This is an attempt to document my slowly growing understanding of society, what's wrong in it and why there are no easy solutions ( but there are solutions!).
I'm a 40+ person with a small business in manufacturing and who also is part of an NGO in the education field.
I have grown up with what I would now call a very privileged upbringing. It wasn't too fancy. But we went to a good school. Never had to worry about food or money at home. Had tons of books at home, extra tuitions for Maths, Physics and Chemistry ( even though we were academically good) and so on.
Ok. So compared to today's levels of multiple tabs and phones, AC buses and AC classrooms, BTS themed birthdays et al, it wasn't much. But ( I later realised) it was sooo much more than what the average Indian got. (The average could be defined by Median or Mode. )
So in my teens and twenties ( which is probably equal to Teens in terms of exposure for an insulated Indian child), i've always been pro-Capitalism, pro-"Merit", against Reservation and a HUGE fan of the Ayn Rand school of thought.
I mean, it was obvious to me. An upper class student could not get into my college with a rank of 10,000. An SC student got in with a rank of 40,000! How much more blatant could the discrimination be?
Aah! The confidence of youth! ( Not to mention the Ignorance!).
Luckily for me, I had good friends in College. So what our education system left out, I learnt from them over many a bottle of cheap liquor! ( Where we all get our education! 😆)
I realised that for "merit" to apply, there has to be the same starting point. I cannot claim merit when I have had good schooling, extra tuitions, parents not giving ANY work at home ( walking the Dog was my "Chore" which I cribbed about ( and the occassional getting Kariyapak from a neighbouring tree!).
I learnt how culture plays a role, caste plays a role in your awareness! I had Engineering as a target from my 8th class when one of my cousins got into Engineering. ( Medicine was out because of a Biology teacher I hated! Life decisions are based on such wonderful analytic thinking!).
I later learnt that even relatively well to do friends from business community got to know that there is an Engineering Entrance exam called EAMCET only after they finished their 11th!
I learnt that the SC friend of mine was the first person to become an engineer from his entire extended family on both sides of his parents!
I learnt the Govt. schools they studied in - in their childhood - didn't have proper seating, leave alone teachers! That even their English Teacher didn't know English!
I learnt that some of my classmates came from such poor backgrounds that they studied from borrowed books in the Library!
That was when I first heard about Ambedkar and his writings. That was when for the first time, I started analysing things from the societal and sociological perspective!
I realised so much of what we are taught in schools is just milestone facts!
It was then that I started understanding the social and economic fabric of our world!The true learnings follow in the next blogs!
