Walk Alone

This is just peachy. The world thinks the current food crisis is caused by the US and EU diverting arable resources towards biofuels. But the US President and Secretary of State are blaming China and India for being a more serious contributor to the crisis! And they are not alone.

Guess what? Are you a Chinese or an Indian trying to get “better nutrition”? Oh no, you don’t! Not until the “humans” in US and EU have had their fill of the best nutrition and step out smugly to drive around in their SUVs fueled by non-polluting biofuels.

This is more than a little stupid on part of the current US Adminstration. We, Indians (and the Chinese too) deserve to eat as well as they do. Besides, its our produce. We have first claim to it.

What are they thinking?

The recent violent demands of the Gujjar community in Rajasthan have put the current system of affirmative action in India under spotlight. For perhaps the first time in our history (correct me if I’m wrong), a community is agitating to move down the social ladder. The official, bureaucratic social ladder. After close on to a hundred and more years of social reform; and half a century of affirmative action, it has all come down to this - those classified lower castes are getting the bigger pie of government jobs, so we want to move into the same bracket.

Predictably, once the shock wore off, the Meenas entered the arena looking for pitched battles. “Government jobs” are more precious than manna from heaven. Damned if we let our share get reduced.

And even the resulting parleys involved subtle hints of casteism. The Chief Minister’s daughter-in-law belonged to the agitating community and was called post haste to beef up negotiation’s success rate.

I don’t think we need any more proof that reservations have gone wrong. Caste-based reservations - with quotas determined by out-dated census data and suspect delineation of creamy and non-creamy layers - have worsened the situation. Social prejudice, if one goes by the recent spate of attacks on Dalits, has not abated. Those once abused, are still abused. If anything, reservations have given the oppressors one more beating stick. If a community is desperate enough to move down the social hierarchy to get a better shot at employment - that says a lot about how much they care about their current caste status. They just want jobs, damn it!

What we need is affirmative action based on economic status. Limited to one generation only. And with lots of checks built in, so we won’t have idiots marrying beggars just to get into the sugar bag. That will require sweeping upgrades to the way we do our census. Plus how we manage all that data, given that we will have to check stuff going back to a couple of generations.

Another thing to be done is, we need to drill it into those fools’ heads that affirmative action is not a right, its a consideration given to them. Yes, they deserve that consideration for past wrongs and what-nots, but thats the limit of it. So if our resources are straining at the limit, guess what expense should be the first to go?

Lastly, politicians - go get yourselves a grave or a pyre. We don’t need you.

I was first attracted to Formula 1 in 1998, mostly because of the gripping commentary provided by Overdrive - one of the finest car and bike magazines at the time. Hakkinen won his first F1 driver’s championship that year. Ron Dennis was being considered the shrewdest team principal around. Adrian Newey was on the team. Nine years later, quite a lot has changed - but McLaren is still my favorite F1 team. Since that time, one quote has stayed in mind - not that I remember many quotes, but this one expressed McLaren’s ethos very elegantly. I have no idea who said it or which source quoted it.

We make winning a science.

However, the team’s performance next year and later on made that statement seem like a politician’s election speech. McLaren seemed to lose their grasp of the first principles of racing science. It was Ferrari and lately, Renault carrying the champions while Toyota and Williams provided some side-show excitement.

That is, until this year.

You got to see Lewis Hamilton’s record to believe it. This is one racer that is making winning a science. Four podium finishes in the first four races of his Formula 1 career! And he has eclipsed Bruce Mclaren’s record as the youngest championship leader ever! What is a more fitting way to pay tribute to the creator of your F1 team?

This is one guy I’m betting on. Science rarely goes wrong.