Dheeraj Kalgutkar

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...

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...

internet image   Railway stations, bus stops are places where you find people from across the social fabric, from middle class to ultra poor to children and to old. So yesterday when I had to board one bus from Karwar to Goa, I found one old lady or rather she found me. I had seen her before sitting myself on the bench kept for waiting travelers as she boarded off a bus but didn't noticed much. It was not any rare sight to see people in their seventies and eighties traveling alone while their children kept themselves 'busy', we have all grownup watching such scenes. So I was sitting there talking to my cousin who had given me lift on his bike till there. In the middle of that conversation she came and sat beside me. Not that I was any special but coincidentally that was the only place available. So after a minute or so, she asked me if she can use my cellphone to make a call. The thing at that time was that I had two phones, one which is not so audible bu...

When you look at a child, what's the most striking feature that strikes your mind? Are they concerned of how they look, how others see them  or who they are our how good their families are? I believe not. They give a damn about all this societal frames and blocks which in fact rule our life. On the other hand they are care free. They have a world of their own where worries and tensions have very little or no job to do to. You are the master of your own destiny said some philosopher. We create our own failure and our own success. This line may surprise some but that's the truth. Success and failures are but notions created by our own brain. If they were facts like sun rises in the east then why does it happen at times that what is success to you becomes failure to others? It's a long story, let's deal some other day! Enjoy and make merry till then. And let that child inside you come out and conquer better off you to make you more merrier with his or her innoc...

It just took little more than few fractions of seconds to an Autorikshaw driver to stop his passenger carrier in the middle of NH-17, Karwar-Goa bridge over the River Kali and to jump off the railings into full fledged sea that flowed in its total power beneath the lifeline. It's been more than 48 hours by now but officials who are relentlessly searching for him are still clueless of his body or whereabouts. His relatives and villagers have relentlessly been crowding over the Kali bridge as time is hopelessly passing by without providing any fruitful lead into the suicidal havoc that has just been played in front of some of their eyes. Cops too have been travelling to & fro from one place to another hoping to recover his body but so far no amount of success has arrived onto their hands. Meanwhile bizarre stories as always are getting fuelled and travelling from every untraseable corner you could imagine off. The man whose body has still not been recovere...

It was the deathly point where a country road meets National Highway 17, all this high point drama up to death's end unfolded. How I escaped nearly from the teeth’s of deaths fowl mouth is something even I still couldn't able to digest myself... After so much days on public transport and being devoid primarily of some worthy exercise, I turned to my bicycle for some muscle loosening only too realize later that the much revered bicycle was not in a condition to realize the speed I was expecting it to dissipate! Disheartened though but not less of any hope, I moved onto a garage to get it done and nearly emptying my pocket returned back home with it. I was literally visualizing myself achieving giant speed with it trudging on National Highway and was about to pull the socks off and speed up; I realized some screws were jammed and needed some care. I turned my bicycle towards the same shop from where was I returning... I was on wrong lane but shop being minutes ...

Two biologically diverse towns of Uttar Kannada district of Karnataka state are on boil after an ambiguous move was made to shift the proposed Government medical college from Karwar to Sirsi. It’s in fact Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri's move to shift proposed college to his constituency, Sirsi, which created quite an unraveling stir in the coastal belt. Recently Times Of India was found reporting that, 'a high-powered meeting was held in Banglore under the chairmanship of minister of medical education S A Ramdas on 21 September to discuss shift of Medical College from Karwar to Sirsi'. The outcomes of this closed door meeting delighted the business center of Uttar Kannada district. However Minister for Fisheries, Anand Asnotikar, under whose constituency the Karwar falls was furious over this shift. But in between this old well known political rivalry of two stalwart politicians, the common man found himself pissed off. People from both the constituency were left with no...

Karwar's Government First Grade college in degrading state Welcome!!! First and foremost, let me assure you with total guarantee that I'm in no mood to portray myself as your leader or head nor do I have any of such wild intentions. I'm very much happy with what I do and how I dwell on this very planet. Alright, the main matter that’s been hardly worrying me and you is so called, 'DEVELOPMENT FEES'. It’s been quoted as 'so called' all because the money that’s being collected in the name of it, is nowhere being utilized for development sake at all or perhaps hardly we have seen it doing so! My friends, you might clearly remember how last blatantly time the same amount was collected particularly at wrong times of the year when, practical’s were nearer and OMR sheets were being filled (Intelligently blackmailed you might call it thus ). Further, with no choice to think or discuss, haphazardly we all paid. Meanwhile, there ...

Other day while trudging on the maverick white sands of Tagore Beach in Karwar with one of my old schoolmate, his deep subtle but palpable thoughts and its intelligent interpretation left me dumbstruck and sent me into one obscure dilemma. He had asked in a deep, low but clear voice ‘isn’t our life same as that of this vast ocean! With waves continuously hitting shores time & again without pausing even for a short while…?’ with extreme amazement and surprise I looked at him, as if I meant to ask ‘in what sense!?’ he continued anyway ‘….with its continuous waves resembling exactly the problems or woes in our journey of life, which never gets silenced until our death, problem after problem, a newer, more complex one always props up, each time to think of giving up; ultimately death seems to be the ultimate end, end of sojourn journey. Death’s the real victory over it, because it’s the only thing which has the guts & absolute power to completely silence the ever appearing p...