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By:

Uday Jogalekar

13 May 2026 at 3:25:14 pm

From Pracharak to Minister: My Memories of Dilipda

Long before he became a minister, Dilipda had already earned our respect through his simplicity, discipline, and warmth. In 2007, my job brought me to Kolkata. Once there, I began attending the local RSS shakha and gradually became involved in Sangh work. I first met Dilipda during a visit to a swayamsevak’s home. Coincidentally, that same year, he had been appointed to our division. As everyone introduced themselves, Dilipda casually asked me in Marathi, “How are you finding Bengal?” Hearing...

From Pracharak to Minister: My Memories of Dilipda

Long before he became a minister, Dilipda had already earned our respect through his simplicity, discipline, and warmth. In 2007, my job brought me to Kolkata. Once there, I began attending the local RSS shakha and gradually became involved in Sangh work. I first met Dilipda during a visit to a swayamsevak’s home. Coincidentally, that same year, he had been appointed to our division. As everyone introduced themselves, Dilipda casually asked me in Marathi, “How are you finding Bengal?” Hearing a Bengali pracharak — a full-time RSS worker devoted to organisational work — speak fluent Marathi came as a pleasant surprise to me. From that moment onwards, my interactions with Dilipda increased, and I gradually began to understand the many dimensions of his seemingly simple personality. Coming from Maharashtra, where Sangh work generally faced non-violent opposition, adapting to Bengal — where the opposition was often violent — was not easy. In that atmosphere, I learnt from Dilipda how to remain enthusiastic while also keeping fellow workers motivated and active. I often accompanied Dilipda during his visits to our area. He had a remarkable ability to blend effortlessly into any household, warmly enquire about every family member, and make everyone feel as though he were one of their own. Before being appointed to Kolkata, Dilipda had served as an RSS pracharak in the remote Andaman Islands from around 1999–2000 until 2007. Based in Port Blair, he worked under difficult conditions despite limited travel and communication facilities, diverse tribes speaking different languages, and a local mindset that often kept outsiders at a distance. He would often share positive experiences from his years in the Andamans but never once spoke about the hardships he endured. Despite working in such difficult conditions, he never mentioned his personal discomforts. This ability to remain free of complaints despite adversity is a hallmark of a pracharak, and Dilipda embodied it completely. He possessed the rare gift of finding positivity even in challenging situations. Excellent Cook In Bengal during 2007, Sangh work had not yet expanded to the scale it has reached today. At times, pracharaks had to cook their own meals, and this had made Dilipda an excellent cook. Whenever he returned to the city from his travels, our group would eagerly gather to enjoy his khichdi. Our area, Bidhannagar, was located in Salt Lake, a relatively prosperous locality. Adjacent to it were a few underprivileged settlements, and we would occasionally visit the nearby market. To reach the market from Salt Lake, one had to cross a wooden bridge, where the toll was 25 paise for pedestrians and one rupee for bicycles. Observing the difficulties faced by people in those settlements, Dilipda once suggested starting some sewa (service) activity there. That eventually led to the establishment of a homoeopathic clinic in the locality. While setting up the clinic, Dilipda effortlessly guided us through every stage of planning — what arrangements were needed, how the process should be structured, and what challenges might arise. It felt as though the entire plan was already mapped out in his mind. As the clinic became operational, we began noticing the educational difficulties faced by the local children. English, science, and mathematics were particularly challenging subjects for them, which eventually led to the start of a study centre. The idea of involving engineers from Salt Lake’s IT companies also came from Dilipda. Later, by bringing together IT professionals, an “IT Milan” initiative was started, and many of them eventually became swayamsevaks actively involved in Sangh work. Remarkable Ability At the time, the CPM government was in power in Bengal, and there were many obstacles to conducting shakha activities. Dilipda constantly guided us on overcoming these challenges. He had a remarkable ability to identify work that could bring meaningful change, plan it carefully, and execute it with determination and effectiveness. Whether it was service activities, daily shakha work, or handling sensitive cases related to “Love Jihad", Dilipda consistently displayed dedication, clarity of thought, a fighting spirit, and an unwavering readiness to work tirelessly toward the objective. What amazes me even today is that a pracharak like Dilipda — someone far ahead of us in age, experience, and accomplishments — would interact so casually and warmly with ordinary swayamsevaks like us, placing a hand on our shoulders and speaking as though he were a close friend. In 2009, I was transferred back to Mumbai, bringing my Kolkata chapter to an end. Later, in 2014, I learned that Dilipda had been given responsibility in the BJP. And now, in 2026, the BJP forming a government on its own strength speaks volumes about its contribution and leadership. Today, Dilipda has become a minister, and many titles and honours will naturally be associated with him. But to us, he will always remain simply "Dilipda". (The writer is an entrepreneur based in Kalwa, Thane.)

Hell on Earth, Filmed on Earth: Revisiting ‘Sorcerer’

By the mid-1970s, the audacious William Friedkin had already made two signature American films of the decade - The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973). The former pushed the envelope in the crime genre with its gritty urban realism, while the latter set a new standard for dread-etched occult menace.


With ‘Sorcerer’ (1977) Friedkin - a prominent knight of the ‘American New Wave’ of the 1970s (others included Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Hal Ashby) - pushed even further into the void. On its surface, ‘Sorcerer’ was a remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1953 classic ‘Le Salaire de la Peur’ (The Wages of Fear), itself an adaptation of Georges Arnaud’s novel.


But Friedkin’s version was to be rawer and more visceral, and a (criminally underrated) posthumous masterpiece in its own right. The film opens with four vignettes, detailing the violent underhand activities of the movie’s four ‘protagonists’ scattered across the globe - from Mexico to France to Jerusalem to New Jersey.


All four, who are on the lam from some outfit (police, government or mafia), end up marooned in a seedy and decrepit Latin American village, doomed to eternal damnation. It’s a globetrotting preamble worthy of Graham Greene.


When a nearby oil rig explodes, the American conglomerate that owns it needs to transport crates of nitroglycerine - unstable and ready to detonate at the slightest jolt - through 200 miles of treacherous jungle and perilous mountain roads. Our four desperate protagonists agree to take up this ultimate assignment from hell in order to secure the money with which they hope to escape their South American hellhole.


Beneath ‘Sorcerer’s’ blistering tension is an unflinching critique of capitalism’s cruelty. The film is saturated with the logic of exploitation as our anti-heroes are thrown into a jungle purgatory.


Friedkin, never a director to shy away from logistical madness, made sure the hell his protagonists endured, was real. There are action sequences in Sorcerer (filmed in the Dominican Republic) that defy logic and sanity. The most infamous involves the two trucks, named ‘Sorcerer’ and ‘Lazaro, crossing a rickety rope bridge in a torrential downpour.


In this jaw-dropping scene, the rusty trucks, weighed down with dynamite, sway perilously above the chasm, tires slipping on soaked wood as the wind lashes ropes and water crashes below. It is a scene of such excruciating tension that it borders on the surreal. No CGI, no safety net, no score - just rain, torque and the groan of collapsing faith.


Flushed with the success of his last two films, Friedkin had carte blanche on casting. Friedkin had hoped for Steve McQueen in the lead, alongside Marcello Mastroianni and Lino Ventura. When this dream cast collapsed, he finally cast Roy Scheider - the only big name in ‘Sorcerer.’


Fresh off the success of Jaws (1975), Scheider gives the most intense, haunted performance of his career in ‘Sorcerer.’ Tangerine Dream’s electronic score gives Sorcerer its otherworldly pulse, humming, throbbing, radiating dread. It lingers like a fever dream.


The most remarkable thing about ‘Sorcerer’ is how thoroughly it resists escapism. This is an adventure film where the adventure is a death march, where the destination is not salvation but obliteration. Even ‘Apocalypse Now’ (where Francis Ford Coppola nearly lost his sanity filming in the Philippines) with which Sorcerer shares a spiritual kinship, offers the catharsis of madness. Friedkin offers no such relief.


When ‘Sorcerer’ was finally released, it collided headfirst with ‘Star Wars.’ Audiences didn’t want grit. They wanted galaxies. Critics dismissed it. The title only added to the confusion. Was it a horror film? A fantasy?


The failure of Sorcerer at the box office sapped Friedkin creatively. Like Coppola, who barely survived the making of Apocalypse, Friedkin would never again scale the heights he reached in the 1970s.


But time has a way of rewarding the cursed. Today, Sorcerer is recognized as a criminally underrated masterpiece of the ‘American New Wave.’


For my money, it is Friedkin's finest work: a fevered portrait of men with no past and no future, grinding across a landscape that actively wants to kill them.


Watching it today feels like a message in a bottle from a vanished era of personal, risk-laden filmmaking. One where danger was not just part of the story - it was the story.

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