Hardik Rajgor

I am a  liberal  and I am alarmed at your choices, India. I cannot recognise you anymore. You have ushered in the dark days of democracy. Why did you vote for Modi? A vote for  Narendra Modi  is a vote for hate. A vote for Modi is a vote for a Hindu Rashtra. A vote for Modi is a vote for a regressive and backward India. A vote for the Trinamool is not a vote for a dictatorial Mamata Banerjee. A vote for the Congress is not a vote for a riot-accused  Kamal Nath . A vote for the Samajwadi Party is not a vote for dynasty. A vote for the BSP is not a vote for a corrupt Mayawati. But every single vote for BJP, regardless of the candidate or the rationale behind the vote, is a vote for Pragya Thakur. The poor in the village might have voted for the BJP because he probably got access to electricity, water, or toilets. The urban youth might have voted for BJP in the hope that he might get a job. Maybe those living in  Naxal -affected Chhattisgarh voted for ...

M y mother and father both studied in Gujarati-medium schools, but made it their life’s mission to enroll me in a private  English-medium  school. The end product of that is a  Gujarati  who can neither read nor write in his mother tongue, and is labelled “angrez ki aulaad”   every time he has to read a signboard in the language of his forefathers. I can never forget the image of my father beaming with pride after my application to the prestigious Holy Cross Convent  School  in Mira Road was accepted, in the mid ’90s. Even in that era, when an English education would seem routine to most of my peers, I was the first in our family to go to an English-medium school and everyone was excited. They couldn’t wait to hear all the fancy  English  words, phrases, and sentences I would be speaking at home soon – my parents might have been more excited when I said “A for Apple” than they were when I said my first words. My English education was th...

I travel by public transport in  Mumbai  every day. If it’s a decent day, I manage to enter the bus without breaking a bone. If it’s a good day, there’s place to stand in the  train  without me being forced to smell the breath of another man and guess what he’s had for breakfast. If it’s a lucky day, I get to rest my skinny arse on a seat, and when all the stars align and I hit the jackpot, I get a window seat. Today was one such day, and the joint winner of the jackpot was a father-son duo who had landed the window seat opposite mine. The dad and I hurriedly scrambled for the seat like our lives depended on it, but once we settled in, we did what everyone does these days – lowered our heads and stared at our phone screens. Our  ride  lasted an hour and neither of us cared to peek outside, even once. I was hooked on to  The Umbrella Academy  on  Netflix ; the father was simply scrolling through his phone, and the kid was playing Ludo ...

M y father is a self-proclaimed “active person” who loves playing  “games”  and “sport”, which, for him, include (illegally) plucking cherries from the neighbour’s farm, jumping over gutters, playing with bottle caps, throwing kids into the river so they figure out how to swim, and playing with marbles in the dusty veranda. In his own words, it was a very “different time” back then. Of course, this was the ’60s and the only fitness apps they believed in back then, were glasses of milk and plates of fruits. In his lifetime, my father has witnessed the erosion and eventual extinction of things that were #lit during his childhood. And like many people of his generation, it has made him a wee bit bitter. This is evident when he occasionally bursts into rants about the “mindless”  video game  and mobile phone culture that has shaped my childhood.   But there’s one day in the year that makes my father forget all the ranting, and gets his eyes lit up like Har...