Equal Treatment of Unequals Perpetuates Inequality

Equal Treatment of Unequals Perpetuates Inequality (Tehelka.com)

Mr. Khaliq pointed out that Ambedkar has let India know on 26th January 1950 that " we were going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in Social and economic life we will have inequality." 

It is also important to point out that it was a very unique and bold step by the fathers of our constitution. They envisaged that one step will beget the other as Ambedkar also pointed out in the same speech that "If we continue to deny it(equality in social and economic life) for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril." This bold step was an experiment and the next steps were to be based on the success of the experiment. Unfortunately, this social experiment became a political game leading the democracy into one tussle after the other and today we witness another such confrontation being defended by Mr. Khaliq.

In management terms, the experiment has become an "escalation of commitment" and no one wants to call it off for the political stakes are too high at this point in time. It will take a lot to abandon it and think of fresh solutions.

The core to the solution of inequality is the elimination of the "Social Stigma" of "Untouchability". If reservations haven't eliminated this stigma in 62 years, how will it do in the next 60 years? Is there a clear road map through reservations (affirmative action)?

The "Social" dimension of this stigma needs to be eliminated and thus has to be fought in its own backyard. We have a divided society today because we propagate no intermixing of castes. This land which has given birth to so many religions propagates zero tolerance on inter religion marriages. A Jain marries a Jain, a Brahmin marries a Brahmin. The roots of the division lie in the simple social segregation of the castes through marriages.

Thus the solution lies in banding these islands into a single mass through intermixing. At an administrative level it has to be achieved with both a stick and a carrot -

1. Providing Financial support to couples entering into an alliance of a nature where on spouse belongs to a lower caste and the other to the upper.

2. A pension for the parents of the spouses.

3. Scholarships for the children of such spouses.

4. Health Benefits for the Spouses.

5. Insurance from LIC for the Spouses and their 2 children for 25 years each.

6. Promotion of Healthy competition among districts and states to achieve targets for the inter caste marriage registrations which can promote to the lowest level of a municipal corp-orator, an SHO, a health inspector or a school teacher. The States/Districts/Divisions need to be penalized by transfers of senior individuals which has the lowest 10% performance. Consistent poor performance or individuals of state/Division/District to lead to demotion of the staff at multiple levels.

7. Strong legislations resulting in long tenure of social service to lifetime imprisonment in cases of caste related violence.

These are just a few possible alternatives while we can think of more such together. Some have already found favour with a few states e.g. suggestion 1 has a working format in Punjab. 

In Brief, we need to be more constructive in our approach in uniting the society to create equality and not deepen the cut of caste into it.

Manish Saini

Kanav's today's Order

Mamma aap Papa ko disturb mat karo....nahi to papa kaam kaise kareinge'

- When I was working on the computer and Preeti called me to say something!

Letter To Aamir Khan - Talaash

Dear Sir,
As always, Talash was an extremely engrossing work of yours but have a suggestion to make for Brand Aamir.

Brand Aamir has always worked to dispel superstitions from the society and this movie  is definitely not in sync with the Brand image. While science has still not answered a lot of questions, existence of Ghosts is a far fetched imagination which leads people to seek help of Babas and Tantriks. What happens to them is a well known fact which is often an eighth page news or a non prime time news. Children are killed, women are raped and crimes unheard of happen.

My suggestion is related to correct the image of Brand Aamir by taking up this topic in Saytyameva Jayate and dispel this belief through scientific arguments. Arguments like the ones used by Carl Sagan in "Cosmos" (a  13 episode TV series and a book) and by Richard Dawkins in almost all his books.

Would request you to definitely give it a serious thought and help the cause of science.

With respect and humleness
Manish Saini

Kanav's Today Question

Question of the day -

Mamma, yeh (signalling with his hand) aapka, mera, papa ka, jay ka aur Bui kaa ghar kissne Banaya?

Statement of the day -

Papa aap Shaitaan ho gaye ho. Aap mere ko, mamma ko aur Jai ko chodd ke jaatey ho! (this was in response to when I called him Shaitan as he was trying to escape brushing his teeth :) )

The fall of a Superhero!

Preeti was back after 45 days and was struggling daily for the groceries were depleted. On the subsequent Saturday (almost 2 weeks back), all of us went to Big Bazaar to fill in the quota of the month! Jay had grown up and was able to sit upright in the trolley and Kanav had become naughtier so needed a tighter vigil.

While Preeti was gathering her pick of the vegetables, I went to weigh them for her. Suddenly we realized that Kanav was no more around. We had our bouts of Panic in the past and were used to these situations and quickly jumped into action. While Preeti took hold of Jay and the groceries, I went to look out for Kanav. After a small round around the vegetables, I was not able to find him and was just running through the various options when I saw him leisurely walking around with a Frooti and taking quick sips.

From a distance he saw me; and when I waved at him to come back his eyes brightened and he just dashed upstairs on the first floor. The first floor houses toys for kids and I was sure that was where I am going to find him. So I made for the section and when I reached there, I saw him making a sales pitch to a father and son - "Wait! main aapko remote car dikhaata hoon." He picked up one of those cheap remote cars while in the other hand still had the Frooti.

I called him out sweetly and told him that we were going.

Kanav - "Papa remote car chahiye"

Me - "Hum jaa rahe hain"

Kanav - "Nahin Papa. remote car chahiye! Please"

And he was on my tail now. While making sure that I don't look at him directly to make him comfortable, through the corner of my eye, I was making sure that he was just next to me running along repeating his last sentence like a recorded toy.

When we reached where Preeti was, it was almost 15 minutes and she had missed the fun. But the situation here was hot! She had been sizzling in the thought of Kanav went missing and every minute was like an hour to her. Kanav's sight was not only relief to her but also the tipping point for the volcano to errupt.

Kanav playfully said Mamma dekho main........and then there was just the GOONJ. Thappad ki Goonj for everyone to hear clearly. Preeti was over Kanav and Kanav had a shock of his life for he did not know what called for it.

It was almost 5 seconds later that Kanav realized what had happened and started crying. I am not sure if it was the shock of the Slap or was it that the Slap really hurt but I felt pity for my kidoo. While Preeti was absolutely right in taking the extreme step, kanav for himself was completely innocent.

So when I picked him up to soothe him, he aksed me - "Papa mamma ne mere ko kyon maara...sob sob...".

I asked him - "Kannu aap binna bataye challe gaye they naa. Iss liye mamma ne pitty ki"

Kanav - "Main bataa ke gaya tha papa."

I was shocked for he did not either tell me or Preeti as to where he was heading. And so I asked him again - "Beta aap kisko bataa ke gaaye they?"

Still crying and sobbing, he answered - "Papa main Spiderman ko bata ke gaya tha!"

Its been 2 weeks and we just can't help rolling on the floor whenever we either see or hear Spiderman for Kanav's dear Superhero betrayed him by not telling his mom as to where was Kanav when she was looking for her.

Manish

The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan

One cannot talk or write about Partition without invoking a lot of emotions. As Ramchandra Guha also says that one biggest flaw in the writing of History is that the author himself/herself has an opinion and its most difficult to talk about the topic unbiased. But Yasmin Khan has risen to this challenge and left her text un-corrupted by any bias and I simply can't resist thanking her.
Yasmin Khan followed a contemporary historian's method of narrative history to describe the events during the dark days of Partition. While Maulana had described the various events leading to Partition, Yasmin Khan weaves a web of situations around this dreadful event.
The book is a slow starter and seems to be a little over analytic. But once you proceed to the third chapter, the narrative becomes nothing less than gripping.
For a generation born post emergency, its highly impossible to understand or even envisage the chaos of those times. But Yasmin's book through a collosal research and lucid writing has been able to do the impossible. She invokes images in mind which even well written novels like Tamas or Pinjar have not been able to do.
These were times which had no Parallel in history. There was no guiding post. To make it worse, communications were at there Nadir. We cannot deny it as the biggest Political error of the Modern India. But, Yasmin, as Maulana had illustrated that there was no single event which could have been pointed to lead us to these dark times. The seeds were sowed long back when Jinnah forming a Muslim League. All events post that just added to the pile and in 1947, we reached the tipping point over which Mountbatten just gave us a push.
Unlike Maulana, Yasmin Khan is not a Mountbatten fan. She has analyzed his actions to a great depth. Personally, in this part, the narrative to me seemed as if Mountbatten had a list of To-dos and Partition was just one of them.
When I shifted from Lucknow to Hoshiarpur in the 90s, the absence of mosque's and Muslims in this part of India was a shocker to me as a kid. I later thought that its just that Muslim's were centered a little more in UP and Sikh's in Punjab. But my readings of the Partition have made things more understandable.
Through Yasmin's book, I believe I have been able to live a life of the refugee for at least a week till I read this book. And if it was such an emotionally draining experience to just read, I just cannot imagine the trauma and horrors of the people who lived through. As one of the social workers remarked that the trauma was such that they didn't know what to say and how to console the ones affected; I would want to leave these horrors to rest for now.

Manish Saini

India Wins Freedom - Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

Its a popular belief that its Books which choose you and not the other way round and I can definitely say that the saying has been true for me for this book. It was just on a sleepy Saturday that I laid my hand on this astounding tale of Partition at a second hand book shop.

Its a tale from the close Quarters, from the desk of somone who spearheaded the nation into an almost Blodless freedom.

It is one book which puts one in an extreme conundrum. How is one supposed to react when ones' icons fall into a deep abyss of Human falacy? How is one supposed to react when he understands that the greatest error in the human history was done by none other than his greatest icon whom he had emulated since childhood?
I am not sure about the answers to these questions nor am I sure to the feelings I am exposed to by this book. What I know is that I just need to know more about this most tragic event in the history of this subcontinent.

The book being a Biography and written by the long time associate of Maulana is completely devoid of a human angle of him which one sees very clearly in Mahatama's "My experiments with truth" and Mandela's "Long walk to freedom." This book does paint Maulana as the one of the greatest of his time and I have no doubt about it.

This book has opened a Pandora's box which is the reason why its full publication was extremely controversial and only a court case was won was when readers were humbled by Maulana.

It is my first thorough insight into the events leading to Partition but it seems to me as a slightly biased view with lot of personal feelings about individuals and events involved. And I don't blame Maulana for this as the time was such and the tragedy was one of its kind.

But this book has definitely given me a good starting point to research into a story whose genesis I wanted to know more about since a long time.


Manish Saini

When you are not around!

A bottle of water which is always on my table is what makes me go through my tough day. Its always there beside me when I sleep. But never once in the day, ever, I think about it; because its always there!

After spending a lot of money on my training, I wanted time to practice but for a married man, time is a luxury :). It is something which is not his.

But how could I know this? I have been married for only 4 years now!

I badly wanted to study but i thought it was the demands of married life which were pulling me back. 

Voila! I was extremely excited about thinking of the time I am going to spend in books when Preeti would be away with the kids to Punjab! And when she did go, I created a perfect rhythm for myself the first 2-3 days. 

But then something happened!!!

The rhythm broke! Books started gathering Dust! Dust started gathering on the desk, on the laptop and on the floor. Time just lingered and I lingered with it. 

Was it Laziness or was it Loneliness? I don't know!

Once in a while when you don't find the bottle of water anywhere in your reach, you feel like a fish out of a pond. The feeling was similar. My bottle of water was in Punjab. She was my dose of the day. She was supposed to be there everyday.

Little did I think that it is her who creates my rhythm and without her, the rhythm looses its beat, it looses the music.

I love you Preet and I did take you for granted for which I am extremely ashamed!

Will do anything to make it up to you.

Manu

Complications

I have a favorite quote from Khalil Gibrahan's Prophet - "Thought is the bird of space which in the cage of words can unfold its wings but cannot fly"

Scientifically, thoughts and feelings find their genesis in the human brain and can be used interchangeably in the above statement. My feelings for Kanav are very very complicated. Its a mind boggling mixture of Love, fear, pride and affection. Any number of words cannot suffice to illustrate their battle in the mind.

From a mere loath of flesh, blood and bones, Preet and I have been nurturing this young little kid of ours into this world. Every small step of his into adapting into the world releases that complicated mixture of feeling into my cerebrum.

While my eyes are filled with a lot of Pride & Love, heart with affection, there is always a constant and consistent fear deep somewhere, of what lies in tomorrow. Slowly and steadily, Kanav is learning to learn the world by his own and in some time would need us far too little than today. He would do a lot of mistakes, some of which I must have done myself.

While one part of me (practical one) says that he has to go through that phase to grow into a man, the other part (which is only love and affection) constantly tries to find ways to help him learn everything I have in past 30 years.

This other part is responsible for the genesis of fear in the brain. The fear that if Kanav does not see any particular situation and the world in correct light, then what? This part wants to protect Kanav from making any error of judgement.

I am sure that there will be days when one part dominates the other. And I am sure that as Kanav grows, I have to control my latter part as much as possible else it may lead into confrontations, some which I had with my parents most of the time.

I am really happy not to be in "Randy Pausch's" shoes to teach my kids everything in 6 months which they will take a whole lifetime to learn. God willing, I will be there to laugh when the kido repeats my mistakes.

I just hope that he finds the right path to learn and tries to make the right choices as many times as possible.

Kido, you are my soul!

Manu