Scene 1 Act 1 0f 1
It is the year of 2050. The setting is the drawing room of an Indian household. Raju enters from the left entrance. His mother and father are already on stage. Mother is vacuming. Father is reading a newspaper. 'Bye dad, I'm going to Rajesh's house to play'
'Beta wait' said his mother 'Havent I told you not to go there?'
'But mum, why can't I go? He's my cousin and my friend since childhood and he's also a good student and besides I really need to get his notes for tommorows test'
'No beta, Learn to listen to your mother'
Raju turned to his father who was pretending to read the paper all the time. He tried to ignore his son's imploring glance.
'Papa. what is this? At least you tell me whats happening? I know you and Manju aunty don't talk but seriously we're friends'
'Sit down Beta, I think it's time we had this talk'
'But dear, he's too young for all this'
'No Shanti, it's better he gets to know this today before someone else tells him and after all he's almost 15 he deserves to know.'
'See Beta, there is something I've been meaning to tell you from some time and I think now is the right time. Why don't you sit down this is going to take some time'
Raju reluctantly sat down. He really hated these lecture sessions. But somehow his dad seemed a little serious and he knew better than to antagonise him in such a mood.
'Beta, Rajesh is an NBC.' Raju's mom lets out a gasp as she leaves the room.
'Whats that dad?' ' NBC, beta stands for non backward castes.'
'So?'
'See let me finish. These are the people who have no reservation in schools, colleges, iits ,iims, government jobs.'
'I don't understand dad.'
'See beta that there are somethings that your history book hasn't taught you, you see.....'
'Thats an understatement dad, our history book ends after independence, can't believe that all these years.....'
'Beta, let me finish this first. You see during the 90s, even before I was born there was a prime minister who needed to get votes badly since it was quite possible that he would lose his power. So he thought that he would divide the country by having reservations for people belonging to backward castes. These were people who were ill treated by the upper castes. So to make up for that he decided to give them a quota.'
'quota?'
'Well seats were reserved for the people of these castes. So they had some seats in each college.'
'But wouldnt that be bad since all of them would try for the same seats.'
'No beta, they could also apply for the general category.'
'thats so funny, which means the good students would get through general and the bad ones through reservation.'
'See, it happened many years back and thats not the point of this conversation. Now keep quiet and let me finish'
'Well it happened that many students got angry, apparently some fool even burned himself'
'and the rule was taken back?'
'Of course not. Infact it was extended to all colleges and universities. Well slowly and surely reservations were increased in all colleges. Infact your aunty had one tough time getting into engineering.'
'But you were always brilliant naa dad? Is that why she doesn't speak to us any longer,huh?'
'Er, youre getting ahead of the story. Well it happened that in 2006 another government in order to get more votes increased the reservation at the iits and iims to include OBC students.'
'But dad that would have made it even more difficult for you. I bet you must have opposed the law.'
'Well beta we tried or rather our seniors tried but we couldn't do anything. A lot of people opposed it but nothing really happened. About half of the seats were then reserved for them'
'And they could still apply in general quota'
'Yes'
'That was foolish, then I guess the OBC's mustve really become big people naa?'
'That was the problem beta. The OBC's really werent given any special opportunities during their basic education so the general category students had to really slog to get into these colleges and there was a huge disparity between them and the OBCs. They got the opportunities at too late a stage in their life.'
'So the rule was scrapped?'
'Actually no. What happened was many people seeing that it was really difficult to get in through the general category made OBC certificates.'
'Wats dat?
'They were certificates made to get admission to these places, to know who's OBC or not?'
'Yaa dats what I want to know, How do you know who's who?'
'Well there were ways and means to find out. Anyway there were also people who knew that they must balance the disparity and made OBC certificates'
'These were OBCs?'
'No'
'Then wasn't it wrong?'
'Well they had to get justice'
'Dad, whats wrong is wrong. Those people at least had some reason to get seats, these people just took advantage. How could they ever live with their conscience.
'uh anyway people from other castes soon began to ask for their reservation and soon we had OOBCs (other other backward castes), DCs (depressed castes) , ODCs (other depressed castes), etc etc.. So you see the governments in the decades began to give reservation to other people and reservations kept increasing.'
'To how much'
'Well the last revision in 2047 to celebrate our independence increased reservation to 85%.'
'So the general category have only 15%'
'Well actually there is there are some other quotas, but yes they get around 13.5% seats'
'But if it couldn't help them in 100 years, what good will it do now?'
'Young man, you have no idea of the suffering these people went through?'
'So now what happens to the upper castes?'
Well the upper castes or the NBCs get those 13.5% seats'
'Which is open to others?'
'Well frankly most castes are covered by the reservations except maybe a few'
Shanti enters the room and joins her husband on the sofa.
'So whats that got to do with Rajesh?'
'Well were OBCs?'
'We are? Cool, How come no one told me?'
'Yes we are and Rajesh is not'
'Why not?'
'Well his mother married a NBC and was ostracized from the family. Which is why we don't speak to her'
'Dad Rajesh is such a brilliant student that he could get into an IIT and IIM on his own merit. Infact he keeps telling that he will be an IIT-IIMite like you.'
'Beta I thought you were old enough to understand such things if they were explained to you, but I am really disappointed. Hand me your Comlink and get into your bedroom. No hologram for you till you stop talking to that Rajesh boy'
'Shanti, its that Manju who plants all these idealistic thoughts in his mind, its a good thing we finally stopped him from going there'
Shanti gets up from the adjacent sofa. She seems a little affected by the entire thing.
'Don't you think we should tell him'
'No way!! What do I tell him?' There was a pause during which Shanti wiped the sweat off her husband's brow.
'Do I tell him that the father he so idolizes, that he so respects got though IIT and IIM with a fake OBC certificate. How will I ever face him'
'But dear, he's bound to know when his admissions are due that we have prepared an OBC certificate for him too and someday someone might actually tell him that he isn't one'
'Well there are still 3 years to go and we are fighting towards getting our caste included into YOBCs.'
'Whats that?'
'Yet other backward castes, they'll include many castes which were not included in ODCs'
'But what about the certificate we got made for him?'
'I guess that will have to be destroyed'
'So that means hell get a good education and legally'
'Yes'
'But then isn't Rajesh eligible too?'
'Yes, but then he has his mother'
'Yaa I really can't believe someone who believes in hardwork and ability in this age and time?'
Somehow he detected a hint of sarcasm in Shanti's voice but let it go. She got back to her housework while he got back to his paper.
'Shanti, did you read the editorial. Just listen to this the joker says says' I do believe it is time to base the reservations on the basis of the census and give equal opportunity to the NBCs' Equal opportunity? what about all the suffering we went through?'
Shanti was oddly silent, probably she hadn't heard his remark
He picked up the paper and muttered under his breath 'Reservation for NBCs, I tell you one day this country will go to the dogs.'
curtain closes
