Do we need Reservation?

Foreword: After having read numerous articles on the issue, never had an intention to write anything on this. But as I had to write on the topic, so thought of posting the same.

All of us step out of the premises of our school into the real world with a dream. A dream that we feed and nurture throughout our school going days and for the fulfillment of which we are willing to put in all that it takes. But to our surprise we find that in the wide wide world out there, there are thousands others who aspire for the same dream with as much diligence and who have put in as much effort, if not more, to see it being fulfilled. So now we get prepared to participate in the race to find a niche` for ourselves. It is always a pleasure to participate in such a race where you find several others equally dedicated as yourself to achieve the esteemed prize. It brings out the best in you, and unfortunately, even if you happen to lose such a race you are rest assured that the best has taken your place; and that you need to groom yourself to fit the position. But what if in the same race and competing for the same position there are competitors who are several notches below you in all respects that eventually matter, and are being served your much sought-after dream in a silver platter? At the start of the race you find them alongside you and as and when the race progresses you leave them behind, so far behind that you are definitely assured of your victory over them. But quite astonishingly when the race is complete you find that they have won the race and have beaten you. Why? It is then that you get to know that inspite of the fact that both of you have begun the race from the same point, his destination was much shorter than yours, so much shorter that even though you left him far behind he reached his mid-way destination much earlier than you reached your final one. The dream of your life being snatched away from your very hands and being offered to someone less deserving than you. You are being cheated right in front of everyone and there is no one that you can complain to, just because cheating itself is the rule of the game. What is your reaction then? How do you feel of this injustice done to you? Your blood begins to boil, you feel betrayed, you feel disheartened and eventually give up your dream falsely taking respite in the thought that you were not cut-out for the hallowed position and replenish your mind with aspirations of a different stature. But again there in no saying if this may not be the case in that field as well.

This is precisely very much what is happening to the present educational system of our country. Deserving students are having to step away quite ungenerously just to accommodate for the ones who feel it is their right to be represented in every field of excellence, no matter even if they have any or not. Considering the fact that the backward classes may not have the financial means to afford a proper education, it is commendable on the part of the government to think of having a certain amount of reservation for them so that their overall status is upgraded. But should this not be done at a more grass-root level of education? The more higher up the ladder you go the more it directly affects the country's output. It is very well understood if the backward classes are being favored during their primary and secondary level of education, but if the same is done at a stage where the next immediate step is to get into a job, it is ultimately the company and their job that will be compromised just for the sake of seeing to their welfare. As it is India is still a developing country but lately she has been doing quite good in bringing up her relative status when compared to the other Asian countries. What would happen if the output of this country now gets adulterated? Very naturally it would once again fall down from the position which it has reached with the efforts and sheer hard work of thousands of fellow Indians. Making accommodation for someone at the Masters level who is not sound enough academically in his undergraduate level itself would be a sheer wastage of resources and not right on the part of the government to be snatching away the opportunity from someone more deserving.

Let us have a look as to how did this reservation system creep into our Constitution. It all started in Mysore in 1921, when all the communities were allowed to be represented in public services, save the Brahmins. The reason that was given for this kind of a preference was that of lack of proper education. Gradually this community took the form of being called “Socially and Economically backwards”; and the local governments were given the task to decide as to who could genuinely be considered as belonging to the above category. This was initially to be done only for five years since its inception, on the insistence of Gandhiji. But at the end of five years, due to the absence of Gandhiji it never came to its promised end. The successive Governments had no political will to stop this and other than just postponing this deadline kept on adding more and more communities into the reservation category. There was a time when everyone other then the Brahmins were considered as “Socially and Economically backwards”. So on looking at its history, we find that the initial thought going in on coming up with such an act was not as ill-intentioned as it has taken shape now. Had it still been the case where the genuine “Socially and Economically backwards” were being given a considerable percentage of reservation, the matter would not have been so out of hand. But over the years it has so been the case that the OBCs having taken advantage of the reservation being provided to them, have upgraded their standards of living to such higher levels that they no longer belonged to the “Socially and Economically backwards” category. But as is the rule of our Constitution - once an OBC, always an OBC. They still enjoy their status. Why doesn't our Government consider the fact that a “needy”-OBC half-a-decade earlier might not still be a “needy”-OBC now?

In view of the bill that has been in news lately, 27 per cent reservation being added for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to the existing 22.5 per cent reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), it is clearly evident that it is being proposed as a measure to ensure the votes of all the OBCs of the country in the following elections. How do they ever justify such a high percentage of reservation and that too in the premier institutes of the country which play such a significant role in portraying an image of the country's education as a whole? Statistically speaking, around 36 per cent of the country's population is defined as belonging to the OBC according to the National Sample Survey (NSS), 1999-2000. While the percentage of reservation that is being granted is 49.5 If this is not absurd enough, all the castes/classes where the proportion of working women is 25 per cent higher than the state's average are being considered as OBC. Which means to say that had the double-income families being staying in any of these areas they would have been considered as OBCs irrespective of how much they earned. This is how the Mandal Commission seems to have reached the number of OBCs as being 52 per cent. According to NSS / NHFS(National Family Health Statistics), a 27 per cent reservation for the OBCs will cover three-fourths of their community.

All said and done, I would like to say that having reservation is in no way an evil as long as the interest of the general category is kept in mind. Giving the “Socially and Economically backwards” an equal opportunity to upgrade themselves will in turn bring up the living standards of our country. But it should be ensured that this privilege is not being misused in any way whatsoever. It should be strictly seen to it that reservation is given to a person who is really in need for it lest to someone who belongs to an OBC category and enjoys all the luxuries of what life has to offer. The percentage of reservation has to be kept low so as to ensure that it does not affect the general category students to a great deal. As it is their welfare is being looked into at the cost of the rest, but all would be well if it does not go on to hamper the general interests of the Other Castes.

Back again!

Ok so back to my dear ol' blog again! Its been a long long time since my last post. I would never have dreamt myself to be thinking of jotting down some crap after this long a lapse, not atleast this early. There are moments when you do certain things just for the heck of it, no matter even if it goes against your will. This is just one of those fruitful moments that has got the better of me.

Time has flown. Things have changed. But one that hasn't is me still struggling to wade through this sea of change. Things spring upon me so suddenly that it always manages to get me unawares, and while I'm busy working hard to fight it through, I fail to notice whats about to hit me next right on my face. So, Life has become a constant struggle for me, but then that is what it is to most of us I guess.

Last that I saw of my Blog was when I was upto my neck in my CAT preps and Sem pressure(if I may call it so :)). Its been almost a year since then and a lot has changed. The CAT giving me a taste of what it is all about. My sem getting screwed up as always, only thing this time I have a seemingly justifiable reason to defend myself(not that I really need one). So all that I've been doing lately is get my nose deeply buried in novels of all kinds, a full load of them. Its quite a respite that you find in them when all your avenues are blocked in some way or the other.

It was quite an experience for me this time to see all my batch mates preparing for their btp presentation. Sweating it out with their wholesole efforts to put up a good show. It was only and only me of the whole batch who had nothing to do but to have a balcony view of all that was unfolding in front of my very eyes. People getting screwed badly by the panel members, some badly, some very badly and a few unlucky ones...do I need to say. And all that I used to do throughout the day was to find out what had happened to each and every group during their presentation. Listening to all of their experiences, some sour, some sweet, was something to cherish especially when your a** is off the hook :P. It felt as if I was some media reporter being sent to cover the experiences of all the btp guys of our batch.

Anyways, me being a part of the very batch, even my "Judgement Day" is not very far-off. The only saving grace is that in my case, the strength of the audience when I return from my Agnipariksha will be just a handful of guys who have much better things to do in life than to listen to the sob story of a poor guy who just got himself torn apart by a handful of hoodlums and to add to it when I recount my experience to the whole lot they might not as well afford to lie back and put up a grin on their visages with their a**es hot on the line.

My first fag

Date: 31st May, 2005
Time: 9:57 p.m.
Venue: DA-IICT Hostel, Terrace
Company: ***CENSORED***

Now half of the guys reading this would be thinking, "one more to join the club" whereas the other half might be shrugging off their shoulders with the thought, "one more youth down the drain".

But why can it not be somewhere in between? Why can one not just take a puff or two(or a fag or two, for that matter) just for the sake of satisfying ones inherent curiosity which takes birth and gets nutured, thanks to the company around you, to the extent that you get somehow compelled enough to kill it before it threatens to harm you in any way. It is all about what is it that drives you. If you let the curiosity take the lead and have its way with you, you might be looking for trouble brewing up in the near future. But if you let your conscience do the driving and you manage to hold-on to its reins, then there is not much to fear of other than that of crossing those mental-blocks which one usually creates just to make sure they do not fall into the wrong track. But I see no harm in going slightly out of the way in satisfying your curiosity than to yearn for it throughout your life.

This reminds me of a small tale -
There used to be two friends, one of whom was a regular worshipper of God and followed all the rules and regulations laid by his religion quite strictly. While the other was quite the opposite. He used to follow the lead of his desires without giving second thoughts to his religious principles or anything of that sort that governs the well-being of a person. Not stretching it too long, I'd just point out that when both of them had to face an unfortunate accident and succumbed to their injuries, the person who used to be governed by his desires was sent to Heaven while the one who spent the whole of his life in worshipping was sent to Hell.

This infuriated the latter to no end. So he approached God with his complaint, to know what had he done wrong and what had his friend done right to have to face such consequences. God replied him saying, "Its true, you have been worshipping me throughout your life and have devoted all your time and efforts in my name but all the time that you were doing it your attention was towards your friend who used to enjoy whole day long and make the best of his time in every manner possible. So you longed to spend away your time like him and did all that you did for me just for the sake of completing your duty to attain karma after death. whereas your friend though has whiled away his life in deeds which one would not approve of but all the time that he was doing them his attention was towards you and he used to constantly think of Me. He used to regret for doing what he used to do and wished he could spend some time like you in my worship. So eventually no matter what both of you have done on the exterior, but from within your concentration was towards him and his was towards you."

In relating this tale, my intention is not for you to start worshipping God day-in and day-out and all that sort. What I'm trying to bring out is that, its not always the deed that matters but the intention behind it and the driving force that compels you to comit it. As long as one is aware of its consequences and has a control over his desires all goes fine. Just shying away from it will keep you longing for it all the more. Rather satisfy your curiosity and then try to steer away from it if you so wish.

Hailstones in Gujarat!

Yes you've got it right, I mean H-A-I-L stones. Even I was shocked today when all of a sudden I was hit by a tiny piece of icicle during the violent storm in the evening when I was busy enjoying one of those rare sights of Nature which one seldom gets to witness staying in Gujarat and especially in this scorching summer.

Until a few hours earlier it was so damn hot and sunny that we couldn't even open our windows to let some breeze flow in. All of us were frustrated of the excessive heat as usual and were literally drenched in sweat just staying in the room itself, under the fan with the hot air in the room not having the slightest of an occasion to complete the cycle by letting it get replaced by some comparitively less-hotter air. Before we knew it, the climate outside got quite cloudy, slightly dark and breezy beyond imagination. Those were the first indications of the possibility of an ensuing rain to grace us mere mortals with its divine presence. But who the hell would have had the guts to bet on the odds in its favour. Not me, not anyone who has had an experience of the summer what the State has to offer for three whole years. But when lightning rent the air and the first drops of rain hit against our window pane, all our inherent expectations rose sky high which until now atleast I wasn't banking upon just for the fear of being let down in the end. Needless to say, there was no stopping now. Everyone in their lives must have experienced certain moments when they did not have the need for reason or logic to support their inherent feelings, something which more than having to do with sheer common sense simply relied on faith and belief. This was just one of those moments.

With smile on our lips and hearts full of joy, my roomy - Gupt, Sri Ram, Nagarjuna and myself went out to the corridor to witness this unusual event and encourage Nature with all our possible might. The sight was eligible enough to meet all our expectations and, I should say, also go beyond them. The cool breeze was blowing with so full of vigour that had Kilari (owner of Hidalgo) been unfortunate enough to get caught in it with nowhere to take refuge of, he would have undoubtedly been swept off his feet by Mother(Err.... misleading expression actually) Nature. Anyways coming back to what I was saying, the sight was so enthralling with the flower petals blowing off in the wind, the rain falling in sheets and layers, the sweet smell of wet soil renting the air and droplets of water sprinkling onto our faces that all of us could think of only one thing in unison, a camera. Instead of enjoying the moment's glory, we in some corner of our heart were depressed of letting the moment slip out of our hands. We very desperately wanted to capture it and retain it for the rest of our lives. Hardly do you get to witness such events and re-living such moments of the past can be quite nostalgic at times. While all this was happening, even Gandhi and Atul Sethi joined us by now, Nagarjuna suddenly pointed out a small piece of ice and shrieked with excitement. I couldn't believe my eyes at first unless what happened the very next moment that encouraged me to share this experience in my Blog. Another such small icicle hit me on my feet. I picked it up and looked at it in astonishment. A hailstone falling from the sky onto the soil of Gujarat in the summer was something like me achieving a pass grade in RFE, well not quite a comparision actually, a hailstone in Gujarat might not be all that unlikely afterall.

One of the seniors beckoned Sethi to enjoy the rain in the open. Gupt went back to the room to format his PC which was burdened with softwares of all sorts he deemed handy for his numerous projects last sem. The rain got more intense gradually and so we had to exit the corridor except Sri Ram who seemed to have been so mesmerized by the sight that he subjected himself to some sort of a trance.

To Kill A Mocking Bird : A Review

The story is set in a little town of Maycomb, Alabama 1932 during the Depression Era in the United States. The narrative is in the perspective of a little girl, named Jean Lousie Finch aka. Scout. The central idea of the novel is to depict the racial discrimination prevalent in those days and while at it, the author tries to delve deep into the heart of the reader and probe those hidden territories which one seldom has the leisure to explore oneself.

It is a story of two innocent children who come into close encounters of the harsh world they live in as they grow up. A Negro is shown to be falsely accused of rape and finally convicted inspite of the evidence going in his favour, only because it happened to cross the mind of a so-to-seem respected “White” lady to seduce a physically challenged “Black” who, on the contrast, used to feel obliged even to come of a minor service to her free-of-charge. This disturbs the conscience of Scout and her elder brother, Jem who haven’t yet got accustomed to such injustice shown to the inferior race which comes as something so obvious to the adult world that they have long since, stopped brooding over such trifle matters. The author has in quite uncertain terms made it clear that the mind of an 8 year old is capable of perceiving something which fails to penetrate the dense gray-matter of the aged, over-burdened with experience that seems to take the place of sheer common sense. The following dialogue between Jem and his father, Atticus manages to catch the essence quite well.

Jem enquiring in a melancholy mood as to how could such injustice be allowed to be done against a Black,
Jem: “How could they do it, how could they?”
Atticus: “I don’t know, but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it—seems that only children weep. Good night.”

There are also a few parallel stories running along, one of which is about their neighbour, Boo Radley who never comes outdoors and has ended up being a local scare to the children of the neigbourhood. Eventually when he does appear in public with his ashen-white complexion and his not-so-social nature, Scout quite easily adjusts with him inspite of the prejudices she’s been brought up with against him. Only if we adults could get over our own prejudices that easily enough…

There are many such instances which induce the reader to stop and think for a while. Its slow narration has been at times criticized but had it not been slow what different would it be from the fast-paced world we live in where a moment’s idle thought could cost us a fortune according to the measures of wealth set by us.

The book went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1960.


Courage - is when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. -Atticus

Happiness!!!

It often makes me wonder as to what exactly makes us "Happy". Is it with what we are living at the present? Is it what is about to happen to us in the coming future or Is it what has happened to us in the recent past? I'm sure Happiness cannot be categorised as such in any of these ways. It depends from person to person and Ofcourse a lot on the situation at hand.

But coming to think of its counterpart viz. Sadness, which more so often tends to fill the lives of individuals who quite interestingly are the ones who desperately look out for in search of Happiness throughout their lives, If we ask ouselves the same question once again as to what is it that makes us sad, we most often than not realize that it is mostly because of things which are either going to happen in the future or that which has already happened in the past that makes us feel remorsed.

Now things that have already gone by in the past cannot be undone and just by feeling bad about it will not change the situation. So why ever worry and spoil your Present?
While that which is about to take place in the future has not yet occurred at all. Who knows, by the time it is bound to happen your stars might show some pity on you and relieve you of your tensions and just in case they are in the right place (as the astrologers say, no pun intended ;) ) they might also turn in your favour. And then when its time for you to be happy you'd instead regret of having worried about it at all. So you see, its not that Sadness is haunting you as if you are some hot chick. Its simply that you aren't letting Happiness seep into your life just for the sake of your concern for either your Past or your Future.

We all must have heard our parents say umpteen number of times to concentrate on our education and study real hard so that our future is bright and we do not have to face any sort of problems whatsoever later in our lives. Parents are quite well known in saying that all the hard work is just upto 10th and once we Graduate our life would be easy and all that crap (donno how everyone's parents manage to make up the same ol' stuff) . So we study with all our might just to make sure that we have a better and bright future. Then when we complete our Graduation we ourselves realize, though sometimes quite late, that we have to study well to land up with a decent enough job so that we are able to spend a Happy life "ever after". Finally when it comes to the moment of your life when you earn the fat bucks for which you got your ass roasted like anything and also have a family of your own, you would definitely want to save up to the utmost either for your own or your child's future. You do not remind yourself of the days when you took such a lot of pain to be in the position that you are in right now so that you could enjoy the luxuries of life. All that you see is your Future ahead of you. It is not "Now" that matters to you, it is the Future that counts.

So basically throughout our lives all that we do is to take life the hard way and face all its attrocities in full fury just to see a better Future. The sort of Future which you unfortunately never happen to have only because at every juncture in your life you always have a Future ahead of you. The only moment when you don't see one is when you are in your death-bed. This is when you lie down reminiscing your past and regret of the times when you stepped back from following your sheer instincts just for the sake of what you thought would be your Future. You never had a period in your life which you could regard as happy only because all you cared about was the life ahead of you. You were ready to face as many hardships as possible to see a "Golden Future".

It is like standing at the sea shore and watching the horizon miles ahead of you. You set out to reach it without giving the oncoming waves a second thought. You keep drowning yourself as you go but you still keep going in the hope of reaching the horizon that lies in front of your eyes. Ultimately the waves engulf you and you no more see your destination ahead of you. All that you see is Death, right in front of your eyes taking you in its grasp and snatching away from you the horizon that you set to reach out for. But hardly do you realise the fact that as you were moving ahead even your destination was moving away from you. That is why you call it a "Horizon". This is what happens if we wish to build that "Golden Future" for ourselves. The Future that we never succeed to get our hands on. The Future will always remain a Future untill we try to accept that it is the Present that was once a Future long back. It is the Present that we should try to be Happy in.

Once we begin to accept this fact life becomes beautiful to live in. Everything around you seems perfect. No matter what comes your way, you either regard it as your Past or attribute it to your Future and stay Happy in the Present. This is true Happiness. You no more run after it as you used to. It is with you for ever and ever and ever...


This reminds me of one of Kabir's famous Doha:

Dukh mein sumiran sub kare,
sukh mein kare na koi.
Jo sukh mein sumiran kare,
use dukh kahe ko hoy.

Two-Child norm going against Child-Sex Ratio!!!

Could you ever fathom that the 'two-child norm' could ever have anything to do with the CSR (child sex ratio)?

Atleast I couldn't and neither could the Women's Organisations and the Health Forums who were the ones to suggest for the norm in the first place. But when looked at it at a microscopic level the relation becomes quite evident.

Men or women who were found violating the two-child norm were disqualified from holding a public post in the State and were not even provided with the right to contest an election, not that because they crossed the limits of reasonablity, but it was done in the best interests of the Nation. This led things to such a pathetic level that men started registering their child in the name of their brothers, polyandry became prevalent and in some cases men also dumped their wives just to retain their post under the Govt. These incidents did go against the well-being of the society but they were yet overlooked just for the sake of the Nation's future.

But recent studies have shown that there is a very strong possibility that the country's population was being stabilized at the cost of female lives. People in the want of a male child commit female foeticides just to ensure that they do not violate the two-child norm. So ulitimately it is the female population that is being harmed in the name of 'Population Control'.

This has been realized quite recently and measures are being taken to do away with the two-child norm altogether. Quite ironically it is the Women's Organisations once again who are desperately trying to redo their self-imposed norm. It was the recognition of this link between the one-child policy and the decreasing CSR that compelled the Chinese Govt to abandon the one-child per family norm.

All seems to be fine on the surface, a mistake trying to be rectified. But what about the booming population now? You can no more impose rules on the public on ethical grounds. So finally the decsion is vested upon us. It is us who should have the right judgement of taking the right decision without hard-and-fast rules being imposed upon. If the Govt. can be caring enough to see to it that the Nation's interests are not overriding the Public sentiments. It becomes our moral responsibility to give the country's future a fair bargain.

The Sum Of All Fears

What do you do when you are sitting in an examination hall supposed to be attempting a paper which is as unfamiliar to you as would a script in an alien language be? This is what happened to me a few days back when I had to face the inevitable turmoil of having to attend the MLA quiz. Attended the class after about a month or so and was naturally oblivious as to what was going on presently. Hope my experience helps in getting students like me out of such knotty situations.

So here goes the situation:
You are not expected to raise your head and glance around if you are to retain your, so-to-seem *illusory* dignity and self-respect. Even if you give it a damn, you'd atleast not want to come to the limelight for an embarrasing deed of yours.
You cannot simply sit and blankly stare at the paper and do nothing as in that case you would immediately catch the attention of the Invigilator(who quite incidentally also happens to be your Instructor for the course), who is either just on your right or on your left everytime you look out for him.
You cannot just scribble anything that comes to your mind as that would leave a negative impression on the Examiner(who to confirm your worst fears is once again that same Instructor of the course) while evaluating the paper.
Oh Yes! even the last possible sane thing that you are now thinking of is also sealed. What the hell do you think would be discussed behind your back the moment you leave the room? And more importantly the Invigilator having nothing better to do would surely prefer browsing through your answer script once you have left, as all Invigilators do, just to have some sort of an Entertainment while he's catering to the undebatably most boring job that atleast I can ever think of. Needless to say, he would be least entertained by your answer script as you need to have some text in ink which were supposed to be solutions according to you, the fact remains, you need to have 'some matter' whatsoever. The devoid of which could irritate him to the extent that he makes a mental note of you.

So now you are in a stale-mate condition wherein any move of yours could go against you. You can't look around, you can't sit idle, you can't scribble bullshit and neither can you call it a day. What do you do???

Now this is what I propose out of my experience. The key to the whole game is to play it smart. The whole idea is to remain inconspicuous to the Invigilator. True! there are constraints but the point to ponder upon is do they still remain a constraint when considered collectively? To be more apt, the constraints, if rephrased more intelligently would directly lead us to the solution.
Lets look at them once again.

You cannot look around: Is it true? If you look around once will you catch the attention of the Invigilator? Not necessarily. Twice? I don't think so. Thrice? Now Now don't stretch your luck too much!

This shows the constraint is not a constraint in entirety. It does have certain allowances. These are the allowances that a shrewd student should be able to bank upon.

Lets re-list the constraints in a more precise manner.

• You cannot look around - all the time.
• You cannot sit idle - all the time.
• You cannot scribble meaninglessly - for all the questions.
• You cannot be the first one to leave the room.

See the way out now? Its as simple as that. Just juggle with your options in a manner which does not call for attention. Look around for a while, sit and stare blankly at the paper for a while as if you are attempting - The Physics Olympiad, where immaculate concentration is the name of the game, you can also take the chances of scribbling something meaningless on the paper as long as you feel it is reasonably within the threshold limit of the Evaluator. This way you'll be able to pass away the time without grabbing the attention of the Invigilator. You are not constantly doing something weird to strike-out as a sore thumb out of the whole lot.

Finally arises the question of returning to the pavilion. As discussed earlier, you do not fancy the Invigilator to browse through your answer script once you have left the room and all the same you are eager to leave the hall as early as possible without catching attention. The best solution I propose is, wait until a couple of guys have submitted their paper and then leave exactly when someone gets up to submit his/her own and see to it that you are the first to hand it over to the Invigilator. This way two things are taken care of. Firstly you are not the first to leave the hall and secondly the chances for the Invigilator to have a look at your paper are quite bleak as the person who has got up to submit his/her paper will have submitted it immediately after yours. So now that paper would be at the top of the sheaf(fingers crossed!).

This is precisely what I had done to escape the attrocities of 'having-to-do-absolutely-nothing'. That was the first time I realized doing 'absolutely nothing' is a tiresome job in itself. And once you engage yourself in doing so you can no more be attributed of doing "Nothing". Infact what you are doing is "to do Nothing" which if you believe me is a more burdensome job than to score the highest in the paper(in this case it was 18/20, scored by my dear friend Blast, who quite coincidentally was sitting right in front of me. This made me realize I wasn't doing my job right orelse the look-around part might have taken care of my plight.)

You must have realized the relevance of the title by now. The proposal that I have put forward is to pool up all the minute Fears that crosses one's mind into one large heap and then manipulate them to your own advantage. So the next time you attend an examination just for the sake of attending it and are in more-or-less the same situation as I was in, do not forget to try and implement my tried-and-tested method of "The Sum Of All Fears".

ALL THE BEST!!!