how can you set me free if there is nothing called freedom!!

While scripting reservation

In one rural indian village there were 3 friends: a hard-worker, an intelligent and a near stupid. They went to the same school and got same opportunities. Years later, the hard-worker became a high ranking official at LIC, the Intelligent became a doctor and the near stupid became a clerk at the local administration.

Now, that does not make a good story, so predictable. We put it forward for popular reaction and got response "no drama..."

The discussion continued...

Now, what if...the hardworking becomes a clerk in local administration, intelligent becomes a high ranking official at LIC and stupid becomes a doctor.

Sounds dramatic. "the script is getting interesting"- the popular verdict.

Continue... go on flesh it out... substantiate...

A hardworking person can get a low paying job because of
a) bad luck, b) missed opportunity, c) lack of guidance... so on and so forth

An intelligent person not living up to the expectation could be because of a) bad company, b) drugs, c) getting misguided and joining an extremist group in college (and later reforming)

A near stupid becoming a doctor could be because of a) divine intervention, or b) now proposed reservation policy

(p.s. note : don't read further if you found the above offensive)

Need more drama!! let us put in the caste angles...

The hardworking person who ends up getting a low paying job is an upper caste then... popular reaction- "too bad", "deserves it", "fate"
and if the hard-worker is a lower caste then... popular reaction- "need reservations"

Then intelligent person ends up getting a job below his caliber and happens to be an upper caste then... popular reaction- "too bad", "deserves it", "fate"
if he is a lower caste then... popular reaction- "need reservations"

The near stupid ends up becoming a doctor and he happens to be an upper caste... popular reaction-"injustice", "what the fuck!!"
if the stupid becomes a doctor and he is of the lower caste then... (if you take a politically correct stance) ... then blame it on parliamentary decisions, Arjun Singh style.

And thus spoke Parashu: reservation if intented to uplift the economically backward people should not be caste based. Because unlike fifty years back today there are wealthy lower caste and scavenging upper castes. So the policies will have no effect on the cash rich upper or lower caste, they can always choose to go abroad... In this attempt to create equality in another 10 years we will end up creating a new class of under-privilaged- 'the economically backward former upper caste'.

Kindness! Respect! Servitude!

Not-a-burden

RSS march. PAST.

9:30 am. wed. 21 dec 2005. road block at tripunitura jn, Kochi. Courtesy: a political rally titled, 'navakerala yatra'

judgement and concept of fairness

a soldier kills and is awarded, not punished for murder. but rewarded. Has the soldier committed murder!!?? technically yes. Has he really committed murder? perhaps not.

not all snuffing out of life is murder. murder, noun 1. the unlawful killing of one human being by another, especially when it is intentional... but communication is not just words it is more complex. not all killings are equal. some have to be rewarded, some have to be punished. that is the law of the society. i am not going to substantiate that.

********************************

location: an electric crematorium in x town. dusk.
"there is a threshold of pain that i could take. beyond that my mind and body gave up. my tolerance was relative. absolutely" - a dead body of abc who was hanged for murder. according to him and some others, wrongfully. according to some others rightfully.

********************************
basic.
survival. of. the. fittest.
physical needs first.
then the well being.
then comes grooming.
then craving for appreciation. (maslow).
then spirituality.

to each of us each stage is relative as well as absolute.

**********************************
self. i. me. myself. define it.
self is i.
self is mine.
then there is self which is projected self... the me keeps changing....
eg: my brother. my father. my wife. my nation. my world. my universe. all of which becomes me in different contexts. my brother is me if anyone threatens him, till that point i might have been baying for his blood. my nation is me, i will kill for it when the enemy strikes. survival of 'i' is primal need. But, the needs keeps changing. they are relative.

*********************************
location: an air cooled bedroom, close to midnight.
"the definition of me: sub-atomic particle is me. the cosmos is me. me is my community but the outsider: my enemy. mine is my survival. my well being. my grooming. my need for appreciation, my God" - the conscience of a surviving politician who instigated a communal riot.

**********************************
judgment is human capacity.
**********************************
the 14 year old mother who killed her child and was not punished for murder, the keeper of law looked beyond the law and made a judgement beyond the penal code. a murderer being set free, sounds fair in this context. but a judgment that we face everyday in the society does not always sound fair, eg. the law not applying equally to the civilian murderer and the soldier. sounds unfair?! But then the problem is not with the law. it is with the notion of fairness we are tutored into. in the wild there no mercy. there is another kind of justice. a kind that is beyond our civic understanding. lion kills his cub and sit in the shade and lick clean the last drop of blood from its paws. for many conveniences we are not far from wild. the rule of chances, survival and fate applies to us.
Thus spoke Parashu, there should be law. then there are ones who follow it discreetly. those who bend it without breaking it. That judge who sits under the virtue of words that preach 'truth shall prevail',..even as he orders the house to be seated, knows deep in his heart that justice need not always prevail.