SC/ST??? You lucky bum

Probably the most unfair thing about our education system, and much debated as well, is the reservation of seats for "Special Category" students (i.e. SC/ST students) in Government institutions. (I'd like to think of SC as "Special Category" rather than "Scheduled Caste" so sue me if you don't like it)

Sadly, whether we like it or not, the best higher education institutes in the country are undoubtedly the ones that are run by the Government - An irony by itself because I distinctly remember my dear mother threatening me several years ago when I was in half pants,  with "If you carry on like this, I'll enroll you into a bloody Government run municipal school...."...I wish she would say that now. Because if she could have enrolled me into a Government run (B) school, I would have been the most mischevious bloke alive so that she could keep her promise!!

Why I brought up this topic is as follows. 

When I was in school, I had this friend.... or let me say acquaintance (I will not name him). He used to live next to my house so we would board the school van together. He was a smart bloke no doubt.. but all of us in school had been trained to be smart! (ahem ahem).

So as the years passed by, we would make the usual "in-van-polite-chitchat" everyday. Once we had outgrown the school van, we would make the usual "in-public-transport-polite-chitchat" to pass time. Other than that, I would have no social contact with him (In school or at home). Soon, it was time to give our boards (10th Standard) after which I continued to do my 11th and 12th in School while he disappeared (I later found out that he did his +2 in St. Josephs...A decent PUC college in Bangalore) So I lost touch with him. 

When I finished giving my 12th standard boards and the Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission into engineering colleges in Karnataka, I managed a rank of 2300 odd and this got me admission into the Mechanical Engineering Branch at MIT Manipal. It is then when I met this chap again. It was in a bus, so it is norm that you do "in-public-transport-polite-chitchat"to pass time.

Here is how our conversation went.

Me: "Hey dude, wassup? How did you do in the CET?"

Bloke: "Hey, pretty ok man. I got a 1500 rank..." (No "what about you?" mind you...Seriously, did this guy even study in FAPS?)

Me  (Burning a little.. I thought I was better than this guy) : " Oh.. cool man. Good for you... So you must have got Mechanical or Electrical in an average college in Banagalore only right?" (This because I thought he wanted to stay in Bangalore)

Bloke: " No dude, I got KREC -Tronics"

*very long pause... My jaw has hit the ground by now*

Me: "WHAAAAAAT... HOW THE....?"

Bloke (very proudly at that): "I come under SC/ST quota man"....

Ok... Now for a little background. KREC-Tronics refers to Electronics and Communication Engineering (EnC) at the Karnataka Regional Engineering College (KREC, now NIT-K) which is probably one of the best institutes in the country to pursue an engineering degree (On par with the IITs and BITS Pilani). It is the best of the RECs (or NITs) and arguably as good as any IIT. During my time, one could get admission into KREC giving CET. Through CET, if one needed to get into KREC EnC, the person's rank should have been better than 30. (I know a friend who had a rank of 33, who was on the waitlist but eventually converted the seat). To give you a perspective, the year I gave CET, all the "decent" branches (i.e. EnC, Comps, Mech, Electrical and Civil)  filled up by Rank 550.Our man had a 1500 odd rank and he had waltzed into the place!!!!...

He was proud of it. Thats what bugged me the most. 

We, i.e. those who have been brought up in FAPS (Frank Anthony Public School) believe that all are equal irrespective of our backgrounds. You may come walking to school or may be chauffered to school in a Benz; you might be a Mallu from Kerala, a Gult from Andhra, a Konde-mama from Punjab or a Kannadiga localite; You could be fair, dark, white, black blue or (in some cases) yellow.......... But once you enter the gate, you are no different from the next chap. Hence.. the uniform! Now THAT is something to be proud of. Which is one of the reasons why I love my school so much. Nobody cares whether you were in the "General Category" or a SC or ST. The only time you had an edge while getting admissions was if you were an Anglo Indian. That too only a small teeney-weeney edge. But hey, its a private institute and believe me, THEY ARE GENUINELY MINORITIES (and class acts at that). Besides, once you were in, you would caned if you did anything wrong irrespective of your caste, creed or sex. (Gosh.. I miss school :(... )

But this is STILL not the reason for my writing this article. The other day, when I was joblessly orkutting (yes, its a verb now!), I chanced upon this above mentioned acquaintance's profile. When I saw the pictures in his album, my heart sank. He was now in IIM A (I know I'm being a bit unfair to him by not giving him enough credit... After all, he might have got in by merit right?.....!!!!!)

It is a sad thing this caste system. If only my fore father's fore fathers had not indulged in bullying people of allegedly lower castes, I might not have blogged today... 

Pool of drool....

The concept of tagging is pretty new to me so Rach, I hope I do this one justice!

I guess it would be appropriate to start by saying, FOOD is probably one of my BIGGEST loves. Sure I love Brit comedy, Hollywood, Good music, cricket and cars... But food is waaaaay there on top of this list so when I saw Rachana's blog, apart from drooling, I got down to answering those questions in my mind.

Here they are in writing

1) One dish you can crave for any given time of the day/ night/ situation?

I'll have to say GFP (Golden fried prawns) from this small little joint near my place in Bangalore (Called Chung's). These are by far the most delicious objects known to mankind. These little beauties (not really little coming to think of it) are CRISP on the outside, mushy on the inside and need to be dipped in a combo of chilly paste and hot garlic sauce...

Gosh.. theres a pool of drool forming here...Oh.... thats a nice title of this blog.. Here goes ... (changes the title of the blog from "Tagged" to "pool of drool")

2) One dish you'd never had and would love to regardless of the expense?

Mmmmm.... I'd like to try Roast camel...Ive heard its a delicacy in Africa. The meat, I'm told is tough. But with a little bit of spice, even rubber tastes passably nice...

I chose this only cos its so exclusive.

3) Most expensive dish you've ever had?

Lobster Thermidor..... (gulp)......3 grand a portion.. and the portion wasnt enough for the skin of my back teeth..... Thats the kind of meal where one must eat BEFORE and AFTER if he/she wants to feel good. Luckily, this was a treat. I love rich uncles.

4) Most bizarre dish you've ever seen or tasted? Like totally blown your socks off! Makes you gag every single time your lay your eyes on it. (Hope you've got the point by now: P)

Boiled veal in mint sauce.... (pukes).. NEVER AGAIN....

5. Your poison?

Good ol' Budweiser... !!!!!(burp)

6. One a lonely rainy day, your sitting cozily on your sofa, you'd crave for?

KFC........................... (God bless the Colonel)... (sniff)....

7. First forbidden savory you'd crave for while you've been sick?

Creamy chilled portion of Rasmalia... 

8. Your all time favorite TV snack:

Cliched` but POP CORN!!!... Im a huge fan of Popcorn.. Cant see a movie without having popcorn even if the movie is seen after dinner...!

9. On your first ever kitchen experience you prepared:

Egg Bhurji and toast... that took me approximately I and a half hours to make (thats 1 hour for cutting 2 onions and a small tomato and half an hour cooking time)

P.S. It was good....

10. After a tiring day at work/ college/shopping/loitering you'd loved to come home to?

Aloo Gobi, 4 chapattis, a small bowl of Curd, a small bowl of some nice Northie daal and a LARGE mug of Thumbs up...

11. A cuisine your most comfortable with:

Chineeeeeese.... (i.e. Indian Chinese)... Always loved chilly chicken in ANY form (close second to GFP in question number 1)

12. A snack which you loved A LOT back when you were a kid and still love it till date?

Hot Dogs..... (with Mustard Sauce ONLY)

13. A dish which your mum makes/ used to which you simply adore?

Cook Upkari...... All time favorite... In the GFP category for veg food

14. Most expensive dish you ever had?

Is this a psychometry test of some sort? are questions being asked to trip the respondant?

15. What you're eating RIGHT NOW? or had immediately before?

Two eggs, Sunny side up, with 4 slices of toast, 2 slices of Salami and Tomato Chilly sauce (Maggi's).

This was washed down with a cup of South Indian Filter Coffee (aka Kaapi) which was accompanied by a crisp toast with Kissan Jam..... Oh.. and an orange..

What can I say... I love breakfast.

Just when you thought it was all over...BONUS! (Don't cha love em?) ;)*16. Your friends are coming over on short notice. You have half an hour. How would save your dignity by being hospitable and feed your friends? (Considering you can't take them to a restaurant)

Funny this was asked. I had a friend over the other day. A Tam... She wanted to eat some home food.... So in a short span of an hour, I whipped up some Cabbage Poriyal (aka upkari), Aloo Gobi, Rice, Rasam and some papads... oh.. and I bought some curd as well...

P.S. I'm a genius in the kitchen.. LOL...

(Sniff)

I have always laughed at people who told me that they came out of a theatre weeping as I've never understood how anyone could "feel" so much. Even my mother (my OWN blood) carries a pack of hankies with her whenever she sees a movie (on TV or in a theatre).  Initially I thought that it was some kind of a fad or something which would make you "cool" (amongst the girls... If a guy did that, he'd be labled "wimp" for life!).. but then I realised that grown up men too would hold back a tear in some cases. For instance, a friend of mine (name withheld as I dont want to be responsible for him being called a wimp) said he was "moved' when he saw Taare Zameen par... For the life of me, I couldnt figure out what was so sad about the movie but I guess he has his reasons. This is when I realised that everyone has a "threshold-level-movie" at which she/he gets "moved".  After all, I did come out BAWLING after seeing Krish.

Apart from Krish (reasons for my crying have been extensively blogged about), I saw a movie today which moved me beyond a point that I have ever been moved...(phew.. so much for an elaborate justification). The movie in question is ''The boy in the striped pyjamas" - a film centred around the time when Nazi occupied Germany was just about to start WW-II. I wouldnt term it as the best film I've ever seen, but it sure got me "feeling" (and the first one at that). Again, it is clearly a low budget movie without any big star or exotic locations so dont blame me if you dont like the film. The movie is centred around an 8 year old boy (son of a highly ranked Nazi officer), who happens  to befriend a small jewish boy of the same age, who is staying in the POW camp. I wont play spoilsport and blurt out the rest though I must say that there isnt much in the story as most of the scenes have been shot inside a house or at a POW fence. (as seen in the promos pic) But the screen play has been done to perfection. No overacting, no unneccessary melodrama -  just the right amount of drama for my liking. 

The movie depicts the horrors of the Nazi POW camps. Though such attrocities have not been graphically displayed (as in some earlier Oscar winning movies), if one is aware of what happened to the jews during that period, the viewer will suitably shocked! 

The only grouch I have with the movie is similar to one of the MANY grouches I had with slumdog millionaire and that is, the protagonists all have a distinct British accent. Dont get me wrong, I love the accent. But since this was a movie which portrayed Nazis and Jews, a less distinct accent (or an accent that Germans have when speaking English) would have probably increased its effectiveness.

I wont say much more now... Do watch the movie if you get the chance (I think there is a DVD rip on torrents)... I go back to being jobless for now..

Hiel Hitler....

Bangalored....

Interviewer : Since you are a Bangalorean, give  me 3 things that are unique to Bangalore - which defines Bangalore - the reasons why you love Bangalore

Me: 1) The coffee culture

2) The Pub culture (in your FACE Mr. Muthalik)

3) The People...

Interviewer: (Raises and eyebrow) The people? Explain...

Me: Well, to start of with, Bangalore has arguably the most cosmopolitain population in the country. Such levels of diversity can only be explained by the fact that only 23% of Bangaloreans are Kannadigas! They are sweet people who do not force you to speak in the local language (Though in the recent past, there have been some pro-kannada incidents). If you leave autodrivers outside the realm of this conversation, Bangaloreans are accomodating and helpful - on par with the Mumbaites on this factor. I have stayed in Bangalore for around 20 years - I dont know Kannada!