EK CUP CHAI

I happened to find a Prospectus for admission into Medical Degree and Diploma course in Andhra Pradesh! For the entrance examination ALL MBBS students of AP are allowed to write an exam. ‘All’ has a certain significance here. After the rankings of the students are released the admission are given based on the following roster system:

The first seat goes to OC (OC meaning ALL here), the second seat goes to a woman who tops the SC Woman category (irrespective of what rank she gets). The third seat goes to the next OC Woman (if just she simply tops all OC women) and the fourth seat goes to a BC-A Woman … and on and on

So in a university which hires 30 top students, we have a great combination of people belonging to different castes. Wow! National Integration! But if you see carefully this is done in the pretext of Competition (to filter able students), and Socialism (to give equal opportunity for all classes of society)! Wow Again!

Also in the same class we have only 20% people (irrespective of what their caste is) who should have been in the top 30. Others (as long as they have used the reservation) have come by the virtue of being born in a backward community. So is the term ‘fair-competition’ justified?

Yes. Bias happens in the name of caste, religion etc. But if a person belongs to a certain community it nowhere means that he/she has had to undergo certain bias. May be the person’s parents/grand parents have used the same reservation system to move out of this bias.

But why doesn’t it become important to check the background of a person individually? Why is it assumed that if a person is born into a certain RACE and CASTE he will have gone through the pain of bias?

Talking of pain here, say a student gets Rank – 30! Should he be in the top 30 or not? That’s a simple question! Isn’t it pain what he feels when he was there and yet not there! Who is biased against whom here? Well someone tell me if the term ‘Socialism’ is justified here!

The only way there can be any reservation here in this country is (here he/his are used hypothetically

A) Based on the economic background of a person.
B) Whether or not anybody in a person’s direct family utilized any reservations previously.
C) Whether or not the person is eligible to pass a knowledge test in a respective field.
D) Whether or not the person is going to utilize his skills for the development of India, for atleast five years from when he starts reaping the benefits of his reservation.
E) And that his reservation will cancel the reservation of his family!
F) No reservation will mean that a person is allowed a seat in a class. He/she can avail of money only, apart from memberships in libraries or free/rebated treatment in hospitals.

But if the reservations system proposed by Mandal-II is the greatest boon for a country, why did the Prime Minister of India, only ask the private companies to implement this. He should have asked cabinet to draft a law (like the recent one approved by Cabinet on Cricket Match Television screen rights). Why is there no such Law? So does that mean the Prime Minister/Governments allows the ‘Caste bias’ (which is everywhere in India, except Government Institutes such as an AIIMS ;)) to continue?

If the present system continues the way it is, the day will be not far that jokes like a 11 members cricket team will have 20% OC, 30% women, etc!

I mentioned in my previous blog that people who do not go to cast their vote as corrupt. I will tell you why?

Many a person thinks that no person is good enough for his/her vote. Fine. But how will that person know, or how will Election Comission (and in turn India) will know that?

We don’t care to make sure that our voices are heard, and yet we blame ‘voting people’ for the pathetic situations around us. If any person has the capacity and ability to voice his concern, and yet doesn’t do that - Well then, to me, he is corrupt. And that’s why I call non voting people corrupt.

Fact is, at the end of the day we all are to be blamed, because we don’t know what Section 49(O) of Conduct of Election Rules of 1961 says:

“Elector deciding not to vote - If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form 17 A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer, and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark. ”

Simply, section 49(O) means that any person who doesn’t want his vote to be casted, should go to the polling booth, convey the same to the polling booth officer. The person will make signatures in the voters register as well.

This is the way of making your voice heard.

However, if such votes aren’t cast only those votes which have been casted will be counted. So, basically it is me and people like me pushing myself in to the pathetic situation our country is today.

However I wonder, why mass media and intelligent minds don’t promote this rule.

Whatever their reasons, I think, this rule needs to come out from the books and into practice. Otherwise, soon there will be 30% votes cast, and people winning by 1 or 2 votes.

Will such wins be thrilling victories or will they make our futures chilling mysteries, it is up to us to decide.

Before starting off with solutions, let me tell you how I happened to get them in my mind:

I happened to witness a major Traffic Jam (that happens regularly) at a traffic junction in the ever developing Hyderabad. With almost any one shouting at each other, I jumped into the scene, signaling a truck to leave, and became a traffic cop for a while.

In the mean time, an over enthusiastic car driver(you will find loads of them in Hyderabad), wanted to take a U-turn. I signaled him to stop for a minute.

He wouldn’t budge, he kept making the U turn stopping many vehicles behind him, beside him, and in front of him. Now, everybody was shouting and signaling at him. I think my signal to stop him was the most polite one of all.

He bumped into an auto rickshaw, and his ignition switched off. The auto rickshaw fellow shouted at him in a mixture of Telugu, Urdu & Hindi. Even in all the noise, I could clearly hear the niceties showered on the car driver, his mother, his sister and his whole family. He went away for as some one honked behind him to move on.

As the car driver began to start the car, I shouted at him ‘COMMON SENSE’ pointing at my brain with my finger.

He lowered the glass, with the car still not completing the U turn, looking at me. All the vehicles were still behind me. He was all well dressed; the lady beside him was all in GOLD and TALCUM POWDER wearing a costly saree. I could see an IBM laptop (if not a laptop, atleast the bag) – all this in one second. I thought may be this fellow forgot his brain inside it.

He shouted something at me which I didn’t care. I just kept repeating, “move fast move fast”.

Only after he left jamming vehicles for some good time, I realized what he shouted at me in Telugu – “Son of a Bitch”.
***
I shared this experience with my friend and told him that we Hyderabadis have the least driving sense. My friend disagreed, saying that it is the infrastructure and administration that should be blamed. As the argument continued he went on to say that people here vote for bad representatives, and that all these uneducated people should not have the right to vote.

That seemed a valid point to me. Even I believed the same so the argument ended.

I have always wondered how people who don’t believe in their brothers’ or sister’s abilities go and vote for some one else. I also wondered how farmers who don’t even know what’s a good crop to grow in their lands are allowed to vote. But here in ‘Traffic’ it was all different. This fellow had a laptop, but lacked common sense.

So who is to be blamed? The driver, or the administrators, or the people themselves? I’m not sure. But apart from cribbing, I’ve got a solution this time:

1. Open schools early in the mornings. (It is already in practice)
2. Apply the same to all the Government Offices. ( I know the Non Gazzetted Officers, will start a strike, because they are looking for ways to avoid work.)
3. Take help from Big Corporate firms that employ huge number of people to: a) Help in employing traffic monitoring people and provide salaries to them. Lesser taxes or special bonuses can be given to these Corporate houses.
b) have their employees work on roads for one day every 6 months. Even if they don’t know how to monitor traffic, they will atleast remember not to forget their brains in their computers.
4. Teach RTC drivers to stick to one lane. ( I know they will be ready to go on strike as well). Apply bonus systems as in big Corporate firms. Anyone who gets a complaint, will get lesser points. More points, more increments.
5. Shift RTC bus stops from the ends of a lane to the middle of a lane.
6. Cut a ticket for a vehicle owner if his vehicle is stopped at a bus stop or any other private areas.

I know this is very ‘local’ to Hyderabad, but I strongly believe that this will help every city plagued with Traffic Problems.

What do you say? Do you think this will work or this is my day dream? Let me know.