Dheeraj Kalgutkar

वो जो हरा भरा है वो जहां झील है तालाब है साफ़ पानी है, स्वच्छ नदी है पशु है, पेड़ है, इन्सान भी है वह कश्मीर है वह शांत है, वह नॉर्मल है कश्मीरी खुश है वे खुश है ये जानेबगैर कि ख़ुशी की बात क्या है। उनके न फोन चल रहे है ना वाट्सेप है, ना इन्टरनेट पर वे खुश है वे अपने परिवारवालों से बात नहीं कर पा रहे हैं वे ईद की रोज अपनों से गले नहीं मिल पा रहे है पर वे खुश है। उन्होंने अपने दरवाज़े बंद रखे है वे शायद हम से बात करना नहीं चाहते उन्होंने अपने घर के सामने सेक्यूरिटी लगाया है हर दस कश्मीरियों के लिए एक टीप-टाप कपड़े पहने बंदूकधारी है जो हर तरफ निगरानी रखे हुए हैं वे रोकते है हमे कश्मीरियों से बात करने से वे टोकते है उनके पोस्ट है हर पचास कदम पे वे बताते है आपको कौनसा रस्ता लेना है बिना आपसे पूछे कि आपको कहा जाना है गुलमर्ग कभी दायें आता है तो कभी बाये अस्पताल में एक छोटी लड़की आयी है उसके आँखों पर अभी पट्टी बंधी हुई है न जाने क्यूँ उसने अपने ही आँखों में पत्थर डाल लिए है बाकी कश्मीर में शांति है टीवीवाले कह रहे है अब कश्मीर उनका है किनका है? उनका है। वे कह रहे है कि अब वह यहां अपनी ज...

Long long ago, in 1689 a Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō set out on an epic 1,200-mile journey through the then narrow roads of Japan. He wrote his travel account in the form of poetry (haiku) and also prose. This poetic travel works added lustre to his reputation which continues till today. Like Shakespeare for west, Bashō is to Japan. More so as everyone in Japan can recite at least one of Bashō’s poem by heart. The part of the route he traveled is traveled by thousands of people today in memory of the great poet. People go to pilgrimage at his birth and burial sites. Bashō today is part of Japanese culture. In his masterpiece, Oku no Hosomichi, or Narrow Road to a Far Province, as first entry Bashō writes, “Each day is a journey, and the journey itself home” That was 300 years ago. Today, Bashō is mostly remembered world over for Haiku. What is Haiku? It’s a Japanese form of poetry which uses few words to capture a moment into reader’s mind. Unlike other forms of poetry,...

Before and after of a hill that is part of many photo-shoots and regional movies. There are many such… Nobel laureate Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore when visited Karwar, a coastal town in south Indian state of Karnataka in 1882, dedicated a chapter in his memoirs to this town. But that was in the past. The town known mostly for its long stretched sun kissed beaches, old Portuguese remnants, Maratha past, sea food, mangrove islands and lot more has gone under the hammer of ‘development’ for some time now and remains very less about anything that would inspire another Tagore. We all are very much aware how development of any city has its own drawbacks – people get displaced, vegetation gets destroyed and lot more happens that we all have got used to for now. And most of us agree it’s fine when pros weigh down the cons of any such development plan. But consider this now. There is a plan (as you read this the work is already under progress on ground) for widening of National Highw...

Waking up to conversations is a great way to start your day provided what the topic is and where it leads. “Do you believe in the concept of soul?” - I was asked by a friend of mine who had just woke up from his sleep. For a moment I thought he was still asleep or in a dream or attempting just plain mischief which we do most of the times. Nevertheless it put me into thoughts; not that I had not thought of this before but have never arrived to any conclusion to state anything on this matter of fact. So I was silent for sometime and was trying to indulge in some buffoonery. “I'm not sure of any side but I do believe there exists something more complex than DNA to which we all attribute life. As far as I can tell science doesn't deny nor agree the existence of soul but do believe that there is something that we all call life; nobody knows what exactly makes us ‘living’ beings, what is that which gives us life.” For instance if we dissect a man into his constituent pieces ...

Butterflies are great. Aren’t they? Vivid and bright colorful wings, always on the fly from one flower to another, hard to catch; they are those and many more things beautiful and mesmerizing. They are what Barney Stinson would call ‘Awesome’! I was just walking through my office lawn sipping my not-so-usual morning coffee and noticed two butterflies playing. I don’t know what they were talking to each other — were they talking of love, of daily humdrums, of worries, of life at large, or were they just living it? I tend to believe it was last one for they were carefree, unconscious of their surroundings, they were busy in their own little moment; they were living and loving their ‘we’ time. Butterflies are fascinating, aren’t they? From childhood we have wondered at their bright colors, their fluttering flights. Remember those times when we tried to catch them but only got those colors on our fingers? I remember running through bushes, unmindful of my surroundings, fall...