Pesky But Honest

Changing Reference

2007-03-28T03:13:00.000-07:00

This guy makes all my favorite chick Bloggers seem like Einstein!

The fun never stops!

2006-05-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

This is insane. Must read.

"However, now a question has been raised about ‘’merit’’ and since we do consider ourselves a bit of a merit student, we are forced to wade in.."

Fantasticly modest, isn't it?

Here is our alternate proposal.

Let everyone apply for JEE and CAT as it is done now(1), among all eligible applications; schooling up to 12^th for JEE(which raises the interesting question that just because someone has flunked his 12th board exams, is he necessarily worse off then someone who has not?), let us organize a computerized draw and depending upon the number of seats which can raised on a whim as merit is anyways immaterial, we select the successful candidates. Just like it is done in government housing ~~shams~~ schemes.

No, Dear Annie, we are not mocking you. Pray, tell us what is wrong with our system if we acknowledge that merit is a complete hogwash? Also, because of the sheer strength of numbers, it would allow a much larger number of backward/Dalit students to enter the hollowed portals of IIT/IIMs. See, our system has in built fexiblity. For example, some claim that the performance in IIT has more to do with keenness than JEE rank; that is when the papers are actually read.

Ok. We were all living under the illusion that the JEE measures exactly that, the underlying assumption being more keen you are, harder you will study.. Anyways, we propose the following changes in the application delivery process to account for the ‘’keeness’’ factor.

Hand-delivery>Express Delivery> Registered Mail> Ordinary mail

Oh, and before you accuse us of hatching a giant consipiracy against the poor(You swine! You know very well the poor will have no money to afford the courier) let us hasten to add the system can be manipulated any way. Yes, Exactly that! Manipulated!

How about this? Depending upon mode of delivery..

On Foot>Bullock Cart>Two wheeler>Car

Or depending upon day of delivery…

Thursday>Wednesday>Tuesday>Monday

Meant to be cleverly mocking, but reeks of great amount of insensitivity.

Compared to these kind of morons, the women seem far far far better. Who would have thought?

And what is with these morons, who love to refer themselves as 'we'? Exaggerated cuteness?

Dating?

2006-04-17T08:45:00.000-07:00

A lot of women Blogger’s don’t seem to know about Personal’s sites. They ought to know it is the best place to find men.

2006-04-15T02:14:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that the Internet is a place to conform and indulge in the regular scratch your back phenomenon. So I perhaps lack the finesse of people who had fancier education and more privileged background than myself, but surely I can make my point and choose to disagree with people?

How can one explain why a Blog written by one person gets comments from some forty others who will say:

Hey that is my life
Thank you for talking about this

I can’t seem to relate to that Blogger very much. But everyone else agrees with her (and rarely with him)

Without taking names, let me give you a few examples of abysmally elitist writing that is depressing to be reading.

- Like someone takes on reservation of women as a cause. Women reap enough benefits thanks to them being the ‘weaker’ sex. Can we put a stop to this?

- Some random male Blogger talk about how reservations will cause the quality of the higher education institutions to erode! What a bloody upper class argument that is.

I can go on, but they are all much the same.

Brahmins of Blogosphere!

2006-04-09T08:32:00.000-07:00

It is interesting to see how the Bloggers Bandwagon are quick to jump the bandwagon of people in opposition of reservation in educational institutions. Reeks of upper class elitism.

2006-03-24T09:58:00.000-08:00

Are there any male bloggers who talk about their love lives? Or the lack of them? And what proportion would they be of all male Bloggers?

2006-03-22T08:35:00.000-08:00

What is it about women from Liberal Arts courses anyway?

Girl geeks are so much more real and easier to understand.

Us Versus Them

2006-03-20T05:01:00.000-08:00

I have spent the last month reading a whole many number of Blogs. I knew that they existed, but never knew how big they were. Especially the women bloggers is a huge mass. And as a disclaimer I must state that, I am not The Hawk. I don’t subscribe to his/her brand of hate.

I created a handle only because I thought that amidst this, will-pander-to-your-ego commenters a reality-check (no matter how feeble a voice) was in order.

Yes I am doing so anonymously, because most of these Bloggers are anonymous (though little nuggets are always revealed) themselves. Some do Blog under their real names too, which makes them just as attractive I suppose (they are more real and eventually men like them better)

Now I don’t “resent” the women for anything. [I have a reasonable sort of life. I did go to reasonably good colleges and work in a decent firm. I am not apologetic of my middle class roots and I do hold onto them and the associated values.] I think they can write well, they do have a sense of humor and they can sound intelligent. Some of them also sound silly and girlie, but those types don’t bother me. I mean they are having fun with a natural born advantage, so why not?

The types that bother me are the ones with a naturally superior air about them. You know, the ones who studied in elitist colleges (which double up as finishing schools) and were born with the proverbial silver spoon – the Old Money sorts. It is not the money that is the problem – it is the associated values (or the lack of them) that it begins them to have. The arrogance, which is a natural fall-out of it. You can see that in the tone of everything they write, the way they react to unsavory comments and the way they socialize with the people who leave them comments. And most importantly it is the way they interact with their male readers.

Let me illustrate this to you. I have picked up four women Bloggers (even if that makes me Hawk like) with differing degrees of popularity and obviously different attitudes and explain what I mean:

1. The Compulsive Confessor
A self absorbed Blogger. A carefully constructed shallow persona, with an occasional peak into a vulnerable side. She is intelligent, and the way that she shows of how clever she is is to play that down completely. Any man who reads her Blog will probably think that she is easy game (I have often thought that), and she is a regular material-girl.

Now her elitism as it were is under-played. Which is why she is so popular. And while one might not really care much for her voyeuristic peep into my life (which from what I know is a figment of healthy imagination), she is by and large harmless.

2. Ideasmith
A girl with many Blogs and most are similar in terms of their content. But her Blog and time, so whom am I to say anything. What makes her an interesting subject is her tone. Not cloying sweet, not irritatingly superior. However this tone neutrality never makes her in contention for the eM like popularity. It also doesn’t make her as pseud like the other two women I shall talk about.
However she takes the cake when it comes to being self-absorbed. I mean, who else will put up as many Blogs in public space. And hers is a carefully cultivated girl-next-door image. No elitism here, and while I find her naïve and silly, but she is probably the kind of girl that men must marry.

3. Neha Vishwanathan
Now this one is a far more intelligent blogger than an eM and therefore far less popular. But if you must know what arrogance is – read her. So she went to good colleges, lives in a first-world country, is from Southern India (as are many others as well) and all the other seeming symbols of pedigree in her favour. But her writing has a very, us versus them flavour to it. She in many ways represents the new breed of women in India – who by virtue of their “natural advantage” combined with an equal opportunity world don’t have the right perspective on femininity.

4. Primalsoup
A bit similar to Neha, but far less visible is Primalsoup. An average popular Blog (with a large loyal readership though, given that she does get as many comments as any well read Blog) this one is as elitist as they come. And she loves playing that part, over and over again. Co-incidentally another South Indian with North Indian roots (a similar pattern) she has had an obviously privileged upbringing. All the readers of this Blog also have an air of condescending tone about them (is it a coincidence that this Blogger attracts a large number of woman readers) And the occasional reader who reaches this Blog by mistake is made to feel like an idiot.

It is interesting to note how the first two and the latter two women react to their readers. eM will at least ignore you, if not be nice. Ideasmith will always be nice. Neha will be nice selectively and nasty otherwise. Primalsoup will be especially nasty if you are a male reader.

I am sure there will be a lot of arguments that would be along the lines of:
a) It’s a free world (ditto)
b) I am just being “jealous” of their “popularity” (mind you besides eM, none of these women are that popular)
c) I shouldn’t read their Blogs if I don’t like it (I don’t see why, I can read and let them know what I think of it)

My point is, why should I as a reader have to listen to the superior sotto voices of girls who went to pseudo places like JNU, DU, TISS, Xavier’s, whatever and think that is a big deal. It is a sad reflection on the state of the nation and the way these women represent a generation of ‘wasted women’.