While the reservation debate simmers under the lid. This makes for some disturbing reading (from the Hindu):

SOME SCENES at a medical college:

a) A student with his friends stands at the door of a classroom and questions each student entering, “Are you a quota student?” While many say “no” to him, to some he says, “Hello! I know you are a quota student,” and all of them in the group laugh at that student.

b) A lecturer enters the classroom to find many students sporting a black band on their arms. He smiles at the students and says, “So you are protesting against quota? Well, you people can marry SCs/STs/OBCs and get a quota… So why don’t you try?” He smiles at the students sarcastically. Inspired by the “advice” of their lecturer, one student tells her neighbour (who is an ST student), “If you have a brother tell me, I will marry him and I will also get reservation.”

c) Many backward caste students are bombarded with humiliating mobile messages by their friends. Here is a sample: “From now onwards, if a SC/ST student scores 4 runs, it’s equal to 8 runs. If he scores 50 runs, it is considered a century…” Another SMS goes like this: “One doctor killed a patient though he was a qualified doctor, why? Because he was a non-meritorious reserved candidate! **** [expletive removed] reservation and reserved candidates” (Not to mention another SMS which made mockery of Arjun Singh in a most indecent way).

d) Students at the hostel decide to switch off their lights for five minutes to protest. But some students are not bothered. Now, other students start irritating these students by singing songs containing the words “quota” and “reservation.” Humiliated over this, these students decide to accompany other students the next day for their protest march.

e) Students get their test marks. One student looks at the marks of another student and comments: “Why did you score so high? You have quota… Don’t take the risk of scoring so much.”

Some day, some of these students at the receiving end of this daily humiliation might be in positions of power. I wonder how they’ll act. And what of those students who think its okay to treat their colleagues in this way? they are going to be in charge of taking care of human beings down the road, what sort of care can they provide when they have such disdain for a majority of the people in the country.

When we were in Chharanagar earlier this year, working on our film, Dilip D’Souza dropped by and spent a couple of days. Here is an article he wrote for Tehelka based on that visit.

Today is the 6th of June, 2006. In short, 666, and those who are afraid of it have the phobia mentioned in the title. And I am just adding to the internet clutter by pointing you to sites that say that UPC bar codes contain 666, Dutch Evangelists are holding a “violent day of worship” (BBC) because:

“We know the Devil hates it when we worship God.”

Moreover:

The number 666 is a simple sum and difference of the first three 6th powers:
666 = 16 - 26 + 36

The movie based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake is set to release in November, meanwhile the trailer can be seen on the Apple website.

Its often disappointing to see films based on books, however Lahiri’s careful and precise style might translate well into film. So much of her prose seems to be about the accumulation of small physical acts by her characters, the concrete stuff of an actor’s craft, that it might make the film version of the story compatible with the novel. However, I am wondering how the film will handle the passage of time in the story, which covers a lifetime. It looked clunky from the trailer, but the film might prove to be otherwise.