Sanjith Rao

 November 2020 With France reimposing lockdown restrictions, closing universities, and restricting people's movement to just 1 hour per day, I decided to fly back to India. My rationale was simple; rather than attending online classes in a foreign city, with no roommates, no extra-curricular activities during which I would have usually interacted with people, and it being illegal to meet anyone you are not living with, it made more sense to return to a safer environment in which I could enjoy more freedom, as Bangalore was in a pretty good state, at least compared to France.  While waiting to board my flight at Charles de Gaulle Airport, I was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram and came across a post published by the Bangalore International Centre . Clickbait-ly titled  'MUN Ki Baat'  (for those who don't get the reference: PM Modi has a monthly radio show called 'Man Ki Baat'), it piqued my curiosity, and I found myself watching a recording of it. When I in...

Ask anyone, and I can guarantee that they will have a story (and in most cases, many stories) about their trip, or rather, numerous trips to the RTO for something as simple as getting a Learner's License (LL) or a Driver's License (DL). In this blog, I hope to make your life a tad bit easier by guiding you through the entire process, which may seem easy at first but is full of (overcome able) challenges if you know what you are doing. I turned 18 in January this year, and besides cutting a cake, I worked on my LL application online. I challenged myself to complete the entire LL to DL process by myself and without the help of an agent or a driving school, unlike what the majority do. The lengthy application process and multiple visits to the RTO, impressed upon me why most people decided to pay a little extra to get an agent to do it for them. Still, I was determined not to pay a single rupee more than the official cost. I succeeded.  Do note that this answer is concerning the K...

Similar to the Vande Bharath Mission that was launched by the Indian Government to repatriate Indian nationals stranded abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic (when regular flight operations were banned across the country), the Government of India launched the much-needed project to enable reverse-migration of its nation's most destitute - our migrants. Migrant labourers who are typically from rural parts of India, due to a loss of income, livelihood, coupled with a fear of catching the virus and 'wanting to die at home', began walking back to their villages, at times 1000s of kilometres away. With all trains and buses ceasing operations, their journey was on foot, in back of trucks, and has resulted in many deaths. At the same time, it has shown their grit and determination with heart-breaking stories of people like the 15-year-old girl who cycled 1200 km with her father to reach home. After not even acknowledging the problem for over a month, the Government launched special...

Updates as of last editing this blog: The Supreme Court has asked CBSE to consider scrapping exams. CISCE has issued a press release making exams optional. The petitioner in the Bombay HC, represented by Adv. Arvind Tiwari raised concerns about the transparency of the formula based marking process. They have stressed on the need to be fair and transparent. The methodology to assess one's marks will be finalised, hopefully by Saturday (21st June, 2020), and shared with schools on Saturday. The same will be heard in court on Monday (23rd June, 2020). A communication regarding the extension of dates will be sent to all Principals today. ------------------ It's been almost 3 months. 3 long months since the Council for Indian Secondary Education (CISCE) abruptly postponed all remaining ICSE and ISC exams indefinitely. Barely 3 hours before the commencement of my  last  ever school exam, CISCE saw it fit to postpone our exams indefinitely and provided no clarity ...

Sciences Po has been my dream college since tenth grade. I made a radical shift in the first half of tenth grade and decided to drop culinary arts as my career choice and focus on politics and international relations. Sciences Po was the obvious choice.  What made Sciences Po lucrative in the eyes of an Indian (international) student like me? Their interdisciplinary program that does not restrict you to just Politics/ IR/ Economics/ Sociology etc. I have to choose my major in my third semester which gives me time to experience the different fields and make a suitable choice, Their teaching methodologies (seminars/ lectures, civic projects, small-sized classrooms for discussions etc.) All English courses - I must specify this because not all universities In France/ Europe teach in English. Even in Sciences Po, only 3 out of their seven regional campuses teach in English at the UG level. The mandatory third year abroad at one of their 470 odd partner universities wh...

I began blogging in January 2010. I do not recall how exactly I started, but I remember that my parents were the reason. They prompted me to start blogging after I showed an interest in writing and web design (although admittedly, blogging involves minimal amounts of design skills). Over the last 10 years, I have been writing on and off, with my longest break lasting over a year. I have been quite regular over the last 3-4 years, and have been writing with an increased frequency in the last month because of the ongoing Coronavirus lockdown. This post is special because it is the 150th post to be published on my blog, so I decided to explain how and why I started, and what the course of the blog has been. For the first 6-7 years, I called myself 'Little Mairpady', because I despised the fact that my parents had omitted the ever-so-cool name 'Mairpady' from my surname (my Dad's full name is Rakesh Rao Mairpady Chandrashekhar). It was my way of expressing my ...

I have been noticing a new trend of podcasting which seems to be gaining a lot of traction. In this day and age when people's patience and ability to read long texts is slowly diminishing, podcasts are unarguably a brilliant way to disseminate information. I recorded myself without a pre-written script. Further, please ignore the minimal amounts of ambient noise. This is an amateur attempt at making a podcast and has been made with entry-level recording tools (read: basic earphones with mic). This 3 part series deals with the history and personal anecdotal experiences of filing an RTI under the RTI Act, 2005. Part 1 deals with the history and introduction. Part 2 is with respect to an RTI filed on the expenses incurred on the MPLADS by P.C Mohan, MP from Bengaluru South. Part 3 is an RTI filed on the legality of the Aadhaar card as date of birth (DOB) proof in the Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) of Karnataka. Please note that you will be redirected to a third party we...

A few months ago in school, we learnt about the relationship between Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy. The prescribed ISC textbook did not provide an adequate explanation. However, my teacher was kind enough to share an article penned by Gautam Bhatia, an eminent Constitutional lawyer, and author who is most famously known for his book, 'The Transformative Constitution'. Below, I have written a summary/ my notes of the article penned by him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The constitution was not drafted with an intention for Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles to be related. There was a clear division between the two; Fundamental Rights were enforceable, and remedies existed to ensure the protection of those Rights. On the contrary, Directive Principles were un-enforceable and more ‘guiding’ in nature. The DPSPs were only politically relevant b...

You can read part 1 here . What I have learnt over the last two years Privilege: The concept of privilege that is realizing the benefits you unknowingly has has changed me. It is a topic I have often referred to recently on my blogs. It has made me more aware of myself and shaped my political ideology. You can read about it here , an article that is a copy-paste of one of my essays that I submitted during the Ashoka University application process.  Time management - Work/ Life Balance A vast majority of people I know/ knew lacked either time management or having a work/life balance.  Concerning time management, people do not realise the amount of time they have. Friends and classmates (and even a member on the Sciences Po interview panel) have been surprised about how much time I have (to spend time with them or engage in a particular activity), considering my extra-curriculars, (recreational) sports, academics, voluntary work schedule etc. Although I often ...