Problem: Mayawati, proclaimed as Dalit’s ‘Czarina’ has been supporting Railway Blockades in her state by Jats wanting inclusion in reservation quotas. This has lead to thousands of people if not more not reaching home in time for Holi. What’s more, Mayawati’s government has repeatedly refused to evict these protesters on requests from the Railways.

My view: The Jats can not be blamed, they are led by some of their opportunistic leaders into this, maybe even paid by the day to be a part of the protest. But the actions, or the lack of them on behalf of the Uttar Pradesh Government can not be forgiven. This is a blatant display of misuse of the power of state machinery to nurture a particular vote bank. Mayawati and people of her breed (I refuse to call her a human) should be fired from her job, banned from public life and sent to guantanamo bay.

Problem: Corruption in central government. CWG, Adarsh, 2G, blah blah blah. We all know the bullshit. Surprisingly after the wikileaks on government buying MPs for the Indo-US Nuclear deal’s trust vote, our honourable (yeah this is sarcasm, no one in our government is honourable) has refused to discuss this in the Lok Sabha saying the problems of UPA-1 can not be discussed in UPA-2.

My View: To all of you ministers, babus and the likes, enjoy your power and cash while it lasts, the day something like Libya/Egypt happens in India, *censored*.

–More to come–

2. There was not too much of 3-D, and the glasses that we got were shitty.

3. The storyline doesn’t arouse too much interest (and it is very similar to Final Destination 3 from what I’ve been told).

4. The effects apart from the 3-D ones were awesome.

Overall I’d rate it 2.5/5, but still a mustwatch

NEW DELHI: After the Union Cabinet cleared 50% reservation for women in panchayats, the government is considering a proposal that will make every second member of India’s municipalities female as well.

The urban development ministry is fast tracking the proposal to increase reservation for women to 50% in urban local bodies. Even though the Centre is finding it tough to move on 33% quota for women in Parliament and state legislatures, quotas in urban bodies look much more doable.

The move would help Congress to argue that even though managing the political opposition to women’s reservation in Parliament was not an easy task, its record on quotas at the grassroots level indicates that its commitment went beyond lip service. It has shown this by increasing reservation for women from one-third to 50% at the panchayat level.

The urban development ministry has started consultations with state governments, aiming to place the constitutional amendment bill to reserve 50% seats for women in urban local bodies in the winter session of Parliament. UD secretary M Ramachandran confirmed the move when he told TOI, “The ministry is speaking to the states for increasing reservation limits for women in urban bodies.”

The 74th amendment to the Constitution in 1992 during P V Narasimha Rao’s tenure as PM served as a major breakthrough towards ensuring women’s equal access and increased participation in local government. The move was mooted by Rajiv Gandhi who first spoke of specific measures to empower women at the grassroots.

Article 243 (T) of this amendment provides for one-third reservation in elected seats for women in urban local bodies. There is also one-third reservation for women in posts of chairpersons of these local bodies.

The move is of great significance since further increase in grassroot level participation will broaden the base of women’s participation in politics at city level.

Three states — Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — already have 50% reservation for women as states have the power to bring in amendments in their laws to increase women’s representation up to 50%. Kerala recently announced 50% reservation for women in urban local bodies along with panchayats.

Phew! Seriously, reservations for women ? The government has really gone bonkers. Weren’t quotas for backwards too much already ? Weren’t we supposed to phase out reservations 10 years after Nehru introduced them (and he would have regretted his decision to bring in quotas if he was alive today).

So, you reserve 50% for women, 30% for backwards (by caste/tribe whatever) and another 15% for local people (I am blogging from Maharashtra so you guys might get what quotas for locals mean). That leaves 5% shit for average commoners like us. Mr Singh, why don’t you just reserve 5% for us ‘normal people’ and give the rest to the ‘inferior’ and the ‘backward’ and the ‘less privileged’.

And yeah, no self respecting girl/woman would ever want a quota, but to those who actually think they deserve quotas “YOU ARE INFERIOR!!!”.

2. The freshers’ party was a success (literally!)

3. Exams from this Monday (aaarghhhhhh!!!)

Apart from this, nothing too exciting. Was squeezed to the maximum by the expenditures, but things on the brighter side now. The subjects in this semester are interesting and challenging (or rather the ones in Semester 1 & 2 were a bit too easy).

2. The rains are amazing.

3. Isn’t it very wild of the professor to give me a presentation on Forest Biosphere ?

4. My college completes 25 years tomorrow, I complete 19 years on 07.08.09

5. India won the ODI Series, but the team doesn’t look either invincible or convincing. They’re rotting in complacency.

6. Its 9:21 AM right now.

So when I came to Delhi, I went to meet the bank manager. Apparently, he didn’t know he is no one to tell me how much I should withdraw at a time. It’s my wish if I want to withdraw 10,000 at one go or I withdraw 200 Rs. 50 times, isn’t it ? But, what I get from the bank manager is “Sir, your account is one of the few we’ve shortlisted and you have an large number of transaction. Please reduce your number of transactions and it’ll benifit both of us”. Perhaps he thought I was a college going idiot so I’ll say Yes Uncle, I’ll withdraw once in 6 months now, but I couldn’t stop myself from asking him if it was a rule made by RBI or HDFC.

And his reply made me laugh at what they call customer service. Apparently, if you use an ATM of another bank, the bank has to pay some charge. To cost-cut this cost, he had ‘shortlisted’ my account, because I generally withdraw from whichever ATM is in sight. A couple of months ago, a friend’s account in HDFC was BLOCKED for similar reasons.

So, the point is HDFC (and maybe other banks too) are playing with the low awareness of people, so if your bank manager ‘reprimands’ you, tell him in his face this is NOT a rule, and the bank has no control over the number of transactions you make, nor do they have a right to restrict it.

P.S. I wonder what these banks do with the more-vulnerable credit card holders.

2. I am in Delhi for semester end break, a third of my vacations is already over watching movies, sleeping and doing nothing.

3. IPL final tomorrow, I want RCB to win (Reason ? I have been to Bangalore but never seen Hyderabad, silly ? Who cares.).

4. This domain expires in a week, have to get it renewed (and pay my phone bill as well, so a strain on my resources).

5. Got a PERFECT screen guard for my PSP, I can keep it anywhere now.

6. My career is going somewhere, if nowhere. I have spent the past year doing something, if nothing like all college going people (where college != IIT).

7. My accounts teacher thinks I am good at it, I think I stand a very good chance of flunking.

8. When I go back, there will be 100 new faces in the college, and 100 old ones would be missing.

9. WHY did Congress win the elections ?

10. Even if (9) had to happen, why is Manmohan SIngh our prime minister ? Why can’t someone young (read: Rahul Gandhi) be the PM ?

(Although I am intelligent, I still can not figure out why others don’t use their brains).

P.S. I have been awake for too many hours now and have been studying this while (yes, studying!!!)… so don’t take any of the above seriously.

P.P.S I still remain intelligent-est… that’s a universal fact.

My landlady promptly opened her window from the first floor and advised to lock the front gate. I am still shocked though, I could have been a target, if that guy was not there, I had my roommate’s laptop (you guys might not know, but my own laptop was stolen last September and it wasn’t even a month old then), my PSP, my wallet and my cellphone, all waiting to be snatched, and the fact that barely 30 seconds ago, I was out on the road to stretch myself doesn’t make me feel too comfortable either!

To be on the safer side, we’ve decided that whenever we use the laptop, the front gate should be locked (NO EXCUSES). I’ve also taken an individual decision that my PSP doesn’t go out of the main gate in the night. I am not too worried about my cellphone though… (it cost just INR 1200 and already has a bad display, so…).