A few eons have passed by since I wrote here last. I have had a lot to say, but time has not been kind enough to give me the authority to dwell on the matters of the mind.

ISB has come to an end and so has a phase of life. As I look back at the year gone by, I have more than mixed feelings, with a greater proportion of good than not-so-good emotions.
Many of my peers have expressed that they are experiencing this terrible loss and that the entire year should not have come to an end.

I, for one, am yet to experience that terrible loss. In fact, I am as happy now as I was back then. A phase of life ended and another has started. I am extremely pleased to be back in Bangalore, doing the routine hangouts with the guys, catching the occasional play or movie and bringing down the stack of bought-but-unread books.

I watched a couple of movies since I got here. You must watch Honeymoon Travels if Chacha Choudhary with a mix of Pinky and Chhotu Lambu are your staple fare for intellectual stimulation. At the end of the movie, they distribute forms asking for your recommendation of a cinema school for Farhan Akhtar. Dil Chahta Hai, they say, was created when Farhan was in a state of dyslexia.
I failed to understand what Shabana Azmi was doing in this movie, until someone pointed out that she is Farhan’s aunt and hence wouldn’t have been able to refuse to do this shoddy film. KK Menon, as always, takes the cake as the Bengali babu. His wife takes more than just the cake for looking as pretty as she does in the movie. Overall, the movie doesn’t deserve more space on this blog than it has already got.

Currently reading Somerset Maugham’s Theatre, thanks to a friend and his wife who are right now having a blast of a time in Chennai. The book has been excellent so far and my review shall follow soon.

Moving on to some unfortunate news, Kurt Vonnegut is no more. I remember being influenced terribly by his works during my college years. A cynic resided permanently inside me and Kurt’s books fed it with opulence. The first book I read of his, Deadeye Dick, had me hooked. Slaughterhouse Five was the next one followed by all his other books. I recently read his latest book, A Man without a Country and was pleasantly taken back to my phase of life in college. Do check out his official website: http://www.vonnegut.com/

Now its time for a walk outside to soak in some Bengalooru sun before lunch and siesta.
Life is calling. Here I am.

Two interesting decisions and rulings – both religion based.

TN to have religion-based quotas

The Tamil Nadu government has announced exclusive reservations for
Christians and Muslims in government services and educational institutions.
Chief Minister M Karunanidhi told the state Assembly that the government
accepted the recommendations of the state Backward Classes Commission, headed by Justice M Janardanam, a retired judge of the Madras High court.

Muslims in UP can’t be treated as minority: HC

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday ruled that Muslims will not be treated
as a religious minority in the state any more.

“Muslims have ceased to be religious minority in Uttar Pradesh on considerations of materials on record includes various census reports including report of 1951 & 2001,” the court stated.

What is interesting to note is that both these decisions have big political impact in the respective states, for obvious reasons.

In UP, the Assembly polls are just around the corner and this verdict will dampen the spirit of the current ruling party. Although it is a High Court verdict, the common man would remove his ire on the government.

In case of TN, the DMK had included in its manifesto for the 2006 Assembly elections that it would provide exclusive reservation for Muslims and Christians. By issuing this decision, it has lived up to its manifesto and has hit bulls-eye in the field of religion-based politics.

My personal take is that reservations are needed, including caste-based, religion-based and economic status based. Reservations are, no doubt, a patchwork remedy to the decades of bad governance and are fuelled by the multi-party system in this country. However, this same multi-party system helps keep sanity in our government structure and provides for a larger structure of democratic rule. Where we clearly lack is in the implementation of all these reservation policies. The judiciary can play a role only in directing rules or policies related to reservations. The legislature has to take up the problem of implementation of these policies more seriously. More sessions should be devoted to the fair execution of reservation rules rather on devising more policies or modifying existing

Firstly, where we lack is a comprehensive database listing the demographics of this country in detail. We do have the census, which is touted as the largest government service carried out in any part of the world, but the census hardly does little more than provide aggregate figures of the socio-map of India. What it needs to do is build individual profiles and have them categorised based on various factors such as religion, caste, financial parameters, physical access to education/medical care and so on.
Based on this information, any decent data analysis shall easily be able to reveal the worthy potential receivers of reservation-based aid. Over a period of time, we could have a greater percentage of reservation quotas being filled in a fair manner and once this is done, sometime in the near future, it could help in bringing all people on the same plane.

Until then, we shall continue to see political parties play in this lucrative playground and create havoc with the lives who still wait for the much-talked about help. We shall also continue to have coffee-table debates on the worthiness of reservations.