Debarth's Den

It’s been a while since I have had either the reason or the motivation to pick up a pen and write; write with a cause, and an enthusiasm to lend expression to my deepest feelings. Very rare has been the occasion when I felt words and sentences taking birth in the deepest corners of my heart and flowing spontaneously to the tips of my fingers. Very seldom, if ever, does an imagined perception of goodness, beauty or virtue manifest itself in real life in the form that it was imagined or dreamt of. Even the magnificent Yarrow could not live up to Wordsworth’s imagination ("Yarrow Unvisited" & "Yarrow Visited "). When such a thing does happen, however, it happens unexpectedly, as in this case, in the unlikeliest of times and places, and it would be a sheer waste not to record the priceless sentiments of such an occasion for the sake of posterity. My most recent encounter, a sweet tryst in a dreary environment, reminds me of Wordsworth’s Lucy. Lucy inspired...

December is a month Indians will begin to dread every year from now on, and not without reason. Last year in December the nation was put through the agony, the travails of the aftermath, and eventual death of a girl who was the victim of the most inhuman form of rape the county has ever known. This December, something of a similar nature has happened to yet another Indian lady, this time an Indian diplomat on foreign shores, at the hands of the Administration of supposedly the “the most civilized nation on earth”, the US of A. Last year’s gruesome crime in Delhi took months of civilian protest and uncountable debates in and off the courtroom to finally come to a decisive climax in the form of death sentences to the accused (barring one who escaped punishment due to his “tender age”). This year’s equally appalling crime by a bunch of thoughtless, racist individuals in the US State Department and the US Police has evoked similar scenes of protest and animated debate across the countr...

Humankind is deemed to be God’s supreme creation, purportedly at least, with all the versatile faculties at its disposal. Our intelligence, our powers of understanding and analytical thinking have lifted us above other creatures, to a level of superiority that is by now virtually unsurpassable. However, with power comes responsibility, and with intelligence comes empathy and kindness, all of which are necessary to keep the balance of life on earth at a sustainable level. We, as the species appointed for the care, nurture and protection of the lesser creations of God, be it the flora or the fauna, need to exercise our power and intelligence in such a way as to make co-habitation of man and animal harmonious on our planet. Many civilizations have realized the importance of this tenet, and have successfully developed and infused in their peoples a culture of kindness towards animals, so much so that animals in many developed nations are treated almost at par with humans. Today, the lev...

It is hard to believe that Rajesh Khanna is no more. The news gave me a jolt when I first saw it on TV. It was so unexpected and seemed so unreal that it saddened me more than I would have imagined. It felt as if Rajesh Khanna with his departure from the world has also taken a part of my dreamy childhood with him. Rajesh Khanna. The name still has a magical ring to it, even after all these years. The square features, the twinkling smile, the disarming charm, the romantic voice – every one of these characteristics were personified by Rajesh Khanna on the silver screen to such perfection that, even today, it is impossible to think of him as a man separate from the characters he portrayed. There never has been, and perhaps never will be a taller icon of romanticism in Bollywood and Indian cinema. Rajesh Khanna is one of my earliest memories, and someone I had begun to love and admire long before I even began to understand the language of movies. My mind floated back to those...

Whenever I reflect upon the various events in my life that have had a lasting effect on me, I find one particular episode standing out conspicuously from the rest. Today, it is hard to believe that a decade has passed since, because the events of that day are as vivid in my mind as they would have been had they happened yesterday. It was a typical summer afternoon out in the wild sea. Living in the middle of the ocean, far from civilization, and so far from home that it appeared remote even in my thoughts, has been my job since I chose to be an oilfield engineer, and the sea – its waves, fishes, sea gulls, sunsets – fascinated me far less than it did when I first stepped on to a beach and had my first rendezvous with this vast watery wilderness. That day proceeded for the most part like any other that I had been seeing for the three weeks out at sea on that particular trip. The ocean was shimmering in the blinding whiteness of the high sun. The sky was an umbrella of spotless azure hu...