Baadal bijli chandan pani

It is a hot summer evening, and am out for a walk. It was not a busy day, and I have all the time in the world. I had come home leisurely, showered, and then strolled around in the summer breeze.. And am lost in my thoughts, when, all of a sudden, the skies open up, and let out the pent up showers of the past few weeks : big blobs of rain drops come thundering down on the parched earth. I continue my walk, and smell the trees and the earth as I saunter around, and it brings to my mind memories from summer vacations long long ago, in a tiny hamlet, when rain meant just one thing : playtime. Bless those times, when we were without a care in the world, and lives were simpler!!

Today, as I continue walking in the rain, I am filled with a feeling of contentment.. Am at peace with the universe..

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Hail the free people

The world is changing.
I feel it in the water.
I feel it in the earth.
I smell it in the air.

For how else do you explain these phenomenon.. Whether it is the nascent democracies of Nepal and Bhutan, or countries like USA or India, seasoned democracies, the will of the people reigns supreme.. There is no other way to explain an action like this in Bihar, India. Or, the election victories of former insurgent Maoists in Nepal. Or the rise of one who represents change, and hope..

To me, all of these mean just one thing : That the world is maturing as a democracy.. The time of the people has come..

PS : The only thing is wish for is that the communist regime will take a more open view to the autonomy talks, and that protesters will not be run down with tanks..

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Long live the quotas

Whether we like it or not, the quotas are here to stay, for a very very long time, probably longer than our lifetimes.. But then, the Supreme Court did a good thing, by laying clearly the ground rules for the quota based admissions..

The problem, however, lies in implementation of these policies. The SC clearly says that anyone who has completed UG education cannot be considered backward, and thus PG courses should not have quota. But that doesn't deter Arjun Singh, does it.. Tell me, someone who got into an IIT because of the quota, will also get into an IIM right after that because of the same quota policy.. Now this is downright unfair, Right to equality be damned!! Also, we all know the outcomes of the pereodic re-considerations of the reservation policy.. Every decade the government dutifully extends the SC/ST reservation by ten more years, and the same will also be done for OBCs from now on..

And then, some things which were not totally expected happened. Our very own beloved sleepy head, opportunist ex-PM said : The creamy layer must be kept out of SC/ST reservations too.. Bingo, the man I least expected to hear this from has spoken, and sensibly for a change.. Politics indeed makes strange bed-fellows : logic and Deve Gowda!!!

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