Dheeraj Kalgutkar

  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...

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash We have long-established that Facebook, that big mammoth of an organization today knows more about us than we do ourselves. The feat has lost its vanity, it isn't cool anymore. It is not a fact that you clap to when a magician or card-reader reveals something about you that you yourself might have overlooked. You submit voluntarily to them, not so much to Facebook. Facebook today stores far greater information about you than the tidbits you provide to it yourself. And it uses that enormous information to decide what you like, what you might be interested in, what kind of deaths will disturb you more, what news you might be interested to read, what videos pick your interest, which political party you might vote to, are you a fence-sitter, essentially it knows you. You might be confused about what you wish to eat for dinner tonight but I bet Facebook if given a chance will tell you exactly what will interest you at the dinner table. Th...

Photo by Nick Karvounis on Unsplash   The perennial excuse of our maid after taking an unannounced holiday which has become ever so often now is that she did come in the morning and rang our doorbell but we did not open the door for her. For long both of us who stay in the house have believed this excuse. Not because she did and we did not. Simply because we thought of letting it pass, giving her the benefit of doubt. There have been days like today when my friend was up since 5 AM due to some exam of his and know for sure that there was no doorbell ringing, but over the months he too has learnt the art of letting it go. “Aunty plays with us” is our constant topic of conversation. And in this game of her, she has been winning all this while. She didn’t come today morning too. And naturally, we had our usual “Arey yaar, ye aunty aaj bhi nahi aayi (Oh man, this maid didn’t even come today)” conversation and went out to have breakfast. On our way back in the dark parkin...

Okay. I promise I will make this quick and short. A few days back, while getting on to my train, I hugged someone rather in a strange situation. I got the hug which I needed but I couldn’t really hug back how I wanted it to be keeping in mind the slowly starting train and also a dozen eyes ever pricking on our embrace. Also, there was this whisper in my ear, “When will you reach?” 6 in the morning, I quickly replied. And got back on the train. There was so much that happened on the train which I least expected but will save it for another day. This is just about one part of a long tedious trip. Mid-way through the journey, somewhere past the midnight I opened my cell phone to check if I had the network. Luckily there was. I quickly browsed my way back to the train info page to check where my train exactly was. Hey! the night is dark and full of terrors… I had no idea where I had reached! And to my surprise, my train was moving fast...

It not only takes your right to question the second occurrence but also opens a cycle that is hard to break.   First things are always the first. How lame a sentence, isn’t it? But seriously; Good, bad or ugly, firsts set the precedent and it’s always important to make note of them. When an error, a mistake, a crime, an event where norm or law is broken for the first time, it is important to stop and question it then and there. However small or insignificant it may seem at first, it needs to be called out for what it is. A mistake. You don’t ignore it because it doesn’t matter and not affect your flow of work. It might not affect you now but believe me it will come to haunt you tomorrow and then you will have nothing to do about it except to regret. That’s exactly what I did last week when I went home.  I had marriage of a family member to attend to at one side of Goa, a small Indian state famous for its pristine beaches, old churches and Portuguese era ar...

Remember when we first met Remember when we embraced each other close That’s when I encountered your scent The one that I have still not forgotten I know we both have traveled long for now Not together but on separate paths But I remember that scent vividly That invigorating feeling it evoked Every night when I’m alone to myself I wish to join you I wish to make that scent mine I remember buying the same soap as you Thinking the scent was from it I remember buying the same perfume but It took me a while to realize it was yours alone It emanated from you and you alone I remember hugging you tight at times Just to get that scent on my body I remember breathing heavy beside you Losing myself in the scent I had so badly Fallen in love with I remember us parting on good terms I remember that day so well when we called it off I remember it I wanted an embrace, a close one, for one last time I couldn’t ask I stood there thinking how to ...

  Birds. Those lovely creatures with colorful feathers. The ones that can fly. We all love them, don’t we? May be we do. But sometimes our actions don’t speak for our words. May be we love the pleasure they bring to our hearts with their sounds and flights but we care very less for their life. Let’s face it. Why am I suddenly speaking about them? Well, something happened few days ago that involves a native Indian Bird, Myna, few of us humans and those glass walls which have become symbols of our metro culture. In India, people believe spotting a lonely Myna amounts to bad luck but they’ve reasons to believe too.. Image: ceochick Of late due to some work or other, I have not been visiting Central Cafeteria building at my workplace which is a huge two-storied round construction with minimum concrete and maximum glass walls. Probably the lead architect thought it will invite in natural light reducing cost of artificial lighting. Whatever his/her reasons, the...

  A man just died on the LOC — Line Of Control. A man-made line since 1947 on this globe that came into existence long long before those who ‘drew’ it came into existence themselves. This line was drawn to mark and differentiate two countries namely, India and Pakistan who till that day lived in co-existence as colonies under another nation called England who had built an empire where ‘sun never set’. These two nations called it quit and actually, this was the first BRexit from history! But alas, like many other inventions from subcontinent, this too went unnoticed. He didn’t simply die like god would will it otherwise but was shot. A whizzing bullet straight to his head, sideways. Someone aimed it center but missed his mark yet the man died. What a poor creature. This planet of ours which is revolving around a star named ‘Sun’ in a galaxy called ‘Milky Way’ and universe which is infinite with umpteen galaxies, and still more umpteen stars and planets is inhabited by many...

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,...

Long back when I was still in my school I had read one article in a local magazine which has still stayed with me, at least the gist of it. And here I’m sharing the central idea of that wonderful piece. It was talking about a flaw, a lacking that exists in all of us. Let us call it ‘Monday Syndrome’. No no, it isn’t another post about how people feel while going to work on Mondays. It is about how we plan to start doing a new task. That music lesson you wanted to start with, that blog you wanted to write or that thing you wanted to paint, anything that you wanted to accomplish but have not started on. You have told to yourself that you will start from this Monday, that you will go to gym from the 1 st of next month. Most of the students have habit of sticking or planning according to whole numbers. It is 5:49 PM now and they plan to start studying exactly from 6PM. That they never start is another story. It is 6:30 and then you want to start from 7 sharp. It is 7 now. But wait...