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
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
(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.
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?”
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.”
Santa Singh
Cinema should inspire new thoughts and discourage blind adherence to custom. Right?
If you accept the compliments of somebody, then you must also accept their abuses. Fair.
When a critic tells you that you are a non-understandable movie-maker, you take offence and abuse and rant about the critic, in this case a well-known film-critic. But then he tells you that your latest film is amazing and you thank him!
Something is amiss. Aren’t you, then, directly telling the film-critic that he must praise your films or else you will abuse his thoughts?
Kartikey Sehgal
Part one can be read here: Cricket and the Indian Woman–Part One
There are women who don’t like the sport and they don’t feign interest in the sport. They don’t buy tickets to go to cricket stadiums or spend hours watching live telecasts. Then there are women whose interest is solely sexual.
What bonds both the types is the subservient position that this sport has given them. Globalisation and relaxation of morals has exposed several cricketing countries to India’s sexual insecurity and her attitudes towards women.
Nimesh Advani
[The writer describes his friend's suffering at his job; his talents are ridiculed and his youth is held against him]
My friend Sid at his job
Mr. Gupta threw the file, smirked and promptly indulged in digging his nose. Then he started rambling about how competitive the world is and how people are treated in the film industry and how experienced he is and how Sid needs to follow him. Sid didn’t say much after this outburst. This had become a routine. Come to office and get fired.
Ananth Venkatesh
The success of South Africa (SA) in the 5-match one-day series against Australia along with its resplendent accomplishments in the preceding 3-Test series is a testament to the effectiveness of the overall structure of the country’s cricketing establishment.
Kartikey Sehgal
When I am drenched
And the heart feels aloof
Absent to the constant pain
Let me drown, that moment
And not think again
Or doubt
The profundity of my talents
In killing I have taken a decision. Undeterred by humanity. Or the countless million voices that reason with reason. I belong to myself, a complete, I am. In me lies the final pang of life; in me lies the strength to reach out to the shore.