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On Reservation
Posted on October 31, 2012

There is deep resentment against reservation in so called general castes and you can see on
facebook etc lamenting the reservation system by upholders of equality and merit.
The opposers of the reservation system give following arguments1. The reservation system is against principle of equality.
2. It is against the principle of merit and less qualified or ineligible people are getting the place
denying the people who deserve. It undermines efficiency.
3. Some argue that reservation in education is justifiable but not in employment.
4. Then some argue that reservation should be based on economic parameters not based on
caste based.
The first argument is totally faulty. No one can deny that indian society is divided based on
caste and sub-castes and lower castes have been discriminated by upper castes
systematically since thousands years. Principle of equality applies when there is equal
opportunity. While upper castes occupied only very small % of hindu society they ruled,
owned property- land and had monopolized education, privileges to use resources etc and
continue to do so despite significant progress by some lower caste population. Still in villages
there is discrimination, there are reports even today of discrimination in schools, in matters
of entry in temple, water rights etc from villages if one care to read such stories. Not that
urban society is above such practices even recently the children who are admitted by
private schools under RTE from backward and SCs, are being discriminated like they are
made to sit in separate group separately. Still we hear about manual scavenging practiced by
traditional castes. A report by EPW on a scheme of UP government which sought to open
the post of safayee-karmachari (cleaners) in panchayats, municipal areas for all castes
(previously only SC were being appointed) so that label associated with lower castes can be
destroyed shows that those appointed who belonged to upper castes (with significant
number due to scarce unemployment in state) were found to subcontract their work to lower
castes on meagre wage. In such circumstances can we really claim to have a society where we
can claim that principle of equality applies. Still the largest proportion of uneducated children
belonged to SC and STs.
Second argument is regarding efficiency and merit. Well I hardly understand the concept of
merit in many cases. In administration one has to show his merit in some subjects which may
have nothing to do with actual job in hand. Civil administration required dynamic and socially
sensitive personality rather than a person who can command great knowledge about history,
psychology, or philosophy etc. If merit is the panacea then why we had corruption and
inefficiency before we had mandal commission ? Or can someone claim that meritorious
person would not discriminate or indulge in corrupt practices. And above all what are the
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objective of State. As our preamble states which is the philosophy and basis our
constitution and held best articulation of objectives of state by many critics the prime aim
of government is to ensure justice political, social and economical. The state should strive to
empower weaker sections of the society. So efficiency is required but before that we require
social justice and inclusiveness. And it will be erroneous to claim that candidates who are
appointed through reservation will be inefficient because the examination system only tests
the academic aspects and that too is very questionable. So to promote inclusiveness and give
space to diversity of Indian society in current scenario reservation is the one pragmatic way.
Also as the education will spread in all segments of society this question will be irrelevant as
then there will be fierce competition even within these castes and also among the castes.
Some argue that reservation in education is sufficient and can address the problem of
opportunity. It seems good argument at first instance but when you look at social factors it
does not. The concepts of caste are very deeply entrenched, even after providing education
there is discrimination even within the education system and also reservation is only
provided to public schools and most of the elite and higher class have access to public schools.
The standards of public and private education are all in different levels. Most poor belonged
to SC, ST and backwards who can not afford private education. Unless we have uniform
standards of education across the nation and across the sectors we can not claim that there is
case of equal opportunity.
Then there is strong argument for reservation based on economic parameters rather than
caste. I personally favor this but not in current scenario. I think overtime our political
institutions should move from caste based reservation to economic status based reservation
but the question is, when? There is still discrimination based on caste not only in villages but
in urban areas also. The issue of honour killing, system of caste-marriages, khap-panchayats
indicate that our society is still based on the lines of caste. The caste based reservation is a
part of greater social and political movement which mobilizes the oppressed classes to rise
and demand for their rights and in this process they challenge the social practices and
prejudices. So unless we can claim that we have tamed the social discrimination based on
caste to a significant extent, it will express itself as demand of reservation based on caste.
The other factor is economic progress. There is strong divide between rich and poor and large
population of poor people live in abject conditions. When we will be able to achieve economic
progress for all people where basic need of all people can be ensured, when there will be
significant reduction in poverty, malnutrition and proper health and education facilities then
automatically the discontent in the society will be less and caste system will also weaken. For
the time being the requirement is to implement the guidelines of the SC to avoid creamy
layer and preventing the benefits to more than one generation for which provisions are
already there, which should be implemented in proper way.

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Reservation in Promotion
The debate in reservation in promotion is also fierce. Although principally I am not in favour
of such thing but the issue is socio-political and technical also. And we should remember in
politics/democracy the policy is determined by social mobilization and as of now there is great
demand of such move across parties. The issue is also technical. Due to reasons such as
SC/ST students prepare for more time due to historical and social background of their
families and can not afford coachings, the other reason many SC/ST students have to clear
competitive exams like IAS etc while doing some menial jobs to support their family make
their entry in such services late which hampers their promotion and due to these reasons
they do not acquire high echelons of administration. Also there are cases of discrimination as
well which can not be denied where they have denied promotion due to caste prejudices at
the top. These issues has to be addressed. Reservation in promotion may address some such
issues but may be counter productive for morale of other officials. The need is to balance both
issues. One suggestion is to have fixed tenure irrespective of joining age and seniority
determined by years of service rather than age and objective parameters for determining
merit parameters. It must be seen that due to reservation policy tainted elements are not
being promoted. Also reservation in promotion should be avoided after some levels. Also
there should be clear cut objective of such policy that after achieving representation at all
levels as per social patterns this policy will be discontinued as then it can be assumed that the
discrimination will no longer be there due to removal of monopoly of higher caste at top
positions.
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Tata Indigo My Manza Review

Posted on October 15, 2010

Finally I am presenting personal review of tata manza which I proudly own, I can say that
now at least after three month experience and completing 5000 km in about 100 days. I
have touched > 160kmph speed as of now
under some unusual circumstances.
Good Things:
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- Value for Money Its an amazing deal, sedan at this rate with so many features is great
deal: ABS, DIN system, Integrated stereo, nice dashboard, blue & Me technology, tilt steering
@6.6 on road in bangalore
- Inside space is just awesome for all people even for person having 6 feet height
- Back seats are as comfortable as driving seat (in fact more comfortable ideal for chauffeur
driven people)
- Fairly economical sedan : I have petrol version and getting 10kmpl in city with AC 60-70%
ON and 12 kmpl on highway with AC ON
- headlights are very strong
- music system is great and have many options for control like bass, balance etc
- light in the vanity mirror and cup-board
What would have been better
- Some small additions in the interior would have made it very comfortable I would have
liked if there would have been more small partitions/cubby holes for putting small papers,
purse etc, Miss holder for sun-glasses like in Linea, In the side of the seats 1 litre bottles
doesnt fit, No option to have arm rest for front seats
- Engine is not as quite as expected from luxurious sedan
- There is no model which has option for rear window de-mister and wiper
- No option as of now for having power windows to roll up when you lock your car, reason
being power windows are not powered by battery alone so key should be all the way on
(ready for ignition) to roll up and down the windows
- No option by atleast from TATA motors service centers as of now for alarm while reversing
and sound alarm while locking and unlocking the car
- higher version should have option for AC vents for back seat for people sitting behind like
safari
Some of the photos of my manza .

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Vipassana: The Art of Knowing yourself and beyond

Posted on August 27, 2010

I attended from 15th Aug to 25th of Aug a residential meditation course at Hyderabad center
known as Vipassana. While attending the course I had decided to create a blog of my
experience to share my experience of it so that more people get to know it in a better way or
different way and give chance to experience it once.
Vipassana The Introduction
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Basic course information, about its main teacher Guruji Shri SN Goenka and its history is
given at its international website http://www.dhamma.org/ like what is Vipassana, about
the technique, its tradition, Code of discipline VERY IMP, Course Information and locations
where the courses are being conducted. So before going further have a look at it as repeating
the same information would not be worthwhile.
The first thing may come after reading it is (particularly age group of 20-30), I am happy
and satisfied with my life, why do I need it? or I am fine the way things are moving, and
dont have any religious/spiritual curiosity so to say . or This is too serious for me I
am not that type of person. The main reason I wanted to put my experience because I
believe there are certain aspects which are very small, very selfish, and bi-product of
attending such a course but still these benefits can sow a seed of much much bigger purpose
which in the word of Shri Guruji is to find the ultimate truth by adopting thedharma
which is not a religion but is the law of nature. Anyway here they are In this time of busy working life, social networking etc people have become extremely
extrovert so they never really find time to look into themselves, introspect the life and
keep on accumulating their frustrations, tensions, etc into their unconscious mind which
will start generating negativity around them and they cant really see it as their mind is
pre-occupied by them only. And when this volcano of accumulated sanskaars - the
feelings of attachments and negativeness will erupt no one can really know ! (and what
disastrous results it will bring) This course gives you opportunity to be alone in real sense
in an environment and this technique teaches you to unwind the knots which we have
created in our mind very very deep.
The technique reveals the hidden sensations of our body and secret lying underneath.
You can experience that our body is made of so many small small atoms and at more
micro level waves vibrating regenerating always .and at micro level its eternally
changing the knowledge which we may have always known but never felt ..and it feels
great when knowledge based on the books is experienced and felt live on your body itself.
The strict code of discipline is very well reasoned as it ensures that whatever we feel
should be original, true and natural not superimposed or affected by someone else which
proves the fact of individualism that every human being is an independent entity and
has its own personality associated with it. The discipline also helps in shattering some
very fundamental egos deeply rooted within ourselves.
You can experience the close relationship between our mind sensations (i.e. what we feel,
analyze) and bodily sensations (which can be seen by others also like speaking, any body
movement). And how this inter-dynamics affects our unconscious mind reacting always to
everything. This helps in increasing your awareness about your surroundings, your own
feelings, emotions ..which in turn helps in better decision making in daily life where you
are subjected to various external forces in a calm and balanced manner. Which is
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absolutely essential for people managing other people, leading the team and handling man
management related jobs.
By following the demanding schedule and code of discipline (control over speaking, food
amount, time and periods)you become more strong mentally and bodily. You learn to
live on what optimum is required to be just healthy and your tolerance level of body and
mind increases by 8-10 hours of meditation sittings a day.
As you feel your own body and mind so micro manner you feel a new energy source within
yourself which has some positive tangible effect as reported by many other people also,
people have said that there back pain, pain on their joints, migrane, insomnia like
problems got resolved by practicing this technique. However do not go with this
expectation it is just the bi-product as mentioned on the website also.
And if you are religious and spiritual then I hope you must be feeling yourself incomplete in
knowledge and there will be so many un-answered questions which this experience will help
in solving.
Now I will present the glimpse to 10 days and my personal experiences associated with them
which may be relevant to others also,
Day1: Normally one feels the heat first time and it hurts by all means bodily, mentally.
You see how hard it may be to instruct our own mind to do one simple thing. And when
you first time listen to the discourse of guruji you feel relief, energetic and look forward to
next day. Thats the beauty of the discourse that whatever you will feel throughout the
day the same when explained in words and theory it becomes crystal clear and adopted
by deeply, and internalized by mind.
Day2: Advancement to certain extent, however you now see how we really ignore some
simple things of our life i.e. breadth and start observing and see its relationship with our
sensations, feelings of attachment, craving and aversion.
Day3, Day 4: Now you start feeling subtlety and micro-observing power of mind. You also
comes to a stage where you unwind various secrets, knots and truths about yourself and
start accepting them as yathabhoota sambhoota as it is.
Day 5: Suddenly you get the whole body to work-out, which at the beginning seems more
challenging and interesting also but soon you find it is not easy !!
Day 6: You start training your mind and body (specially body actually) to be still
absolutely and test your tolerance level. But you will feel after some exercises that you
see its starts reacting and you can see the worries about pain, heat like mundane things
dont really matter that much. Also you can see close relationship between gross and
subtle sensations to the state of mind and creating sources of that and that open the gate
of knowledge that if the moment you feel a sensation and have internalized that this
sensation is due to this reason and it is neither good to create craving nor bad to create
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aversion, you can detach yourself from the external environment and maintain your calm,
however it is definitely not easy and in fact if some can do that in real practical life, he is
the one i.e. Stithipragya. But still to reach somewhere by 1000 steps every step is
important.
Day 7: From this day you start to experience much micro sensations of your body and
your awareness can increase many folds based on your concentration level and old
sanskaar destiny.
Day 8,9: On these day mentally you come to very peace internally and have very great
concentration in smadhi and experience the secrets of sensations. However you need to be
very alert, very neutral else side-effect can be much more. Also now that you realize so
less time to go back to normal world you may feel bit excited also at times due to craving
to various worldly things will again start acting. But anyway you will feel that I have got a
wonderful gift of dharma for which you atleast have forwarded one step ahead.
Day-10: Maitri Divas On this day you interact with people around you and see how
happy you are to see others happy.
I had also enjoyed the environment. Most of the centers are located in outskirts of cities, far
from noise of cities within natural beauty. I listened to chirping of birds, koyal, bulbul, parrots
etc after so many years such that I have nothing else to do and just listening and
remembered my childhood days in village of nanaji without worrying about TV, mobile,
internet, home etc etc. It was a very calm and amazing feeling.
So when I returned I known myself better, I found a way of living by which I can remove bad
things in my self and create more positive guna within me by accepting the law of nature
without creating any craving to it and reacting to it, I made new friends, known new people,
found out that no one is complete, and spent some time with nature.
In the end I would like to thank my friend Nimish for being instrumental for attending
vipassana meditation camp and I wish that this blog of mine be instrumental for other people
to go ahead and give it a chance or rather give themselves a chance to know better. As in the
words of Shri Guruji,
Bhavatu Sabb Manglam Let Everyone be Happy.

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