MEGA COURSE GIGA FUN TERA SMILES

Deewar – A Salim Javed classic(1975) -A wall that had separated 2 brothers. As the wall grew bigger in their minds so did Vijay’s acerbity towards injustice. But Ravi didn’t have to go through the torture of reading “Tera baap chor hai” ( Your dad is a thief ) that was tattooed by the villagers(for whom his dad stood for) .He was ready to accept his fate the system chose to bestow on him. Vijay had rage in his eyes and scant respect for a society filled with corruption that made him revolutionary and meet a tragic fate at hands of his own brother. But the one who cried her lungs out as the society plundered her was the mother. She was pained at the fact that the younger son had to kill the elder one but was more pained seeing the tattoo on Vijay’s hand over years.
Today as I look at the agitation among people on the quota issue I see a wall that is built to divide 2 brothers who also want to sweat for their nation, represent the growing India undivided and equivocal, demanding equal opportunity . Politicians have cunningly managed to divide them. In a way they have managed to tattoo “You are an OBC” to which more and more of the pro reservation group are gleefully folding their sleeves and lining up. We are still waiting for a stroke of lightning to fix it. We want to wake up one fine morning to see that old nemesis vanish, much like a bad dream. It is that side of Indian past that we sometimes wish had a less controversial method. The caste system is our own version of Deewar that we as Indians have to bring it down – but this time around no mother has to shed tears over her dead child who chose to revolt by choosing to sacrifice their young lives.
Somewhat surprisingly though, this has to be fought by “us” alone. Politicians are going to make every effort to raise this wall and pretend playing deaf to the screaming voices of “Eradicate casteism”.The sticky issue for politicians is that no single party can go against reservations. The stakes are too high, as the OBC/SC/ST also represents the Hindu vote bank that many political party’s are trying to secure. Today the Congress doesn’t know which side of the Hindu face is smiling at it come election time. Siding with the quota system, will make sure which ones do. But when a deserving merit student is acrimoniously reminded of the tattoo by an equally deserving sibling, we would have once again lost our right to equality. The choice is ours.

Ananth Shankar