How would you like to be prejudiced ?

George Aiken said, "If we were up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon". Although I strongly protest against any kind of reservation but my purpose is beyond making anti-reservation protests such as one against hike in OBC quota percentage. Ironically education can never uproot prejudice from peoples' minds and will remain in some form or other in every society any time. I want to emphasize on two points - a) upliftment through scholarships and not quota; and b) mitigation of curse against prejudices. My attempt here is to identify some prevailing prejudices and propose some solutions to mitigate the curses of prejudices.

Classical 4-tier hierarchy: Indian Hindu society had been categorized into 4 classes -- Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra centuries ago. There are several sub-categories (among Bengalies such as Kayastha, Namasudra, Tantubai etc). Brahmin somehow were considered better species to be treated as middle-men to God. Even in 21st century people take pride in claiming themselves as Brahmin by caste. Kshatriyas are supposed to be descendants of Royal clans. Vaishya used to be businessmen by profession and Sudras were indulged in lowly jobs such as janitor, cobbler etc. This divisions in society were further intensified during British rule. Today the division is somewhat blurry due to modernization, education etc. Such unjustified hierarchy persuaded me to prefer Chinese system -- one language, one main religion, same physiology. Democracy and diversity is too chaotic.

There is no significant perceived dichotomy at this level of classification unless one is trying to marry a Brahmin because Brahmins will not usually agree to such proposals. Here is my consolation to those affected by this discrimination: Brahmins girls/guys are just human beings, one is better off not marrying a Brahmin bride/groom if the bone of contention is caste incompatibility. I am in favor of conversion to other religion such as Islam, Christianity or Buddhism. Religion is anyway based on beliefs and faith. We need visionary ministers like Akbar who had started a new religion (Din-Ilahi) by borrowing good points of all religions. Goverment must scrap out any reservation system followin which any caste-system discrimination won't hold much water.

Backward classes (SC/ST/OBC/MBC): It is a further sub-division of the above classification and encompasses the lower 3 castes from the above hierarchy. Dr. B.R. Amderkar who himself was a Dalit but highly distinguished scholar had envisioned that so-called lower castes should be uplifted through reservation (somehow our leaders were always prone to overlook future and make mistakes). He participated in reforming Indian Constitution and championed constitutional safeguards for untouchables. Why didn't he introduce scholarship system in primary schools ? I would rather give credit to Indian nuclear scientist Meghnad Saha who had tried that status for certain backward classes be uplifted to general class. There is a negative connotation attached to any categorization. The quota system does not help in boosting the self-esteem of the privileged classes rather it makes them subject to de-recognition and deliberate insult. To mitigate any differences, my suggestions are directed as follows:

a) I read furious comments, hiked OBC quota will dilute the standards of the institutions; no one will approach a doctor who got admission through reservations. No single individual has strength to fight against social injustice unless you are Nelson Mandela or son of rich parents like Ambedkar. In that case, people from backward classes should escape from such a system. An MBBS student who feels uncomfortable after graduation should go abroad -- US, China, Australia, Russia, UK, Canada etc and pursue higher degrees and prove themselves. They should however continue to try to uplift people belonging to their classes.

b) People in India are highly sensitive to caste compatibility to an illogical extent. People belonging to reserved classes find it extremely difficult to marry to people belonging to so called general castes. I think they should try to marry non-Indians, someone from different ethnic groups. There is a misconception that only Indian girls(guys) can make good wives(husbands). Get inspired by our ex-President K.R. Narayan. Anyways, Pakistani, Spanish, Blondes, French girls are quite beautiful and worthy.

c) Become a world citizen and find a place where there is no prejudice or de-recognition based on caste.

d) Escapism may not be pragmatic; then they should draw strength and confidence from the example of Karna in Mahabharata. Karna was raised by parents belonging to lower caste and he refused to be known as son of Kunti who belonged to upper caste. He was confident of his talent and perhaps was more talented than any of his Pandava brothers.

Whites and Blacks: People think that it is a curse to be born as black and Africa is an abandoned land. I cannot quantify which one is more heinous -- being born as a black (african) or as a (SC/ST/OBC/MBC) category person. However, I support both Michael Jackson and Oprah Winfrey. Every person has right to do to whatever makes him/her comfortable as long as it does not affect others. I think those non-black people who ascribe Jackson as racist are biggest hypocrites. Will they ever marry black individuals or let their kids do that ? Today we may give example of Denzel Washington, Oprah or Martin Luther King but not everyone can be so. Since Black people are physically well-built they should try to excel in sports or entertainment business and that can compensate for the fact that they are black to some extent. Plastic-surgery to change ones looks is acceptable to me. I hope with progress in bio-technology, soon the Black parents will be able to choose non-black features for their kids.

IITians, RECians, BITians: This is again a major concern in India. People take failure to make it through IIT JEE as an end of the world. Come on, we don't need a society where everyone is an IIT graduate and it is not a sacrosanct litmust test for any talent of anyone.

It is much better to be expert in something than being an average IIT BTech software techy. Read the book, Godel, Esher and Bach. I consider Godel (computer scientist), Esher(painter) and Bach (pianist) all as geniuses. Indian society/parents should stop compartmentalizing our society. We need an education system as in US where all streams of education are equally valued. We need more of people like the Chairman of Infosys, Narayanmurthy to make a difference without having an IIT BTech degree. Learn from Laxmi Mittal was a B.Com graduate from St. Xaviers, Kolkata. How many aeronautical engineers from IITs have made it to the NASA space missions ? How many IITians have gotten Turing Awards or Nobel Prizes in the last few decades ? Are IITs producing technological soldiers (say for Microsoft) or technological leaders who can set trends ?

As criticized by a Greek friend, "This system of yours in India is hurting creativity". Another Spanish friend said, "Its pity you don't have a good soccer team with more than 1 billion population in the country".

Gay, Lesbian and Bi-sexual: Parents freak out on discovering that their kids are not straight. If two individuals are spiritually connected, let them be marital partners. If men are scared of Gays, they should realize how painful it is for women to get raped !!

We don't need labels in our society. Referring back to first two grave prejudices, I cannot emphasize less that it is your responsibility to cast your vote to elect politicians who don't pass bills to increase quota. Support parties like Lok Paritran (at least through donations) than posting F-words against politicians and backward classes on mailing lists which is no better than "shouting in void". Arjun Singh is a rubber-stamp. Such decisions must be definitely taken in consultation with PM, Sonia Gandhi, numerous IAS officers and Secretaries. Then there are MPs belonging to backward classes. Politicians do realize that such quota is system not going to affect them while their political careers are at stake if they don't show favoritism. Computer and Electrical Engineering is easy but Social Engineering is not !