The Young India

Kartikey Sehgal
“I held his hand for a few seconds but the waves pulled him inside”, says Siddharth Patil, a lifeguard at Mumbai’s Aksa Beach at Mudh Island, where a man lost his life while swimming in high tide waves at around 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 26.

Siddharth was tired and angry after his attempt. “I had warned them twice to not go into the water but they are like animals; they don’t pay any heed to safety.” Siddharth claims that this is the first drowning in six months at the beach that is known for death by drowning.

Kartikey Sehgal

Development is an umbrella term that hides many truths. It assumes the status of progress and many times this assumption is kept out of the periphery of observations.

A common social and political rhetoric states that Mumbai is progressing. It implies that buildings are erected over slums, without any relocation or other plans for the slum dwellers. Thereby, the seeds of class conflict are sown.

One important progressive area of Mumbai is the stretch between Goregaon and Malad and it houses the well-known Inorbit Mall and the Mindspace complex that hosts several IT companies and BPOs. There is something special about this place.

Kartikey Sehgal
At the premiere show of the movie Dashavatar

The premiere show of the Hindi movie ‘Dashavatar’ was among the better organised movie screenings I have attended. Atul Tiwari, who has penned the Hindi dialogues for the film, was polite and patient with the invitees and happy over the release of the movie. Some months back he had remarked that he was very eagerly waiting for the movie to reach across to the Hindi speaking audience.

Kartikey Sehgal

“I feel like I have come to a jaggery market. My own stature has become like that of a common fly that tastes sweetness from one pack to another.”

Gulzar said that he was overwhelmed by the amount of praise he received from the different artists. I was at a private function where the eminent writer-filmmaker was honoured for winning the Oscar for “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire.

Kartikey Sehgal

A myth propounded by history-killers and aged freedom-fighter manuals is the enmity between pre-Independence leaders in India.

Subhash Chandra Bose and Mohandas Gandhi shared a healthy and principled relationship despite their opposing ideas on the relevance of violence. In effect, they were comrades in freeing India from British imperialism. Yet, it is not hard to come across learned men and women who speak of them as ‘almost-enemies’.

Kartikey Sehgal

Owing to the female mind’s impulse to test eye shadow and blush (cosmetic) on my face when I was in a hurry, I walked out of my home forgetting to wipe out the colourful powders from my face.

Few men looked at me. It’s not that I was looking funny; men, as is their nature, will look at anything that reminds them of women.

Many times, their inquisitiveness about your well-being and work-life is actually a ploy to know about the women in your life.

When men ask one another “so what do you do?” they mean to ask how many women you work with and if they are desirable.

Kartikey Sehgal

(Secularism implies no religious prejudice)

A short introduction about the condition of secularism–no party is ‘secular’–followed by responses to comments on the story It is Okay to Not Vote.

Introduction: The Present

In 1984, Congress was involved in the murder of Sikhs after the killing of Indira Gandhi.
More than twenty years later, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from the Congress party apologised to the Sikhs and the nation for the acts of the Congress.

In 2002, BJP was involved in the murder of Muslims. BJP’s Atal Behari Vajpayee and L K Advani apologised for the “blot” on the nation.