Aryaman Kakkar's Archive

  Dear gods,   You cannot ask me to carve sigils and sacrifices of my body and not dream of murder. A mess of bone.  Of something. Of sinew.  You cannot ask for offerings and tomes of prayer and not make me remember the burning cities bearing  your name.   Dear God,  You cannot ask me for my Saviors of all, my children and not make me bleed every time a nail is  hammered down. Down into splintering skin, crackling wood.   You cannot lead me to believe that your legions of divinities and immortals follow you willingly. Not  when their harvested ichor gave way to the worlds you slapped your name upon. The realm of Creation  that was the spoils of the War of Seven Days. You cannot change the reality of your being; a common  coward hiding behind the guise of an ordinary emperor.   Dear gods,   When the others tried to help us, did you see yourselves in them? Did you see them; naïve and innocent,...

It is any bibliophile’s dream to meet their authors, the people who gave them entire worlds to dream of, histories to watch unfold, words to see flit off the page. So went a delegation of six boys and a teacher to Jaipur to attend the 14 th year of the Jaipur Literature Festival. A congregation of literary geniuses unlike anywhere else on Earth, the Festival took place over five days from the 24 th to the 28 th January, 2019.  Departing the campus on 23 rd , we faced an entire day of hectic travel followed by an exceptionally turbulent night, a time of many words, phrases, and laughter. The next day, we arrived at the shores of Hotel Diggi Palace the next day at 10am in time for the inaugural ceremony. The festival was declared open by the Sanjay K Roy and Namita Gokhale, two of the three founding members of the Festival. The third, William Dalrymple was unable to attend due to a recent death in the family. With the opening ceremony graced by the sensational poet Ruth Padel read...

We met in music. Sitting across on the ivories, his eyes never left his fingers as they danced and sang. Featherless nightingales have never looked more beautiful as his weathered hands rested on silent strings. He didn’t know then, when our sight clashed in dusted sunlight. He doesn’t know now, when he has made a habit of annoying me; a ridiculous joker who makes me happy. He sits now, his earphones plugging all sound with deaf invisible rhythms and melodies, utterly clueless about the beat of my tremor-ridden heart. I call him an ‘idiot’ with a strange wistfulness in my voice. With care and affection and soft, impossible caresses I know him as my idiot. I ‘like him’ like him and he just likes me. He will only ever just like me. He will remain in music while I hide behind smiles and conversations. He doesn’t know, and he never will. Being a friend is somehow better than seconds of truth and a lifetime of regret. Somehow love is worse a foe than friendship in the end. He has chan...

We are what we eat. And yet, we do not explore how the food we eat is made. We are yet to know what goes on behind the curtain in the culinary arts, the heart and birthplace of the mouth-watering dishes we desire. This summer, I attempted to peek behind the chameleon curtain and conducted two interviews with executives in the industry. With the help of Raghav Mahendru, Head of the Food Department of the coffee company ‘Blue Tokai’ and Mr.Sanjay Behl, the Manager of the Kitchen at the Radisson Hotel, Jalandhar, I have delved into the realm of food and learnt of the culture that weaves in and out of our daily lives. Here we are talking about three things; the evolution of food, India, and the world. Food is an integral aspect for the existence of society. In the 1990’s, we saw a lot of development in terms of software and the technology revolution. When Infosys came into being, it was easy noticing how the hotel industry began to grow. Eating habits governed the whole gamut of food and w...

In a historic decision on September 6, 2018, the Supreme Court of India partially de-criminalised Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The unanimous decision taken by a Constitution bench comprising five judges which overturned the SC ruling of 2013, was met with great public acclaim. With homosexuality now legal, India has taken another step on the path to true social equality for minorities. With the Judges of the SC terming part of Section 377 as “irrational, indefensible, and manifestly arbitrary”, the Court has done away with an obsolete colonial law which has been operational for 158 years. However, the central government’s hostility to the idea of granting civil rights to the LGBTQ community is evident in the statements made by luminaries of the ruling party. The government counsel in July asked the Court to limit itself to Section 377 and not expand to civil rights because “The government would oppose any demand to legalise same-sex marriage.” Such orthodox sentiments ar...