What's next? Reservation for the Nobel and the Oscars

Planned reservation for Indian women by next Women's day:
-33% of seats in the UN Secretary Assembly
-2 Nobel prizes reserved in each category
-5 Oscars per category in each category

Okay, this is just a joke(which some of you might find it in bad taste but I honestly don't care about that.)

I have never liked the concept of reservation on the basis of gender, race, caste or creed, but most instances of reservation at least have some justification to it. Subjugation of the female gender or the so called 'lower' castes conspired to create societal imbalance and to rectify this, some incentives were required. This manifested in the form of reservations.

However, the latest move by the Ruling Party to pass a bill for the reservation of 33% of the seats in the Parliament is totally pointless. It is merely an extension of the populist politics that all parties resort to, to gain vote and hang on to power. The Opposition Party's flashy show of defiance to the Bill is just another example of this kind of cheap politics.

What I seriously don't understand is what the Government intends to achieve by introducing the reservation quota for women. This is hardly going to help the real women's cause, nor does it even symbolize the free and fearless Indian woman. All it manages to accomplish is push the society deeper into the mire called social imbalance. This kind of move only superficially marginalizes the male society and this in turn might have an unexpected backlash in the not so near future.

Why not create a reservation for men too - 33% seats reserved for men. Wouldn't that be a fair fight?

What have women(in India), who have been in power for so long done for womankind. Not much. Domestic violence and marginalization of women has hardly disappeared. By the time they take power, they have been corrupted enough that any thought of service to the society is stamped out of them. They are not so much different from their male counterparts. The end result is that hardly anything is done.

Also, something like governing the people shouldn't be done on the basis of reservation. How would you like to be operated upon by a doctor, who fared badly in his/her academic program but scraped through, thanks to the reservation system?

While governing does not deal with the human life as directly as medicine, it does concern the livelihood of thousands or even billions, depending on the scope of the post. Being thrust on to such a powerful post just because you're a man or a woman is in no way doing justice to the people who are being governed.

There are better ways to deal with such problems - for the emancipation and empowerment of the woman... and this includes a good education system(not the current one, which has you comitting everything in the book to rote memory and then 'vomitting' it in the final exam) and establishment of true women help groups(not the fancy feminist groups which grabs media attention for petty things but leaves the real problems out in the cold.)

It's what you do that should matter, not what you are by birth. I definitely wouldn't like to be turned away from what is rightfully mine by merit, just because a more poorly performing competitor is a woman.

A Response to Uttara's Jimpojiums

Here's my response to Uttara's Jimpojiums

@Uttara: Reading your article actually gave me an idea for a blog post of my own.

I'm not gonna contradict the article but rather add to it... give it few points from a new perspective.

I completely agree with the point that, as an endeavour to build organisational skills among students, these symposiums fail miserably. Not all the students involve themselves with the co-ordinating and those who do, have little or no clue as to what is to be done. Someone(at the apex of the organisation body, like the chairman or treasurer) barks the orders and the others simply comply.

To make matters worse, the politics among the organisers only adds to the systematic breakdown of order(yeah, you read that right!). The chairman is not willing to listen to new ideas or his ego simply prevents him from to co-operating with his colleagues. And they call this organisation!

For all its failures, though, these 'jimpojiums' do help some of those involved in conducting them. And I'm not talking about the excuse to get drunk. It actually helps build confidence. The extensive(relatively speaking) social interaction that these symposiums demand from the organisers harden them up to shed some of the public shyness - that impediment that stops people from marketing themselves where needed.

I've myself seen a number of guys come out of their shells after our symposium. Guys have started attending more events and are bolder when it comes to speaking in public. Even though this contributed to frequent mass absenteeism that thoroughly ticked off the faculty, it did have a positive influence.

Perhaps, the outcome of organising such 'jimpojiums' isn't totally lost on the organisers, is it?

Thoughts?

A Whole New Beginning!

I've deleted the few posts of my 'Blood Horizon' work from the blog and I'm hoping to start anew. The important factors that led me to this decision were:

1) No activity.

2) Blood Horizon was not progressing as fast as I had hoped it would.

3) No activity at all!

4) I've been posting BH in another networking site; something that's been much more closer to my heart than Orkut or Facebook. In fact, it's the only networking site that I visit regularly and that's Gamespot.

5) A total absence of activity!

6) I simply needed a blog for all my rants and ramblings

7) ZERO VISTS!!! ZERO ACTIVITY!!!

Erm... Did I mention that the blog had gone completely inactive?

So, there it is - A Whole new beginning!

(PS. Did that sound cliched?)