Heart to Heart

  Jagrata strikes again! We live in ‘saffron’ times. ‘Hindutva’ is everywhere: in the air we breathe, food we eat, sleep we sleep, dresses we wear, greetings we exchange, songs and bhajans we sing, speeches we make, slogans we shout, people we meet, sounds we hear, arguments we exchange, movies we go to, news we watch, videos and messages we read and share, places we visit, sights we see, brides we wed, rehris we buy fruits and vegetables from, lawmakers we vote for or against; as also in streets, parks, pubs, clubs, vehicles, vans, tempos, trucks and bulldozers. Dressed garishly, garlanded, and flaunting a big red kumkum tikka on the forehead, it pops its grinning, growling head even when least expected in our daily lives. On mobiles too it sneaks in unbidden and armed, baring its fangs and cracking its whip to turn a light-hearted tete-a-tete between two good friends into a sour and bitter cocktail of main-main-tu-tu. At times, like a raptor, it swoops down from the high skies, a

  What would my dream PM be like? In this many-phased ‘Election ‘24’, with my tryst with the polling booth drawing nigh, I sat thinking– away from the din and bustle replete with empty bombast and bereft of reasoned discourse. I shut-upped the shouting “lapdogs” masquerading as expert, know-all TV anchors with one angry finger-tap on the remote. The little stupid device in my hand – the mobile – that has held me captive and robbed me clean of so many priceless hours and years with its claptrap served sizzling hot by WhatsApp university, I junked in the nearest closet. I also powered off my laptop which I employ to serve you my ‘Heart-to-Heart’ dishful: though not without a little wrench. For, of late, with a naughty twinkle in the eye, I am trying to woo Chatbot GPT to help me indulge in some fanciful things in the virtual world! Alone under the cool shade of my own ‘Bodhi’ tree – the neglected but resilient Kanakchampa in the corner of our compound – I sat to address the one big quest