I said, what do I know?
Show me the right way to go...


"Rule is evil, and it is none the better for being majority rule/democracy....What is the ballot? It is neither more nor less than a paper representative of the bayonet, the billy, and the bullet. It is a labor saving device for ascertaining on which side force lies and bowing to the inevitable. The voice of the majority saves bloodshed, but it is no less the arbitrament of force than is the decree of the most absolute of despots backed by the most powerful of armies."


Democracy, one of india's few shinging beacons in the current state of world affairs. A tool, used as much to feel proud about ourself, as it is used to leverage ties with the prosperous countries...and even at times to beg for help in times of calamity.
Democracy, taught to young minds thoroughout the country as the best, most impartial, just and righteous system of all.
Democracy,where the voice of PEOPLE is above all........

But is all this actually true??Is the current state of political affairs in our country the best it can be? Hardly...

• mass protests by the PEOPLE against misuse of reservation as a vote-bank tool, still no political party speaking against it...
• the judiciary being mocked at again; and again...at the whim of the RULING govt
• absurd promises of free power being fulfilled, crippling the state economies...
• no money to build roads in the country, yet no hesitation in increasing the millions already being spent on the burgeoning bureaucracy...
• an imminent energy crisis about to happen in near future...in on of the world's FASTEST economy
• a food grain crisis ALREADY here

what's going on? who are these people...supposed to be from whithin US, for US? where is the ACCOUNTABILITY? is democracy an EXCUSE for being wasteful, inefficient, power-hungry...and plain SHAMELESS? why is the NEW india, the intellectual hub of the world, at their mercy??
is there a solution? i want to vote...but who do i vote for?
is it time for a revolution...a change for the better? whom do we follow? marx? mao?...hitler?
i don't know.

"Democracy is nothing but the Tyranny of Majorities, the most abominable tyranny of all, for it is not based on the authority of a religion, not upon the nobility of a race, not on the merits of talents and of riches. It merely rests upon numbers and hides behind the name of the people."

Reservations. Do I care !!

Enough has been said and written about the whole Reservation for OBC's issue. But the matter of fact remains that only a handful of young, educated, urban youths cannot change the policy and no, I'm not a pessimist.

By reserving seats in higher education for OBC's, the Govt. has accepted that it has failed.

It has failed to provide basic primary education to the people from backward classes.
It has failed to uplift the social status of the backward classes.
But, where it does not want to fail is getting the support of the backward classes.

So, will the Govt. listen to the Youth of India.
With virtually no party opposing the move and no support from student unions (the real representatives of Indian students, as claimed by them), I really doubt so.

What can we do?

We can keep on protesting till the bill is passed.
See that what happened in Mandal-I is not repeated (I'm talking about Goswami).
Stop sending reservation mails in the same manner in which we forward junk to fellow friends (Show some respect to this serious issue)
?? Out of Ideas ??

Interesting Facts -

• Though the last caste-based Census took place in 1931, estimates say 51% of Indian population is OBC. 51% OBC's restricted to 27% seats. That's interesting.
• It is a fact that the real benefit of reservation will go to the Creamy Layer, but that will only make these students more miserable. The OBC's in urban India are educated and can afford the best education. By taking the help of reservation they are going to achieve nothing but self-degradation.
• The pro-reservation front often says that students from quota go back to the villages and are the one who are really helping the country. Truth is after taking the help of reservation, they become so habitual of this extra-help that they don't even try for jobs in private sector. Govt. jobs comes easy (quota again) and you can make a lot of money (apart from what the govt. pays you)
• The medical students are the one protesting the most as seats in PG are at its minimum. Engg. students, on the other, have way much more to grab.
• I doubt that, out of those protesting, even 50% voted in the last elections.
• The only thing which makes me happy about the whole issue is that people will finally start VOTING. The fact that their votes not really contribute much to the total electoral list is another thing.

Disclaimer - By writing this blog, I do not suggest that I support reservations or the protests should end. The more you'll protest, the more will you be able to come closer to your conscience. You'll be able to discriminate between Right and Wrong. You'll learn to stand up rather than hush down.

We don't want no reservation......

Meritocracy : a system of government/society based on rule by ability (merit) rather than by wealth, race or other determinants of social position.
India in future : a place where each position/oppurtunity is presented based on caste and one's family.

You may think that's too dire and i am sounding like one of those doomsdayers but unfortunatley it's not far from the truth. On saturday, for the first time i attented an organised, anti-establishment protest. It was regarding reservations the government plan to bring in centres for higher education. The main issues i have with the whole thing :-

1. Denial of fair and equal oppurtunities to deserving candidates n making it hell of a lot tougher for them to get into the institutes of thier choice.
2. Creating a society based on incompetence. For example, just imagine 50% of the teachers in government schools will from quota seats. Ok, all of them will not be bad teachers but most of them will not be upto the mark. Now, governnment schools is where most of the children coming from the lower n less priveleged sections of the society go to. We should be providing these kids with gud teachers n nice schools....but !!
3. The ridiculous double standards and myopic vision of our politicians - the infamous Mandal Commission report gave a two pronged approach to tackle the problem of social inequality. One ofcourse was the quota's but it also said that the reservations without changes in our education system at grassroot level is meaningless n substaintial effort should go in that direction. In grab of catching votes the second n more important action has conveniently been forgotten.

Right from the time the Constitution was written any sort of affirmative action was for removing the social inequalities present at the time of independence and not economic upliftment of backward classes. There are a great many anti-poverty schemes for that. Weather they work or not is an entirely different issue. Now, people of my generation i think give a lot less importance to caste boundaries then say thier parents. one would think that deep rooted predjuices would go subsequently in time. But by literally dividing every classroom into two parts the government is bringing that issue to the forefront for this genration and many future ones too.

Some suggestions:-
- Even if we have reservations in some form, give a time frame to them, infact initially these quota's were meant to be reviewed every 10 years but no politician has the guts to remove them.
- The benfits of reservation should be available for only one generation in a family - otherwise it's pretty much the same bunch who keep enjoying the benefits and the people for whom it's actually meant for aren't even educated about it.
- Provide better primary education and health facilities to the less privileged classes and think of a mechanism so that the benefits actually reach the
people who need it.

The protest march itself was gud, remained peaceful inspite more than 3000 people turning up. Lots off people from my company went as part of a corporate initiative which saw some 500 people from different organisations show up. What was gud to see was IT professionals, CA's, eminent doctors, ofcourse medical students and people from a wide cross-section of society came. Most of these people are probably not directly affected but very much concerned. I don't know if it's the RDB effect or what but such protests are taking place in Bhopal, Banglore, Orissa...pretty much all over the country. It's about time we educated folks stood up and be counted to make the little diference in making this country a better place.

Visit www.youth4equality.org to support the movement

Nuttin' New

blank....buick....busa....beemer....bones....build....
....buck....ban....book....big....bud....

and the thought process continues....

Cause it rained yesterday...

Ever been woken up at 2 in the night and then ended up being actually grateful for that? Happened to me last night, when the rain, thunder and lightening made a resolve so strong it made even me wake up from the slumber. But instead of feeling pissed, the feel of the fresh moist air, so rare in the Delhi summer, gushing through my window made me feel soo good, I actually got up and tiptoed upto the terrace to take in the feeling. And the sight was just unimaginable.

Pitch darkness of the night....the incessant, purple lightening rushing through the sky....drops of water being splashed on the face by the cold wind....

Who says you need some stuff to get high....

p.s.>just saw tht my Damn u Bertie-I am king-Hail Hitler(??) blog has reached 32 comments. Kinda like 32nd milestone (ugh)

Suspicious Activity

Has anyone recently noticed some funny thingies flying across the blog page...? I generally ignore such things cause frankly speaking most things we see on a webpage are useless anyways...but somehow a tiny bit of something zooming across the text when ur trying so hard to understand what's written can be a bit unnerving. Now try as I might, I cannot help but think about the reason why something wierd like this would happen on the blog:

• a mischief from a bored programmer at Blogger.com
• a trick by Blogger.com to dissuade us from wasting their preccciousss storage space with our worthless crap
• what the hell...wierd thigs are supposed to happen on a wierd blog like this
  ...............................................................................

A screenshot has been attached with a red mark for easy reference. Now some members may, and would, accuse me of being idle/work-less ( which FYI I am, wednesday onwards...), but taking a cue from a "How to make a presentation" session I was forced to attend, I could'nt stop myself.

Getting a finger, when it matters the most.

I am a good driver. Generally.

Riding in the correct lane. Not overtaking from the wrong side (bertie ??). Stopping at red lights when there's no one around etc etc.

Well, I was in bit of a hurry. Had to go to meet some ol' school friends and there was a big jam ahead of me. So I crossed the yellow line and was speeding away in the opposite lane.

Then suddenly I saw a car coming in front of me (opposite direction) and there was a girl driving the car with her middle finger in the air, pointed at me :(

Good to see responsible female drivers on road :)

Its the stupidity

Sometimes I'm forced to wonder how things around us, even the important ones such as television and the neighbouhood barber shop, keep slipping into a state of total squander without anyone batting an eyelid & thinking about salvaging them. Well, the bit about the barber may be exaggerated, but Indian television for sure has definitely become what can be entirely summed up as being utterly pathetic. I mean, when I look at the people around me, and then the ones on telly, there seems a divide so stark it feels almost unreal. There are women who can get away with multiple murders/forgeries, graduates who are called into board meetings at the office, sound effects that are borrowed straight from Star Wars, Gujarati families...well I can't even begin to describe their wierdity. Instead of waking up and trying something diferent for a change, all thse channels do is try to outrun each other in a who-makes-the-worst-family-soap race.
Even the English channels are'nt much respite. Apart from a few good shows, they too show mostly crap about teen crushes and the crime scene on a hawaii resort. But at least the cast is gorgeous, making them bearable to watch. Unlike most Gujarati-family-soaps which hire the ugliest people possible to be showed on national television.
Thank god for Discovery, NGC and the likes. If it were'nt for them, I would have exchanged my television for something more useful.

What saddens me is that there seems no respite from this stupidity even in future. Same is the case with Radio. Why are the people in the business of entertainment, who are supposed to be the best creative minds of the country, be satisfied with the current state of affairs. Wish someone could just shake them up.

Along came a spike


Well that's how I picture our blog.

A certain time comes when, suddenly, all the brains start working - posting blogs, comments on blog, comments on comments on blog.

Then comes a dud period........

btw just noticed a thing. The blog description says -

Around four years ago two specimens of the ape-descended species, which inhabit this utterly insignificant little blue green planet met. After a few months of relatively formal chit-chat they realized that they shared amongst them a rare brand of insanity. This blog is an attempt by these very same specimens and their friends to share their plethora of thoughts which range from the insanely sane to simply, insane.

bertie, I think the blog has grown from - hum do, hamare none to hum do, hamare chaar (whoever hum refers to)