Skip to main content

Faces of 2013


Janus

January is named after the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, Janus.  Janus has two faces, one looking backward and the other forward.   January is the time to look in both directions.

I am terrified and challenged simultaneously by this January, January 2014.  Because 2013 has been the worst year in my life.  In spite of the fact I am not new to the usual ups and downs of life. 

2013 was the year of FACES for me.   MASKS.  I had never seen so many masked faces in my life earlier.  I had never seen smiles that looked angelic but turned out to be diabolic – not even when my students cared to point it out to me.  Not ever to the extent 2013 undressed itself.

I saw more than half of my colleagues lose their jobs in 2013.  I witnessed the march of capitalism and religion, hand in hand.  They marched wearing the best saris or the best of cravats available in the market.  They marched on the bones of people they buried beneath the land they acquired in the process of marching.  And they recited prayers every morning and evening, prayers copied from the internet, prayers from Tagore’s Gitanjali and Hopkins’s adaptations.   They performed rituals from the Vedas and they sermonised with the help of “workshop” experts.  They brought in criminals as VIPs whom we garlanded and bouqueted.  And they raped us.  Raped us worse than what the western colonialists  did world over throughout modern human history.   And they made us take pledge every morning that we are Indians and we should love all Indians.

No, I’m not writing fiction.   

Ashvamedha is not fiction in India.  Not in America either.

This was the reality for a lot of Delhiites in 2013.

I look forward to a better 2014.

I look forward to Arvind Kejriwal. 

This is the first time in my life I’m putting my faith in a politician.

My hope, rather.

Janus had/has 2 faces.  Looking backward, looking forward.  Don’t keep skeletons in the cupboard like Narendra Modi, for example, so that you won’t have ghosts haunting you everafter. 

Can I have optimism still?

My optimism is simple.  I want to see faces.  

Faces. 

Faces, not masks.

Not the best cravat available in the market.

Hope.

Hope sustains.


“Let noble thoughts come from every side,” said Rig Veda. 


Wish you a Better New Year.
Top post on IndiBlogger.in, the community of Indian Bloggers


Labels:

Comments

  1. Anita SabatDecember 30, 2013 at 7:30 PM

    Sir, A post full of HOPE! Lots of wishes.
    May the New Year be fine for us all & for India too...
    May we see the better future through Janus & forget the past!
    May the AAP rise & shine & shut the mouths of the critics...
    New Year wishes to you & your family!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 30, 2013 at 7:36 PM

      Thanks, Anita. I look forward to telling you a bigger story.

      Delete
  2. IndraniDecember 30, 2013 at 8:56 PM

    Wonderful post! I too have hopes for a wonderful 2014! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. drchinmoyhazarikaDecember 30, 2013 at 9:52 PM

    If one wants to know a person's true worth, give him a mask to wear. It's easier to catch him in the act then.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 31, 2013 at 9:57 AM

      When masks begin to rule the roost, what will people without masks do?

      Delete
    2. drchinmoyhazarikaJanuary 4, 2014 at 6:19 PM

      Unmask the masked. One cannot live in a kleptocracy.

      Delete
    3. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 4, 2014 at 7:09 PM

      We live in a kleptocracy called India. Can you unmask it?

      Delete
  4. Mon.EspritDecember 30, 2013 at 9:56 PM

    Happy new year Sir - very rightly said about masks and who we idolize without knowing the face we see is real or a mask.

    This yes has been very challenging and difficult for me - having to see both my father and my child falling severely ill, a tough time I had never been through and now I look forward to hope.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownDecember 30, 2013 at 11:04 PM

    Happy new year!! I too hope for a better year ahead..
    (My knowledge of the political scene is embarrassingly shaky, so I will not comment about that part of your post...)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 31, 2013 at 10:02 AM

      Never mind the politics, Sreesha. Let's look forward with renewed hope and vigour.

      Delete
  6. Brendan DabhiDecember 31, 2013 at 2:08 AM

    Wish you a very hopeful New Year too although I can't help being pessimistic about what is to come.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 31, 2013 at 10:02 AM

      Do or die - what else is left, Brendan, when your very survival is at stake?

      Delete
  7. ManiparnaDecember 31, 2013 at 3:22 AM

    A wonderful post Sir..

    The year 2013 was not a good year for many of us ..but as 2014 is approaching let's have new hopes and dreams,,,happy new year to you and your family :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 31, 2013 at 10:03 AM

      Let me reciprocate the wishes, Maniparna. I know it's going to be an extremely tough year ahead for me.

      Delete
  8. PallaviDecember 31, 2013 at 12:51 PM

    I hope you have a much better year Tomichan. The worse is over :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ashwin KumarDecember 31, 2013 at 3:02 PM

    2013 has been a worst year to me as well... maybe the number 13 doesn't work out as it remains unlucky to me :P

    Anyways, loved this post! Wishing you a happy and optimistic new year :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Preethi VenugopalaDecember 31, 2013 at 4:28 PM

    2013 was a super year for me...Full of new beginnings and new hopes. Hope 2014 continues the trend. Awesome post full of hopes.
    A very Happy New Year to you sir..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 31, 2013 at 7:36 PM

      May you have equally wonderful new year, Preethi. And thanks for the wishes.

      Delete
  11. MadhuDecember 31, 2013 at 4:51 PM

    A great read! Like you, I too feel a glimmer of hope cutting through my cynicism. All we can do is hope that those eager faces can, and will be allowed, to remain unmasked.
    Hope you will have many reasons to celebrate in the year ahead.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 31, 2013 at 7:37 PM

      I intend to create reasons for celebration, Madhu. Thanks for your wishes.

      Delete
  12. UnknownDecember 31, 2013 at 6:08 PM

    Wonderful post, Sir. Wishing you a very Happy New Year :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 31, 2013 at 7:37 PM

      Thank you, Deepa, and wish you too a very rewarding New Year.

      Delete
  13. UnknownDecember 31, 2013 at 6:38 PM

    Good one and happie new year

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 31, 2013 at 7:38 PM

      Thanks Gowtham. May you too have a great year ahead.

      Delete
  14. Bushra MuzaffarDecember 31, 2013 at 7:20 PM

    Hoping for good times ahead. Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 31, 2013 at 7:38 PM

      Here's me sharing your optimism and wishing you a wonderful new year.

      Delete
  15. AditiDecember 31, 2013 at 7:48 PM

    Ah and on hope we continue to live! Fabulous post...wishing you and your family a fantastic 2014!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 31, 2013 at 8:03 PM

      Let us not just live, Aditi, let us flourish. Wish you a New Year which will allow you to flourish.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

Do I Dare?

Alfred Prufrock was sitting in a dimly lit café when a young boy, who was yet to reach adolescence, walked in. The boy looked as inquisitive as Prufrock looked flurried. ‘Hello,’ the boy said. ‘You look so… lonely. And sad too.’ ‘Sad? No, not sad. Just… contemplating. I am, as they say, measuring out my life with coffee spoons.’ ‘Aw! That’s strange. On my planet, I measure things by sunsets. I love sunsets. How can you measure life with something so small as a coffee spoon?’ ‘Did you say “my planet”?’ ‘Well, yes. I come from another planet. I’ve been travelling for quite some time, you know. Went to numerous planets and asteroids and met many strange creatures. Quite a lot of them are cranky.’ The boy laughed gently, almost like an adult. Prufrock looked at the boy with some scepticism and suspicion. He was already having too many worries of his own like whether he should part his hair in the middle and roll up the bottoms of his trousers. ‘They call me Little Prince,’
16 comments
Read more

Why Live?

More than 700,000 people choose to commit suicide every year in the world. That is, nearly 2000 individuals end their lives every day and suicide is the leading cause of death in the age group of 15 to 29. 10 Sep is the World Suicide Prevention Day . Let me join fellow bloggers Manali and Sukaina in their endeavour to draw more people’s attention to the value of life. One of the most persuasive essays on why we should not choose death voluntarily in spite of the ordeals and absurdities of life is The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. Camus’s basic premise is that life is absurd. It has no meaning other than what you give to it. The universe is indifferent to you, if not hostile. The confrontation between the human need for clarity and the chaotic irrationality of the world can lead to existential despair. Suicide is not the answer to that despair, however. Camus looks for a philosophical answer in his essay. Not many people find consolation in philosophy. Most people seek a
12 comments
Read more

Ashwatthama is still alive

Fiction Image from Pinterest “I met Ashwatthama.” When Doctor Prabhakar told me this, I thought he was talking figuratively. Metaphors were his weaknesses. “The real virus is in the human heart, Jai,” he had told me when the pandemic named Covid-19 started holding the country hostage. I thought his Ashwatthama was similarly figurative. Ashwatthama was Dronacharya’s son in the Mahabharata. He was blessed with immortality by Shiva. But the blessing became a horrible curse when Krishna punished him for killing the Pandava kids deceptively after Kurukshetra was brought to peace, however fragile that peace was, using all the frauds that a god could possibly use. Krishna of the Kurukshetra was no less a fraud than a run-of-the-mill politician in my imagination. He could get an innocent elephant named Ashwatthama killed and then convert that killing into a blatant lie to demoralise Drona. He could ask Bhima to hit Duryodhana below the belt without feeling any moral qualms in what
7 comments
Read more

Live Life Fully

Alexis Zorba, the protagonist of Nikos Kazantzakis’s novel Zorba the Greek , lives life to its fullness. He embraces human experience with his whole heart. He is not interested in rational explanations and intellectual isms. His philosophy, if you can call it that at all, is earthy, spontaneous and passionate. He loves life passionately. He celebrates it. Happiness is a simple affair for him. “I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing happiness is,” he tells us. “A glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.” You don’t need a lot of things to be happy. Your possessions don’t bring you happiness. All that money you spent on your big house, big car, big everything… It helps to show off. But happiness? No way, happiness doesn’t come that way at all. Zorba loves to play his musical instrument, santouri. He loves to sing. To dance. But don’t get me wrong. He works too. He works hard. There’s no fullness of life without that hard w
10 comments
Read more