Category Archives: Society

Divide and rule!

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A technique invented by the British imperialists, now perfected by the Indian politician. Divide they do by caste, creed, religion and geography, specially when its election time. This time round with elections occurring for five states in India.

The biggest divider this time around happens to be the “Human Resource Development” Minister Dr. Arjun Singh. He let out the cat among the pigeons by calling for reservation in the post-graduate level education at the premier educational institutions, medical colleges and private industries. It is a good election time gimmick to gather some votes, but it stinks of ‘rasheadedness’.

At the outset let me state that I am not against reservation(caste/race based). Mainly because I do not have an alternative solution to it.

I just have an issue with how it is implemented. If the government spent as much time on primary education for the lower castes to bring them in par with the mainstream, we wouldn’t have to resort to reservation at this level. There are certain fields that I believe should not be touched by reservation and the major area is medicine. I would feel safe to know that my doctor has the brains to get into medical college and has not had the medical degree forced on him due to reservation. It would be definitive be better to raise the standards of the down trodden rather than lower the bar. It would be oxymoronic, to call the Indian IITs and IIMs as one of the best in the world while we try to get in people under reservation.

In reality this reservation would only benefit the ricer of the lower caste, who have any idea of the perks of the system and would not really reach the intended audience of the lower income group. Instead of trying the top down model, the powers that be would be better off to try the bottom up model, if they really want to make a change.

The other interesting question that arises is how politicians implement such polarising moves with impunity. The cause lies in the fact that the middle class never really votes … they are just happy to live a contended life with no social responsibility. What the politicians are trying to do is speak to the uneducated (Who incidentally is not helped in any by such measures) who speak the language of division. Its easy to get the loyalty of a person who does not understand the consequences of such actions and whose caste loyalty is worn on his sleeve.

If the middle class and the educated masses want to prevent such divisive policies from seeing the light of day, they would have to put aside their complacency aside and be ready to actively exercise their social responsibility. The best way to do it would be by voting (against such policies)!
P.S: For daily updates —> The Odyssey

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Wired

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I know I am growing old, the ‘generation next’ has given way to the ‘generation virtual’. Gone are the days when email and the occasional website were cool enough, now they are the bare minimum. In this day and age of instant gratification, instant relationships weren’t far behind. Enter the networking sites to bride the gap. I remember learning the ropes of getting penpals across the globe first by using magazines and then through websites. Now its all about the instant messages, pictures, videos and a 101 different ways to communicate with mostly non-lasting relationships … not that my penpals lasted too long 🙂

I, like everyone else, hate to loose touch with friends and these new modes of keeping in touch have almost eliminated the chances of loosing touch (Ofcourse there is no antidote to apathy or the technologically challenged). It has also spawed a new era of virtual relationships, that sometimes really throw you for a spin 😉

Before I continue here is a rundown of these sites that I am aware of!

  • Orkut – This one is from Google. Sends you for a spin with its undependable server responses. Has a huge Indian/Hispanic presence and a good way for the IT guys to show how cool they are … lets you set people’s coolness,sexy and trusty levels. As expected I am non of those!!! Atleast according to this site. Lets you upload upto 12 pics and has a limit of 500Mb for each one.
  • Hi5 – Huge Asian/Hispanic presence, and is more cumbersome than orkut. Makes up for it by letting you have complete control over your page. Lets you post unlimited numbers of pictures. Lets you give “Hi5” to your friends … surprisingly I got a few of those. Also have friends of friends put up photoshop edited images of mine with their “friends”.
  • MySpace – Probably the most famous of these sites. I only became a member yesterday after being told about it by more than 10 people in a single day. Has more than 63million members and growing and according to a source the second most visited site currently. Comes with its own baggage of being too well known. Too much advertisement!!!
  • Facebook – A networking site designed specifically for College and high school students in the US. Networks you according to your school or alma mater. You need a valid US college or high school email id to join. Lets people keep in touch by using the comments feature.
  • Bebo – Mainly American presence, uses the person’s school to network. Mainly used by High school kids, and before you all think I am a phedophile, want to remind you that I am still a kid … at heart!

There are million others like Xanga, Ringo … each tragetting a different demography, geography and social network.

They are indeed a great tool to keep in touch, I can’t count the number of old friends that I have hooked up with ’cause of these sites. They also seem to fill the deep seated voyeuristic thirst of homo sapiens with all the wealth of information about completely random people! I am surprised by the amount of personal information that one can glean from these sites (Including mine). Obiviously in the race to be known by millions privacy ranks near the bottom.

The lack of privacy of most of these sites have led some colleges to even block access to them. A college in Texas just did it, while a school that my friend is working at, is very seriously considering the same measure. These are pretty fertile ground for sexual predators and stalker. Am not trying to be too negative but then that’s the world we live in. Ofcourse I personally don’t have the fear of being sexually assaulted, jus’ ’cause who in their right mind would want to do it to me ?? Joking apart its always good to take personal conversation offline at such sites and maintain as much control on your own information as possible.

The other major sign of this new generation is the virtual social net that this has provided. For people who not only want to keep in touch with old friends but make new ones too this is one of the best option. It really speaks to the socially challenged to be bold and be people they really are not. I guess it makes them feel happy to have so many hundreds and thousands of “friends”. All I can say is “whatever makes you happy”.

I don’t know how much of it is good, but it is indeed funny to see yesteryear’s movies with virtual holographic girlfriends and almost seeing it in reality now. I am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist but I do know that these virtual relationships don’t help in building any real people/social skills. I see so many of these people almost living in the virtual box with all their social interactions being virtual. Its almost like you a real life prep kid! The person across the network has noway of knowing you other than by what you write and that is an easy way out for people with things to hide or with a low sense of self-esteem. And this it not a sweeping generalisation of all users, but just a group of them.

This environment has almost no real consequences for your actions on it. You can say and do almost anything that you want and nothing is going to come off it. If you try saying more half the things that is said on these sites in India and you would sure to have a ton of bricks fall on you :). That probably is its huge appeal, the ability to be a rebel with out consequences.

Before I let you go take a taste of this virtual world, I’ll leave you with a taste of what you can expect … these are actual comments taken from these sites… these are the “pickup lines”!

hey …sa wur profile…impressive…wud like to know more abt u ….so wat do u do ???. me in to advertising……………..u?

Hi,this is ***** from hyderabad.I want to be your orkut friend.waiting for your scrap.byee

hey wassup dear????
u look like a die hard rock fan…is it sooo????
wat type of music u listen yaar????

These aren’t even the funniest once 🙁 where does all the information go when you really need it!!!

P.S: Sign up has started for the preview of the new look www.ulyssesdavid.com. Have finally started on this long overdue project. So if you want to be part of the beta testing team, let me know. Those signed up for updates would be automatically included ;). As usual don’t forget your daily dose of tamilnole.blogspot.com

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