Friday, April 21, 2006

Diary of a Non-OBC man...

(got it in my mail .... takin the liberty of posting it.. It needs to be)

Is this where we are heading?

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An excerpt from Emcee's diary exactly 50 years from now



Ahmedabad, 30 April 2056: I attended the bash at the IIM-OBC Alumni Association to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the reservation of seats for OBCs (Other Backward Castes) in IIMs. Since I'm not an OBC, I was not supposed to attend, but at present, we MBFCs (Moderately Backward Forward Castes) together with the Non-Scheduled Tribes have a political alliance with the OBCs. We sipped champagne and talked about how so many of us had progressed from reserved seats in the IIMs to reserved jobs to reserved promotions. Unfortunately, the party broke up when a Non-scheduled Tribes faculty member objected to the OBCs dancing with all the pretty girls — he wanted equal opportunities for every caste at each dance. I pointed out that the Non-scheduled Tribes had exceeded the quota of champagne reserved for them. The party ended in a pitched caste battle.

1) May 2056: Today, I became president of the IIM Board of Directors. Under the present rotating presidency system, a member of each caste is made the president by turn. When it was the turn of the MBFCs for president, they had to choose me because I'm the only MBFC on the campus. True, I'm only the campus dhobi, but then every caste must be given an equal opportunity. All those centuries of oppression by the OSBFCs (Only Slightly Backward Forward Castes) and the OFCs (Other Forward Castes) must be rectified. I hope to restore the high standards at IIM — I overheard some foreigners calling it the Indian Institute of Morons, the other day.

2) May 2056: They've announced the cricket team for the series against Australia. I was overjoyed when they chose an MBFC man as captain. But my hopes were dashed when I realised he was a Most Backward Forward Caste and not a Moderately Backward Forward Caste. The selection committee lamented that it was gross discrimination that no member from the Jarowa tribe (the Stone Age tribe in the
Andamans) had ever found a place in the Indian cricket team. A squad has since been dispatched to the Andamans to capture a Jarowa tribal to play in the national team. I hope he will improve their performance — they had an innings defeat against the Maldives recently. I would have played myself except for the fact that I lost a leg some years ago when I was in hospital with a toothache and a doctor recruited through the Unscheduled Caste quota extracted my leg instead of my tooth.

3) May 2056: There are too many NFCs (Neo-Forward castes) in the IT business. Under the terms of the Business Reservation Act, their firms will now be taken over by the other castes. I hope they will be able to restore the Indian IT industry back to its former glory. For some unfathomable reason, it has gone down the drain after job reservations were implemented. I went for a movie featuring star actor Mungeri Ram. He may lack teeth, be four-feet-three and have hair growing out of his nose, but this year it's the turn of the EBC-RYs (Extremely Backward Caste-Rural Yokels) to be stars and Mungeri Ram is the best of the lot. I wonder why foreign movies have become so popular.

4) May 2056: A truly great day. We now have an OFBMBC (Other Forward But Moderately Backward Caste) general as the Head of the Armed Forces. I hope he'll be able to win back the territory we lost ever since reservations were implemented in the Army. Since then, the north has been taken by Pakistan, the North-east by China, the east by Bangladesh and the south by Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Only last winter, we lost the war against Bhutan and free India is now limited to the western coastal states. But I'm sure the OFBMBC general will turn the tide.


5) May 2056: My wife and I have been blessed with a bonny daughter. Since my wife's an SBBNSBC (Slightly Backward But Not So Backward Caste), my daughter will be an MBFC-SBBNSBC. I must lobby for reservation for her caste. She's the only member and I'm sure she has a great future.

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God save us... or is it... Make us an XMR-OBC-II ?

Friday, April 14, 2006

Life @ KGP...

Went to IIT KGP to test the waters at VGSOM.... written keeping in mind my fellow batchmates who havent been able to drop in there before the course. A good read for anyone... anyways :)

DISCLAIMER: This is the authors viewpoint of things around him. You may or may not agree with it. It wont matter to him :D

Part 1:

Kolkatta: Its chaos!

Rite from the time you step out of the flight/train to the time you get into another one... you dunno whats happenin man!
Its not tht its too fast or something... its different yaar. Anyways... u will understand once you go thr.

Getting to Kharagpur from Kolkatta is a nightmare. You easily get a local train ticket (abt 20 odd bucks), which gets u there in abt 2 hrs 45 min or so. But can be difficult to manage if you have good amt of luggage. Alternatively, you have an "express" train (120 for reserved sleeper berth, or 45 for nreserved tiket) which can get you there in abt 2 hrs, but wud require prior bookin. Or else you need to pay the touts/agents there to get the work done.

Or the best way is if you have 2-3 ppl with you, just take a cab (prepaid) from the airport or train terminus. They charge about 1800 (which is bloody exhorbitant, as a matter of fact it is much more expensv per KM than the flight from mumbai to Kol)

Nahin toh, just take a direct train to KGP... tension hi nahin.


Part 2:

KGP: A huge place with only 2 things important - the railway colony and IIT obvsly.

Take a cycle rick from KGP station or a cab to IIT. Rick will be about 30 bucks or so. Cab wud be 100-150 (dunno). Initially you will feel bad to see the poor chap pulling you and your luggage in the scorchig sun. But i guess you wud get used to it. Luggage jayada ho aur do se adhik log ho... so kripya cab lijiye.... for the simple reason... u wont fit in.

Part 3:

IIT KGP: Think IIT, think BIG.... really really BIG.

Its got that characteristic IIT feel to it, infact its probab one of the most undiluted ones around, coz u dont have metros like Bbay or delhi to affect it.

A huge campus, some really amazin facilities, about 4000 odd students, an equally big, or more support staff, a township around and in it and Cheddi's. Right.. cheddi's ... still cant blv that dude has closed down only 2wice in his 42 yrs of Dhaba-dom and not once in the past 2 decades.... wow! ... n the typical stuff u get there... Tinku, Jassi, Mohile.. .not some soap serial characters... these are burgers.. .innovated by IITians some eons ago... more on this when we meet thr.

Part 4:

VGSOM: apna mai-baap for the next 2 yrs and after tht too..

We saw the max we could... the lab, the library, etc etc.. the bldg is not as big as it looks. But it has everything you need or will need. Its a bit far from the hostel, but i guess all of us wud have a cycle atlst, so tht wud not be an issue. Infact, some of us who wud like to reduce a bit... its a golden opportunity... hehehe.

Part 5:

Hostel: MMM hall - SDS block

Crazy place, no one knows kya chal raha hai. 2 am at nite, ppl playin circket, someone celebrating someone else's bday, someone studyin, someone discussuin sm assignment or case study... lotsa lotsa lotsa stuff.

One thing though we cud not get a chance to see was the real life.. with tonz of workload and endless nite-outs. woh toh hum first hand dekhenge udahr jaake... seedhe rolling start!!

But the hostels are gr8. Beautiful (originally, not after u shift in) rooms, quite spacious. abhi toh LAN bhi hai. plus every room has a balcony. You have a novel concept here.. .tht of a "Loomie".. coz u share a loo with the room next to you. 2 ppl = 1 loo.


Part 6:

JUNTA - public... very very imp part of life there.

You are goin to spend almost the entire 24 hrs wid them. Its very very imp to find ppl who have a similar thinkin n wavelength as urs. It is very imperative to grow and succedd in and after VGSOM.

Our seniors, esp the group I was wid, Shubhu Hemnt Anshu Rachit Swaroop are gr8 guys... they are xtrmly helpful and went out of their way to show us around. Moreover, they really seem to kno each other pretty well.... n thz imp .. tht will tk sometime after we get thr.


Part 7:

YOUR PRIORITIES - get them rite..

There are infinite resources and activities. And you have 24 hrs. Eliminate, select , plan execute - thts the mantra. You need to really decide what u wanna go for, not bcoz smthng sounds happenin or imp.. its whthr u fit in. Also bcoz, whtever you do is goin to affect the entire batch and school in some or the other manner... so pls act responsibly. Also there have been cases of misfits being dropped off committees.. so take a cool decision

Also.. one very very imp point. Please leave your respective jobs with all possible cordiality. We need all possible contacts in the industry, esp big names like lehman, etc... mainly for placemtns n also guest lcturs etc .

so pls get all poss contacts u can wid ya.... bahut kaam aayenge.


Guys.. i guess bahut gyan de diya maine...

pls do a lot of thinkin on how you would go abt the 2 yrs at VGSOM. Some hard thinkin now will propel your course to a different level altogether...


signing off for now...

Kunal Nagar aka theginsoakedboy ...
 
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