Fate of Norns Bass

Intro to Amon Amarth's 'Fate of Norns'.

The Drapery Falls Bass

Intro to Opeth's 'The Drapery Falls'.

Protest Idea

Just thought of this interesting new way to protest the reservation bill. What if all future students marked the 'OBC' column in their application forms? It should be fairly simple to obtain appropriate documents, albiet illegally. Maybe they can even change their caste? Surely the government cannot have a say in conversion, since that interferes with personal choice. I know this is not a really practical idea, but am intrigued as to what the government can do to counter it if it is done en masse.

My Own Reservations

The proposal for increased reservations in higher education institutions including IITs is causing much furore in India. Thousands of medical students have gone on various forms of strike causing much hardship to patients. This begs a discussion on the topic of reservation.

What is the supposed intent of reservation? It is meant to help groups that have suffered historically and provide them with opportunities to make a living. My contention is this: if a person has had enough opportunities to be at the doorstep for higher education, he/she is equipped enough to further his/her own cause without further help from the government!

To help the most backward parts of society, one must try reservations at the lowest levels i.e. primary and secondary schools. The cost of one semester of college is somewhere around Rs. 20000 which may be used to educate another child for 3-4 yrs of primary schooling (possibly more). Therefore at the cost of 8 semesters, around 8 children may be provided primary schooling. This is not only good for the society as such, it will also be a more popular policy, garnering more votes!

Reservation at higher education institutions is flawed both as a benevolent and populist policy. Ofcourse, it may be my own biases talking here. Somebody who has suffered through his entire life may feel that this could be a blessing for his progenies. So how do we resolve this? With the advent of electronic polling, it may be feasible to seek "actual" public opinion on such contentious issues. It would be interesting to see what the actual voting population thinks. While voting for the state/central elections once in 4 years, the population could be asked to vote on such issues. This will ensure that a few individuals don't hijack the Indian public.

South Park goes after censorship

Last night's episode of South Park dared to poke fun at Prophet Muhammed.. well.. not directly. Read about it here.
It was quite bold and intelligent. It used the 'Family Guy' to do the actual jokes! Even the most religious fanatic will have trouble pin-pointing the "infidel" here :)
So, should TV shows and the like be allowed to make fun of religious symbols?
In my humble opinion, most definitely! It is a cartoon for god's sake. There is an 'off' button for those who find this inappropriate.

ABC's 'Extreme' exploitation

Read this article recently. For those of you too lazy to follow the link, it's about the reality show "Extreme Makeover:Home Edition" on ABC. To quote the article:

"Families featured on the program have their often ramshackle homes renovated for free by a platoon headed by handyman/heartthrob Ty Pennington."

The article cites an internal memo from one of the show's executives that compiles a wish-list of ailing people for the upcoming season. I encourage you to read it as it is guaranteed to produce a strong response.

After a minute of feeling outraged, I started wondering if it is justified. It was always a commercial venture. There are bound to be such internal communications. The inevitability of the situation, in my case, mitigated the outrage.

This article also has a strong connection with one earlier article on whether the motivation for an action must be separated from the act to judge it.

Post in your comments on this one, preferably 5 mins after reading the article :)

Mallu Metal

Found this video by a mallu band called 'Avial' :) Pretty cool song. The mallus have shown their metal....