The Gas Problems

Aarushi, our little daughter, was not able to have her bowel movement... She was crying insistently. We really wanted to help her... But couldn't... Anything we did increased her pain... She would not take feed and would simply keep on crying...
Then - in the context of what her doctor had said on the first day - I tried to see what God wanted to show me and out came this blog...
Our ego - like gas in Aarushi's case - bloats our minds - like Aarushi's abdomen... And at such times, God really wants to help us... It causes us all the pain... We cry foul... We reject God's blessings (feed in Aarushi's case)... In fact, all that we need to do is to release the gas and we will start feeling better again... If we leave our egos behind, the pain in our life is gone...
Be it the problem of a peer having got a promotion before us or someone else having said something to us... It hurts our ego... An ego-less person will simply glide through situations - painlessly...

Children and Parents

When our daughter was one day old, her pediatrician told us that children are closest to God and that we should learn from them...

Taking care of Aarushi became a completely new experience after that... Her every action felt potent with God's word...

When we would try to feed her, she would look in all directions... And almost as an accident latch on to take the feed... We were eager to feed her, she would not just look in the right direction - and keep crying... All we wanted was her to face us...

God, I learnt, is always ready to fulfill our requirements... We just forget to face Him... While we cry and houl and feel deserted, He is constantly trying to help us look in the right direction...

We search for success in all directions - but Him... And hence, we fail...

Let us look to Him to help us... We shall surely get the benefits that we seek...

Every day is a sunny day

I have heard it many times. I had always known it. However realization of a truth is what is important. Its just like "taste". "Sweet" - the word will not ring bells, unless one has tasted what sweet is. Truth looses significance if it is not realized. I am lucky to have realized a profound truth. I was flying from Los Angeles to Hong Kong at an altitude of 39000 ft. When the sun rose on the horizon, I spontaneously exclaimed, "Wow! what a bright sunny day". The moment I said this, I realized a profund truth.

• Every day is a bright sunny day. We just need to rise above the clouds of distress and illusions and delusions.
  I continued to bask in the glory of this realization when I was given the opportunity to realize another one. The face of the Earth was covered with clouds - everywhere. It required one to rise above them to see the brightness and glory of the rising sun.
  When we were making a landing, I noticed that there were multiple layers of these clouds. Though rising above even one layer ensures "almost" always "more" brightness, we need to cut across all the many levels of delusions to enjoy the radiance of the ever-present Sun.
• The sun of joy and happiness shines at all times. It is always there. But at times we are unable to see it because of the delusions that cloud our vision. At these times we should keep the faith and elevate our level of consciousness to levels where these clouds of delusion don't marr our vision. We should look forward to such times with the motivation that they are opportunities for us to grow above the clouds of delusion and to finally enter into the ever-joyous blissful state of self-realization.

Time is Unreal

We should always remember that

• Time is a contrivance designed by man to help him in his activities
• The true power of man is not limited by this contrivance
• Man has infinite power. We just need to realize it
• For realizing this infinite source of power within oneself, one needs to first free oneself of the slavery to all contrivances
• The very fact that "Truth is Independent of Time", proves that time is but a delusion - a concept to which all of us have subscribed. We DESERVE, we NEED and we HAVE TO rise above this delusion
• All pain in this world has its roots in this delusion of time. Consider any pain - death, anger... all is caused because we don't realize that the truth will always remain. That what existed before will continue to exist in its true essense.
• It is the worldy delusion of physical presence and attachment/ love for the illusory physical form that causes pain.

Androgenous Gods

A one time meditation doesn't make one a Buddha. One doesn't continue to be in a state of bliss and joy when the "realization" dawns for the first time. The first realization is an awakening. But it requires will-power and determination and a motivation to keep awake in that blissful state.
One needs to remind oneself of the realization and consciously work towards not letting the delusions conquer the mind again.

One has to make a conscious effort to achieve this goal, to maintain this awakening. One has to be a spectator of ones thoughts. One doesn't need to criticize these thoughts - just observe them. Its not easy, but it can be done. It has been done. Everyone has done it at times. One needs to do its consciously.

We have to realize that we have infinite bliss and power within us. We just need to unearth it and we should also realize that such conscious effort of insistent reminders of each one of us being Gods helps us unearth the ever-present Godliness in us.

Another aspect of realizing the eternal truth is that one is neither a man, nor a woman. The fact is that one is not a body at all. We HAVE to realize this. We NEED to be conscious of this. This according to me is one of the preliminary steps to removing attachment to the body and possibly removing some of our ego. We have to rise above, "This is not the way men do it","This is not the way women behave" and the sort of thinking.

We have been conditioned by our society to believe in huge differences between each other, while there are none in absolute terms and minimal in physical terms.

Loving and caring are attributes of the soul. Strength and persistence are integral to the soul. So all these traits are there within us. We need to realize this and become aware of ALL these attributes in us, irrespective of what is branded as manly or womanly.

We have to be with the truth and we have to be conscious of the truth that we are.
Once we stop differentiating between "man" and "woman", we will start being "just" and "fair".

Soft-drinks, pesticides and the 'banning' drive

The recent revelation by the Stockholm Water Prize 2005 winner, Sunita Narain, that soft-drinks in India exceed the safe dissolved pesticide levels by as much as 50 times has ruffled lots of feathers all around.

It is true... The soft-drinks available in India have "huge" quantities of pesticides. And while other food material also have these pesticides clinging to them, the question finally boils down to - "While other things offer some nutrition, are we also ready to accept "junk" loaded with pesticides?"

But, is it fair to "ban" soft-drinks, just because they have pesticides, when almost everything that most of India drinks/ eats, is laden with (possibly higher quantities of) pesticides. Should it not be left as a choice to the consumer? Also, is banning the solution to the pesticide problem? Why are many non-profit organizations supporting the ban? Are there other issues involved? What are they? But then, can those issues get resolved with a ban? Can there be some solutions to those issues (other than the ban - if banning is a solution)? The note attempts to look into some of these questions - that a common Indian - like you and me - is asking!!!

I think wether a person wants to have pesticide laden food/ drinks or not is a personal choice. That choice exists also in food - in the form of organic food - and obviously in drinks etc - in form of nariyal-paani etc. So, to ban soft-drinks because they have pesticides doesn't at all sound justified. We may take much higher levels of pesticides in our food daily. So, this can not and should not be the reason to ban soft-drinks. This should be left as a choice to the consumer.

And banning soft-drinks is clearly not a solution to the problem of pervasiveness of pesticides. Pesticides are everywhere - in the water that we drink, in the food that we eat, in the fruit peels that we throw away. Wishing away pesticides by banning soft-drinks is to behave like an ostrich - to put one's head in sand and (then since the ostrich can't see anyone) believe that no one can see it. The problem exists, we are just hiding behind ourselves.

But then why are many non-profit organizations supporting the ban vehemently? What profit are these non-profit organizations getting out of it? Does someone have an axe to grind?

While I don't know about others, I personally am happy that the soft-drinks are being criticized and that bans have been imposed on them at different places in the country. I am trying to list down some of the reasons below.

• I will start with relating an incident. We were organizing a painting competition on World Environment Day (June 5), a few years back. On their way back, we were offering children a can of coke and some other soveniers. One mother abruptly stopped us from giving the can to her child. She revealed that her son really loved soft-drinks and that the doctors have strongly adviced him against it. We asked in unision, "Why?". She asked her son to show his teeth and as soon as he smiled, we knew the answer. The teeth were all gone. She explained that the soft-drinks are highly acidic in nature. They contain phosphoric acid - and it dissolves the bones and teeth of human beings. We were shocked to realize that bones and teeth - which survive the on-slaught of pyre after death - don't stand a chance against the soft-drinks. So, the first reason because of which I support the ban is the fact that they are "unhealthy" and can lead to life-long problems - like osteoporosis or dissolving teeth and bones. Children should be prevented from consuming soft-drinks at all costs. It should not be a matter of choice for them.
• While I considerably reduced my consumption of soft-drinks after the incident, I had still continued drinking them. (Just like, people know that smoking is bad, but still smoke.) It was when I came to know about the plight of farmers due to soft-drinks that I quit drinking them. Soft-drink manufacturers set up (or scale up) bottling plants in areas that are nodal to distribution. The area may be a desert also (like Coke plant in Kala Dera) and it may be luckily lush with greenery and huge water reserves (like the plant in Plachimada). These bottling plants extract "huge" quantities of underground water to make soft-drinks. (This is also the source of pesticides in soft-drinks). Farmers in the surrounding regions are also dependent on the same water. As water level recedes farmers don't get any water and their crops die. The company doesn't suffer, it can always dig a deeper well (when the present one dries up), but the farmer who has to spend Rs.20,000/- to dig a tube-well looses all profitability. However, many farmers still bore deeper wells - hoping that they will at least get some earnings over the coming years (if not this year). The next year even this well is dry and another well is needed. The poor farmer now doesn't have food to eat at home, where will he manage Rs.40,000/- (inflation + increased cost of deeper well) now. So, while the plant got water at Rs.0.50 a litre, the cost of this water was actually borne by the villages surrounding the plant. The profits of these soft-drinks are coming from at the cost of lives and livelihoods of thousands of farmers in surrounding areas. So, when we drink soft-drinks, we are in some way, adding to the plight of those farmers who don't have any means of livelihood left.
• To add to this plight, the sludge generated in the bottling plants was given to farmers under the garb of fertilizer. This sludge actually contained heavy metals and acids. When the farmers applied this so called "fertilizer" on their fields, the standing crop died. The fields became barren. Now, they can't grow anything even after boring a deeper well. Unethical practices like this don't allow me to drink coke.
• What adds on to the irony is also the fact that the purification processes that these bottling plants use, waste about 80-90% of water. So, to make 1 litre of Pepsi or Coke, about 9-10 litres of water is extracted from the underground aquefier. So, even if one drinks 1 litre of Pepsi or Coke, he/she is in fact, hitting the farmers 10 times harder. Drinking soft-drinks also means promoting this inefficient use of the most precious and life-giving resource - water. This is absolutely unacceptable to me.
• In other countries (like Saudi Arabia), bottling plants use desalinated sea-water to make soft-drinks. This water is not only distilled, it also does not adversely impact the surrounding areas. We don't have single such plant (that does not impact underground water levels) in India. Why?
• Why has it been that Coke consignments from India have been rejected by US FDA at least 10 times since January 2005 - on the grounds of poor quality? Doesn't this imply that quality of soft-drinks produced (and therefore sold) in India is not of the same standards as in other countries?
• In addition to all these issues, Coke management has also been 'allegedly' involved in killing of trade union leaders in Columbia. Such allegations were also levelled against Coke in India in March this year. Knowing legal system of India, I don't have high hopes of justice being meted out to the family of the poor trade-union leader.
• And last, but not the least, Coke (and many other soft-drinks) contain caffiene. It is addictive in nature and therefore the idea of getting addicted to something that involves detrimental impact on livelihoods of thousands of farmers and 'alleged' killing of enthusiastic community leaders doesn't gel well with me.

But then is banning the solution? Yes, at least to the problems that I mentioned above, banning will solve almost all of them.

So, lets change the question to - Is banning the only solution? Possibly "No". We can work towards a framework of better regulation and implementation and simultaneous promotion of alternatives. For example,

• While coke may not be ready to share the exact formula of their soft-drinks, they should definitely have some such figures as pH of the drink, amount of acids, and calorific value on each pack of the soft-drink.
• There have to be stringent standards on pH and other parameters which should be strictly adhered to. Absence of any quality standards for the soft-drinks is the first loop-hole that needs to be plugged.
• Soft-drink manufacturers should clearly state in their advertisements/ promotions etc. that drinking soft-drinks is injurious to health of growing children.
• Sale (and consumption) of soft-drinks should be banned in schools, colleges and hospitals.
• We have to regulate consumption of groundwater by bottling plants. All new bottling plants should be "fresh-water-neutral" to the ecology (like using sea water).
• If fresh-water neutrality is not achieved in the local area, then skill-based training should be given to local farmers to take up other occupations and support their families.
• Organic food and sustainable agriculture should be promoted. Presently the government offers subsidies for fertilizer and pesticide manufacture - but no promotional schemes exist for organic farmers. Therefore, organic food looses out to non-organic food in terms of pricing. The subsidy regime should subside (so that pesticide consumption etc. is automatically controlled) and sustainable agriculture techniques should be promoted.

The focus has to be public health and not private profit.

At another level, individuals like you and me should promote alternative / traditional Indian drinks. That will not only offer local employment generation opportunities (like jaljeera, neembu-paani, fruit juice, sharbat etc. used to be sold on thelas earlier). The onset of soft-drinks and packaged drinks have meant dying down of these employment opportunities locally. This will not only ensure that lesser water is extracted by the bottling plants, but also that we enable local livelihood generation activities. Lets pledge to serve one of these traditional and local drinks and not soft-drinks to guests at our homes and make it a matter of personal pride to give up soft-drinks.

US, EU, India and Public Transport

The title is funny... But yes, the difference in availability of public transport in the two places has a lot to say about the cultural differences there. I believe that this should be an interesting read.

Except in NY, there is almost no concept of public transport in the US. You walk to your office, and you are the only one walking. To go by bus means that you need to time your arrival at the bus stop precisely, or end up waiting for an hour. Mass Rapid Transport Systems are 'almost' non-existent.

There is a clear intent to make people use private means of transport. It seems very clear that this is done under the influence of automobile industry. People need private means of transport - so, they will purchase cars (profits to automobile makers). Since public transport is almost non-existent, more cars will ply on roads. This means more roads will need to be constructed (profits for infrastructure contractors). If the roads were not widened, traffic congestion would motivate people to go for small cars, but continuous intent of profits for contractor mafia motivates regular widening of expressways. As roads widen, people have no motivation to go for smaller vehicles - instead, due to high speeds enabled by wide roads, they prefer SUVs. This means, there are more fuel-guzzling machines. So, the oil dealers stand to profit through all this.

And Oil, was we all know, is a weakness of the US state. They went on a rampage in destroying countries after countries just to gain control over their oil-fields.

However, I was not supposed to harp on this industry-government nexus against the poor here. My idea was to in-fact tell that motivation of wider roads in western countries may not necessarily have been public benefit. Yes, good roads enable good communication links and therefore are important for economic growth, but India should adopt a model that is more suited to Indian needs.

And before I digress to the trans-Atlantic developed countries, I want to appreciate the extreme care with which pedestrian walkways are still maintained across different cities and rural areas in the US. These are critical to allow access to the differently abled. And they also in some sense promote healthy life-style of walking and jogging.

But before discussing further, let us discuss what happens in Europe. The expressways are absolutely great. They are wide. They do an excellent job of connecting different cities together. However, urban roads are narrow. They were not designed to be narrow. When they were designed, in those days, these were wide enough. Today, they can carry upto 1 car in each direction and many don't have curb-parking allowed along them.

The governments in Europe, however, did not eat up the pedestrian ways. They regulated traffic flow on these roads. Only one-way traffic is allowed on many streets. European governments did not spend on widening roads OR promoting private ownership of vehicles. European governments built public modes of transport. Almost every big city in Europe has a good public transport network - be it buses, rail, tram or any other MRTS.

Why did they do this? Why did they also not go the US way - and just widened the roads further? Why did they not eat away the pedestrian ways? What did they have to gain? Why did they invest heavily in public transport? What has been the impact of such decisions? Does the more social nature of European societies has something to do with this?

I will attempt to answer these questions in the Indian context and it will be easy to see the prudence in the way European countries managed their traffic flow.

There is no denying the fact that India needs better road infrastructure. What we should not forget is that India - at least Indian cities - can live without further widening of roads (if Europe can manage it well). What Indian cities most urgently need is a better public transport infrastructure. So, while highway construction and improvement is needed to connect rural areas across India - to provide better services and opportunities, the focus in urban areas should clearly be public transport infrastructure.

India would stand to gain enormously if it sets its priorities right in the public transport sector.

1. Public transport will result in lesser fuel consumption. Fuel consumed per rider is far less when people travel by bus, than when they use a private vehicle (car). Considering fuel efficiency of a small Indian car as 15km/litre of petrol, and that of a bus as 3.5km/kg of CNG (or 3.5km/lt of diesel) (source - Red Herring Prospectus of Indraprastha Gas Limited). Typical ridership in cars in Delhi is 2. Typical ridership of buses in Delhi is 50. While a car may take the shortest route, public transport will typically need to travel a bit more. Considering an example where a car would travel 30km, the bus would travel 45km (extreme exaggeration). So, fuel consumption per person in car is 1 litre of petrol. Fuel consumption per person in bus is 0.26kg of CNG (or 0.26 litres of diesel). So, this means gains of more than 70% (if we assume same cost of fuel) and much more (if actual cost of petrol / diesel/ CNG is accounted). So, if government promotes public transport, then it stands to improve the cost of Indian basket of crude imports. This will be a major "boost" to Indian economy as crude oil is one of the largest drains on pricing of Indian currency. The idea is very profitable for the country.
2. Fuel consumption in public transport is lesser (per capita) than in private transport (as shown above), and therefore, GHG emissions would reduce. Clean fuel fleets can use this reduction in GHG emissions to earn Kyoto Protocol credits and subsidize the cost of better fleet procurement. Not only do we become more environment friendly, the cost would be subsidized by selling Kyoto Protocol credits. The gains will be more if more and more cities adopt CNG as the fuel of choice for public transport.
3. Lesser fuel consumption also means lesser exhausts of poisonous gases in the air. This leads to lesser air related diseases in the general population. This has two-fold benefits, the requirements of beds in hospitals reduces (and the already stressed health-care sector in the country can get some relief). The second benefit accrues from the fact that as less people fall sick, there are more working hands in the country and the overall productivity of the country improves.
4. As more people travel by public transport, congestion on roads would reduce (space utilization is better in public transport). This would mean faster transit times. This would also mean "no need to widen roads" further - at the cost of pedestrian ways. As I said in the earlier note on "fly-overs and their role in one world" also, widening roads in response to traffic congestion is like "loosening belt when obesity arrives". But as we know for obesity, loosening the belt is not the solution. The solution is better regulation and control. Same thing holds for traffic congestion. The rate at which private vehicles are increasing in Delhi, it is only better regulation that can change the situation. Check out my earlier note here. If we follow these practices, funds would be saved while traffic congestion will simultaneously reduce. The saved funds can be utilized for increasing the speed of rural sector reforms and enhancing rural infrastructure. This will leapfrog India into the developed world trajectory faster.
5. When people travel by good public transport (and don't drive themselves), stress levels reduce (driving tension is driven away) and therefore quality of life of citizens improves.
6. Public transport is a good means to increase interaction amongst citizens. People form relationships on public transport and hence build a structure of social and emotional support. Better social structure reduces crime rates as communities become more self-reliant. While inequality is the major trigger for higher crime rate, better social fabric induces the spirit of inclusion and therefore reduces incidences of crime.
7. Lesser consumption (of oil, cement, charcoal, metals etc.) also means that all of us reduce our eco-footprint and ecology becomes more sustainable. Lesser number of mines need to be opened. Lesser people will be uprooted from their lands. More indegenous cultures will remain preserved and the huge cultural diversity of the country will be preserved.

Many a times we don't realize the "huge" impact our decisions have on this interconnected world. The world is but one. As we become more responsible for our actions and as we reduce our consumptions continuously, we will strive towards better lifestyles for more and more people. We will work towards increasing overall happiness level of the world - without compromising on our happiness.

India definitely does not need to go the US way. We can't afford to go the US way with the huge population and the large cultural diversity of the country. The costs will be flabbergasting. The impact on Earth's natural resources will be absolutely disastrous.

I sincerely hope that our Urban Renewal Mission takes a corrective recourse and the focus is shifted from simply infrastructure addition to better regulation and prudent promotion of reliable pubic transport systems in different cities across India. Not every city can afford to have a Metro system, but most of the cities would definitely do much better with better public transport network of CNG-based RTVs or three-wheelers and other energy efficient vehicles.

Experience vs. Intellect

I have always believed that experience is very important. That a good experience is worth many books. And even if you read 100 books, if you haven't experienced something, you will not be able to appreciate it.

Relating it to circuit design - my area of professional expertise - unless one has worked with MOS transistors, one will not get the "feel" of their working. One will know Ids-Vds characteristics, one will know Ids-Vgs characteristics, but it would be difficult to see the "reality" behind these.

I went to a convention organized by supporters of Narmada Bachao Andolan over the weekend. This idea only got further reinforced there.

There were speakers from Delhi and Mumbai. There were also some speakers from the valley. The first session was on "Failure of Governance in Narmada Valley". Speakers came, they spoke and they went away. All the speakers rattled endlessly about the huge financial discrepancies. They talked about the fraud of not rehabilitating and still claiming complete rehabilitation. They talked about the blatant lies that the government of Gujrat is telling its own people. They talked about the strong media influence that Gujarat government is weilding on national media. They said that these are all attempts to cover up the failure - and that this is a failure of governance in itself (if government needs to do any such thing).

When this brainstorming of sorts had continued for about an hour, Shanti behan, a farmer from Madhya Pradesh - whose land is in the submergence zone now - came to speak. While earlier speakers spoke in hindi, she spoke in a native dialact - which is not very different from hindi it seems, since I could understand it.

Her language was simple. She spoke for just 5 minutes. When she left the dias, I was agape. Not just me, the applause from the audience proved beyond doubt that everyone else too saw the difference between intellect and experience. She even tracked what she said poorly. But even then, appreciation abounds. Here is what she counted as failures of governance.

1. I am a farmer. If the government creates conditions in which I am sitting in Delhi - in this room - in the month of June - when I should be tilling the land in my fields, then this is a failure of governance.
2. When we started the Andolan, the government (esp. of Gujarat) alleged that the foriegn agents are opposing the dam. My skin was tanned working on the fields. We have brown skin. I was born and brought up here and so are the other people from my village who are fighting against the dam. I don't even know english. And the government alleges that I am a foriegn agent. This is the second failure of the government. (If the government doesn't even recognize its citizens, how can it take the responsibility of protecting their rights? How can it successfully accomplish anything else?)
3. The government's failure is in not recognizing the value of its people. It only counted land. It promised to give us "land for land". That it did not even take into account our human identity, our culture and our closely knit social fabric at the time of working out a rehabilitation plan, is in itself a failure. (If the government doesn't appreciate the civil and cultural structures in the society and the sustainable livelihood generation practices, are we not going in the wrong direction)
4. The fact that government has not even been able to provide the bare minimum land for land rehabilitation (even after promising only that), is a still larger failure of governance.
5. Government proudly proclaims "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan" in its different publications. If it can not think about the "kisan", then it should remove this slogan. That the government has done neither (nor work for the kisan, nor removed the slogan), it is a failure of the government.
6. Government asks us to follow the principle of "chota parivar, sukhi parivar". It asks us that small is good. Then why does it not understand it itself. Why is it going for large dams, when small dams can actually accomplish the purpose?

This was followed by many other talks - again by Delhiites and Mumbaikars. The convention was closed by a talk by Prakash bhai - whose land will also get submerged at the increased hieght. His point hit hard again.

• We understand that power is needed. But power can also be generated by having small dams.
• We understand that irrigation is needed, but we have been irrigating our lands since times immemorial - by watershed management and by tanks and ponds and wells.
• Then why do we need to go for such a scheme that submerges so much of land and displaces lakhs of people.
• If we go this way, then even though we will have electricity, what will we eat.
• I am told that this year we had to import food (wheat from Australia). Isn't this a wrong trend.
• The newly irrigated land will be used to grow cash-crops. We can't eat cotton. Sugarcane is not food. Moreover, these are sold for money.
• We follow subsistence agriculture. We grow food. We eat what we grow. So, why is the government not even understanding this very basic fact? Why is the government intent on submergence? They might have some hidden agenda. But why have a hidden agenda with its own citizens?

The points are simple. Yet they are hard-hitting. I really thank Shanti Behan and Prakash Bhai for enlightening me. I am thankful for the opportunity to attend the convention. I pray to God that government recognizes its failure in this article. I hope that this article helps us improve the way we work. I hope that the urban middle class appreciates the concerns of this simple rural lady. I sincerely hope that sense prevails and something is done URGENTLY to save thousands of lives in the Narmada valley.

In life - as in death

Amongst many of life's tests is the one of death.

There are two aspects to it. One of the person who is passing into the new experiences and the other of the family and friends who are left behind.

Past week brought two bad news. And both with equally difficult tests.

Two of my friends lost their father this week.

One of them is in advanced stage of her pregnancy. Her pregnancy has complications. She has had a heamorrage earlier during the pregnancy. Her father's cremation was far away. The roads are bumpy and she will be putting her unborn baby at risk if she goes there. At one end of the balance is her child and at the other is the father who loved her dearly and spent all his life for her happiness. What does she do?

I firmly believe that God gives us those tests that he thinks we have the strength to pass. I hope that He gives her the needed guidance and protection.

My other friend lost her father yesterday evening. Her father would be cremated in Nagpur. But here again, she can't go. She has a suckling baby - just 50 days old. She doesn't feel like eating or drinking or talking or doing just anything. However, she has to do all these things for the sake of her baby daughter.

All her relatives are at the cremation. They can cry. They can express their sadness by crying out loud. They can skip their meals. She can't do any of that. She doesn't feel like eating, but she has to eat nutritious food. For the sake of her child. She doesn't want to talk. But she has to talk to her child - to keep her occupied and to keep her quiet.

I hope that God gives her the patience to cling on to the new life that she holds in her hands and is able to cut the strings of attachment to the soul that has left the body that was of her father.

Both the tests had the choice of future and of the past. They had a new life to take care of and they also had the attachment to the life that nurtured their own. God's tests are difficult. But I hope that both my friends move through them successfully. I pray to God that he gives both of them courage and strength to take the right decisions and see them through - in life - as in death.

The Mandal II and huge uproar

A few days back the government announced that centrally funded educational institutions like IITs, IIMs, AIIMS, JIPMER etc. should also have reservation for OBCs based on the guidelines of Mandal commission. This would take the total number of reserved seats in these insitutions to a whooping 49%. This when the population that is meant to avail this setup is about 5-10% of total Indian population.

There is at once a "huge" hue-and-cry in all parts of the country regarding this additional reservation - and that too in education system. This is largely because the present reservation system is misused. It has been misused for the past 30-40 years. To add more number of the already scarce resource (the seats) to this misuse is clearly unacceptable.

There are protests asking removal of all reservations. And there are protests that reservations, if any, should only be based on economic status. And there is also discontent amongst those who can avail these reservations that only the creamy layer amongst the caste get the benefits of these reservations and they are left behind.

So, the issue is not as simple as saying that all reservations should be abolished or that reservation should not be based on caste.

Though the present reservation system has outlived its utility, it doesn't mean that there should be no reservation. There clearly is a need for a reservation system - but definitely not in its present avatar.

The present system of reservation based solely on caste, tribe etc. should either be abolished or checks-and-balances introduced in it to prevent the flagrant misuse that is happening these days. These checks-and-balances should be put into any reservation system that is put in place.

I can think of a few checks-and-balances. Am trying to list some of them (in context of Mandal-II - related to admission to educational institutions) below:

All checks-and -balances should be reviewed by an expert committee every 5 or 10 years. The committee should include representatives of government, of non-government organizations, from different strata of society and also eminent social persons who have been working in the community for a minimum of 10-20 years etc.

• At the time of this regular review, there should be an advertisement in all major newspapers (public notice) asking people to comment on lacunae that they see in the system. The committee should tweak the system based on these inputs.
• In the event that this committee does not submit its review comments (including responses to a public advertisement for response on the topic) within the stipulated time, then the reservation in all categories should be reduced to 70% of total amount and only based on economic class kept at same levels.
• The committee should also continuously review different quotas and either scrap them or replace them with more relevant quotas (if needed). In an ideal situation, the need for reservation would gradually disappear and the reservations would be phased out over time.

Any person should be eligible for reservation only if the following criteria are met
- no one from the immediate family (clearly includes siblings/ parents/ chachas/ mamas/ grandparents/ great-grand-parents etc.) has earlier availed benefits of reservation

• this will prevent people who have already benefited from the system to not to misuse it. Like children of a government employee who has been recruited on the basis of reservation should not get any such reservation benefits.
• This limitation should be put on the basis of grade of employment in the service. A person hired at the level of a school peon may still need to avail this reservation, but not one who is enjoying the benefits of an IAS office.

The candidate has to qualify a subject-independent (analytical/ logical skills based) test

• This will ensure that people who can "live" with the system (say IIT system or IIM system) enter it.
• This will prevent mishaps like - children committing suicide or being unable to complete the course even in extended duration (6 years in place of 4 years). Such a person, who has entered the system on basis of reservation is in fact destroyed by this reservation. So, a qualification test is mandatory.

There should be a system to give fees concessions and/ or soft educational loans (independent of reservations - but definitely to the benefit of those who avail reservations).

• the concessions (either in terms of fees or softer interest rates) should be valid only for those who volunteer to take up a job in a rural area (or such parts that need development) in the first few years of his/her career.
• in an event that the candidate does not volunteer, he/she would need to pay the current rate of fees and should be levied interest at a rate equal to (or higher) than market. The funds generated from such individuals would provide cross-subsidy for those who volunteered.

The positions left vacant - because less number of students qualified the minimum threshold - should not be filled by people who are not eligible for reservations.

• This will ensure that people who can't avail reservation don't influence the minimum threshold.
• As a side-effect, this will only improve the quality of education in the institute further because of improved student-teacher ratio.
• The improved student-teacher ratio will also improve the chances of those who joined the institute on the basis of qualification aptitude test get more attention for subjects in which they were weaker than the rest of the class.

But I started this discussion by saying that some kind of reservation is definitely needed. Why do I say so?

• Because, I have had class-mates coming from such far flung areas where electricity was only a 2-3 hours affair a day.
• Because, I know that I was lucky to get into IIT Delhi because I could afford the fees of IIT coaching classes. There are many with more aptitude who could not make it because they did not have the financial condition to take such coachings.
  - the present system in which people can appear only once and will be selected based on aptitude test will help in ironing out this discrepancy. But this is the plan only for IITs, what about other engineering colleges and medical institutes.
• Because, people who have been at the other end of the development initiatives need special treatment
  - like outsees from Tehri dam site, or Narmada valley, or millions who will be displaced if interlinking of rivers kind of project takes off
  - people whose lives have been completely uprooted, whose livelihoods have been impacted- for the sake of many others who benefit from the irrigation facilities or from the electricity
  - these people are as good as victims of war or terrorism for whom reservations exist. These people sacrificed their lives/ livelihoods and most importantly their cultural identity for the development of the country. We should respect their sacrifice.
• Because, even today, there is no secondary school in a area of 5-10 km in thousands of villages.
  - Even where there are schools, the present secondary education system fails the students and drop-out rates are very high.
  - If someone persists to study in such a scenario, we have to respect the person for his determination and persistence.
  - Such people can make a positive difference to the society because they have found success the hard way and will work towards improvement of conditions for others. Our president is a very good example of such individuals.
• Because, we have to give due respect to our soldiers and appreciate their sacrifices for the country.
  - Soldiers who spend a majority of formative years of their children away from home - on duty- fighting for the country - are not able to spend time with their children
  - Growth of children of such soldiers may experience many different kinds of pressures which impact their studies
  - Such children should be given special treatment

Having explained a bit about why I think reservation system is needed in an unequal society like ours, let me move on to think out loud on the kind of reservations that should be sufficient.

• Total reservation in any educational institution should not exceed 40%
• All reservations should be subject to checks-and-balances describe above
• All the reservation quotas should be declared at the time of registration - this is sacrosanct and can't be modified for the given exam.
• In all the categories/ sub-categories of reservations described below, 35% of reservation should be for candidates who studied from 9th to 12th standard in a rural area
• Candidates availing this rural area benefit have to commit to take up first job in a rural area (either with government or NGOs or self-employed) for at least 2 years.
• A candidate can be considered in at-most one of the categories of the reservations described below (except if specifically mentioned in the reservation description).
• A candidate should have the option to not be considered for reservation - at the time of filling the registration form.
  - this should be valid even if a candidate is appearing from rural region (that is he may decide to be considered for a type of quota - but not the rural region quota under it)
• Qualifying criteria (in the aptitude exam) should be different for candidates appearing from rural areas
  - candidates appearing from rural areas may not have enough exposure and hence may not at once be comfortable with the IQ exam that is posed to them

The categories of reservations (including sub-categories) are defined below:

• Reservation for SC/ ST/ OBC etc. based on caste/ creed etc.
  - this reservation should be upto 50% of total quota
• Reservation based on financial condition of the family
  - this reservation should be upto 30% of total quota
  - all other categories of reserved can also be considered under this quota
  - only this quota can be increased if none (or one) of the state dependent quotas don't exist - such that total reserved seats are at most 40% of total
• Reservation for physically handicapped candidates
  - valid only if the handicap does not impact the effectiveness of the candidate in the desired career option
  - this reservation should be upto 2% of total quota
• Reservation for children of soldiers who died on duty
  - this quota is valid only if the soldier died fighting (and not in an accident etc.)
  - this reservation should be upto 3% of total quota
  - this can be at all educational institutions
• Reservation for children of soldiers who spent at least 7 years (after birth of child) in the field - on fighting duty (not office job).
  - this reservation is only valid at state level - but in both states - where the person is posted and also the state where person belongs to
  - candidates that qualify the previous point (regarding soldier died on duty) should also be additionally considered in this quota if they belong to the given state (or if the child qualified the 12th class examination from the given state)
  - this reservation should be upto 5%
• Reservation for communities that have been impacted by displacement due to development projects but have not been satisfactorily rehabilitated - based on standard international guidelines and as directed by an national level expert committee (defined above in the checks-and-balances section)
  - this reservation is again valid only at state level
  - this reservation can be upto 3% of total reservation for each location where displacement has occured

I am not an expert on reservation quotas that exist today, and therefore I might have missed a kind of reservation that is very valid. It is for that that I have left a margin of upto 8%. This margin is more if a state has a good record of social rehabilitation and less if the state has a bad history. If I have not missed any critical reservation , then this can be added to economically backward reservation quota described in above.

Looking forward to your inputs on this.