Academy Days

          “I’ve had the time of my life
           No I never felt like this before
           Yes I swear it’s the truth
           and I owe it all to you”

 

The problem with trying to reminisce about things that are too recent is that the overwhelming sense of nostalgia tends to distort any attempt at dispassionate reflections. This is particularly true if the time in question happens to be as momentous and as epochal as my time in the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie was between August 2007 and May 2008. For once however, I choose to fall into the trap, not just out of necessity, but also, I daresay, with a guilt-laden sense of willingness and enthusiasm.

Before my sense of perspective is completely blinded by this exercise in self-indulgence, I will mention the things that I did not like about the Academy. I did not like the morning P.T., and no, unlike what senior officers seem to claim, I don’t think I will ever miss it. The only memories that one carries from those ordeals every morning is the sadism associated with making us get up at 6, often in biting cold and the daily humiliation(yes, that was what it was, notwithstanding dubious attempts to reduce its sting by couching it in what often amounted to guttural humour). No, I didn’t like going through the daily rigmarole of classes from morning till evening, day in and day out, sometimes even on gazetted holidays, listening(or atleast pretending to listen) to the relentless drone of speakers of an outstanding lack of ability and an almost surreal degree of ignorance about the above fact. No, I will never miss those endless and often soporific PowerPoint presentations which were on most occasions pointless and almost always powerless. One feels pride in one’s gallantry and strength of character in successfully surviving all this, but no, one will never ever miss it. No, I will never miss the quality of mess food, especially at lunch and dinner time (yes, breakfast was decent on most days).

Apart from this, one will miss almost everything else. One will miss the hills. One will miss trekking amongst them-even though the term ‘breathtaking’ often assumed literal instead of the usual metaphorical connotations. One will miss the weather-and its vagaries. One will miss the hostel rooms. One will miss the daily trek in the morning to the mess. One will miss the mess. One will miss the OT lounge-the dancing, the gossiping, the coffee machine. One will also miss the heated arguments that occurred daily in trying to decide who will buy the coffee coins. One will miss the sense of adventure and the childlike glee at using a one rupee coin to obtain coffee. One will miss the grandeur of the library and the other buildings-although one will also regret not having utilised the library properly. One will miss the view of the Himalayas from the Kalindi lawns.

One will miss going to the Sports complex in the evening. One will miss playing games one always wanted to, but couldn’t because of lack of facilities. One will miss gorging on paranthas and sipping on tea at Ganga dhaba accompanied by spicy though mostly frivolous chatter. One will miss those post dinner walks.

One will miss the village visit. The bharat darshan. India Day celebrations. Fete. Cultural programmes. River rafting. Rock climbing. Athletic meet. Holi and Diwali celebrations. Learning (or was it mutilating?) French during the Foundation. Organising the treasure hunt. Walks on the Mall Road. Dinners at Tavern. Coffee at CCD and Barista. Trek group parties. Horse riding (though not the fact that it was compulsory). Group studies before examinations. Watching and celebrating India’s victory in the 20-20 World Cup final in Sampoornanand Auditorium. Oh yes, Sampoornanand….yes, one will definitely miss all of these.

Above all, one will miss spending time with people, some of whom became friends for a lifetime. Come to think of it, one will miss having the experience of a life time in less than 9 months. It is said that the Academy serves as a transition, transforming us from a student into an officer. For me, the Academy was also a place where I fulfilled the dreams and aspirations that I always had, including some that I had never dared to dream or desire. No matter what perils or troubles await one’s life as a civil servant, it would have been worth it, if only for the time spent in the Academy.

 

“Those were the days my friend

We thought they’d never end

We’d sing and dance forever and a day

We’d live the life we’d chose

We’d fight and never lose

For we were young and sure to have our way.”

http://chikamu.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/academy-days/slide/

Reservation

I have waited far too long…..I think the time has come for me to publish this on my blog.

            I am a graduate of Maulana Azad Medical College. This piece is addressed to my friends, colleagues, seniors and juniors in the medical fraternity who have taken up cudgels against the reservation policy. 

            In an utopian society, reservation should have no place. In an ideal world where universal primary and secondary education is easily accessible and available not just on paper but in practice as well, and where centuries of deep rooted caste based malice has evaporated, reservation will no longer be required. Yet let’s not forget that 21 ^st century India is far far away from that notion. Lost out in the shrill cries of a few thousand people of the most privileged strata of our society, lavishly sponsored by big private hospitals and lapped up by a biased media (a news anchor on NDTV announces “admission to professional colleges got even more difficult for all of you”-the shocking assumption being that all those listening are nonSC/ST/OBCs); is the deafening silence of the millions of socially and educationally downtrodden in the villages and towns of India. The SCs, STs and OBCs. I don’t doubt the genuineness or intentions of my colleagues’ protests. I lament their ignorance and the shallowness of their arguments.

            You say casteism and untouchability don’t exist in India? Haven’t you heard of the Dalit girl who was refused entry in an Orissa school and now attends classes under police escort? Or of an OBC labourer in a remote district of Bihar whose house was burnt down by upper caste hooligans only because he had dared to name his child “Vikramaditya” -a name reserved for upper caste boys. Isolated cases? Perhaps. Or is it because numerous other such cases go unreported by the electronic and print media? Still in doubt? Skim through the classifieds section of your Sunday newspaper.

            You assert quite brazenly that you have never indulged in casteism. Think again. How many of us can claim that we have never ever insidiously referred to our Dalit colleagues as “Shaddus”? For those of you who might be unaware of it, the Constitution defines it as practising untouchability.

            A common refrain over the past three weeks, indulged in by all and sundry, was “Would you like to be treated by an SC/ST/OBC doctor?” the triviality and the callousness in the manner in which the question was phrased couldn’t hide the grotesquely distorted thinking behind it. Besides the obvious fact that it smacks of casteism at face value, perhaps more disturbingly, it seeks to equate professional competence (or the lack of it) with a particular category of people. The insinuation being that SC/ST/OBC doctors are inherently and intrinsically incompetent. We are thus entering the realm of race-based discrimination. Perhaps casteism was not bad enough.

            And if any one of us dares to answer the above question as “NO” the responsibility and the accompanying guilt will have to be borne by each and every one of us. Incidentally, the very fact that we are debating this question is proof that caste and caste based discrimination is thriving in contemporary India. Using the above argument to proclaim that reservation is useless, as it has had “no effect” even 59 years after independence is a case of erroneous circular logic. Can centuries of discrimination and inequality be eradicated merely by 60 years of half-hearted efforts? Reservation might not be the panacea for all ills but isn’t it to premature to jump to the conclusion that caste based reservation serves no purpose? No system is perfect, least of all one that seeks to distinguish human being from human being. Yet, an extra-ordinary situation demands an extra-ordinary response. The only antidote to snake venom is itself a poison. The implementation of the present reservation policy is beset with flaws-ambiguous criteria for the creamy layer, exclusion of SCs/STs from its ambit, rampant corruption in the procurement of the necessary certificates, a case for the inclusion of the economically deprived among the forward castes, disagreement over whether to limit reservation only at the entry level, etc. These are however modalities which can (and should) be debated about and rectified in due course of time. The principle behind reservation is however irrevocable. Blood loss and pain inflicted by the necessary amputation of a gangrenous limb can’t nullify the inevitability of the amputation.            

            Criticizing reservation as it allegedly perpetuates casteism is even more absurd. It is akin to saying that different classes of berths available in the railways perpetuate economic inequalities. Caste is an omnipresent albeit bitter fact of our lives and reservation merely reflects that.

            Don’t for a moment believe that you are fooling anyone but yourselves by hiding behind the charade of “Youth for Equality”. Equality amongst whom? Can a government school educated child of illiterate parents brought up in adverse economic circumstances in a far-flung hamlet of India, subject to casteism and ostracism by his upper caste compatriots ever compete on equal terms with somebody like you or me? As Aristotle said, equality among unequals is akin to inequality among equals. Check the demographic profile of students in your college. At least in the medical colleges of Delhi, upper caste students fill in 90-95% of the general category seats. This when the proportion of OBC’s in the country’s population is at least 30%. Until and unless this anomaly is rectified, equality will remain a myth. Even the handful of SC/ST/OBC students who despite all odds get admission under the general category are forced to hide their true identity from their upper caste mates for fear of ostracism and boycott. Even worse it is implicitly assumed that they belong to the upper castes and are thus compelled to acquiesce in SC/ST/OBC bashing which is the vaunt in most of the formal and informal conversations (and I speak from personal experience). You still find it incomprehensible that a SC/ST/OBC student can successfully compete with you and yet you preach the same under the spurious banner of “Medicos for Equality”. If you define equality as making someone ashamed of his identity and forcing him to pretend to belong to the hallowed portals of the upper caste, then yes you have succeeded. Left rudderless and identityless however, their actual fate is pathetic. They can neither affiliate with their SC/SC/OBC brethren nor will they ever be completely accepted as part of your group. The plight of those who come in through reservation is even worse. If they excel, they obviously didn’t need reservation. If they don’t, they don’t deserve to be here.

            You say merit will be compromised if reservation is allowed. Lets start with the very concept of ‘merit’. Is it some innate, mythical quality that all those who clear a competitive exam as general category students possess (and those who don’t, do not)? I think not. ‘Merit’ connotes the ability to ‘crack’ these examinations. It connotes the ability to successfully tackle the kind of questions that appear in these examinations-mainly objective type. Almost all competitive exams test skills that have been cultivated in families, honed by public schools and fine-tuned by coaching institutes. It is these skills that constitute ‘merit’ for the purpose of a competitive examination, not the aptitude for success in the profession that the exam seeks to recruit candidates for. And obviously the SC/ST/OBC students will score low on such measures of ‘merit’. That is the whole argument in favour of reservation-they need reservation precisely because most of them cannot compete on ‘merit’ with (most of the) general category students. They are unable to compete on ‘merit’, not because of any intrinsic deficiency, but because they have not been exposed to the requisite training for inculcating and developing such ‘merit’-at home, in schools, in coaching institutes, in society. Thank God reservation compromises on ‘merit’ of this kind.  

              I am not for a moment suggesting that such a system of recruitment is completely flawed, neither do I have a viable alternative. All I am saying that it is not foolproof. Far from it. Then there is the question of the relationship between ‘merit’ and professional competence (or the lack of it). Can anyone give me figures to prove that ‘meritorious’ students necessarily turn out to be the best in their fields? Conversely, can anyone furnish proof that all SC/ST students who enter through reservation (and OBCs who will enter in future) are (or will turn out to be) failures? (Remember, even under reservation, the principle of ‘merit’ is being followed. An SC/ST/OBC candidate is not selected merely for existing. He/she has to compete with other members in his/her category).

               I will take my own example. I entered MAMC through the general quota of DPMT. Within a few months, I realised that I wasn’t cut out for medicine. Apparently, I had ‘MERIT’, but not quite the ‘APTITUDE’. Shouldn’t I have been tested on such parameters as (potential) clinical ability and empathy for patients instead of prowess in tackling MCQs in Physics, Chemistry and Biology?

              You believe that reservation is nothing but a case of political gamesmanship and vote bank politics. Perhaps, though not quite in the same sense. Several articles in the constitution-15 (4), 338, 340, etc.-make it amply clear that the adoption of specific provisions relating to positive discrimination was not just an overwhelming social necessity but also the collective mandate of the constitution framers. Post independence, the first backward class commission, set up in the 50’s made sweeping recommendations which were far more excessive than those being debated today. Yet its provisions relating to the SCs/STs alone were implemented. The Mandal commission submitted its recommendations in 1980. 12 years were to lapse before the VP Singh government accepted its recommendations, but again only partially. It was the Mandal commission itself that had recommended reservation for the OBCs not just in central government jobs but also in educational institutions. The process that has started today is at least 25 years late. Again, the figure of 27% recommended by the commission for such reservation was much less that its actual estimate of the proportion of OBC population (around 50%) but was done only to adhere to the Supreme Court directive limiting the quantum of reservation of all forms to not more than 50%. So contrary to popular belief this process is a logical corollary of a long standing socio-political movement which, if it is now showing some results, is not due to political gerrymandering and vote bank politics, but despite it.

                 Those of us who claim that social upliftment should be left to the goodwill and largesse of educational institutions, corporate houses and industries (under the garb of affirmative action) need to have a re-think. What prevented them from adopting such measures until now? What has not worked till now may never work. What has started showing results-however miniscule or symbolic-in merely 60 years still might. Even if reservation is deemed to be a failure after just 100 years, we wont be any worse off. At least give it a chance.

Post Script: I informed a very dear friend of mine that the percentage of OBCs in professional institutes and even the quantum of reservation being contemplated-27%-is smaller than their actual percentage in the country’s population (anywhere between 30-50%). Pat came his chilling response-”Perhaps. But this (reservation) gives them the incentive to breed even more”

 

Note-I wrote this about a year back, at the height of the anti-quota protests. In hindsight, I think the tone could have been a little less abrasive. I have however, refrained from altering the tone because it would have affected the spontaneity as well.                  

Random thoughts…

Finally. D-day had arrived. After days of waiting, of endless shopping, of accepting innumerable congratulatory calls and pretending to be humble, of being intoxicated with the most protracted bout of narcissism I had ever experienced, it was here. Mussoorie beckoned. Yipeee!

                  

The journey from Library point to the Academy was filled with anticipation, excitement and a fair bit of trepidation as well. In the cauldron of emotions that(I assume) each one of us found himself or herself submerged in, perhaps the most easily distinguishable one was that of finality. There was to be no going back now.

       

The first thing that strikes you about Mussoorie is the weather. It can change from bright sunshine to biting cold to pouring rain, all in the space of thirty minutes. Simply put, what one experiences in the plains of North India in the course of an entire year, one experiences in Mussoorie in about half an hour.

       

The first month has almost whizzed past. Classes. ECMs. SGMs. CGMs. Language classes. Bandgalas. Brand new laptops. Guest lectures in Sampoornanad Auditorium(and desperate attempts to prevent one’s eyelids from closing!). And of course, 6am P.T.s(sigh!).

Couplings. Decouplings. Recouplings. Successful/unsuccessful/still evolving attempts at CBMs. Endless and frivolous gossips in the cafetaria. Elections. Memos and momos. Late night strolls in the Mall Road. Saturday treks. Broken legs. Broken arms. Broken hearts. Punctured egos.

Breathtaking natural beauty. Trying very hard to appreciate the same. Officer like qualities. Ban on cell phones. Espirit-de-corps. Futile attempts at trying to pronounce it properly. Cribbing about everything under the sun. And then for good measure, cribbing about the sun itself.

It is as though the Academy has become a world in itself. It is so all-consuming and pervasive that one rarely(if ever) misses home, family, friends or the real world. It is almost as if we are caught in a time warp and the outside world has come to a standstill. Sooner or later however, infact sooner rather than later, the warp will disappear. Time will start moving again. Newspapers will start making sense again.

As Winston Churchill put it, “This is not the beginning. It is certainly not the end. It is however, the end of the beginning”. For good or for bad, we have begun.

        

Note: I wrote this in September 2007, one month into the Foundation Course at mussoorie.

What can be done?

1. Creamy layer should be strictly adhered to.
2. It should be extended to the Scheduled castes and tribes as well.
3. In the next census, a caste based demographic profile should be incorporated-it will give us exact figures about the proportion of population which deserves reservation.
4. Reservation should be restricted to one or at most two generations. Beyond that, if reservation is provided, it becomes self defeating-it merely spawns elites amongst the lower castes.
5. The application of an economic criteria (in the form of a refurbished creamy layer) is, I think, the only possible way in  which not just the beneficiaries of reservation can be identified, but also the success/failure of reservation can be gauged. Point no. 4 combined with the fact that the nation’s growing economic prosperity will pull/push many lower caste people above the creamy layer makes it obvious that the percentage of reservation should be brought down in future. Again, this should be done every ten years, on the basis of the latest census figures and the income tax returns. I think even agricultural income must be included when determining the creamy layer status. Point nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5 wil also ensure that clamouring for an OBC/SC/ST status no longer holds any charm for those castes outside it as (I think) it is the elites among these castes who are desperate to avail of reservation (and were responsible for orchestrating the the recent episodes of violence). With a water-tight definition of creamy layer in place, they would be unable to avail of reservation in any case.
6. The rationale behind including the economically deprived among the upper castes within the ambit of reservation is invalid, as reservation is a remedy for social and educational backwardness, not economic backwardness. Moreover, reservation is only a temporary measure, it should be in place only till the time the gap in terms of education and social empowerment persists between the lower and upper castes. Once that gulf is bridged, reservation will lose its causus belli. Including economic criteria as part of reservation will perpetuate it, more or less permanently: society will always have rich and poor people.

          Ofcourse, that doesn’t imply that economic backwardness among upper castes should be ignored. Merit-cum-means scholarships (proposed in this year’s budget), can be instituted for those amongst the upper castes who are (say) below the poverty line; the funds for the same can come from the 3% educational cess that is levied by the government on all taxes. Even a figure 0f .25% out of this 3% would suffice.

          It is my belief that reservation, if it is allowed to work, has the potential to bridge the gap in terms of social and educational backwardness between the upper and lower castes within the next 50-60 years itself. Already, the results are encouraging. In the 2006 U.P.S.C. Civil Services Examination, as many as 11 out of the top 50 belong to the reserved categories. The day that figure becomes 25, it would be time to bid adieu to reservation. Amen.

Note: I am not naive enough to suggest that this is a fool-proof solution. Infact, the purpose was merely to try and concretize my own views.

The night of the Hyena

I have never been able to fathom the link between Ronald MacDonald and a burger. The sight of the life sized clown faced figure sitting cross-legged, arms spread out on the spartan bench is decidedly  ‘unfastfoodesque’. With slight refurbishing it could become a mascot for a real estate agency (“Happy Home”) or a mannequin for a garment shop. At best, it evokes benign indifference. Oftener, it appears incongruous.

This particular visit was typically ‘unRonaldesque’. After a rather forgettable dinner at some other restaurant, we decided to compensate by having the soft serves(small). My sister went for chocolate (extra chocolate sauce courteously denied), I chose strawberry. Joey (my 2 and a half year old nephew) had 1/4^th of his mother’s soft serve, a bright red balloon, and an impromptu conversation with the couple on the next table (“cho chweet…”), though not necessarily in that order. So far so good.

As always, Joey refused to let his hands be held while coming out (“appeaap”) and as always we gave in. A speeding motorcycle coming from the opposite direction in the drive-through; the security guard’s ‘heroic’, well, scream and pushing away of a ‘balooonitized’ Joey; the sudden veering away of the bike and screeching of tyres (somehow I was reminded of Geoffrey Boycott’s caustic comment on Yuvraj Singh’s flamboyant catch “he made it look more difficult than it actually was”). In the pandemonium, along with tempers, the balloon gets lost as well. Ronald MacDonald looks on, as genial as ever.

The drive back home was predictable. Didi’s futile attempt in explaining things to an inconsolable Joey. “Joey’s balloon was taken away”….”balooon”…”because Joey doesn’t hold hands”. “balooon”…”Joey doesn’t listen to mamma”. “pappa wont give you any more cars”. “balooon”…In between my pathetic attempt to add to the unheeded sermon…. “listen to mamma”. Finally, we give up. “He needs to be disciplined,” we concur(HOW?).

At home, Joey’s tone becomes almost nostalgic, though somehow more shrill. The hyena is summoned in sheer desperation. Two angrily emitted howls later, the spell is broken. Surprised (and pleased) at the ease of success (I had expected him to hold out for atleast ten howls), I hit the bed after half an hour of aimless orkuting…….

…..a huge red balloon attached to a black coloured motorcycle is levitating in mid-air…(is the balloon filled with hydrogen?)…cant see Joey though…..Ronald Macdonald is still sitting cross-legged, arms spread out on the bench. This time however, he is having a burger.