The Young India

Kartikey Sehgal

Foreigners are silly. They are not very smart. I don’t deny this assertion by certain Indians used to traveling the world villages. Instead, I accept that foreigners are silly.

And therein lies their charm and power. It takes a certain silliness to live life merrily. And to know life.

This ‘foreign silliness’, which comes across to Indians as ‘lack of intelligence’, is simply a case of delayed mental boredom.

They don’t know as much maths and science at a certain age as we …

Kartikey Sehgal

“Do you have Jay-Z on your computer?”

“No.”

“Do you want me to put it in?”

“No, I don’t.”

She turned to look straight at her table, not far from where we were seated. Her malfunctioned laptop lay there, along with an empty cup of coffee.

“You don’t really listen to Jay-Z, do you? And you don’t like wearing such skirts either.”

“No, I do. I mean I listen sometimes… “, she halted and looked at her skirt, probably worried if it showed …

Kartikey Sehgal

Sitting in a library inside a coffee house. Outside, there are fragrant flowers. I remember a conversation with my friend at this very place a long time ago – between 1948- 1950. The setting was different then. Two friends talking about a girl.

Flowers are in an alliance with the vanity of women. At once, the romantic would breathe the air of jasmine flowers and harbour notions of never-ending love. It is when we can smell the unseen fragrances that we can imagine …

Kartikey Sehgal

On the impermanence of life. And the constant passing of time.

The wind blew into the home by saying hello to the bell of God. A small silver bell hung by a nail and it twisted and danced when wind came to it. ‘Wind is saying hello to us, mother’, the girl would say or keep it in her mind to tell her mother when she returned from outdoors.

Perhaps the wind brings some message, some signal from God. In vacant moments, the …

Kartikey Sehgal

Passion is, that ends. Passion operates on the horseback of time. Humans operate on the illusion that passion will never end.

Where should lie the passion.

Should the passion be about work, idea, or the realisation that passion and non-passion have little bearing on the time in life. Say, composing music on a bright sunny morning on a hill station, in a home stating as its pride a manicured lawn with colourful flowers on the edges, so that they stand out against the …

Kartikey Sehgal

If you believe in emotions, then life is essentially a tragedy. Which is why women cry a lot; they pass through a jigsaw of emotions. And men, supposedly, don’t cry as much as women. They are the logical side to the woman’s emotional being.

Furthermore, happiness is relative to sadness. Happiness is, despite the tragic nature of life; of deaths and innumerable stresses. Happiness is not absolute. If it is absolute, then only as a state of mind; but that state is not …

Kartikey Sehgal

A series of mails I am writing to a friend I haven’t met for many years. Our conversations are on email only. They are lovely though rare.

there is no absolute. The quest for the absolute, however, is absolute.
The wisdom that this quest is meaningless maybe absolute.
For instance, the wisdom that while I am searching for absolute happiness, I know that there is no absolute and so I must just enjoy the journey.

Those who don’t have this wisdom feel thrilled …

Kartikey Sehgal

If the entire nation joins hands against corruption, then who is really corrupt?

Many (most) people become part of ‘movements’ to feel that they are ‘doing something with their life’. It gives them something to celebrate, something to ‘feel’; the word ‘emotion’ is a keyword.

Revolutions and ‘movements’ are important when people are bored. They want to be part of something important to give worth to their life. Money does not play that role. People realise that they don’t deserve their money and …

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

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 …