Why SC/SCT/OBC's seats will remain vacant in IITs and IIMs

The quota directive will not be rescinded. This is the latest news from the Ministry of HRD.

As this inevitability sets in, there are broken hearts among many students and alumni of the institutes affected. The broken hearts belong to those who burned the midnight oil to get into these institutions, where they learned the laws of honorable meritocracy, and look back fondly at their time spent in the company of smart people. All this is set to change next year.
However, there is a glimmer of hope in the otherwise despondent situation. In the first one or two years we might see a surfeit of SC/STs and OBC people in these institutions. but in years to come I believe most of these seats reserved for this class will remain vacant. In fact, this is also the case today - most reserved seats remain vacant - but that fact is left unacknowledged by the vote bank centric politicians of our country because it mercilessly pulverizes their illogic of reservations in academia.

I am reminded of two classmates of mine. Both displayed a low key behaviour, which had nothing to do with being an introvert. For the longest time I was not aware of their 'class' status - They never told me, I never asked them, in fact the question itself never arose in my mind. It was over time, and in their conscious efforts to stay isolated, in their refrain to participate in the bond-building conversations over tea or while lazing around in the TV room that it became self-evident that they consciously stayed away. As18 yr olds, no one I knew cared about acknowledging such class differences, unless, as I realized, you were an SC/ST yourself. Their behavior was clearly governed by their self-awareness of the manner in which they wringed their way into IIT. I later began to realised that it was, perhaps, their acknowledgment of who they are that mocked at them.

The tragedy of it all was this : both these students were from well to do families...sons of fathers in powerful posts in Government Organisations. Yet they usurped the coveted seats at IIT through the reservation that is otherwise meant for people who are economically backward. In doing so they had maligned exactly that which the reservation policy, ostensibly, is meant to honor - their own caste.

So the only glimmer of hope stems from this awareness of their caste, which dwells in the hearts of many SC/STs and OBCs who come from well to do families. I trust, as a human being above all caste, that no one wishes to spend 4 years of possibly the best phase of ones life in a state of low self-esteem. Any SC/ST or OBC who respects himself enough, would settle for an education in a college where s/he can learn and interact with peers with his/her head held high. They would be better off living as dignified individuals, than be known as a class of people who grovelled for space and hijacked an education. There is more to life than a college tag, and it may not be worth surrendering ones individual identity to ones caste identity. It is this sensibility that might encourage SC-ST-OBC students to choose NOT to take admissions in these institutes, thereby leaving reserved seats vacant and awarding adequate breathing space to meritocracy.

Past experience shows that there has been no great assimilation of Reserved Category students and General Category students, and it is certainly not going to get any better when you push the deserving students further into the corner. Many SC/ST and OBCs are made aware of a strong 'us-and-them' divide, not by the General Category students, but by their own conscience that knows they dont deserve to be there. Little does the innocence of 17 yr old boys and girls of the SC/ST/OBC category, who are promised dreams of an easier admissions to an IIT or AIIMS, know that their individuality and self-esteem are being held to ransom by parochial and petty politicians. Let this be known to them that there was no 'great historical unjustice' meted out towards them or their parents in my living memory, or by General Category student I have known. This is certainly true for those whose parents are already earning well. So please dont feed on unearned education by pushing unwarranted guilt down the throats of general category students.

To those 17 yr olds I have a modicum of unsolicited advice: Take refuge in your aptitude, not your caste. Discover achievement in Learning, not in wriggling into an institution. Find thrill in unleashing your own potential, not in basking in the reflected glory of others.

Thats the only way we will become equal - if at all we already are not.

Nishant Pandey
Class of '98
August 2006

Technology, and the Pursuit of Happiness

How strongly is the most visible perception of technology linked with the pursuit of happiness?


The Pursuit of Happiness has been one of the principles of American polity, economy and society. America has also been, in the last 2 centuries, the worlds powerhouse of technological and scientific advances. So it is not, atleast in this age of assembly-line produced devices for mass consumption, too unforgivable to link the two – Technological Advancement and the Pursuit of Happiness. Not surprisingly, that’s what the moguls of media and the architects of modern technology would like us to believe as well. After all it’s the pursuit of happiness by the sundry populace that helps those moguls expand markets, penetrate new frontiers, achieve economies of scale, improve productivity, and bolster their bottom-line.

While one corporation promises to ‘Connect People’ in this global village, the other urges you to ‘Imagine the Possibilities’, yet another tells you to ‘Think’. Every month they introduce us to shiny new gadgets made out of polymers, metal and silicon to entice us into jumping into the bandwagon of technological advancement, and ostensibly on the road towards a closer, more efficient world of happier people.

But is that really happening? How strong is the link between whats widely perceived as 'Technological Advancement' and the individual or collective Pursuit of Happiness?

The world income grew 2.5 percent annually in the 90’s as the east European and Asian economies opened up, a period coinciding with the emergence of the ‘Information Technology revolution’. At the same time 100 million, and that’s 100,000,000, more people sank below the poverty line – largely in the developing world.

Last month, the worlds richest man Bill Gates and the figurehead of Technological progress in India, Mr Narayan Murthy met for a tete-a-tete in a media infested event. And they talked about how in decades to come the world will change because the way people listen to music will change. Technology? Music? Changed world? Am I getting it right? Its surprising that that is whats uppermost in the minds of the people who are regarded as authorities on ‘technology’:Music.

Most of what makes news in the name of technology are the highly graphic computer games, sleeker instruments emanating music, more compact ways to surf the internet – in one word, entertainment. Technology has found a new expression- Gadgets. But this is merely Infotainment, a small subset of ‘Technology’.

To perceive the constant eruption of over-rated tools of Infotainment as ‘technology’ renders gross disservice to the wider purview of all that Technology stands for – materialisation of a technique that reduces human effort in a given task, any task. Technology comes just as well dressed in greased coveralls, and not necessarily in a business suit. The music of technology could just as well be the clanking of a drive shaft, not necessarily the remixes in an iPod. The home of technology can just as well be the rural, not necessarily the urban. It can be basic, it need not be esoteric. It can be applied in the farms, the fields, in the dust and grime where the genesis of all things – food – is cultivated. The users of technology can be as rooted to their land as the subjects of their labor, not necessarily be the jet-setting global nomads we see brandishing gadgets on flashy billboards.

In other words, the community dam made with ingenuity, albeit with simple resources, in 'Swades' should have dazzled us all as much as the sci-fi effects we see on 'The Matrix'.

When we begin to discriminate between technology as it truly is, and its most visible and popular avatar – infotainment, then we can begin to respect more diverse professions and occupations, over and beyond the glorified IT consultants and awed computer geeks. Technology that is applied to the most fundamental of human endeavors, and envelops the maximum, is the technology that can truly be a tool for the pursuit of Happiness. Infotainment, which nowadays passes of as technology, is merely the new opium for the masses.

Nishant Pandey (Jan 2006)

The Time of My Life....

My only travelogue....

Venue: State of Victoria, Australia
Date :August 21st 1999
... Driving through the majestic Australian countryside...

I pressed the key, "beep" it went, and the car unlocked. I sat on the leather seats, gripped the soft steering wheel, and revved her up.I drove lazily to the edge of the small, idyllic town I was living in. I approached the roundabout at the end of town..... there I found myself at crossroads - wondered which way I should go - head east or head south? To my East was Melbourne, to my South was Wilsons Promontory. Australia would be beautiful either way. I had a full day ahead of me to go exploring.

On an impulse, I took the left turn and hoped that the roadsigns will lead me somewhere. Wilsons promontry was very far off...maybe I wouldnt be able to drive that much. Afterall, I never had gone so far off on my own in a foreign country...but I hoped it would be a good ride, so I went on...and on...and on...

As I careened on the smooth highways, and settled down on my speed, I slid my favorite spanish Flamenco guitar CD into the player. In no time, the mellifluous melody of the guitar began to match in beauty with the sceneries I was gradually immersing myself in. I zipped away on smooth, gently curving, long, lonely highways of south eastern Australia, at speeds of over 100 kmph, with foot tapping guitar keeping my tempo up and convincing me that the guitarist was divinely endowed...
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The highways in Australia are more humane as compared to those in the US. For instance, I saw just a few cars pass me by every hour; and where the road shoulder ends, the grass blades began immediately....and turned into never ending green pastures. There is lesser human footprint, if you know what I mean. You see plenty of sheep grazing lazily on those pastures, and many a fancy village/cottage homes with hay stacked on the outside (just like you see in postcards). The neighbours are miles apart. Who lives here? I wondered. How peaceful would they be? I thought, as I cruised on those highways....and breezed past little homes that seemed as much a part of the beautiful earth as the trees next to them.

Far ahead I saw a break...there was a dirt road ahead to my left, and my contemplation took a little break. I thought for a second, then I swerved off the highway, got on the dirt road. I thanked myself for buying the insurance for the car.There were no speed limit signs here. I pressed on the gas, and I kept speeding up until I saw my car leaving a continuous cloud of dust behind. I passed by little ponds on the sides, undulating fields, omnipresent sheep, and some homes that were like nests in the forests...forests that extended to my left annd right for miles away. Strangely, there was not a soul in sight even at noon time - not one! After my having m fill of adrenalin, I stopped the car, switched off the music, got out and took a deep breath to take it all in. There was silence - besides the whisper of the breeze, the silence of nature was defeaning. I gazed ahead....I couldnt see the end of the straight road...it went straight on like an arrow. After another deep breath, I got back into the car and chased the arrow -like an arrow....as fast as I could. I was aware of only three things - The divine landscape, the music and my state of bliss.

Anyhow, a couple of hours later I reached Wilsons promontory, a national park at the southern most tip of Australia. The terrain here was different. Now I was driving on curvaceous, mountainous roads...with the mountains to my right, a hauntingly mysterious ocean to the left and a benign, sunny sky above me. The drive was a roller coaster ride - I never knew what sight would leave me breathless when I got over the next hump or the turn ahead. Being contained in a car was now getting too constraining for an experience that made me want to explode with delight. By this time, the guitar was strumming away in resonance with my thoughts, and pumping my adrenalin.

While returning from Wilsons Promontry, it was getting dark. However, I shed the comfort of taking the known route, instead took a different route than the one I came from. I think I really wanted to get lost, and not be able to go home. I was greeted with a valley like terrain this time, more dangerous turns, higher mountains, and gorgeous sunset views.I pulled over, stood at the edge of the road and became one with the green, deep valleys I was navigating through..and bathed in the sunset. I stood there for ten minutes, watching the sun go down....there was not a soul in sight for miles on end, and not a single car passed me by either. I was all alone, but not lonely at all. The divinity of creation filled up every element of my consiousness.

I did find my way back home eventually, and I passed by many typical australian small towns, that end as soon as they begin as you drive through them. I also went through one that was named Lucknow. As I approached my home again, I had clocked 650 kilometers that day,and was filled with a sense of fulfillment, a feeling of gratitude for being alive. It was, and todate has been, a peerless experience.

There are so many other moments of the trip I didnt share here, both for lack of words, and a lack of time - such as about the little kids I observed while they were fishing in the lake in their town, the painter I met by the side of the river I stopped by, the Canadian I met on top of the mountain I hiked atop in Wilsons Promontory, and so many more stops I made - all in that one day....so many moments that even today I feel blessed to have experienced. Maybe some day Ill write them down too..

That trip was the best birthday gift I have ever given to myself.

Nishant Pandey (July 2003)

The Incredible Poetry of a Cellphone

A real life conversation....

"Your cellphone is outdated, why don't you change it" my friend mocked.

I gazed at the compact 2 inch by 5 inch plastic gadget in my hand and wondered, 'If someone had shown me this little toy ten years ago and told me , "This is a magical box, when you punch in a sequence of numbers on it, you can talk to anyone you want anywhere in the world", would I have believed it?'

Think about the magic in all of it - when you call someone in the US, your voice goes through your microphone to an analog-digital converter along the way, and every word, tone, emotion you utter is converted into electronic voltages of '0' s and '1's. An encoder turns these voltages to electromagnetic waves, and these waves that amazingly need no medium to flow, zip through your transmitter antenna at the speed of light, seek the receiving tower, and latch themselves onto the massive stream of data channelized towards the Indian satellite in space. This sattelite instantaeously establishes a connection with the US satellite, and each electromagnetic wave of the thousands of conversations happening every second is beamed in a blitz from the sattelite to precisely the correct tower in an American city of its destination' frfom where it is then deflected to one specific instrument - out of the millions possible - identified by the number you punched into your phone! The signal then follows a near exact de-coding process through the receivers, microchips, nano-circuits, and digital-analog converter inside that other instrument of a completely different make - so that the voltage blips of '0's and '1's are streamed into its speaker in the form of sound again. And in less than a second, the other person hears what you just said!

As a vivid imagery of this approximate process plays in my mind, it dawns upon me how mind boggling it all is. It's the interplay of such remarkable, inexplicable features of Nature, and our creative conquest of them through science, that brings this poetry of technology to us, the common man. And we commoditize this marvelous poetry, make a status-symbol of it, and sometimes reduce it to a materialistic fodder for our egos.

I shifted my gaze to my friend, "I am yet to get over the incredulity of holding this instrument in the palm of my hand, and you are telling me its outdated"?

Nishant Pandey (Jan 2005)

Mandal II – Taking the fire out of the IITs and IIMs

When you rub two stones against one another, sparks fly. But the two stones should be equally hard - if one of them is soft, the sparks won't fly. Even Early Man knew this. But our honorable Minister of HRD, Mr Arjun Singh seems unaware of this basic idea.

What makes any educational institute an accomplished one? Quite obviously, it's the students, the faculty and the facilities - be it in the IITs, the IIMs or the celebrated Western Universities. However, the dissemination by the best faculty and the availability of the finest facilities would be rendered underutilized and ineffective if the students are not receptive to these privileges. The faculty and the facilities are the dormant power of any institution – it's the students who make that power active.

In effect, this answers the question that follows – Does an Institute make its students brilliant by the very virtue of their studying there, or is it the brilliance of the students that creates the stature of an Institute? For reasons stated above, I remain in no doubt that it is the latter.

For those who might disagree, they only have to listen to the testimonies of those who have studied in IIT or IIM or a top engineering or business school anywhere in the world. Invariably, it is the interaction with, and competition from, the classmates that gives the critical superlative edge to the education of every student in such institutes. It is what the students learn from their classmates, through cooperation and contest, which makes each better.The institute is a mere a framework to enable that.

It is imperative to add here that the ability for academic excellence in the students who graduate from the IITs and IIMs is not 'inculcated' into them during their tenure in the institutes. It is only 'cultivated' - they were armed with that ability even before they entered the institute, and the proof is simple: They cracked the JEE or the CAT. That's precisely what entrance exams are designed to do –to identify the diamonds in the rough. In effect, the JEE and the CAT are not merely a selection criteria - they are the single most critical factors in shaping the destinies of the IITs and IIMs – arguably more significant than the research work, facilities, faculty or any other element contributing to the reputation of these institutes.

Implementation of Mandal-II will mean that half of the future students of these institutes will bypass this single most critical factor. In the process, undermining the very foundation the excellence of these institutions stands upon.

The repercussions on the quality of education are not difficult to predict: the greater the number of reserved students, feebler would be the cooperation, and less vigorous the contest among the student community. Simply because the number of high competency individuals per institute resource is reduced. And at 49% reservations, the dynamics of cooperation-and-contest gets compromised beyond the tipping point.

It is equally vital to consider the impact 49% reservations will have on the other essential component of education at the IITs (and to a relatively less extent, in the IIMs, since they have a shorter and more academically intense tenure) - extra curricular activities. Most students who enter the institutes via reservations have a comparatively harder time coping up with the academic schedules and the competition, leaving them little time to invest in sports and cultural activities. Many general category students, on the other hand, do not face this dilemma and go on to have thriving and enriching experiences outside of the classroom. So what happens to these activities when half the students are busy playing catch-up with academics? The sports teams might never get filled up, the stage might be left in want of actors, and the dais would have fewer takers – just because there would not enough students who would be willing to carve out enough time for such activities. The loss, though unquantifiable, will be palpable.

This will be the second, but underestimated, consequence of Mandal-II.

The status of IIT or IIM is not the cause for quality education, it's an effect. The real cause is the diverse abilities and the quality of those who populate these institutes. You take away the cause, and the effect will lose its sheen: much like killing the goose that lay the golden eggs. For much of what has been written above about reserved category students, surely there are exceptions – I know many of them.

Yet statistically, for reasons mentioned above, the 49% reservations will benefit no one – neither the institutes, nor the general category students, nor, ironically, even the reserved category students.

It will end up being a collective loss. And the sparks will refuse to fly.


Nishant Pandey
Class of '98
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi