Sunday, March 29, 2015

Caste Based Reservation

India, the country of unity in diversity; the country of rich cultural heritage; the country of historical evolution and the land that gave world the concept of Universal Brotherhood (वासुदेव कुटुम्बकम्) is today reeling under the divide created ny the word "Reservation". Why? Ask them who have suffered due to the ill treatment they met under this system of Reservation for education, job and other amenities for the backword classes to be referred as SC, ST & OBC.

So what is reservation and how did it become a system to finally become the evil governance mechanism for the vote bank of political parties? Cutting the long long story short, this system is the offshoot of Divide & Rule policy of Britishers that was further nurtured by the Father if the Nation (by calling them as Harijan) and encashed by the first prime minister of India. And the every government at center ensured that it keeps up the place in political circle and all of them encash it.

The provision of Caste based Reservation was made in books of Governance for a limited period of 20 years frpm the time of Independence (1947) and this provision was to be abolished by max 1970. The intent of provision was to bring the Backword Classes at par with the other classes and ensure economical balance for all the classes.  But with the time, the then ruling party Congress realized the political mileage it got and post the split Congress (I) continued the legacy.

Though the benefit of Reservation can't still be seen across the Backward Classes except for the rich and affluents who have managed to become more and more rich; the ill effect is pretty much visible on the general class for even after scoring 90% they have to step aside for someone with just the pass marks. WHY?? Hell for the sake of Reservation provisions. And then these students after clearing their exams get jobs too for the reserved position.

There are several such cases where government faced a lot of flake for this. 1989 was one such year when there were huge protest during VP Singh's tenure as PM if India. But even after all those protests and raised voice discussions, the evil of reservations are still impacting the progress of the nation.

Though in my personal capacity, I do not propose to scrap the policy of reservation, but I oppose the policy of Caste Based system of Reservation. I would support the provisions if that would be for those who are economically weaker irrespective of which caste or religion they belong to. 

If Acche Din are supposed to be coming, India as a nation demands abolishing caste based reservations and replace them with economy based Reservation System with an upper cap of 35% or so.

If this is not done and we continue with current schemes, the time would surely come where General Category would be relegated and woyld suffocate to find a place to study or find a job.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Daughters are Daughters - Precious and Lovely

"India's Daughter" is indeed a heart troubling documentary.  The world welcomed it, India opposed it and still most of us have seen it.  Then we heard that a Delhi based businessman made "Britain's Daughter" and highlighted the Rape Crimes in Britain. Someone while discussing these documentaries and the nations that have a high rate of crime against Women highlighted "India has a rape every 20 minutes, but US has a rape every 6.3 minutes. India records almost 1/3rd of the crime against women as compared to US, but still India is not considered as safe for women as US." The point that was made really shook me off on the state of affairs on Crime against women. 

I was more shocked to learn from the various sources the kind of crimes they commit when resorting to violence against women.  Reading about the atrocities that were reported in few African countries, where they reported of chopping off breasts or mutilating private parts was insane. The logic that backed their such a barbaric act is "they wouldn't be able to birth rivals". Ah, they look beyond humanity and genocide to finish their rival clans.  Similar cases were also heard from some of the recent cases in Middle-East and a few cases in Afghanistan.  

As if those cases were not enough for horrifying someone, there tragic news is the way the society looks at those who are victimized by the rapists. Be it India, be it US or any other country.  Most of the cases that I reviewed and read about had one commonality - Victims were being highlighted as the seducers and the culprits were getting the Sympathy.  In all the cases majority of those interviewed felt it was the mistake of the Girl to either wear something provoking or to have acted in a specific fashion.  It was shocking in some the cases where the victim was administered drugs by mixing in the drinks and those interviewed stated "Why did she have to drink it, its her mistake".  Ah, excuse me, everyone who wants to have a drink is free to.  Be it Sodas, other beverages or Alcohol. 

The more I read, the more I was pained and the more I was surprised at the way the society behaves.  If the Rape victim dies of assault, people say "God Bless her, she was relieved of the pain with which she would have to live through life" and if the Rape victim survives, the same set would say "How can she withstand the society, damn, she should end her life to end the agony."  Moreover the rape victims on one side after getting hurt by the Culprits, face the character assassination once again when they report the case to police and then face the lawyers in the court.  They get to face all sorts of questions to explain the act including the way culprit behaved and touched them to the position in which they were Raped. To add to the agony, the Media does more character assassination by doing stories over stories.

All the while from the time a women is victimized by the Rapist to the time the case doesn't get over and the culprit doesn't get the punishment, the Rape Victim faces Character Assassination. The pain, the agony and the hurt of the victim is totally ignored by each one of us.

What they need as our sisters and daughters, what they need as our friends and for representing Half the World, is respect, love, care and to top it all their own space to live their life.  

Both the documentaries as referred in the start of this article mentioned "Daughters" in their title, yet they represented the Negative side of the societal norms that a daughter (girl) faces.  For them, it might just be their work (because none of them did this for Social Service, one did it because She was working for someone and that someone needed fame and TRP and the other did to counter the first one).  In their acts both of them forgot that they somewhere are talking about Daughters, Daughters who are the most Precious and Lovely for any Father and for all the Parents.  Both of them and all of us need to learn to respect them and tend them with care.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Management Lessons from Jokes

I was reading those old forward jokes that once used to be on our emails and have now found their way to BBM and whatsapp and other instant messaging platforms. Generally that's the way for me to unwind myself before heading to sleep. But today two of the forwards actually ignited my thoughts about the embedded Management Lessons in them. Incidentally both of them are related to Microsoft.

The first joke is about the incident where Microsoft CFO was conducting an interview for a junior position and as he was impressed with this guy who was a fresh graduate, he asked him "do you have an email where we can contact you?" The guy was puzzled and looked back asking "what is that? I do have a mailing address but don't know nothing about email address!!" Microsoft CFO looked at him and said "well then you don't exist for us. Sorry, but contact us the day you have an email address." The young guy leaves and moves out thinking what to do to earn the livelihood. He looks at his pocket and finds $50. He sits in a park and identifies that if he spent those $50 on food he wood be out of money in 4 days. Just at that time he sees a vendor selling Popsicle. He evaluates the idea and decides to use $10 for his food and rest $40 to buy some meat & vegetables that he can sell from door to door. As he does that, he makes a profit of $15. So the next day he starts with $55 and again with the same split and sales he makes a profit of $20. Soon he buys a bike and that way he could carry more vegetables and cover More distance. The efforts were yielding results for him and he ended up owning a chain of stores with door to door selling and free home delivery concepts. With success he decided to have an IPO and his company got listed on NYSE. He became one of the "Most talked about CEOs who were self made entrepreneurs too." He then bumps into the same old Microsoft CFO who was impressed with this guys down to earth attitude and asked him if he had an email ID?  The guy simply replies "If I would have had an email address, I would have been working for Microsoft!!!"

The management lesson as hidden in this story is about being able to utilize absence of something as an opportunity to excel without it. There is no scope for ruing the lost chances. Its about doing what you do with determination along side the will to succeed. Lack of not having something is not actually a handicap rather is a big opportunity for you to work on your strength areas!!!

The second joke is about an incident where Microsoft organized a Walk-in from all over the world to select the best candidate to nurture as future CEO.  So there were thousands of candidates who flocked in.  At the venue, the Microsoft HR head walks in and says "Those who do not have Engineering and Management Background may please leave" and almost 60% of the candidates left. Then walked in the CFO and said "Those who do not understand Expense Statement, Balance Sheet and P&L may please leave." Another 50% left.  There was this candidate who was thinking all the time, "Though I don't know anything, what the hell, I would see what happens next".  At the end of all the elimination rounds, Microsoft CEO walks in and says, "Those who don't understand and can't converse in Swahili may please leave" and there was this guy and another guy left.  They were then told to speak to each other in Swahili and the first one asks the second one - "Kit kas sein" and the Second one replies "Faridabad".

In this case the lesson that we get is never leave the competition just because you think you don't qualify.  It is not you who should be quitting.  You must ensure that you stay in the competition and you might be the winner.  Just walking out midway is not the right thing, walking till the end is!!!


Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Where are those Glorious Days of Indian Army

Normally I write my own articles and seldom do I post something that is shared. But the two incidents on the Indian Army motivated me to move them from my email fwds to my blog.  I am not the author of those two incidents nor do I own the narration.  However, as a mark of respect to Indian Army and to support bringing their glory back to what they were and the respect they commanded, I am posting these two incidents as below. No Edits and they are being posted as they were written by the original author...read on...
_____________________________________________
Some Instances of Kairon's time and Army actions then
( As sent  by a very Sr. navy veteran)
Incident 1:
A major's wife and her sister went to see a movie. As the movie started, two goons came and sat next to them and started misbehaving. They left in disgust and told the major about it. He met the stn cdr. It was decided that they'll go and watch the same movie the next day. About five or ten minutes after the movie started, the movie was stopped and the lights came on. The major, accompanied by jawans, came in and picked up the two goons. One of them was the cinema owner and the son of CM -- Partap Singh Kairon. He was a very well known goonda. Outside the hall, these two were bashed up, put in the military ambulance and taken to MH. Panic calls were made to the CM. He rushed from Chandigarh to Amritsar. He, fully escorted by police and press etc, went to see his son in the MH. At the entrance to the cantonment, the caravan was stopped by the sentries. They were told that the CM wanted to go to the MH to see his son. They replied that they had orders that 'this person' was not to enter the cantonment. The CM had to eat a humble pie and make a statement to the press that what his son did was very wrong and he fully deserved what he received. When this news came out, everyone in the Punjab was very happy. 

Incident 2:
There is another story worth repeating. 
The bridge on river Satluj near Phillaur was a narrow one and for big vehicles it was a one way bridge. A military convoy was cleared to enter the bridge from Ladhowal side. When they were nearly half way through, they found a caravan of official cars coming from the other side ( from Phillaur ). Both sides met and stopped. A police officer came over and told the convoy commander that the CM ( same fellow Kairon) was in a hurry and the convoy had to move back. He was told that it was very difficult for the trucks to reverse all the way. Also, they were cleared first and the cars should not have entered the bridge. The polce wala said in a very cocky manner that either they cleared the way or he would arrest the convoy commander. The convoy commander called out his troops and brought them to 'stand to'. He told the polce wala that if the convoy did not move out forthwith he would shoot the whole bloody lot. Needless to say, they obeyed at full speed. 

I think I was living at Phillaur when the first incident took place. My father was a police officer posted at PTS Phillaur. 

Fauj ke woh acchhe din kahaan gaye ??

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Jammu & Kashmir - The Overturn of Nationalism

Jammu and Kashmir seems to have been getting the same old treatment as desired by the Separatists from almost 67 years now. Although the nationalists in India had thought that with the formation of BJP government in the center, may be the Good Fortune of J&K would be back and that J&K would see the same shine of the Sun again.  But alas!! BJP made the BIG mistake of acting Deaf, Dumb and Ignorant by Supporting PDP's claim in constituting the Government in J&K.

Seems J&K's plight is not yet over and it has a lot more misfortune in store from both political as well as diplomatic perspective.  The low of Indian Polity for J&K never seems to end, whenever we think ah how low can they stoop and the Indian Politicians shine with the craziest statement on J&K or act for that matter.

The most recent cases to this effect that rather proclaim the outrageous acts and that can be referred as attack on the sovereignty of the Democratic Republic of India are by None other than the new Chief Minister of J&K - Mufti Mohd. Sayeed.  The worst that I would say and the lowest level that a chief minister can stoop is not over if we go by the way his first statements were.  Mr. Mufti made a Thank You speech for the Pakistan's Army, the Hurriyat and the Terrorists who as per him cooperated for peaceful elections in J&K.  Kudos to Mr. Mufti for forgetting the Indian Security Forces both Civilian and Armed forces who pushed those idiots on the back foot.  Kudos to Mr. Mufti to have cleared his intentions once again.  

Then came in the second wonderful step by Mr. Mufti where he ordered release of a Hardline Separatist.  Certainly, why wouldn't he do that when he is the CM of the State.  He certainly wouldn't be able to have another abduction of his daughter orchestrated and then take a bad name to have 5 dreaded terrorist released for safe home coming of that daughter.  It would be better to release the separatists without going through that drama. Ah and yes, that would ensure that the movements being orchestrated by Kashmiri Pandits for Panun Kashmir would certainly get push back as Hurriyat would be more powerful with the release of one of their dreaded mastermind.

BJP, for that matter seems to be sitting there as a blind duck who would only do some quack quack here and some quake quack there to try and garner support from the people.  Seems like even though they lost the elections in Delhi, they have not been able to understand that if they need to be the mainstream party with control on the governance of this country, they need to also have good hold in the governance of each and every state of this country.  Just because person x or person y has his or her whims and fancies, the BJP as the party shouldn't lose its focus of One India One Country and ONE LAW.  There can't be separate treatment of states with some states enjoying VIP status as for the whims and fancies of some elites.

The country today needs to stand up in unity against the words and actions of Mr Mufti and the Central Government needs to ensure that the idiosynchronous activities are kept in check. Mr. Mufti is one of those guys in the Indian Political Circuits who can't be trusted at all for his National (dis)interests.

Women and Indian Society

The Indian Society that today is raising its voice against the derogatory remarks by the two lawyers is very much right from the perspective of raising their voice against the retards.  Any person not just an Indian but any where in the world must understand one thing that however rich the traditions and culture be, they can't survive without Women. Women are integral part of our cultural system and in effect hold pivotal position.

Women in the Indian Cultural and Mythology symbolize - 
  1. Power - Shakti in form of Durga, Kali, Ranchandi and others similar
  2. Education and Literary arts - Saraswati
  3. Money and Fame - Laxmi
  4. Provider of Food - Annapurna / Parvati
  5. Sanctity - Ganges / Ganga
These are just a few examples that can be raised. These actually provide the depth of reliance of Indian Society that primarily is based on the Hindutva Mythology.  If we date back in the History, we would find that the Indian Society always worshiped the power and sanctity of women and they never ever showed any disrespect to women - e.g. Per Ramayana, though Ravan the king of Lanka abducted Lord's Ram's wife Sita, he didn't even try to touch her against her will.  She was not taken to his Palace, rather was kept in a outhouse in his Garden (Ashok Vatika).  He didn't show any disrespect to her or outrage her modesty. That was the high of Indian Society. Then during the Mahabharata time, the respect of for Women could be witnessed in the form that when Dushashan attacked Draupadi's modesty, Lord Krishna came to her side and save her modesty.  She was not punished for that, rather the entire Kauravas had to pay ht price that they were punished and they perished to the might of Pandavas.  Though the incident where Pandavas lost Draupadi in gambling, they never let her modesty be compromised and then they fought for the disrespect shown by Kauravas.

From there, we always have witness high regards for the Women as per Indian Society. None of the ancient Indian scripts ever mention words that may symbolize Rape, Molestation, Outraging the Modesty of Woman etc.  That was never the culture and tradition of this land. Women in that time were free to participate in wars, politics and any other field where they wished to.  There was no hard and fast rule that they had to abide by certain homely routine only.

Those, who refer to the same culture and say that the Indian Culture had no pace for Women or Women should abide by Male egoist's wishes are certainly not those who understand the Indian Culture.

There is enough evidence in the History that would clearly suggest when these restrictions creeped in the social structure and why they creeped in.  The plunderers and attackers from the west were the first one's to introduce rape and victimize Women in India.  So certainly those who think that Women invite rape are those retards whose mentality is a byproduct of those Barbarians and Plunderers. 

It is important that each one of us enthuses the old Indian Culture where Men and Women in this land were equal.  There was no restriction on the Women and they were free birds. Veil etc were never part of their attire and they participated in society on equal terms.

We all need to help them get the same status and need to ensure that the Retards like Rapists and those who think Indian Society has no place for Women are taught their lesson. In effect it is such people who outrage the modesty of People who should be thrown away from the Social Circuits and they are the ones who have no place in any Society.