Monday, May 22, 2006

A Quotable Quota

"But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll;
Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
-Gray

there must be a balance between long-term and short-term solutions. while it is unfair for a student with neither affinity nor interest in a given subject to be given priority over others simply owing to the community s/he comes from, it is also unfair that only expensive private schools equip children well enough (steroids?) for the race of the rats. most children do not even have the privilege of completing middle school, though perhaps they are flowers on an unseen, unsmelled course through life..
Ultimately, as the above link will illuminate, "The paths of glory lead but to the grave". however, given democracy, may all be allowed to run in the race. the problem of course, is that the track gets crowded, and if the waterboys join-in into the race, who shall serve the athletes?

32 Comments:

At 3:47 AM , Blogger Varun B. Krishnan said...

"The paths of glory lead but to the grave"

Not only paths of glory.. ALL paths in general lead to the grave.

Man, The epitaph there is possibly the longest I've read.

 
At 4:00 AM , Blogger karthik said...

yes but what do you think of this perspective amid all the heat college boys and girls are throwing about?
im kinda for this obc thing..

 
At 12:30 AM , Blogger Abhinav said...

boy, thats a great connection...
i'm a little disturbed by "if the waterboys join-in into the race, who shall serve the athletes?"
i do hope thats irony.

 
At 2:26 AM , Blogger karthik said...

it is. but its also somewhere deep inside, a kind of concern. but im sure i can work on that the day the race in equality starts... and the inequality race ends... ayyo!

 
At 6:29 AM , Blogger Raju said...

Really like your bg wallpaper...very neat!....I'm very attracted to duality...and all that stuff....i"ll get round to reading your posts...

 
At 11:02 AM , Blogger smoke said...

WOWW! Elegy WIACCY! That's one of my all-time favourite poems! Especially love the lines "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen/And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

No, I'm not adding anything intelligent to the rest of the post.

Oh and this is to prove that I DO visit this blog even if I don't comment! :P

 
At 11:27 PM , Blogger Varun B. Krishnan said...

flunky- im on the general categories side, i.e against the OBCs. bloody bastards. they almost flunk and get a seat while the general quota chap slogs it and gets refused to be given the same seat.

I mean, come on man. If that guy just scrapes through bio and becomes a doctor cuz he got admission via the quota, will you even take the risk of going to see him as a patient?

 
At 12:57 AM , Blogger Abhinav said...

no offence man, but i still think your best post was the one about the buses... that was seriously brilliant... you havent really matched that.
offended?

 
At 3:40 AM , Blogger karthik said...

reflex- tnx i like it too... i was real fed with the three-balls template.. and megha the punk came along and did all this to it... im into the parallel thing to... i get this feeling sometimes that whenever i look into mirrors, i get swapped into another of the millions of parallel universes ... each sychronised but ever so slightly different from the rest.

jan- WIACCY? the thing is i think half the potential of blogs are in the comments section... discussion and stuff... otherwise i'l carry on under whatever narrow minded view im onto... OK, its mainly an ego thing ..... but so what?! :)

vbk-point taken... couldnt agree wid you more... but they do need a chance thats as equal as ours.. (notice and ponder on the usage of US and THEM)
anyway, how come we dont have the country going to the streets in revolt of capitation fee? (a question put forward to me by my school history teacher)

and abbhhu!!!- its got a sting to it, but i will not take offence... as in a recent post i mentioned, its mostly blogging for the sake of blogging. though i didnt think much of the bus thing... thought it was pretentiously written, and felt slightly embarassed that i got lot of comments.. but what the fuck! as long as there's a churning... thats what matters innit? and as a counter offence (i didnt take any, but have to offer back), i liked your post picking scabs best.... actually, i think you'v sustained your style of writing in all (nicely)... i liked that one in particular cos there was -to sound like i've no sound of my own- so much of yourself in it...

 
At 3:56 AM , Blogger karthik said...

WAIT WAIT!!! ABBHU!!! I DIDNT MEAN TO SAY THAT ABOUT THE BUS POST MAN!! I REALLY LIKED IT!! in fact i joined the blank noise blog jus to advertise my responses to gender as expressed in it... your absolutely right! never felt too great after that..

 
At 4:44 AM , Blogger Abhinav said...

thanx for the compliment.. it really means something to me that someone actually read my post fully as opposed to just scanning it and commenting so that i would in turn comment on theirs (i confess i often do that too)
i'm surprised u felt the bus one was pretentious... i thought it was so the opposite.. i thought it was absolutely honest, and i could so picture you telling that story to a bunch of us over a glass of beer.. at the risk of getting super offensive, are u like a little more conscious that people are reading yr blog now?
ok ok dont hit me! i'll go away!

 
At 2:55 AM , Blogger smoke said...

WIACCY=Written in a country church-yard. Er... that IS the poem you've quoted, isn't it? As for the comment thing, i get what you mean. It's the same with every blogger, I would think. Just that most of the time, when I read your blog, I don't know what to say. And that's a compliment! But I shall comment regularly from now on to show my solidarity and support. :D

 
At 3:36 AM , Blogger Roshan George said...

Very nice quote, Kari, that poem has a nice ring to it. Forgive my philistine-ness if I'm not appreciating it well enough.

About reservation:
As other people have pointed out, reservation without proper primary and secondary education for all doesn't achieve its intended purpose at all. I'm for reservation as a short-term solution, but I want the government to stop buying MiGs and Gorshkovs and concentrate on education and social justice while the reservation thing is there.

After all, the goal is equality, and treating the disease instead of the symptoms should work better.

I've used "treating the disease..." some 7 times in the last week, which is a bad thing.

Teesh mi inglishh pleez! :)

 
At 4:59 AM , Blogger karthik said...

abbhu!!! i in fact noticed once before that whenever you had a new post you'd come and comment... hehe.... anyway, im definitely more conscious... thats why i hink i'v resumed writing in my deep dark and secret journal again after ages...

jan!!! "most of the time when i read you blog"? shit im jus so glad someone's actually reading... on the one hand knowing that wouldv encouraged me like nothing els can... but on the other hand, as abbhu mentions, it might make one conscious...
im real bad wid puzzles... not much of a lateral thinker... or perhaps too much on a tangent... yes that is the poem.. heh..

roshan!!! how you been man? hows the hols? crazy heat its been huh? the moment they started laying the road outside my house, it started raining! theres a joker in heaven if there is a heaven... i agree wid you... but i doubt it'l be too long before another major war or somn erupts and everyone starts dying and things like education starts to lose meaning.... india is well prepared that way.... sigh....
dud, since your a science student, i wanna ask you, do animals masturbate?! its a huge part of a puzzle im attempting to piece together... iv jus cornered myself on my comments ...

 
At 9:45 AM , Blogger smoke said...

I know that question wasn't directed at me, but I can't help answering. What can I say, I'm a bit of a know-it-all! =D

See this wiki

 
At 11:06 AM , Blogger The Used said...

new title fer blog??why??

 
At 12:17 AM , Blogger Abhinav said...

i dont do that with yours, boy, i'm always looking out for some really good writing here :)

 
At 9:01 AM , Blogger karthik said...

jan!! hey that was a super educative link! wiki's too much innit? i wonder if homosexual animals get ostracized by others of their species... that'd be something... i believe that humans have reached a totally new level where they can let the mind dominate... therefore to those who believe that apocalypse is something meant-to-be, i believe that an effort to stop it wouldnt be too misplaced...

the used!!! i jus thought the mallu fruit shop theme thing was bit misplaced with all the template changes...

abbhhu!! awwwww!! i lowe you too!! :)

 
At 12:32 AM , Blogger smoke said...

You mean the apocalypse is a myth?! *faints*

 
At 6:21 AM , Blogger karthik said...

yep it is! and dont pass out on blog for godsakes!!

 
At 11:47 PM , Blogger smoke said...

Oops... Sorry. Couldn't help it. You'd pass out on blogs too if your strongest beliefs were refuted! :P

 
At 1:16 AM , Blogger karthik said...

dont worry, ultimately, like the conclusion drawn from all the bubbles, "whatever works" ... one of the interpretations of murphy's law says if enough reserch is done, any argument can be proved...

so im gna blow myself some bubbles... and you'r most welcome to blow yours

 
At 5:24 AM , Blogger Abhinav said...

eternal flunky,
you so missed yr queue... you were supposed to catch her in your arms etc. when she fainted.
awwww... you kids are soooooo cute.

 
At 5:25 AM , Blogger Abhinav said...

queue? cue i mean.

 
At 7:54 PM , Blogger Varun B. Krishnan said...

flunky thalai... pa look where the comment topics are taking us.. from pro/anti reservation to masturbating animals to debating on whether the apocalypse is to come and all.

go on.. this just got more amusing.

 
At 10:57 PM , Blogger smoke said...

Flunky,

You just burst my bubble, now I have to go through all that work to make another! Grr! But since I'm such an ardent disciple of Murphy, I shall persist. The great philosopher couldn't have been wrong after all. But then, by his own admission, everything that can go wrong, will. So... am a little confused here! >:[

Abhinav,

"Kids"? And worse, "cute"?! I repeat, grrrrrr!

 
At 3:56 AM , Blogger Abhinav said...

sorry, but as a grizzled veteran, i'm totally enjoying watching this blog flirting thing...
eternal,
u ought to be grateful to me for getting the concept started.

 
At 8:59 AM , Blogger karthik said...

flunky clears his throat.
flunky blows himself a super huge bubble and floats to some distant planet.

abhu, watch your grizzly 'fore you get mobbed.

vbk, yes all conversations amuse me for the same reason... where they'r headed..

and jan, nothin so easy as blowin bubbles.... its burstin em thats the problem, i think....

and flunky wraps up this comments section to write a new post on what blogging stands for if it stands at all..

 
At 10:46 AM , Blogger karthik said...

flunky gets his foot out of mouth...
concept started?

 
At 11:10 PM , Blogger Abhinav said...

LOL!

 
At 2:47 AM , Blogger smoke said...

abinav, "blog flirting"? Right, thanks for pointing it out, grandpa! I'm sure you're very happy with yourself.

Flunky, I'll stop here since you've already wrapped up the comments.

 
At 12:43 AM , Blogger Abhinav said...

its odd the number of ppl who call me grandpa. do i lord my age around so much?

 

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