Banning the Da Vinci Code

It is interesting tracking the controversy surrounding the release of the movie based on the book Da Vinci Code. Some people are understandably disturbed (to put it mildly) at some parts of the movie and are in favor of banning the movie.

For someone like me (and I am sure many more) this seems absurd. After all we live in a democracy and there is something called 'freedom of expression'. If some people are disturbed or aghast at some sections of the movie, they have the option of not watching the movie. But that is no reason to ban the movie.

But when I think deeper, it brings out the inherent hypocrisy in my thought process. I have no sympathies for Catholics whose feelings are hurt by the movie and I can make a general statement that most Indians do not - but I ask myself this simple question:

What would have happened in this world if something similar was said against Prophet Mohammed? Just some piece of cartoons are sufficient to have weeks of protests across the world. A statement as blasphemous as one in the book regarding the prophet and the entire Muslim world would have been up in arms and would have burnt for weeks.

Why go that far? How would I react if some similar statements were made about Hindu gods/goddesses in a movie? Would I be equally loudly trumpeting the cause of 'freedom of speech' - probably not. Already we have had examples of how people reacted against M.F. Hussain for his paintings of Hindu deities in what were perceived as being in an 'objectionable' manner. We all know how a certain political party's activists reacted violently to a book on Shivaji. We have instances of people protesting violently against movies which do not 'glorify' people like Mahatma Gandhi or Dr. Ambedkar or Subhash Chandra Bose. In most of these cases, my first reaction was also one of intense anger at what I considered to be exploitation of the right of 'freedom of expression' Even today, I do not think that a lot of these actions/expressions were justified and that the right of freedom of speech is not a absolute right under which all acts can be subsumed.

The very fact that most of the Christian world has just shrugged off this movie says a lot about the level of tolerance of these people to contrary views (and how contrary). As a society we brag about how tolerant we are. But are we really? I know that I certainly am not, certainly a long way from what would be considered to be a global benchmark in tolerance.

We have a long way to go... I have a long way to go....

That's it for now...

A sensible way to introduce reservations…

In the midst of the debate about reservations in higher education institutes and private sector, I thought I should add my couple of words as well (for whatever it is worth…)

Firstly, let me put records straight by saying that I am completely against reservations of any kind (and most definitely where the basis of reservations happens to be caste). I do agree that ‘affirmative action’ is one of the solution to remedy the problem we have (and yes, we do have a problem on our hands) but more importantly I believe the solution lies in bringing the lower caste candidates to the level of the ‘more privileged’ upper caste candidates be it in terms of scholarships or infrastructure or extra tuitions etc – but ultimately people (irrespective of caste) have to come up with the goods to deserve selections.

However I must also disclose that I belong to the ‘upper caste’ and thus my views may be considered to be prejudiced accordingly.

Now let me come to what I think is a sensible way of introducing reservations (if the Indian society at large has made up its mind for doing so)

• Limited time period – First and foremost the law which introduces reservations has to be with a limited time period and which is predetermined. Further it has to be the case that the law expires after the passage of the pre-determined period and if the law is to be extended, then it again needs to go through the process of parliamentary approval. The effect of this is that this thrusts the topic of reservations once again into public domain when the time for its lapse/renewal comes. As to what should be appropriate time period – society has to be the judge but suffice it to say that a couple of years is too less a time for the law to have an impact and a couple of decades too long.


• Measurable criterion to judge effectiveness – Second thing (and this ought to be extended to all existing reservations) is that we should have measurable criterion to judge the effectiveness of the law. The quantifiable parameters could be in terms of social or economic parameters or a mix of both. But certainly we should have set parameters in mind the achievement of which shall establish that the law has served its purpose and it needs to go. Now irrespective of whether the parameters are social or economic or both, they ought to be in terms of dispersion of these parameters on caste and ought to be compared in a like to like manner (e.g. given similar economic backgrounds is it more likely that lower caste people are less educated? or given similar geographic background are lower caste people likely to be less economically advanced etc). Further we must have in place robust means to gather such data. If the census does not serve this purpose, it needs to be recalibrated accordingly for 2011 edition and onwards.


• Measurable criterion to judge failure – Third thing (and this too ought to be extended to all existing reservations) is to be able to have measurable criterion to be able to determine that the law has failed to serve its purpose. After all it is no body’s claim that reservation policies are a panacea of all caste problems. It is just one of the measures being suggested to solve the caste problem (at least partially). Hence we must be able to judge and determine (and conclusively) whether the presumption is indeed valid. It may very well turnout that reservation policies do not solve the problem (for whatever reasons) and we must then move on and try something else. And once having turned our back on reservations never comeback to it unless there are sufficient circumstances which warrant that (and definitely not before we try other untried measures first).

Well, these are just some thoughts that came to my mind which unfortunately no one seems to talk about when discussing reservations. No one even those who favor reservations seem to have any clue as to what is the most efficient way of implementing the policy. Above points seem to me to be very fair and reasonable expectations from a ‘upper caste’ person who opposes reservations, in case the country does indeed decide to implement this policy.

May the persons concerned get some sense (no pun intended!)…

That’s it for now….

Effects have Effects have Effects....

One of my finance professors taught me a simple fact - effects have effects. What I am doing here is just extending on it, because not only do effects have effects, but the downstream effects of these effects and their effects get magnified to humongous proportions somewhere else or sometime later...

When I think back to how I got to where I am currently, I find it astonishing that where I am today is largely down to a couple of purely chance events over which I had absolutely no control. Put it other way, had some other person had a chess board or some other person not made a fairly elementary mistake, I would not have been anywhere remotely close to where I am currently both professionally as well as academically. Let me explain in some detail...

When I was in school, just like with most other people at that point of time what I wanted to do/would end up doing was a function of how much marks I scored in class X. But in class VIII, one fine day our school decided to enter into an interschool chess tournament (if I remember properly, that was the first time our school was doing so). So to select the team, there was a selection process. The number of people making up the team was 4 and I was placed 5th in the process so ideally I should have been ought of the process. But, I was the one of the people having a chess board, while the 4th placed person did not have one so he opted out voluntarily and I got a look in (Pure chance event no.1).

Now at the actual tournament, in absolute terms I happened to do slightly better than other 3 (not necessarily in relative terms though as I was playing on 4th board - effectively meaning I was playing the weakest member from the other teams). But that meant that I got some appreciation from our sports instructor and other team members. Fair enough...

Then one fine day, we get the news that there is going to be another (school) chess tournament in our city - this time an individual event and not a team event. Having done well, in the earlier tournament and just for the heck of it I participated not really expecting anything. One round happened after another and I kept on winning all the games until I met this chap (who later became and is still a good friend of mine) who had played chess fairly seriously for his age, had taken professional coaching and was the hot favorite (all of which I would learn later on). As the game progressed (I don't have any recollection of what actually happened, but he claims, he blundered his rook - and I think that is probably true - Pure chance event no.2). Well, he promptly lost the game and I had won all 6 games played till that time. The expression on the face of people when I came out of the tournament hall was palpable. To stay that most people who knew him were stunned was an understatement. (Just as an indication of how 'rare' the mistake of that chap was (lets call him X), I must have played against him at least a couple of dozen times afterwards in either tournament level or at practice levels. But I do not recollect a single victory against him after that. I did manage a few draws, but even there, some of them were 'agreed' draws to achieve a greater common good (which is fairly common practice in chess, at least was). He would just out maneuver me from basically any kind of situation in which he would get in. He was simply too good to me.)

It is at that point that I realised that I could win this tournament and I promptly lost the next (and final) game but the way the tie break score is computed meant that I nevertheless won the tournament.

These events in class VIII (more than a dozen years before) kicked off my short 'chess career'. So impressed was I of this, that I took to taking professional coaching and I choose the stream 'commerce' post my class X results purely to pursue my ambitions in chess (and not withstanding some fairly stiff opposition from the family). However, I never really made any headway in that. And finally in class XII, I called it quits and decided to focus on academics - but I found myself in a completely different area of study to where I would have liked to be.

Had the 4th ranked person in our school chess team, had a chess board (and there is nothing so great about owning a chess board), I would't have played the tournament and in all likelihood I may not have played the next individual tournament. Had X not made the very very rare blunder, (in fact even after that most people would have expected to win the game, such was his perceived superiority) I would have simply not taken chess as seriously as I did take. Certainly I would not have taken up 'commerce' stream post class X. Which would have meant that I would have come no where close to where I am today. Far from being someone fascinated/captivated by financial markets, I would have been (in all likelihood) someone fascinated/captivated by stars and the planets and the esoteric subject known as physics.

I never wanted to be in the 'commerce' stream and even today if there is one thing I would want to change about myself is to go back and take a different decision post class X. How I wish at times that my parents were a bit more forceful and actually imposed their decision on me (like most other Indian parents I must hasten to add...) rather than give me the freedom. Alas...
A couple of small inconsequential events in my life more than a dozen years ago when I was not even 15, have had a fundamental defining effect on my life.

The point I am trying to make here is simple, events are completely beyond ourselves and which by themselves on the face of it appear completely irrelevant or inconsequential could actually turn into the defining moments of one's life. My life (till date!) certainly is a case in point.

Beware...

That's it for now....