Role Models

I'm currently reading the book Freedom at midnight - it is an epic drama of india's struggle for independance. Then there was this article in hindu about the real role models of today. Where are the leaders, people we look up to and learn from. Icons we idealise?

Some excerpts from the article
"India is passing through a critical phase when the crisis of values is so serious that words like idealism and altruism sound like the wearied notes of an old song "

We seem to have a ailing memory - people who we admired a few days ago are already gathering dust and growing cobwebs in the back of our minds.

"Look around today. Who are the leading lights of any fields and what are they doing? Take a Sachin Tendulkar. I like it when he scores runs and returns back from his father's funeral the next day, and scores a century. But when my young daughter asks why does he endorse Coke or Pepsi, which we have been telling her is bad for health, what do I tell her? Who cares for a Pullela Gopichand who refused to endorse the drink saying he could not recommend something which he thought was harmful. Can we visualise a Dilip Kumar or Guru Dutt promoting products as Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan do?"

Sometimes we pass through a lot of things, a lot of images drift pass us, are we a generation lost in this, trying to carve a space for ourselves? Only time will tell.

You must be wondering why i chose the pictures of bhagat singh and rahul gandhi?
Well one was a martyr and the other .... i was trying to think of an icon i could place beside bhagat singh and frankly i cudn't find any.
These people are prob of the same age, one decided that he had to give up his life for the love of his country... do we have a youth icon who would match up to him in this day & age?
What good is the independance to us today, that which resulted from great sacrifices and innumerous deaths?

(This post wud be continued... as i turn the pages of freedom at midnight)

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Reservation!!

STAND UP and Make a Difference

Vote against the reservation bill

QUOTA CONTROVERSY: Students have reacted with shock and outrage of HRD Ministry's proposals.

"Human Resource Developmet Minister Arjun Singh may claim that it's just a proposal, but UPA Government's attempts to increase reservations from the present 22.5 per cent to 49.5 per cent in prestigious educational institutes like Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management and other institutes of higher education, is brewing up a storm. "
-CNN-IBN

Should there be reservations in colleges? Should education be streamed and made easy for people who are economically weak? Should people be deprived of graduation jus because they were from a specifc community and not because they were not good enough?

This is a very sensitive issue, but certainly worth debating. While i was ready to pursue my higher studies, reservation was a curse for the Forward caste people. Luckily i made it to a university that had an insignificant percentage of reservation and people were choosen only because they deserved to get in.

Now, if people are economically weak and financially broken should graduation be offered to them easily? what problem are we solving by this system? We have doctors, engineers, archietects et al who have no clue about what they are doing.

Shouldn't the focus be to uplift these people so that they are able to compete with the rest of the society? By offering them reservation aren't we ostracizing them further and insulting them?

Education should be given to students who deserve to get in, this would retain the fire to reach greater heights and would benefit the country. Ensure people get in to school with reservations but colleges and universities should be spared of this reservation.

Caste and creed should not make education easy to acquire.

Let the best man win!!

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