Dheeraj Kalgutkar

  “ A 25-year-old Hindu man was allegedly strangled to death in Rajasthan’s Dausa district for trying to stop three men from applying colour on him during Holi celebration”. Every year on Holi, we hear news reports of molestation and non-consensual touches. Year after year these stories have become so widespread and familiar that now we have got subconsciously wired to simply ignore them and move on with our lives. “Holi hai!” (It’s Holi!) is a cry that is shouted, and like clockwork, anyone would come, apply colour to you and proceed further to the next person. Implicit in that cry is, all is well, or all goes on Holi. But in recent years, incidents of communal nature have added themselves to the long list of Holi complaints. Protecting law and order is the job of the police. A murder by a murderer can be stopped in two ways: either you control the situation such that the murderer does not get the opportunity to commit the crime, or you do the murder yourself, leaving the...

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...

India’s highest court has ruled out that firecrackers be banned in Delhi NCR. And not very surprisingly it has ruffled the feathers of the old Hindutva crown. Some have welcomed it, as always and some have not, again, as always. But twitter has turned into the new battleground. Battles are no more fought in Kurukshetra or Kargil, new age warriors no more wield swords and battle hammers, they use their clickety-clickety keyboards now. But there is one thing that everyone seems to miss in all this hullabaloo. Ramayana. Yes, the old Hindu mythological text that tells the story of Ram, his wife Sita, his brothers, monkey-god Hanuman and other ensembles of the cast. If you are familiar with Indian Twitter scene, you must already be aware of certain patterns. Like for example, the Hindu right wing, especially certain hardliners, always take back their argument to ancient texts. They talk about how wonderful, scenic and peaceful life was in age-old times. But this time, they are caught...

I don’t use Whatsapp much for my own personal reasons. Most of the times it’s uninstalled and when it’s installed I check it few times of the day when I have absolutely nothing else to do; that is, after a round of Twitter, Instagram, Reddit etc. Today as it was Eid, early morning when I got up, I sent Eid wishes to all of my contacts who celebrate it via of course Whatsapp, Twitter, Instagram, FB messenger and few SMSes (two of my friends are still not technologically connected). Late afternoon, as I was browsing through few replies and other messages, I stumbled upon a text in a family Whatsapp group. Now, I usually stay away from Whatsapp groups but this particular text just plain annoyed me. Message which was written in local language roughly translated to, “Nobody celebrates it here… Don’t post such wishes…” I opened the group to check who had posted what. I personally feel these groups are a den of bigotry and hate. That’s one of the reasons I have stopped readin...