The Young India

Kartikey Sehgal

[Fiction]

On 26TH January, 2010, every state of India paraded its best to the nation. Maharashtra presented the much celebrated dubba wallas who travel in sweat and danger on (in, over) local trains. Who ensure that the food reaches the Mumbai residents on time. These men, marked for their punctuality and honesty, live in a state that sees farmers dying in Vidarbha.

Among the celebratory troops of states were men, or at least one, who wondered if the salutes of the …

Kartikey Sehgal

Love is nature’s ploy for reproduction; lust is nature in crisis.

It is possible to love one woman for the rest of your life and there are many such women available.

Women are marketeers when it comes to marriage. They make a man believe that he wants it and his time will run out.

Marriage is a compromise for men. Women just have to decide between options.

A man (man) remains a man despite the allurement of beauty. The affections of …

Kartikey Sehgal

Aman Ki Asha (AKA) is the new romantic buzzword between India and Pakistan formulated by mostly those people who have not suffered terrorist attacks and have their family and limbs intact. The movement, historic, has been celebrated by a 20 hour gun salute in Srinagar with instructions on laying the table and selecting the dishes coming directly from Pakistan.

According to this new peace movement, artists from India and Pakistan will get together and sing songs that were hitherto unreleased because they found …

Kartikey Sehgal

Many people pursue higher (master’s) education without thought

We often study to stay away from our passions*. Studying is comfortable and acceptable for parents as it lives up to their ideal of coping-with-the-west. Pursuing activities other than the hobby of studying makes them terrified and often violent. They are not proper parents in the sense that they will not encourage the child to do what his heart desires. Any extra-curricular activity must be an appendage to the ultimate goal of a money-making and …

Kartikey Sehgal

• Suppose that a man is unfaithful to his wife but stays on for the sake of their child.
• When he is caught cheating, would we say that his action has compromised the future of the child.
• Would he be considered inconsiderate to his child.
• Does the fault lie in his cheating or in not divorcing his wife before cheating.

                                  ……………………………………

Why do you cry, father?

Because I am bound and yet I seek our bondage. I cry because there is dew on …

Kartikey Sehgal

[Written immediately after the ‘Tiger Woods Scandal’ obsession and kept aside. Sentences in brackets and italics are current, additional thoughts]

Tiger Woods’s wife should have forgiven him his extra-marital affairs. Who stands to gain; have the children benefited from this drama? Tiger Woods? Or has it ‘improved’ him or made him a ‘better’ man? Nobody except the wife stands to gain. She gains sympathy. And money, of course.

(private affair. Was she a good wife, mother. Has anybody investigated. There must be other …

Naren Sabarish

A Little Fish Learns to Hop

One morning at sea in Canada. A little fish lived in the sea.
He was not satisfied in his swimming. He was sad. He was unhappy.
He told himself, “I want to learn to hop. Then, I will be very happy.”

One day, he was swimming in the water. He saw a Dolphin in the sea.
He asked him, "I want to hop. If I ask, you can teach me or not?"
"Yes, I will teach you", …

Kartikey Sehgal

The Young India started out as an experiment (an expression by itself) in style, prose and courage. Now, I am the only expressionist in the post-modernist sea of cerebral waste. The other writers are living—as I am no serial killer—but they are merely claimants to their wisdom.

I summarise them thus:

• Outbursts over issues are calls for attention; to ensure presence and identity, at least in the intellectual life-sphere.
• No expression at all. Their blogs are almost-vacant; no expression through music, dance or

…

Kartikey Sehgal

If nature is not god, and it is to be controlled by a god, then its destruction is not akin to god’s destruction.

Nature is then secondary; it comes after god. Nature is not god but since it is important for survival it is to be protected. If you don’t protect nature, then god will punish you. Never mind that without nature you will die in the first place. And how will you then think of god?

Transference of Power

If you commit …

Kartikey Sehgal

A conversation on the decision to die.
C and J.

“Want to inform you that I’ll commit suicide”, said C.
“Commit suicide…hmmm…” J muttered to himself, bit his upper lip and then relaxed.

A moment later, C put himself in the chair. Their black coats were the only colour in vicinity.

“Ok, let’s get over it. Reasons”
“Reason. My will has been amputated. I am not my person”, said C.

“So you know the reason. Extend your will now”
“It’s too late. I …