The Young India

Kartikey Sehgal

[Why we celebrate Diwali: here and here.]

This Diwali, may you live up to your personal best.

When the road outside is lit with lamps and fireworks, may you find solace in your room with books and ideas. May you find solace anywhere you like.

May it be festive inside your self, so that when others greet you they don’t see decadence covered with a smile.

May you greet others with the entirety of confidence. You are not obliged to wish others. You can not change their life course with greeting cards and sweets. The best you can give them is your happiness.

Kartikey Sehgal
Journalists from Hindi and Marathi newspapers remarked that Raj Thackeray would be a good change for politics in Maharashtra. According to them, Raj never had problems with youngsters canoodling in beaches and parks. He planned to send his party men to the streets on February 14 to ensure safety for couples in love. He had also decided to protect shops selling Valentine cards and other ‘love’ merchandise irrespective of the owner’s religion or language. Raj wanted Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) to serve as an antidote to the partisan politics of Shiv Sena and thereby muster support of the people.

Kartikey Sehgal

[The author met actor Joy Sengupta who talked about his vision for Indian cinema.]

Joy Sengupta wants to develop films that cater to an international audience and the local Indian masses.

Movies should have fierce locality and a global vision. Movie watching should be an experience. It should make you grow from within.

That’s subject to movie-making…

That too should be an experience. Otherwise we’ll have masala films like *** and *** and ***. I am tired of Indian cinema that has been run over by Bollywood

Santa Singh

Some female acquaintances remarked that women have no reason to walk late at night and behave like **u** (the word) and attract attention.

I told them, “That’s because you want to get married and stay at home. You are working right now only to attract the highest earning man and make his home. All you are interested is in money and wealth.”

They didn’t respond and I continued casually.

“You can say that women can stay at home because you won’t mind doing so.
Of course, the home has to be wealthy and your friend circle influential.”

“You are a dog”

“You can’t get a girl yourself so you are…”

“You don’t know how to talk to girls”

Kartikey Sehgal

[The author visits a pandal during the Durga puja festival and appreciates the effort to make it an artistic event. Certain unconfirmed names have not been mentioned]

Festival is the celebration of culture. You don’t have to be an anthropologist to partake the songs, dances and Gods during the ongoing Durga Puja.

In the last three days, I have listened to Bengali music and listened to Rabindranath Tagore’s idea of music and literature.

Kartikey Sehgal

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s ‘talisman’, written just before his death in 1948, is popular and often finds its way in school books. It is often understood as

* The feeling of pity for the poor,

* A call for social service

* Absence of ego in humans.

Here is an interpretation that talks about the individual and her talents instead of a sense of pity for the society.