The Young India

 Kartikey Sehgal

I walk to the theatre and think that it’s not too much to ask for any man. Some security and movie-watching with your family.

“Tell me”, says Bhupinder while manoeuvring his auto-rickshaw through the police barricade, “won’t the terrorist simply take the bus?” A set of three policemen, huddled together, ask for the vehicles to slow down; the bus and heavy transport is let through without scrutiny. “The Police simply adds to traffic woes. In the morning they are…

Kartikey Sehgal

Not the camera but the actors move aplenty and intone and tell us about the epic victory of theatre actors over film actors.

You’d imagine that the director had fun making this movie. Then you’d read about his hardships and how he had to mortgage or sell property to obtain some money. Then you’d think that this was a difficult movie to make, full of sacrifices. But let me tell you, the director had fun and so did the actors.…

Kartikey Sehgal

Read the first part on this page
The respondent is unconcerned about the topic. She is unaware of discussions on casteism and racism in the media. She tells me that there are many like her; they have belief in dharma and don’t bother about what allegations others put on their way of living. Often I have to reconfirm what she says;  “there was lots of bloodshed between the brahmins and kshatriyas” where bloodshed means that the boy’s…

Kartikey Sehgal

I came upon this information during a conversation on casteism. The lady told me, “There has never been much caste problem in my home town [Jammu] )".

She continued:

“We recently discovered that a family belonging to the shudra caste is actually a brahmin family. The ____ (surname) were brahmins at one time and shifted to a lower caste probably to defend themselves.”

Here’s the backdrop; two families in Jammu have been friends for many decades thought they are from…

Kartikey Sehgal

A walk to Dr. Ambedkar’s memorial prompts thoughts on ‘dalitism’.

Did Siddhārtha envisage Indian Buddhism as a sect of people bickering about the validity and significance of a particular famous leader? Or a sect that frowns upon and overtly discourages a boy and a girl from holding hands? If we consider Buddhism as a religion without rites and if then outlaw ‘couples’ then doesn’t it become a religion of rites; that one rule spawning several other rules about public decency…

Kartikey Sehgal
–Drugs and economic disparity in the Indian home of the Dalai Lama. Standalone story. Other parts of the series here.

“Hey gorgeous, nice shoes”, they call out to a foreigner who is wearing shining dark red shoes. She turns to look at them; “thanks”. As a rule, the duo avoids complementing Indian women and any woman with a man. “Hey baby! You look beautiful” and “Wow, you are lovely”, they call out to women in their…

Kartikey Sehgal
–Drugs and economic disparity in the Indian home of the Dalai Lama
A standalone story. Part One and Part Two of the series.

McLeodganj, with its constant buzz of commerce may not be comfortable for everybody. On all the streets you see some hapless faces calling out to you to buy their products. There are noticeably no beggars but the sellers—especially some of the Indian locals—have little self-respect; some of them try to trick…

Kartikey Sehgal

Read the first half here.

–Drugs and economic disparity in the Indian home of the Dalai Lama

continued…
“If you have the money, you can buy anything here”, says Manoj and feels strongly about the drug problem especially because it affects the local Indians more than it affects the Tibetans.

I have already learned from some locals about the rules of selling the drugs. You have to approach the vendors. If you are a foreigner then…