7/22/2014

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The Times of India
Title : STRANGER THAN FICTION - Which actress is tallest, asks govt exam
Author : Sukanya.Satyan @timesgroup.com
Location :
Kochi:
Article Date : 07/21/2014
Incredible Stories From Incredible India
I was a focused threequarters of the way into the Combined Graduate Level exam conducted by the Staff
Selection Commission (SSC) on Sunday when I was distracted by this gem: Q: Who among the following
actresses is the tallest in height [sic]?
A: (a) Huma Qureshi (b) Katrina Kaif (c) Deepika Padukone (d) Preity Zinta Well, I ruled out Preity right away
but the remaining three posed a problem.
Anyway , I finally ticked (c) Deepika Padukone as the tallest of the four ladies, though I did tiptoe for a moment
thinking of Huma. The moment of truth, of course, came after the test.
I love my Bollywood but my feminist sensibilities -not always on a sure footing, I must admit -were ruffled: how
could an all-India examination, attempted by about 10 lakh people and purportedly meant to create efficient pub
lic servants, be judged on the basis of such trivia? As a proud, self-respecting south Indian woman, I am neither
size zero nor a walking advertisement for Fair & Lovely and that added to the insult.
What took the cake, how ever, was the question that ap peared in the General Intelli gence and Reasoning
section.
Two statements were given.
: First: All women are cats. Second: All cats are rats. There fore, the two possible conclu sions are: (a) All
women are rats or (b) All rats are women. There is a fine difference between the two but neither is exactly
complimentary to women. Comparing women to animals is unjustifiable, said Kerala Women's Commission
chairperson K C Rosakkutty .
But Kerala PSC chairman K S Radhakrishnan defended the `rat' question. It is to check the candidate's logical
reasoning, he said. It has nothing to do with the gender sensitivity of the person who prepared the question.
Such questions are generally directly taken from textbooks.