Quota- Unquota

Pune Metro work barricades have been put to good use by protestors demanding reservations for Marathas to block the road hundred meters on either side of my workplace building today. I cannot move out anywhere. Thankfully I have some food and water, access a good loo and internet, so I'm not worried. Not till evening at least. Some of our office staff couldn't have their lunch delivered and found a way to get home in the afternoon. I was a bit worried for them, but now that they're safe at home, It's all right. A few of my friend have been posting about the futility of protesting and harping about the benefits of merit vs. reservations. And I should agree with them, right? Merit is everything. Equal opportunity for all. Right? 

Right... But only if we lived in an ideal society. 

Unfortunately we don't. We may all be equal, but as the saying goes: some of us are more equal than others. Abundant opportunity and lack of roadblocks at almost all levels affords me the luxury to cry 'merit over reservations' but that's not a fair comparison. A person who has fought social and family circumstance and (unfortunately) the social hierarchy at every stage of his or her life doesn't have the same luxury as some of us do. 

Others like me have carpets rolled out for us. Our families encourage us, sometimes even push us to get a 'good' education. A major portion of the family earnings and efforts go towards ensuring we get everything to be able to get into the best institutions and do well for ourselves. And if we don't, we get other opportunities equally easily and there's always someone to fall back on in case things go south.  Are we at an advantage? Yes. And a distinct one at that.  

Suffice it to say, I am pro reservations.

I've had a few arguments with people about this. Even with my own family. And I've realised one thing: I shouldn't take the moral high ground. I might be a bigot in ways no one has pointed out to me yet and till then, I'd like to think that I haven't lost my idealism. Though I am more cynical about everything now than I was ten years ago.