not even for a second think that people are dull. This is a place where women of the village form Self Help Groups (SHGs) to make daily savings even of Rs 10 or so, continue to do that over a year and then give loans to those who require it and earn interest on that. Beat that!
Living life in total isolation is also therapeutic. Away from all friends (though had wonder ful company there), away from the usual haunts in cafes...But pure life in outdoors, by the seaside, a lot of think to mull things over and just be by yourself
That is probably what reminds you of vast English country sides, Sir Arthur conan Doyle's words or J R R Tolkien's imagery..
P.S. Next stop: London
