Swades - "we the contemporary youth" --- ohh really ??

Born in a hospital, inhaled oxygen from whatever air was available (polluted/fresh ... i do not know) I started to walk, I remember the first day in school, I grew up, played football, played cricket, venerated Sachin, challenged myself to run faster than others in 100 mts (though today I am not as fast as I used to be), sat on the rooftop with friends to solve group D problems (self study, 1051 etc), passed board exams, congratulated friends, went home. And so was the life of all of us in school.

A few days later applied for admission in Junior college. Was confused, many different forms for different people. Some of my friends took the white while some took the yellow ones. I did not understand what is going on. Asked one of my friends.

He : Do you come under reserved category?

Me : How do I determine that?

He: Ask your parents.

Asked my parents ....

Me : Dad, what is reserved category?

Dad : Why do you care?

Me: We have different forms of different colours for each category, What is this category stuff anyways ?

Dad : Well you just take the unreserved category form. Category is a long debate. It is not time for you to think about it. You just need to study, get good marks and go ahead in life.

Me : OK

The next day. Talking to my best friend.

Me : It is the unreserved form. Which one is it?

He : the white one.

Me : ok. (Ordered two white forms)

He : why 2 ?

Me : For us.
He : I need to take the yellow one.

Me : Why? Do you come under reserved category?

He : Yes.

Me : ok. Anyways what is the difference?

He : I do not know.

So when I went home and told my mom about this reservation thingy, she said "Well you will have to score more marks than your friend if you want to get into the same college as your friend ...."

Why is my mom talking so nonchalantly about this and why the heck do I need to score more marks than him. We have studied altogether all these years, we will study together again and would nearly get the same marks.

Mom : Well you have more competition and lesser seats available than ur friend ....

Me : What the hell !!!

Mom : Ask your dad.

Both of us got science stream with vocational electronics. Studied ... passed 12th .... and CET. Applied to Engineering .... wanted COEP (actually IIT's but could not clear the mains .... crap) but got into PICT. My friend got COEP. I realized I was separated from my friends due to this shitty reservation thing.

Reservation of any form is not healing the differences introduced by caste system. At the same time, I do not agree that the age old Indians who introduced caste system were dumbos. They did whatever was right at that time. The sane people of old times just did not have the vision for the next thousand years. They underestimated the presence of GREED in people. As it turns out the old greedy brahmins made most out of it since they had all the powers. The situation is no different today. Greed rules and when we have power we are reluctant to change. The people in power take advantage of the powerless. Politicians' kins enjoy all kinds of walkaways from all sorts crime right from rape to murder. Politicians breed gundas to serve them in need. Even the President enjoys traffic free rides in "His/Her" ambassador along with the cordon of security professionals clad in safari suit and Ray Ban glasses :P An ambulance is given less priority than the president(seen it with my own eyes). The life of an Indian national is less important than the traffic free ride of the President. Anyways lets not digress.

Reservations will never mend the situation in India. Instead it is acerbating the differences introduced by the age old and obsolete caste system. The government thinks or rather proposes that reservations will bring equality and justice to the underprivileged. What is reservation serving? Nothing, except guaranteed admission to the premier institutes in the country even though one does not score good marks? I think the real underprivileged people crave for honor in the society more than admissions. What is the government's plan of action to reinstate the honor ?? Instead, the government issues official caste validity certificates to the SC/ST, OBC and other caste families, duh!! What needs to be eliminated is being officially recognized in the country based on the family of birth.

This is leading to a lot of pressure on the school going children. The non-reserved category students have to scuffle through this tough competition. They no longer bear any scruples for cheating on their friends. All the sensitivity, childishness, purity is lost. Most of all the creativity is lost. A child who is skilled in arts is forced into engineering. Parents have started acting like consultants for their children. Think objectively right from kinder garden?? The probability of the child to become one of the greats (like Sachin Tendulkar, Lata Mangeshkar, A.R. Rehman, Baichung Bhutia/Cristiano Ronaldo, Sardar Vallabbhai Patel, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam) is minimal as compared to the safe path of pursuing engineering and getting a job in an IT company with a decent salary. I mean what are the odds, one in a hundred billion compared to a billion in a hundred billion??? And my argument, if I venerate Cricket, do I need to be Sachin?. If I love football, do I need to get a place in the Indian football team?? Let the youth play for fun .... let them enjoy the fun of sports and not think of the monetary gains. Having said that, the counter argument says, "more than 50% of Indian families are middle-class. All that the middle class thinks about is having a decent apartment, a decent 4-wheeler and a good salary."

Let me share an example. A university is offering 100 seats for a Computer Engineering program.

Total : 100 seats

Reserved category : 50 seats

Reserved for women : 33 seats

Remaining seats : 17 seats

The situation in South India is worse. In south India we have 75% quota for reserved category. Plus the newly introduced "Women's" quota.

I think you can imagine why there is a increase in sale of anti-depressants among the youth. We can see the loss of creativity. Most of the new Indian films are the degraded version of their Hollywood counterparts. I do not know of any great painter from India. I do not know of any sport being financially capable of atleast proper training facilities other than Cricket in India. I do not hear any parent bragging about their child being among the top athlete in their state. Instead even though their child is one of the top athletes in the state, children are forced to leave athletics for their greater good!!!

I say, all this bourgeois thinking will dour the creativity of a child ....

The great leaders said, "the students, the youth of India are the designers of future India" But if the creativity is lost, who will design the future of India? The government never learned from the British. It is known to every human on earth that the british used "divide and rule" policy in India and were very successful in overthrowing all of the opposition. The Indian govt. is dividing the people or rather the youth on the basis of caste. The young brawny minds of future India should not argue over the situation of caste and reservations. If they start arguing, India will be further divided.

If you ask any SC/ST or a reserved category student to have his thoughts on reservations, he/she would rather act diplomatic since they do not want to hurt their non-reserved category friends. If you ask a non-reserved category student he might go on and on (like my post) without any end to it. What I would really like to see in an "average" Indian youth is that, we should understand that we need not give in to the imperfections of the government. We have better things to do !!!!