The Young India

Kartikey Sehgal
–Drugs and economic disparity in the Indian home of the Dalai Lama. Standalone story. Other parts of the series here.

“Hey gorgeous, nice shoes”, they call out to a foreigner who is wearing shining dark red shoes. She turns to look at them; “thanks”. As a rule, the duo avoids complementing Indian women and any woman with a man. “Hey baby! You look beautiful” and “Wow, you are lovely”, they call out to women in their accented English.

I sit next to …

Kartikey Sehgal
–Drugs and economic disparity in the Indian home of the Dalai Lama
A standalone story. Part One and Part Two of the series.

McLeodganj, with its constant buzz of commerce may not be comfortable for everybody. On all the streets you see some hapless faces calling out to you to buy their products. There are noticeably no beggars but the sellers—especially some of the Indian locals—have little self-respect; some of them try to trick you into buying authentic Tibetan goods until you …

Kartikey Sehgal

Read the first half here.

–Drugs and economic disparity in the Indian home of the Dalai Lama

continued…
“If you have the money, you can buy anything here”, says Manoj and feels strongly about the drug problem especially because it affects the local Indians more than it affects the Tibetans.

I have already learned from some locals about the rules of selling the drugs. You have to approach the vendors. If you are a foreigner then they will sell you what you …

Kartikey Sehgal

–Drugs and economic disparity in the Indian home of the Dalai Lama

(The author travelled to Dharamsala earlier this year.)

“There will be a big vacuum once the Dalai Lama leaves us”, says Sonam Dorjee, a member of the Tibetan Congress in India. Listening to him talk passionately about his love for Tibet, I begin to think that he subscribes to the philosophy of some young Tibetans who feel that violence is the only way to achieve Tibetan independence from China.

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