Category: general

I follow author Puja Mehra on twitter. She has written a nice book – The Lost Decade: 2008-2018. She tweeted this recently –

1. Even those from Delhi do it. But when someone from outside Delhi does you presume there is nothing good they know about Delhi.
2. People diss to share their frustration. Not to be told where to live. Just like your tweet is mostly your feeling of annoyance.

— Vatsap? (@amritvatsa) November 15, 2020

Now some of you may instinctively agree with her line of thought. I would like you guys to hold on to your instinct and read my blog with an open mind to understand why we fall for this trap that sounds logical in our head – but is driven more from irritation than logic, and is often the starting point of migrant hatred / fear.

In short what a local ends up saying is – ‘if you have so much of problem, fuck off. Nobody asked you to move in anyway’. Before I explain the problem with this logic, let me share a nice video that I made about Chennai few years ago. A lot of response to this video (you can go read the comment section on Youtube) had a similar problem.

Many who you see speaking in the above video were born and brought up in Chennai itself (including some Tamils). We didn’t mention this fact in the video. And if you don’t watch the whole thing, it may look like (especially to a local Chennaite) that ‘outsiders’ are unnecessarily cribbing about a ‘great’ city and so you will find several comments on the same line – ‘if you have so much of problem, fuck off. Nobody asked you to move in anyway’.

Here’s the logical error with such annoyance / hatred – the presumptuous illusion of choice!

Just because someone has moved to a city does not mean they had the choice to work anywhere in India. Some may have that choice, most don’t! Other than job, many move simply because of marriage. Even data supports this. The thing is, shittiniess / awesomeness of a city is not the most important factor basis which people relocate and for a vast majority, that’s hardly a choice!

Here’s the second problem with such ‘fuck off’ responses – they attack only those who are not originally from the city. If you are from the city, then well, what can they be told – they apparently don’t have a ‘choice’ because they are ‘originally’ from the place. But like really? You can’t move out of Delhi just because you were born in the city? Ask around who have been buying houses after houses in Goa!

Such kind of complaints by locals, sugar-coated with logic, are essentially an expression of annoyance. They might fail the logic-test but they make the person bitching about outsiders complaining about ‘their’ city feel good. But hey, I have a news. That is exactly why anyone complains!

We complain (those of us who do) because complaining often releases stress.

It’s an emotional response to a situation. Of course, if all that we do is complain all the time about everything, then eventually we may get depressed and all that but it is one thing to be reminded of the negative effect of over-complaining and a totally different thing to be told to ‘not complain’ because ‘hey you have a choice’.

I will not blame Puja though. It is extremely easy to fall for this trap and use pseudo-logic to make the comment sensible in one’s head. It often originates from lack of empathy. When you have less empathy to relate to why an outsider complains about the city they have moved to, instead of viewing the situation as a ‘feeling’ response of the person, you end up viewing it as an ‘attack’ on your own identity. And when you feel attacked, you fight back. You tell them to go back to where they came from, or find some other city. The illusion of choice doesn’t feel like illusion at all. Some may view such a nativist rant as benign but there’s a big problem with letting it go unchecked.

When we let this nativist instinct take over, it doesn’t take much for the same argument to gradually move from a passive-aggressive tweet like Puja’s to severe case of hatred – often fueled by politicians who are masters at the art of exploiting the Us Vs. them fear.

Hostility – whether experienced by a group or an individual – stems from the same principles: seeing the adversary as wrong or bad, and the self as right and good. In either case, the aggressor shows the same “thinking disorder”: construing the facts in his favor, exaggerating the supposed transgression, and attributing malice to the opposition.

Aaron T. Beck – Prisoners of Hate

The reality is that, you will find people from Delhi working in Chennai complaining about Chennai and you will also find people from Chennai working in Delhi, complaining about Delhi. People are the same. You will obviously also have many who love their new city. There are just all sorts of people and all of them have the right to exist and be respected without being asked to fuck off (in however polite way) by any dick-acting local.

PS: Puja’s book is pretty nice and insightful – do check it out.

So I saw this update from Akshay Kumar yesterday.

@vishalgondal @nCore_games

— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) September 4, 2020

It took me a while to realize this was a direct (and rather lowbrow) take on the recently banned PUBG.

Govt bans 118 mobile apps, including PUBG: Official statement

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 2, 2020

It took me longer to realize that the image used in AK’s poster was just some stock image (most likely a US soldier?)

I also noticed Akshay Kumar specifically mentioned Vishal Gondal and this is where things get interesting.

Vishal is the founder of GOQii and he had invited me and a bunch of other creators / entrepreneurs to his office once in Mumbai (2018), as part of ‘GOQii fellowship‘. Nothing much happened of the fellowship except I ended up following Vishal and some other fellows on twitter and likewise + I got some freebies; still have the t-shirt, it’s nice.

I was impressed by Vishal.

After selling his former startup, Indiagames to Disney in 2011 for approximately USD 100M, Vishal Gondal founded GOQii, a one on one mobile coaching and fitness tracking service.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOQii

But anyway, that’s that. Since then I did see Akshay Kumar’s face on cover pages of newspapers few times, advertising GOQii. I thought wow, Vishal is really cracking it – he is now able to get Akshay Kumar for his ads!

So when I saw AK tagging Vishal and this company called nCore Games in his FAU-G tweet, I wondered what the connection was. I have now figured it out and it’s interesting.

2015

Fitness Wearable And Coaching Startup GOQii Lands $13.4M Series A From NEA And Cheetah Mobile

Nov 2015, Tech Crunch

Now guess where Cheetah Mobile is based out of? Yes, China!

Gondal says that the addition of Cheetah Mobile, the Beijing-based mobile developer best known for Android utility apps like Clean Master, and GWC, a mobile company network that hosts the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC), will help it gain market share in China.

TC, Nov 2015

At this time of point, via this 2014 Forbes article we know that Vishal has already been manufacturing GOQii devices in China (like any other tech company).

“In the future we’re going to have a tsunami of personal data coming up,” Gondal says. “We’re creating a new breed of professionals whose job is to decipher human data and guide people.”

Forbes, 2014

I have little knowledge of what’s the status in 2020 or what the future plans are. Given that Vishal seems to be part of this atmanirbhar PR campaign now, I only hope GOQii is also moving out of China (if not already)?

2019

nCore Games raises funding from GOQii founder Vishal Gondal

techcircle.in

Yourstory’s recent article in fact mentions Vishal as a co-founder! Anyway, so the above investment happened in March 2019.

And the in April 2019, Akshay Kumar asked the most meaningful question to Modi that was clearly on everyone’s mind.

Two months after the incredible insightful interview above…

Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar has invested an undisclosed amount in GOQii, as part of the home-grown devices maker’s ongoing Series-C funding round in which it is aiming to raise USD50-70 million.

ET, June 2019

So yeah, I just find all of this very interesting. That’s all. Not all of AK’s investments are undisclosed though. Like…

This is that time when all that matters is the lives of our people. And we need to do anything and everything it takes. I pledge to contribute Rs 25 crores from my savings to @narendramodi ji’s PM-CARES Fund. Let’s save lives, Jaan hai toh jahaan hai. ?? https://t.co/dKbxiLXFLS

— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) March 28, 2020

Here’s a little irony that someone pointed out on Twitter.

Wait, so the founder of GoQii (a fitness tracker) launched FAU-G, where you have to sit in one spot and play ?

— Vivek Raju (@vivekraju93) September 4, 2020

Enough food for thought. Time for some real food. 😀

View this post on Instagram

Sorry mangoes got over. Only lauki and turai today. Also check blog link in bio. Some weird connections.

A post shared by Vatsap? (@amritvatsa) on Sep 4, 2020 at 9:19am PDT

Before I sign off, I want to make it clear that I don’t think I have enough insights to necessarily link all these facts up, and make any solid conclusion. I am not Saket Gokhale or Arnab Goswami.

But what remains undisputed to me is, it’s a cheap thing to use nationalism to make money like this. We Indians can do better.

Like FAU-G, really?

By the way, I have a vague feeling that by the time the game comes out, it will have Modi as a mentor character somewhere. The 3D render for that character is already out there! 😀

That’s all for this blog! Let me end it on a lighter note! 😀

View this post on Instagram

Here's the 15 sec version of PUBG Vala (with amazing visuals by @dipraj_jadhav_edits ) #rippubg #pubgban #pubgremix #pubgtheme #modi #modihacked #pubg #launchpad #beats #memevideo #mememix #narendramodi #moditwitterhacked #faug

A post shared by Mayur Jumani (Inhew) (@mayurjumani) on Sep 5, 2020 at 2:03am PDT

Let me ask you a question. Imagine a 25 year old guy named Raju. He is from a village in north India, son of farmer parents. He is a recent graduate. His entire schooling was in Hindi medium.

Now if just with this information, I ask you to guess which of the two options below is more likely / probable, what would you pick? Just go by your intuition – this is not a trick question or anything.

1. Raju has a VC funded startup
2. Raju has a VC funded startup and the startup is around farming / improving lives of farmers

If you choose 2, you are not alone. Also, your decision is illogical.

The probability of Raju having a startup will always be higher than the probability of Raju having a startup and that startup to be of a particular type.

What I presented to you is a modification of the Linda problem from Daniel Kahneman (DK). DK was awarded the Nobel prize in Economics in 2002. In 2011 he published the book ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ (TFS). He explains the Linda problem in chapter 15 (imagine a lady named Linda instead of Raju – similar options, different profile). This book by the way, is part of my recently curated reading list.

So what do we learn from this experiment?

The reason most people choose 2 is because the ‘intuition’ (system 1) takes over the logical part of the brain (system 2). This is pretty much the premise of the whole book:

• System 1 – fast but intuitive – is outside our control (what we feel intuitively is what we do, we cannot not feel it)
• System 2 – logical – slow

OK, now let me ask something similar as the opening question, but with a small twist.

If you had to guess which of the below two scenarios is more likely / probable, which one will you pick?

1. Raju is a teacher
2. Raju is a teacher and Raju’s favourite colour is blue.

In this scenario, you know that 1 is more likely – simply because only one condition has to be met (while for II, two conditions have be to met – so less likely).

How come this time, the logical part of your thinking (system 2) prevailed?

Well that’s because, this time around, there was not enough trigger for your intuition to respond – you could only think logically.

What triggered your intuition the first time around (so much so that you couldn’t think logically – even when the logic was obvious) was exploiting the stereotype associated with startup founders – they are mostly well educated urban people. So instinctively something felt odd about Raju being a startup founder. The trigger was by design.

Your triggered system 1 tells you “a startup in the agriculture sector doesn’t feel all that odd now, does it? Raju has a farming background after all”. And so it feels more ‘plausible’ even when it is less ‘probable’. That’s the beauty (and in some sense, the danger) of plausible stories – they make it easy for you to ignore the ‘slow’ (but rational / logical) system 2.

If you found this insight interesting, do read the book. It has 400 pages. The first 100 pages are essentially about the theory and basics of system 1 (intuition) and system 2 (logic). The rest 3/4th of the book then uses the theory to explain many things / experiments (like the Linda problem), in crisp and small chapters.

I want you to now think about the applicability of the Linda problem in the ongoing press-coverage of the SSR death case.

Do you think it’s possible for an anchor or a writer to trigger your system 1 to make every ‘plausible’ story seem ‘probable’? Let me list down three stereotypes.

• Stereotype 1 – Bollywood is a toxic place where getting depressed is common, especially when you are an outsider.
• Stereotype 2 – If a man stops being in touch with his family after entering into a relationship with a woman, the woman uses his money and eventually leaves him abruptly – she is definitely not a good woman.
• Stereotype 3 – The world in general and mostly men love attacking and trolling women simply because they are women.

To be honest, the third point above is not so much of a stereotype as much of a fact. One can find enough proxies for such women-bashing behavior in the male dominated society, including data as proof.

The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I observed three different sets of people, triggered by three separate reasons, who then propagated their intuition.

First came the “Bollywood is toxic, let’s talk about mental health” advocates who wrote and wrote about their issue. The issue may be valid but the news was just a medium for them to propagate their theories.

Then came the mean girlfriend proponents – their triggered intuition made it easy for them to troll Rhea (which is ongoing).

And as a reaction to the above, the triggered feminists took over, pointing out how patriarchal and women-bashing this society is (which by the way it is, just that this stance altogether ignores the logical reason – the system 2 – which made the family request for an investigation of the Rhea angle in the first place). It’s a bit sad that nobody from the family has done anything to ask the trolls to keep quiet. I guess for the family, news-pressure is more helpful (in terms of maximizing the chances of justice to Sushant) even when it comes at the cost of propagating women-hatred.

DK says something nice in his book. Since system 1 (intuitive thinking) is outside our control, the best that we can do is to learn to identify the danger sign – something which most of us have managed to apply to the well known Müller-Lyer illusion.

By knowledge we know that both A and B are of the same length (and we know we can cross-check it) but there is nothing that we can do about that weird feeling that B just looks longer. What we have done is, we have learnt to identify when not to trust our instinct (if two lines that we are comparing have fins, then intuition will lead to wrong answer).

As a society, we must strive to achieve the same when we consume news. We can do better. I can only hope.

One thing led to another and I realized that I had never really read the Ramayana. We all know the story but most of us haven’t read it. So I thought of summarizing it the way I remembered it. And then I threw open the question to my Facebook friends, asking them if mine was a fair summary?

I got a lot of interesting responses (although almost nobody claimed they had read the full thing – from any author, be it Valmiki or Tuslidas).

I am trying to recall the story of Ram-Sita. Broadly speaking, this is what follows right? Ram ji is an avatar of lord…

Posted by Amrit Vatsa on Friday, 14 August 2020

If there is any perspective that doesn’t get captured in the above discussion, do let me know.

While having these discussion on my FB timeline, I did think about reading Valmiki’s version (Hindi/Sanskrit) myself. But 3,700+ pages.!!

Also, when almost nobody has really read the story, I wonder what matters more – Valmiki’s (or anybody else’s) written text or how the world today in general remembers the story? If it’s generally understood for example that Surpanakha was made fun of because of her ‘ugliness’, does it matter if Valmiki wrote it that way or not? This is an open ended question – I don’t know the right answer.

Anyway, so I was also pointed to an animation film (which to an extent is a bit insulting to a “proud Hindu” but it’s witty too). I think it is pretty fascinating to watch. It might offend some of you, especially those into ram-bhakti. But if you are not that type of a person, then you may rather enjoy this.

Why did I suddenly dwell upon these Ramayana / Ram related thoughts? Well I was reading “The Ayodhya Movement” chapter from L. K. Advanis’ autobiography. Among other things, he writes about “RAM: AN INSPIRING SYMBOL OF INDIAN CULTURE”.

Ram was also an ideal human being; hence the title ‘Maryada Purushottam’ (an exemplar among good human beings) was accorded to him.

….

Many Indian Muslims, too, have seen in Ram an ideal ruler and an embodiment of great human qualities.

L. K. Advani – My Country My Life

And so I thought about it. And put together my summary, with the feeling that I must be missing something major. But now after all the comments that I have received, it seems like I didn’t miss much! Weird!

<Update – 18 Aug 2020>

Received the below detailed summary from a friend.

I have read both Valmiki (recently) and Tulsi Ramayan(in school) . my mom reads Ramayan everyday. None of the chapters give patriarchal ideas. It is Infact one of the first pro-choice story ever written. Kaikayi, Supranakha, Shabri, Sita all chose and had a command over theiir choices. Sitas choice to have a seat of Golden Deers skin made Ram take her leave for instance, Lakshman too had to obey her orders and go looking for Ram. Supranakha made a choice to court married men, the way Lakshman reacted became the reason for war. Ravan knew at every step who he would be fighting against but it was at Supranakha’s behest that he had to.Arun Govils Ramayan is a tv show, it isn’t how Ramayan is written. Valmiki has written it as a cause and effect poetry. The interpretation of Agni as Pariksha and Deh samarpan to dharti have been contectualised based on the TV representation as patriarchal, chauvinistic and what not but none of them are true. They are very specific, for instance. agni (fire) would become Sheetal (ice) on touching sita is referenced several times in Valmikis Ramayan couplets.

Both these talk about how Janaki (Sita) blessed Hanuman and because she gave her the boon that Agni won’t be able to give you heat, he managed to burn down the Golden Lanka and while Lanka was on fire and the whole country burnt, fire couldn’t do anything to sita who was out in the open! The hanuman chalisa shlok talks about how Sitas blessing made Hanuman so powerful.

Sita was also World’s first single Mother. If patriarchy was a prevelant idea she would have been frowned upon but instead her kids got the best education and best teachers etc. That too was a lesson on her heroics.

Ram and Sita in the story are considered one in all this and were the operators who knew every next step before it happened as possibilities m. They were aware of everything (unlike how its shown in Govils presentation) but the lessons of right and wrong, good and evil were to be created and given through this epic.

Ramayan is actually about much more than Ram. Ram won the war against Raavan in just 13 days. So his heroism is limited to that. Rest of Ramayan is so so many things. It’s about him understanding humanity, humbleness, being an ideal king, being an ideal husband, ideal son, ideal father, ideal brother, ideal warrior etc. He didn’t shy from giving tests or cheating even in the process. His life was a conquest to teach men and women to live a life of truth and honesty. Thus Maryada Purushottam. Nowhere in all the written literature he is self doubting or doubting sita. Even the decision of Sita to leave the kingdom of Ayodhya wasn’t his. It was Sitas, her own choice. He never doubted her. Nor did she doubt Ram of malice. They just decided it was time for one last lesson to humanity when she left the luxuries of a kingdom and gave birth in a jungle house to the Kings children and herself lived without all the luxuries available at her husband’s kingdom as well as her father’s Kingdom.

Every week (since May this year), I look at the existing trend of reported cases and deaths for India. Based on that, I run few scenarios to forecast two things:

1. when will we start seeing avg 1,000 per day reported deaths and
2. by when would we cross 1 lakh total reported Covid deaths

So what are the latest death figures that we have?

As you can note from above:

1. this week (19-25 Jul) on an avg. 720+ people died per day
2. as of yesterday, total death count is 31k+

The problem with projecting the future Avg. Daily Deaths based on just this information is that the weekly growth rate of Avg Daily Deaths is pretty erratic – as you can see below.

So to project deaths, I look at two things:

• X% – at what rate does weekly total positive cases grow (it is not as erratic – you will see below)
• Y% – what percentage of total avg weekly cases from past two weeks die in a given week

Alright, let’s look at X from past few weeks. As you see below, it has typically hovered between 20 to 30 percent (though this week – 19-25 Jul – it really shot up).

There were almost 3 lakh new cases reported this week (19-25 Jul) which is 37% higher than 2.1 lakh reported the week before (12-18 Jul).

For future projection, I expect X to be in the range of 20 to 30%.

Now let’s come to Y.

As you see above, death %age used to hover around 3% till mid June but has been more or less around 2% since many weeks now. It looks like it could drop even more.

For projections, I am going with a range of 1.7% to 2%

My three scenarios are:

1. X=25%, Y=2% (baseline)
2. X=20%, Y=1.7% (better – as in slower spread, lesser deaths)
3. X=30%, Y-2% (worse – as in faster growth, more deaths)

In about a week or two, we will start seeing 1,000 avg daily deaths, which could touch 2,000 in Aug itself.

As a context, US already reached the 1,000 daily deaths figure this week (source).

Also, at this rate, we will have 1 lakh reported deaths by early September.

That’s it for this post. I’ll get back with updated projections next Sunday (02 Aug). Stay safe.

If you are subscribed to NY times, just read this whole article. 5 min read. If you are not, the strategy is simple.

1. Come up with a list of charges that can be applied to an activist.
2. Impose only one or two of those charges, just good enough to get the activist arrested and put in jail.
3. After weeks / months, if the activist gets out on bail – use the hitherto unused charges and send them back to jail.
4. Keep doing it till you run out of charges.

After spending several anxious days in prison, Natasha Narwal, a student activist accused of rioting by the New Delhi police, thought her ordeal was nearing an end.

A judge ruled that Ms. Narwal had been exercising her democratic rights when she participated in protests earlier this year against a divisive citizenship law that incited unrest across India.

But shortly after the judge approved Ms. Narwal’s release in late May, the police announced fresh charges: murder, terrorism and organizing protests that instigated deadly religious violence in India’s capital.

Ms. Narwal, 32, who has said that she is innocent, was returned to her cell.

– NY Times

How many such activists are in jail presently? Around ten to twelve. Nobody knows the exact number. Natasha has been in Jail since May.

Want to see the irony?

We mourn the loss of US Congressman John Lewis, a champion of civil rights, non-violence and Gandhian values. His legacy will continue to endure and inspire.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 19, 2020

If you are interested in reading more about what really happened in Delhi – do read the latest finding from Govt. of Delhi (they have a minorities commission that was tasked to put this together)

https://ia601501.us.archive.org/28/items/dmc-delhi-riot-fact-report-2020/-Delhi-riots-Fact-Finding-2020.pdf

That’s all for now. I will see if I can put together some of the key findings together – either as text, or a video may be! It’s 130 pages though!

***

14 Sep 2020 update

My son Umar Khalid has been arrested tonight at 11:00 pm by Special Cell, Delhi Police under UAPA. Police was questioning him since 1:00 pm. He has been implicated in Delhi Riots. #StandWithUmarKhalid

— Ilyas SQR (@sqrIlyas1) September 13, 2020

Have you lately been confused with all the numerous names of Covid drugs and vaccines? Dexamethasone. Remdesivir. Hdroxyquinosomethingnone. AZD1222. Tocilizumab.

Then you will like the below set of slides. Creating this info-graphic is probably the best thing that I did this week.

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Have I solved the confusion or created more? You tell me. ? One correction: interferons are molecules that our cells produce. They themselves are not cells.

A post shared by Vatsap? (@amritvatsa) on Jul 17, 2020 at 9:29pm PDT

By the way, you an just drop me an email (vatsa@protonmail.com) to subscribe to my newsletter. I create short documentary videos, web-comics etc. and read a lot – so there is always something nice and interesting to share.

One quick question before you read any further. Do you even like reading (as in have the patience for it)? Or watching videos is all that you can do? I will really appreciate a short reply! Thanks.

Alright, now a super amazing video that I saw this week that everyone must see. It’s just so good!

The above uses the same characters Apple used a year ago in another super cool video from the pre-Covid era.

In my email last Sunday, I had said I would explain why I once again care about sending emails to you guys, instead of say just asking you to follow me on Youtube or Instagram (which I presume some of you do)?

Vatsap? with me?

The short answer is, sooner or later, all these platforms – YT / insta / FB – all of them – will make it impossible for small scale content creators like me to use them for our content to be seen – even when you follow / subscribe. I mean they are already there; it will only get worse. Just look at Youtube.

Earlier, if you were subscribed to me on YT, you would get to see whatever I uploaded (by a notification). And then one fine day, YT decided to throw in a bell-icon (with everyone de-notified by default). And then, after I somehow convinced many of my subscribers to get this ‘bell’ notification on for my channel, YT split up the bloody bell icon in two – 1. all notifications and 2. random notifications (again – ‘all notifications’ was deactivated by default). Who decides when you will get notified? Algorithm! Fuck the algorithm.

I can’t keep playing this game. As a platform, YT doesn’t necessarily want you to watch the content of the creators you follow. YT wants you to watch whatever is addictive and keeps you longer on the platform. Tiktok didn’t even pretend (I have a gut feeling it will come back – let’s wait & watch). All social media platforms more or less have either already become, or becoming like this.

I have 20k+ subscribers on YT – all evolved organically from around 300 in 205-16 to 10,000 in 2018. And yet, just go look at the views I get on my videos – they are abysmally low ! What’s the point of having all these genuine subscribers then? I receive comments like below, ALL THE TIME!

What I have concluded is – if I can just ping some of you over email, once a week, or once every two weeks, that’s probably better. That makes me platform agnostic. I like the idea. I love the idea!

A little over 200 of you are subscribed to receive my emails right now. And last Sunday only around 20% of you who received the mail, opened it! But you know what, that’s fine! At least it’s between you and me – not some algorithm deciding what you even get to see!

My friend Chuck has written a fab piece on this issue of the dying concept of ‘organic reach’ – read it if this topic fascinates you any more (especially from a marketing perspective).

Social media is not an engagement medium anymore.

– Deepak “Chuck” Gopalakrishnan

Ok, this email has become one long rant now. I am still figuring out how to get this newsletter thing right. Do shoot back suggestions & feedback if you can think of any. I started the email with some Covid related gyaan. Let me end it with one too.

In May, my wife asked a great question. We are in 2020. How come science has not yet developed enough that we are being told it would take all of this year before a vaccine comes out?

I dug deep. And I put together my research in a way that made sense. And was a bit funny too. The result is the video below. Even when I wrote this in May and published the video on 1st June – most of the stuff is valid as you read this. Give it a watch (unless you’ve seen it already).

That’s all for this Sunday. Let’s hope the flood situation in Assam gets under control soon. And do remember the question I asked earlier.

Do you even like reading (as in have the patience for it)? Or watching videos is all that you can do? I will really appreciate a short reply!

Vatsap?

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/reservation-vinod-kambli-dalits-varun-grover-6501257/

In the above article (really well articulated), Varun Grover picks up two main arguments that generally upper caste Hindus give against reservation. He then shows the flaw in both those arguments. I agree with ‘almost’ all that he says.

Upper caste Hindu argument against Reservation #1

Reservation enables bypassing of merit.

Any fair evaluation of ‘merit’ requires a level playing field. A Dalit kid from an underprivileged family with no access to clean water or regular electricity or healthcare, constantly living in fear of their identity being disclosed at school, or being bullied or discriminated against by their classmates and teachers could not be expected to excel in an academic system conflating merit with cramming skills.

-Varun Grover

Do reservations bypass merit? Yes, they do.

And yet Varun is right. It is absolutely okay for “less meritorious” people to go ahead in life, especially when the reason they seem to be less meritorious is not because they are any less smart / capable but because they were in a non-level game to begin with.

Upper caste Hindu argument against Reservation #2

Reservations should be given on the basis of economic status alone because otherwise “rich Dalits are taking undue advantage of the policy”.

I am an upper caste Hindu and I do believe that rich Dalits are indeed having an undue advantage over their poorer counterparts.

Reservations aim to bring something much more valuable than financial status — they bring dignity and representation.

-Varun Grover

This is a great perspective. I agree with it. Reservations are not necessarily about alleviating poverty (there are so many other schemes that exist for that purpose).

But if you go back and read his counter to the first argument (meritocracy), he himself paints the picture of a ‘poor’ Dalit – someone with ‘no access to clean water’. See the issue?

Varun gives examples of rich, successful and famous Dalits who regularly face discrimination. Yes, that’s a sad fact. So is reservation solving that problem? May be not as much. Will taking away reservation help? No, not at all (so I am totally with him when he says later in the article that just because reservations haven’t done enough in seven decades, does *not* mean there is a case for abolishing them).

But is it worth trying to modify the policy in a way that within the lower-caste populace, they are the poorer ones who get to benefit more than the richer ones? Yes I think so.

For this to happen, Dalits will probably have to split into two groups – the rich Dalits and the poorer Dalits (I have no idea if this already is the case in the Dalit community – I am guessing not so much).

As a group, they probably need to be united, be there for each other. And this also means that the poor Dalits would continue to lose out to the rich ones. Yes some good ones will pull others up – but it’s left to the ‘richer’ Dalits to decide who they can help. This is an issue.

The time for this issue to be addressed has just not come yet (and even when it comes, the Dalits need to decide how to improve the reservation policy, not the upper caste folks like me/Varun). Until then, at least what is there, should remain. And on that, well I guess Varun and I are anyway on the same page.

So, yeah that’s all. It’s funny though that a not so famous ‘Savarna’ dude who went to IIT but is in a creative field today is debating nuances of ‘reservation’ with another Savarna famous dude who went to IT-BHU and is in a creative field himself.

Keep writing Varun – the world needs your voice.

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