Desicritics Editors' Picks - May 22-28

Reservations/Quotas And The "Meaning of Merit" May 22, 2006- madhukar writes:

Does "merit" in modern educated urban India mean being totally oblivious and alienated from the current socio-political reality?... and remains confined to proactive action only under threats to "my job, my merit.... my lollipop!"? Or, in other words:
Is the anti-reservations sentiment among the educated urban Indians merely a morally justifiable "rang-de-basanti" peg on which one can hang one's sulking tantrums about the loss of monopoly on the traditional turf?

Writer's Notebook: Gettin' To Know You May 22, 2006 - Richard Marcus writes:

If you were to ask me if that were my intent when I set out, in truth, I don't know. Honesty forces me to admit that I had no stylistic plan at all; hell I didn't even have an outline. It was more along the lines of one long improvisation. I gave myself circumstances, a location, and developed characters as needed and created as I went.

Google Trends: The Great Desi Survey May 23, 2006 - Mayank 'Austen' writes:

Search engine Google recently launched Google Trends in which one can find out which city is searching most for which key word or phrase. This author sat down to trace some patterns. The results, based on the searches made in the year 2005, were unexpected.

So You Want To Be A Good Reviewer And Critic? May 25, 2006 - Mark Schannon writes:

Critics enjoy the work more because they understand how difficult it is to get all the elements to come together in a masterpiece, or they can see which elements failed which caused the piece to not be a masterpiece. Ask yourself, who would appreciate a jazz album more, Thelonius Monk or a five-year-old. (Note, I didn't say enjoy. Appreciate is an aesthetic experience, enjoy is a personal one.)

The Beggar and The Peanut Seller May 27, 2006 - The Hissing Saint writes:

The beggar looked up at him slowly and smiled...

"My dear friend we are both essentially doing the same thing...."

"We are both sellers ...albeit of different products."

"Look at the people who drop in their coins into my bowl...do you really think they do it because of pity?"

"Most of them are thinking to themselves, "I have done a good deed...god is going to bless me today."

"Ask these very people if they would so much as lift a finger to help me were I dying of cold or soaking in the pouring rain. And you say I live off the pity of people?"

Micro Opportunities in a Macro World May 27, 2006 - Soothsayer writes:

I have always been a proponent of empowering people through opportunity rather than charity, which makes their growth more organic rather than externally induced. The main avenue to reducing poverty in India in my opinion is a matter of providing incentives and opportunity rather than alms.