Caste-based Job Reservation

Jats you do not deserve reservation, just like no other community in India does. If not for political expediency, the concept carries no advantage. In fact it keeps the caste identities, the bane of Indian society, alive and kicking well into the second decade of the present century.  

Caste based job reservation has become too big an element of politics in India. The issue is politically so sensitive that just an off hand remark by RSS chief was enough to decimate BJP's hopes in Bihar assembly elections. So nobody dares to touch the issue at the practical level. I have seen three generations of elite dalit families reaping reservation benefits to rise on the socio-economic ladder. On the other hand, I am surrounded by poor educated dalit young people who haven't benefited from reservation in any way. The solution can be: Let reservation be a first generation benefit, i.e., the children of a reservation beneficiary will not be eligible for the scheme. When a dalit gets a job on reservation, he/she is supposed to bring up his children in a way that they can compete against the best. It will help in spreading the reservation benefits horizontally rather than the vertical compilation of benefits in the already rich dalit families. Unfortunately it so far has been the trend. Job reservation is supposed to provide more and more people with basic amenities of life rather than some particular families reaping the benefits on account of the already existing benefits.

Schopenhauer

Will to life...unavoidable helplessness to fall in love .... to reproduce ... to procreate. Schopenhauer tells how the will to life ensures survival of species. In animal world it is the direct spark of mating and procreation. In humans it is pleasantly drawn out to involve romantic situations. ...of falling in love...of enjoyment...of pain..ecstasies and all.

Our Moon has Blood Clots by Rahul Pandita

Our Moon has Blood Clots by Rahul Pandita. A poignant memoir, it throws light on tragically understated history of violence against Kashmiri Pandits. Kashmir is too big an issue, and common tragedies of the common people too small. They pale into the shadows of mighty forces fighting for it. Read it and you will have more pragmatic assessment of the contemporary issues. You might even become free of conceptually-aligned, hypothetical-hold of pseudo-secularism. It will help you in criticizing religion-ordained violence without getting scared of losing your status of an enlightened, secular person. Evil mutations of misinterpreted theology are eating into the body spirit of a shared humanity. It has turned the body diseased. It needs surgical operation. Doctoring, knives, scalpel, injection, bitter pills. I wonder are these the only options left to deal with the affliction. Well, beyond critical limits, I think it's the time of decisive action. 

Koh-i-Noor is best suitable for Taliban

Some information for those clamouring for Koh-i-Noor's return. The balooon of human greed has to bust. It cannot be otherwise. The famous diamond has rolled into pockets, only to be snatched away by greater ambitions. Each house it landed in very soon got toppled from the seat of power. Lineages of dozens of kings who grabbed it came crashing down. Finally the ship which was carrying it to England was barely saved from doom. Stricken with plague and lashed by storms it just made it to the destination. The day it arrived on the British mainland, July 2 1850, Queen got a cane hit on her head by an attacker leaving her a black eye and a scar on forehead which remained for years. Also on that very day her most trusted Prime Minister of four decades, Robert Peel, fell from horse and died. BJP shouldn't take a risk. I think Pakistan is more suitable for its ownership. Or Taliban, which is still a better claimant. Haaa haaa

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

The mere idea of death shakes us. It casts a shadow, turns the world upside down, rattles the stage of our ambitions, dreams, hopes and aspirations. We don't even like to think about it. But ultimately death is the only surety in life. Our conscious effort to drive away the idea about our mortality is what we mean by life. The biggest commonality around, still we, still aware of the failure to do it, try not to know or remember about it in our own context. Paul can see it creeping towards him. It is so near that he has been touched by its shadows. The lifeful bright sky over him is losing to the deadly spell. Soon it will be dark. He will cease to exist as others and he himself recognizes himself the pioneer in neurosurgery and possibly its future as a science to deal with unresolved ailments of the brain. He will cease to exit. The consolation can be that he will be part of everything. As per medical science, his domain as a neurosurgeon, it's just months away. There is no hope. Not even in its most hypothetical form. He is but forcing himself to live. To live till his last breath. Life acquires a focus, a meaninful precision, a surety as the finish line looms just a hand away. As the dark Angel creeps towards him, he decides to live. To live substantially. Intensely. He wants to remember the idea of life more than the fact of sure death. Before his body is snatched away at its prime, he decides to jot down the meaning of life. A favour done to lesser mortals like us. In writing this book on his deathbed, he turns Saint Paul. Read it. You will know how fissiparous life can be. Yet how meaningful it is meant to be at the same time. He turns dying a mere phenomenon. And life still bigger one. Read it and you will love yourself and your situations more than you do now. 

RIP Paul. You are an angel now. And part of a better world.