The Young India

Kartikey Sehgal

It is absolutely fine if you do not vote in the coming elections. Asking you to vote compulsorily is like enforcing a caste system.

Consider the Jaago Re ad on television in which a ‘young’ man and his friend offer tea to people who have not cast their vote. You are sleeping-he tells them. When they retort that they are awake, the man says that if on Election Day people are not voting then they are obviously sleeping. The embarrassed/awakened people then accept the cup of tea as the two young men walk confidently amidst the crowd.

Compulsory voting is subterfuge.

Kartikey Sehgal

I met the poet Gulzar some days before he was nominated for the Oscar award. We were at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) that was hosting a theatrical adaptation of his writings on Indo-Pak border issues titled ‘Lakeerein‘.

“Would Pakistan have allowed such a performance in its theatres?”
“Is the polity there as embracing as it is here?”

Crimson

For a few moments every week, I allow myself the luxury of slipping into my make-believe world where you and I can pretend that the rest of the world ceases to exist, where I can pretend you are only mine. It might have just been a candid conversation for you when you told me how exactly you felt about me. But it tossed me onto a whole new plane of thought and imagination. Yes, it broke the illusion of platonic love with the opposite sex. Yes, it took away from the innocence of our friendship.

Kartikey Sehgal

About the personal and cultural disintegration of a tribal village

There is a small tribal village in India. Malathi belongs to this village. The women here are happier than women in Delhi.

After puberty, Malathi was inducted into the village dormitory where she learnt weaving, knitting and other arts from the elder women and men. She also learnt the art of love-making through practice. By the time she was out of the dormitory, she was sexually and socially confident. Unlike the city girls, Malathi and her friends did not face ‘growing-up problems’ or ‘attitudinal disorders’ that lead you to the psychologist.

Kartikey Sehgal

An introduction to the story “The Lost Tribe” that talks about personal and cultural disintegration.

Celebrated and ‘you must read’ author Mahasweta Devi says through the newspaper ‘The Age Mumbai’ (The Asian Age):

“It’s time to bust the myth and sieve the fact from fancy. In my opinion, the adivasi women are more liberated in their lifestyles. Their (sic) might be a threat of promiscuity* but the fairer sex can willingly go for independent weddings, divorce, and even take recourse to remarriage after separation from their former spouse.
There’s no question of dowry system at all. I think, we have more barriers in mind
to frame the straight-jacketed canons of society.”

Nimesh Advani and
Ipsita Bandyopadhyay

“Snapshot of memories” or simply an awry screenplay? Nimesh Advani and Ipsita Bandyopadhyay think differently about the movie ‘Delhi-6‘.

Nimesh [1 out of 4] writes that “…there are so many characters and so many sub plots that I was confused where to look next…”

Ipsita [3 out of 4] writes that “Do we remember dreams/childhood memories clearly? But some events, images, sights, sounds, smells stand out.”