While I was doing my graduation, I was a member of an youth association in my locality called “Ever Yours” where we used to conduct FREE classes for 10th, 11th and 12th students on all Sudays .  We also used to conduct yearly event with various competitions for the school students in and around our locality.

While I was ‘for reservation’ system in my country (though it was personally affecting me negatively in my education), the President of that association was against reservation system.  We had several debates about this and we never withdrew from our stand.

When I had enough experience in the organization, I was allowed to participate in the ‘Prize list decision meeting’ for the annual competitions where very few senior members took part.  In that, I found that many students from the same school used to score very high marks in all the competitions.  But while deciding the prizes, first prize went to that school student and second & third prizes went to other school students (who scored poor marks).  When asked about the logic behind the prize list, the President told me, ” Viru, if I give prizes to all the students from the same school, then from next year there won’t be any participation from other schools.  Also this prize will encourage students from those schools which doesn’t have similar environment as that of the ‘top performing school’.  We need to encourage those students to participate by giving some prize.”.

I understood his logic and accepted it.  It helped me easily explain my stand on ‘need for reservation system’.  But he was not willing to accept my logic (though he understood it).