Dheeraj Kalgutkar

  Suhail Naqshbandi I don’t know where to begin, how or even if I should begin on this at all, but here I’m. It is 12:24 pm now. The date is 11 November 2020. Only an hour or so ago I left for the market on my sister’s ladybird bicycle to fetch some fish and a packet of curd for mum. On my way, I noticed the cycle’s tires had less air in them so I stopped at the cycle-repair shop on my way and got both tires filled with air. Paid him and left for the market. On the way I thought I should get the curd first and then fetch fish so I decided to cycle past the fish-market to the curd shop. Between fish market and the shop lies police station and there were two cops opposite to the station with their masks on — I mention this because I have seen them mostly without their masks before — so this needed saying. So I knew that they were on guard for people without masks. And I was one of them. My mask was lying in the cycle basket as is always when I’m cycling. I don’t see any point of

आए दिन मैं किसी ना किसी को ये पूछते हुए सुनता हूँ कि 'ये कोरोना आख़िर जा क्यूँ नहीं रहा है' या फ़िर 'आख़िर ये कब जाएगा?' और मैं यही जवाब देता हूँ कि, जब तक हम सतर्क नहीं बनेंगे, जब तक हम अपने तौर-तरीके जो कोरोनावायरस के फैलने के अनुकुल है उन्हें नहीं बदलेंगे तब तक ये ऐसे ही फैलते रहेगा। जब भी मैं मार्केट जाता हूँ तो मैं अनगिनत लोगों को बिना मास्क के देखता हूँ या फ़िर मास्क ऐसे पहने हुए जो ना पहनने के बराबर है। कुछ तो मार्केट तक मास्क पहनकर आते है जो ज़रूरी नहीं है पर मार्केट में जब भी किसी से बात करनी हो तो मास्क उतार देते हैं जब उसे पहनना बेहद जरूरी है। इन सबका कारण जो भी हो, पर ये सब वो चीज़े है जिनसे कोरोना के फैलने का ख़तरा रहता है। जब तक हम अपने तौर-तरीकों में सुधार नहीं लाएँगे तब तक कोरोना यूँही फैलते रहनेवाला है। ग्रीष्म में लगी जंगल के आग के भाँति कोरोना अपने आप तो थमने वाला है नहीं। तो क्या हम इस भीषण आग को रोकने की कोशिशे कर रहे हैं?  मुंबई में विपक्ष यानी भाजपा माँग कर रही है कि जब बार (bar, मधुशाला) खुले हो सकते है तो मंदिर भी खुलने चाहिए जैसे उन दोनों में क

  Photo by David Kovalenko on Unsplash It’s a funny thing to recognise, when you do recognise, that our entire lives, we harbour this illusion of loving someone and then during later times, loving them no more; when in fact we never love them love them . Except on rare occurrences, what we do is, we love ourselves, we fall in love with the way we are being treated, with our feelings, the way we feel in their company, the way we make ourselves feel in their company. And our emotions, the intricate chemical reactions and nerve firings in our brain are our own creation out of our own fancied realities. These realities on most occasions are built upon innocent lies that we create out of our own volition. We create these images of the people we love. We tell ourselves how they are and how they are not; whether they are how we tell ourselves as they are is true or not becomes trivial as long as our illusionary reality sails through this phantasm with slight obliging aberrations. And the wor

  Olivier, Flickr There is this house gecko (or lizard if you may) on the wall some fifty centimetres above our idiot box. And some forty centimetres from the same idiot box is a mosquito sitting on the same wall. But because the gecko is diagonally positioned, the distance between them is little more than ten centimetres. TLDR; a house lizard and a mosquito are few centimetres away. Lizard slowly takes its left forelimb forward. And then it stops for a while. Right limb forward and stops again. Right forelimb, stop, left forelimb, stop, right, stop. Movements are so slow and meditative that even if you stared at them without batting your eyelids, you would surely be deceived to think it hasn’t moved a little. But it has now closed down on the mosquito by half a distance. They are both facing each other. Can a tiny mosquito sense the lizard closing in on itself? It is now four centimetres away. So close to its prey, its food. So close that even I could feel the satisfaction it must be

It is six months since the genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2 was published by Chinese scientists and was available to the world. What has India done since that January should find no excuse in the otherwise legitimate accusation that China did not inform about the novel virus to the world in time or it kept WHO in dark. It is true that China erred and it is also true that there are reasons to scrutinize WHO. But what have we done since it indeed released the information about the virus? For instance, while some countries like Taiwan, South Korea, Japan had cases of probable infection long before China released the vital information, India registered its first case only in late January, long after China had published genome sequence of the virus and WHO had informed the world about such an outbreak. So unlike those countries, and they have it under control now and cases are breaking new records in India, we cannot blame the outbreak on Chinese malfeasance. Whatever situation we are in to

Monsoons evaded Maharashtra in 1992. In a country where even today agriculture is largely dependent on rains, this naturally made people distraught then. In this helplessness, blankness, in this void came Maharashtra governor’s appeal other rather a dictate. On a particular day at 11 am, people were to collectively pray. Authorities jumped in to enforce the governor’s appeal. Directions were announced left, right and centre. And pray people did. Newspapers were awash with pictures of people praying for relief from imminent danger, ordinary people to district collectors to workers. Everyone obliged. If WhatsApp University existed then, I’m sure it’s double degree holders would churn out theories of how collective prayer would kindle the kundalini and force gods of rain to bring showers upon them. And we will all be sharing these forwards because why not?! Fast forward to 2020 and coronavirus. Modi came on national television, and like the big boss from that horrible show, ga

Misinformation and our inability to think a level down the surface are going to kill us before the virus does. Karwar which recently treated 11 coronavirus patients and discharged them successfully is about to see it manifest before its eyes. Misplaced fear and paranoia spread through news channels and Whatsapp University are consuming us. Would they devour us completely before we wake up remains an open-ended question. Karwar has zero Covid-19 positives. The 11 patients it treated were not from Karwar but many km away from it. If that makes you applause Karwar for its altruism then you must hold your hands some meters apart. Uttara Kannada district in total, by the time of writing this, has recorded 39 cases of COVID-19 positives of which 11 were earlier treated and discharged from INHS Patanjali Hospital in Karwar which is an Indian Navy hospital meant for its staff. It admitted this initial batch of positives on request of Uttara Kannada District Commissioner Dr K Harish

16 मज़दूर औरंगाबाद में ट्रैन की पटरी के नीचे कुचल के मर गए है। शायद आप तक यह खबर पहुंच भी गई है। आपको शायद बताया जा रहा है कि यह हादसा था। हादसा क्या होता है? हादसा वह होता है जहां किसीको पता नहीं रहता कि वह होनेवाला है। रवीश कुमार अपने चैनल पर हफ्तों से बता रहे थे/है कि पुलिस अपने गंतव्य की तरफ चलनेवाले मज़दूर वर्ग के लोगों को रास्तो से कैसे हटा रही है और पुलिस से बचने के लिए मज़दूर कैसे रेल्वे की पटरियों पर चल रहे है। वे कह रहे थे कि यह कितना भयावह और ख़तरनाक है। वे पुछ रहे थे कि जैसे हमने भारत के बाहर से भारतीयों को फ़्लाइट पर लाया वैसे मजदूरों की घर जाने की व्यवस्था क्यों नहीं की जा रही है... आप शायद रवीश को सुन नहीं रहे थे, आप शायद व्यस्त थे सुधीर चौधरी जैसे गोदी मीडिया को सुनने में जो पैदल चलते मज़दूर और शराब के लिए लाइन लगाने वाले लोगों में फर्क़ तक नहीं कर पाते - कैसे करेंगे वो भी - उनके ऐसी स्टुडियों से सब कीड़े-मकोड़े बाहर उनको एक ही तरह के दिखते है। और आप उनकी बातों में मस्त है। आपने अपने विवेक और बुद्धि का त्याग तो सरकार के चरण कमलों में कब का कर दिया है... मुबारक हो आप

Photo by Jim Strasma on Unsplash There is a moon in the pitch-black night sky and a bright star close to it. Both dangled in the dark ocean of space far far away from the pull of our world. It’s the Ramzan moon. Stare closely and observe deeply for a minute, you’ll notice the thin crescent which is the moon and completing its outline is a tunnel. Look at it and keep gazing and it resembles like the crescent is a light coming out of a dark tunnel. It feels like the stars are but shimmering fireflies, motionless flies blowing lights in a dark cave full of witchcraft. Outside this cave lies the magical light. Of which right now only a curve is visible. The moon appears to be an opening onto something. What is it? I don’t know yet but I aim to find out soon. Is it important to find out? I don’t think so. But I want to know what does it lead to. So every day after sunset I sit down here and gaze at the twilight sky. I watch the fireflies that are not moving. But twinkling. Many