Salim and Kayal #Watty's 2016 # YourStoryIndia #ProjectWomanUp

Nature lovers

Kayal's POV

First day in college went fine. I think I annoyed Professor Trivedi. He was trying to get on my nerves. But then thank God everything went well. During break time John came to speak with us. I have a feeling that he is smitten by Sara. Sara is acting ignorant. We just have to wait and see what happens. Jaanu is really shy and we are the only girls to whom she talks to. Both Sara and I spoke with all the girls. We are just 12 girls. So what is the big deal? As with boys there was this guy called Upadhyay who approached me for my notes. And then a Punjabi guy Harneet asked for a date. I told him politely that I don't date, but still asked him to be my friend because Punjabi food is one of my many weaknesses. It's also common knowledge that Punjabi guys have a great sense of humor. I guessed right about the guy with Dravidian facial features. Salim was a Muslim from Tamil Nadu. I avoided looking towards him. When it comes to my heart I feel it is better to be safe than sorry. There is just one heart, so I am over protective about it.

Next few days also went fine. I am on speaking terms with almost everybody in the class. We were loaded with few assignments but then I managed to complete them on time. Every now and then we had movie nights watching Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and occasionally English movies. I couldn't go to Mugilan Uncle's place because of my assignments. But, somehow I am planning to visit his family by the end of this month.

One fine day Professor Jacob came to our class with a very serious expression on his face. All of us said a "Good morning".

"Good morning students. Today our topic of discussion will be Caste based Reservation. Caste Based Reservation System was introduced for the social upliftment of oppressed communities in India. Special reservations are provided in educational institutions, job opportunities etc. 51% goes to the general quota, 26.7% for Other Backward Classes, 14.9% for Scheduled castes, and 7.4% for Scheduled Tribes. You can express your opinion on it."

Mohith raised his hand, "I am against caste based reservation system. I feel it is a shame on the face of our constitution which promises equality."

To this Sara shot up her hand, "For your kind information, Babasaheb Ambedkar the architect of our constitution was in favor of Reservation."

Aakash joined the discussion. "Don't you think people who don't deserve those seats are getting them? What about all those people who might have worked hard for it? Everything is served on a silver platter for them just because they have a caste certificate."

To my surprise Salim stood up and spoke, I wanted to turn around but then stopped myself. "Students from the general category might have worked hard. But we shouldn't forget that they might have worked with the help of their educated parents, expensive coaching centers and must have studied in comfortable homes. How can these students be compared with the SC/ST students who might be first generation literates, studying on their own self in street lights? General students are standing comparatively closer to the finish line. SC and ST students are far behind. So it is only fair to give them a small lead."

I raised my hand now, "In spite of these reservations many Dalits face discrimination in educational institutions, government offices and even media. The sad demise of Nagaraju Koppula should remind us that. We can scrap Reservation system when all the Indians have learned to treat everybody equally. We can scrap Reservation system when we have enough empirical evidence to suggest that those people who were oppressed for ages have found their footing. Is there any Dalit cricketer in our cricket team? How many Dalits are CM's? Let's not forget what social justice is all about." With that I sat down.

Megha stood up now, "Don't you think that this reservation system is making people selfish? Now every caste organization wants to have their caste included in OBC quota or sometimes even SC quota."