staying.cool

after reading this, a question that has been hovering at the back of my head begs analysis.

i’ve spoken about it before as well, and even if i have been disparaging about the reaction of people to a lot of the mails i have received, some current developments mean second thoughts should be had. if not third.

orkut is, and always has been very open in terms of structure: everyone finds everyone, meets anyone, can read about anyone, can add anyone. the concept was that you would not invite someone you do not know to orkut. however, making gmail - and hence orkut - available to anyone kinda kicks that idea in the teeth. orkut is not the “trusted circle” of friends they call themselves anymore. the effect is already seen - fake profiles are created for every possible misuse - whether slander, paedophilia, or just a misguided sense of fun.
scraps are literally meant to be ’scraps’: pointless tid-bits. and should be used that way. people misuse them, talk about everyone on them - there will be consequences to acting thoughtlessly. i think orkut scraps were designed to be quick ‘hey-how-are-you’ messages, not personal ads. or long messages about the self. are we still worried about the content being publicly accessible? delete all scraps. i have nearly 2000, would keeping them help me? i think not. deleted.
how restrictive is orkut when it comes to details ? you can choose who can see what, some generic details are open to all. those details, i should think, are pretty common. or obvious. religion, language, books, music.. these are shared by a wide majority. i see now that ‘google talk id’ is common knowledge - i.e. can be seen by everyone - which is stupid. can i change that ? only if i disable google talk+orkut. which is pointless integration i have come to believe. disabled.
i’m not saying that these are the only issues, there are more which i may be skipping over. when they do occur to me, there will be updates. the point is that this source of possible privacy breach can be controlled to some extent.

now, for the question of whether its safe at all. there are two parts to it. the first depends on what level i stop at for restricting privacy. the second is pertaining to how far misuse by a third party affects me.

i had no idea this happened, but greatbong kinda summarizes anything  i have to say on the topic.

just for comparison, an observation by suyog.

its simple really. sometimes, we indians just suck.

when i heard that reservations are official, the feeling of deja vu; that feeling of doom hit me.

but then i figured that it doesn’t really matter… protests will happen, hunger strikes and everything; and eventually it’ll all die down.time heals; i think. or makes you apathetic and cynical.
thats how it works. all over the bloody planet.

not.

IIT-bombay students, people i know, are on hunger strikes. doctors are still on strike. medical students in delhi are protesting actively, preventing interviews; making themselves heard. rallies. door-to-door canvassing. everything possible.
the country is not giving up.

and even as i type this, goosebumps prickle, spirits rise - i want to be there, i want to strike, to protest; to make myself heard.

a spirit that used to exist in india, that fuelled a revolution 50 years ago has received a shot of adrenalin. i thought indians have become apathetic, given up on a system that has been systematically taken apart; away from its original ideas - that does not work anymore.
apparently not.

inquilab is back.

inquilab zindabad.

ladies and gentlemen, the man who decided that reservations are the solution to the upliftment of the “backward classes”.

Arjun Singh’s Interview
Please, read, download, laugh, and get scared. get very scared. this is the typical leader of the country.

i am so, so proud.

not my style, this. but nevertheless, i have been inspired. let me try.

a pretty decent coverage of what i’m talking about is here.

from the facts i know of, the proposal for reservation in indian colleges happened about a month ago. i remember getting agitated over the fact that premier institutes in the country were going to have to admit students who were just not upto the standard that they stood for. online petitions, arguments with friends, i was getting heated up.

then news. reservations are old hat. politically motivated vote attractors. long ago (i’m talking 10-odd) there were similar proposals for the private sector of the industry. booted out eventually, once the elections were over. i don’t have a problem with that. votes, politics, politicians - they all suck.

apparently, i might be wrong.

in addition to reservation in education, there was one for the india inc. and funnily enough, india inc said they don’t mind these as such.. at the discretion of the company. it fell through, once this admission was made. the seeds have been sown. stats show that merit-based employment in companies doesn’t mean that backward castes do not get jobs. the probabilities are similar. backward castes have a slightly higher chance of not getting a job - 3%. reservation doesn’t make the odds at par, it makes it lop-sided in their favour. essentially meaning, if i am from a backward caste; i do not have to be as good as as someone who is non-backward caste.
the one for education though, is to become law. now, speaking as a student who is has to obtain anything he wants on merit; it is more than a little ridiculous. an opinion shared. so the polls were finished, and there was no sign of retreat in reservation. protests happened. repulsed with lathi charges. doctors dragged in the dust. beaten up. this is fact.

not according to the police. the first statements were issued. students were not lathi-charged. then, they were lathi charged because they were planning to mob the raj bhavan. then, that force had to be used because they were breaking in.

protests are still happening. the reaction is minimal. news of protests outside his house, meant that the CM in mumbai decided to go to shirdi. and the government is still committed. my guess is its a matter of pride now. very much like the british and the “quit india” movement of 1942.

the point ? facts and figures show enough that the reservation will not solve the problem, if there is any to start with. reservations means molly-coddling a populace which needs a kick up its butt to get any work done in the first place. they mean that the populace that can get things done is not going to be allowed to, because they are the only ones to get things done anyway. from the point of view of empowerment, the fact that the so called open category is less than 20% of the country says a lot. “brahmins”, who are supposedly the worst offenders make up 3%. no reservation. the 80% of the country that doesn’t want to improve their lot need not perform even as half as well as the rest; and should be given every oppurtunity to show they cannot perform.

i have studied in india. i have seen how students admitted under reservation perform. 90% of them cannot. and the 10% that do, would be able to obtain a seat based on merit.

a stop-gap solution invented 50 years ago for a newly born nation is to be made permanent. for the sake of politics.

its a question that comes up when we talk here. would any of us, who talk, want to enter the system ? reform it ?
the answer, not surprisingly, is no. its too dirty for us to want to clean it ourselves. so all our empty talk, is just that: empty words.

if i was in india, today, now, working; watching this destruction of the possibilities my country could have in the future (read reservations and protests); what would i do ? would i turn a blind eye ? would i be charged up enough to face being lathi-charged ? or would i do what i’m doing here, condemning crap with more crap ?

i don’t know.

and neither does anyone i ask this to.

as the title says, there are no words.

or, there are only words.

[ all blame for this can be attributed to:

(02:13:39) Raghu: you are wrong
(02:13:47) Raghu: unless you feel what you write no one will
(02:13:57) Raghu: i cant write for shit
(02:14:10) Raghu: thats why i am asking you to
(02:14:10) Raghu: consider yourself my proxy

thanks dude. in your honour.]