Bombay, 10:07 PM

Bhang-ed out. Last night Shuks, Kim, Kavs and me decided to exeperiment the bhang my dad got from Banaras when he went last fall. Bhang basically looks like mithai - little gotas with almonds and silver leaf. They don't tase anything like mithai - in fact it tasted AWFUL. And I mean GOD AWFUL. And it doesn't hit you for a while - like an hour or so - more if you've eaten (and we were eating kabab rolls from noorani - yes, several phallic jokes were cracked). In anycase, because we didn't get an immedeate effect - we had 2-3 each (when 1 is supposed to be had for 1 trip). Needless to say, 2 hours later I was flying. Shekhu didn't really get hit (Or he pretended not to) - Kim and Kavs eventually passed out.
[OK - so here's a really weird situation - I'm here for a week - Kavita wants me to hang out with her thuggish boyfriend who I (and Kim) absolutely dislike to put her out of being in an awkward situation. But I'm here for a week - why should I meet him??!! Anyway, we decided not to invite any other friends last night - just so it would be the 4 of us like old times - and it was fun]

In anycase, I didn't take my antihistamine last night out of the fear of not getting up (bhang+antihist drowsiness = me becoming kubhkaran). So I was all allergied out today when I went to UD (my old undergrad school) and hung out with the teachers and 2 old friends. Maybe I was too bhang induced or allergied out - but I really didn't feel that much nostalgia. Also, my old labs are under construction and things have been shuffled around. In anycase, hanging out and catching up with them was fun - and yes, the reservation issue was brought up.

Here's my take on the whole deal - 11 of 30 seats in my undergrad school are open - the rest, i.e., 2/3rd are reserved. WTF?!! How do they honestly expect India to come up as a global superpower, if, at every stage right from elementary school, they encourage this whole reservation shit. Even in academic positions - 50% of the teachers have to be SC/ST/OBC!! When the world is getting smaller, and more international - there are still people in the best schools in the country who don't deserve to be there. Yes, that's a strong opinion - but for someone who can't understand the papers - or the implications of biomedical research and has to keep up with a world where you are required to know english well - I'm sorry - but I think it's extremely demotivating to Indians internationally to encourage reservations. And in every fucking field?!! Who would trust their lives to a doctor who can't understand the latest literature? And why would you want to encourage discrimination based on caste and background - are we regressing or progressing?!! The program was started under different circumstances - when India did need a boost - but since then has proven to be completely ineffective. Get with it - the times they are a changin'!

Fuck you Arjun Singh!!