prasannascolumn

It is usually not a good exp when you attend a relief work. More than the actual damage, govt apathy etc, what bothers me is the role and mindset one has to have to undertake such work. We went to a village some 40KM from chidambarram, which had a population of around 300 to 400 hundred families, it took us nearly 2 hrs to organise the crowd. Finaly we couldnt even distribute to more than 50 people, we had to leave fearing stampede. Crowd followed us for nearlly 10 kms running and incycle to get some breads, chapathy, bedsheets. What can one do in such situation.

My views on Brahmins have always been changing. There was a time I believed or rather interested in brahminism and took some pride in being one. I believed in great ideals of a Brahmin and but for the caste all is well in it. I believed they can contribute much to India, I believed they lead the front in overall development. I had all examples who have led such life, made impact in ordinary people’s life. I believed the Dravidian rhetoric is mere hatred ness, I wanted to tell the world that we are not responsible for the caste, I had all arguments, we are judged harshly by contemporary politicians. Today more I understand, more I listen, I am convinced that hatred ness is deep and genuinely innocent. I remember one of my friends telling me this, “ today Brahmins marry non-brahmins get out of traditional jobs, more progressive, but then they have left others in darkness of what they have preached for years” in effect the change in the attitude, the so called progressiveness has not help...

there seems to be a general feeling, that the politics will redeem for good if educated people vote and enter politics and politicians like other streams should have minimum qualification. I dont know how such thougts can be accepted as universal wisdom with out discussion. Other day i was watching CNN IBN, Rajdeep was wondering how come in the twenteith century india can have an MP who doesnt know how to press correct buttons in the vote of trust, and he was ashamed that they were our leaders. I am simply aghast with such remarks which is so insensitive to the millions of indians who are illiterate, poor. MPs are representatives of the people and their aspirations, so its natural that some MPs and MLAs can be uneducated better unschooled. I dont know how the educated can be true representatives of all indians. Anyways in real it is the educated babu lok who run the government, i am not very sure of their greatness. There is also feeling that the unschooled population are corrupt, igno...

How long can we be bad boys, how long can we bear the macho cross, think about the day when we will spend only for ourselves, have sex without guilt of corrupting and responsibilities, have less heart attacks, live longer, like all women. How many lives will you take and sacrifice in protecting small tissue. Freedom lies in not being police. Dress and Freedom: No doubt freedom to wear the dress we please is freedom, but do we deserve it. I think going by the arguments of some students we don’t. Every body agrees to code, most say short skirt and bikinis should be banned not jeans and t shirts, so we are not talking about freedom of choice, students fighting for jeans in Chennai would be a misfit in Delhi short skirts, and so on. So the fight is about choice of dress not about freedom. Mr VC is old fashioned and importantly he was a man, that is all. Whom should we support the VC or the students, I prefer to keep equidistant, freedom to be traditional is also freedom. One last word, ...

A debate at last. It has almost cost career of a tall leader to initiate discussion about the violent history of Indian partition and the parties responsible for it. Word Secularism often stretched to suit ones ideology is perhaps the -----of the understanding the religion and state. The secular idea of Gandhi was not secular to Nehru, his left friends, and Jinnah. So what is secularism and the role of religion in the society and the state. Secular state perhaps gave less space for religious discussions and interactions. When was the last time we in India had a discussion on various religious issues. In pre independent India religions flourished, fought against, learned and enriched each other. Best reformers were religious, drew inspirations from the words of Krishna and Christ. Ironically the secular India has only fought. So one need not be so proud of our secularism, we didn’t learn to accept other faiths after reading constitution, it doesn’t exist in our memory, it is for the mo...

The raging controversy over the the increase of the reservation in IITs and IIMs. Coming days will see increased mercury. But the reactions are same, not surprising, Though the recommendation is to increase quota in all government funded universities, it is the IIT that caught the fire, :Judgments pronounced, it affects depending upon which part of LoC you are in. The arguments go like these. It will bring down the quality of IITs, economic background should be the basis of reservation not the caste, reservation is the best affirmative step, it will frustrate children etc. We shall tackle each on its own merits. Economic Conditions as basis of reservation: IITs and IIMs are far most subsidised institutes. My guess is very few would have opted out of IITs and IIMs because of financial problem. For poor all he needs is financial assistance, we do have exp where poor have made into iits and iims. A typical IITian is a middle class, and many would have availed loans. But getting there is...

why do people blog?, i have always resisted to write blogs out of modesty. what is there to say about anyway, is subjective opinions matter at all. is it arrogance to think the people really care about what i think or write. but writing is always not for others, it doesnt really matter who reads it. I think with writing comes responsibility, what i write is not a spontaneous response.