Skip to main content

Family Affairs



I must thank my cousin, Jacob Matheckal (as spelt by him), for compiling the history of Matheikals.   

No connection with Matheikals
Of course, this may not be of any interest to anyone who is not directly related to the family.  I found it an eminent enterprise and wish to thank Babychettan (Jacob Matheckal) for the amount of labour that he has put in for bringing out this history.  The fact is that I know very few of the Matheikals mentioned in the history.  I look forward to getting to know a few of them at least in the near future, though I’m not sure how far I’ll be successful in that venture.  My hesitation owes much to my reticence and lack of interest in spending time with people.  I prefer books to people. 

During a light-hearted telephonic conversation with the author of this history some time ago, he asked me, “Shall I present you as an icon for all the mad people in the world?”  I laughed and said, “Why not?”  But what he has actually written about me is very flattering:

Tomichan and his spouse Margret are into academics and teaching. Tomichan emulated his father and developed a philosophical approach to life and events and is an avid promoter of ecological environment. He is a vocal and fearless crusader against injustice in the society and the political spectrum through his blog - matheikal.blogspot.in . Tomichan has proved that the pen is mightier than the sword. [Page 111]

I take this opportunity to pat myself on the back.  I must add that my father’s contribution to my interest in books is colossal.  He had a library of nearly 5000 books which he donated a few years before his death to the library of a parish church.  I had read almost all the novels and story books before I left home at the age of 15 to pursue my studies.  Reading has remained my best habit up to now.   I hope to cultivate a greater interest in ‘family affairs’ now that I know there are more Matheikals out there than I had thought of.   Thanks, Babychettan.




Labels:

Comments

  1. D.NambiarApril 28, 2014 at 7:14 AM

    Thumbs up. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. IndraniApril 28, 2014 at 8:22 AM

    That is so good. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 28, 2014 at 9:23 AM

      Welcome things also happen in life, Indrani. Thanks for sharing my joy.

      Delete
  3. ilaksheeApril 28, 2014 at 1:11 PM

    Wow! 5000 is an impressive number. You are lucky!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 28, 2014 at 4:27 PM

      But quite many of them were religious books which I never read.. I had to make a rigorous choice, you see.

      Delete
    2. Tomichan MatheikalApril 28, 2014 at 4:27 PM

      But quite many of them were religious books which I never read.. I had to make a rigorous choice, you see.

      Delete
  4. ManiparnaApril 28, 2014 at 2:09 PM

    5000 books !..and this is really a wonderful post.. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 28, 2014 at 4:28 PM

      I was lucky, Maniparna, in a way... The post is a bit boastful, I know. I intended it partly!

      Delete
  5. Preethi VenugopalaApril 28, 2014 at 3:47 PM

    Impressive.
    "Tomichan has proved that the pen is mightier than the sword."
    That is so correct.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 28, 2014 at 4:29 PM

      Thanks, Preethi. I'm still keeping my feet firmly on the ground :)

      Delete
  6. SakshiApril 28, 2014 at 7:00 PM

    Maybe, writing a book about your family - the whole tree? :)
    I wish I was the librarian of the parish church your father's library went to.
    You interest in books shows through your, Tomichan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 28, 2014 at 8:38 PM

      Actually, Sakshi, it's destiny, the destiny of character mostly. The only time I ventured to make real, human friends I made a mess of my life.

      Delete
  7. Suhas DigheApril 28, 2014 at 7:34 PM

    I can see that you are a voracious reader and that must have moulded your personality. Also your family us lucky to have a well read person in their midst. So all the best if you are planning to pen down the family history.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 28, 2014 at 8:39 PM

      No, not family history; I may venture another kind of history... well, not yet time to disclose it.

      Delete
  8. UnknownApril 28, 2014 at 7:50 PM

    Hey! I totally agree with the statements made about you in the compilation. :) Your blog inspires.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 28, 2014 at 8:41 PM

      The last one year made a lot of difference to me, Namrata. Some bitter experiences brought about many changes in my attitude to life and writing. I veered away from politics towards psychology and issues of ordinary people's lives.

      Delete
  9. wingsApril 28, 2014 at 9:34 PM

    I'm astounded, sir! You made, not your family history, but you really found a place in history through your activist blogs! Hearty congratulations to you and Mrs. Margret who is always with you in your endeavours!

    Here is a link to a speech on this global rise of citizen media which makes us write the pages of history:
    http://skmanimekalai.blogspot.in/2014/04/global-rise-of-citizen-media.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 28, 2014 at 10:12 PM

      Thanks, M, for your generous adulation. These days I'm enjoying lapping up a bit of adulation :)

      I'll be there with you in your blog space soon.

      Delete
  10. UnknownApril 28, 2014 at 10:55 PM

    That's a big library! Wow!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nilanjana BoseApril 29, 2014 at 3:40 PM

    5000! You are truly a wealthy person Sir.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 30, 2014 at 1:33 PM

      Yes, Nilanjana, books are perhaps the greatest wealth.

      Delete
  12. UnknownApril 29, 2014 at 7:12 PM

    It does feel good when our near ones acknowledge our achievement, doesn't it? :) Congrats :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 30, 2014 at 1:34 PM

      True, Pankti, because no prophet is usually accepted in his own village, let alone his home. :)

      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
47 comments
Read more

Indian Knowledge Systems

Shashi Tharoor wrote a massive book back in 2018 to explore the paradoxes that constitute the man called Narendra Modi. Paradoxes dominate present Indian politics. One of them is what’s called the Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS). What constitute the paradox here are two parallel realities: one genuinely valuable, and the other deeply regressive. The contributions of Aryabhata and Brahmagupta to mathematics, Panini to linguistics, Vedanta to philosophy, and Ayurveda to medicine are genuine traditions that may deserve due attention. But there’s a hijacked version of IKS which is a hilariously, if not villainously, political project. Much of what is now packaged as IKS in government documents, school curricula, and propaganda includes mythological claims treated as historical facts, pseudoscience (e.g., Ravana’s Pushpaka Vimana as a real aircraft or Ganesha’s trunk as a product of plastic surgery), astrology replacing astronomy, ritualism replacing reasoning, attempts to invent the r...
17 comments
Read more

The Ugly Duckling

Source: Acting Company A. A. Milne’s one-act play, The Ugly Duckling , acquired a classical status because of the hearty humour used to present a profound theme. The King and the Queen are worried because their daughter Camilla is too ugly to get a suitor. In spite of all the devious strategies employed by the King and his Chancellor, the princess remained unmarried. Camilla was blessed with a unique beauty by her two godmothers but no one could see any beauty in her physical appearance. She has an exquisitely beautiful character. What use is character? The King asks. The play is an answer to that question. Character plays the most crucial role in our moral science books and traditional rhetoric, religious scriptures and homilies. When it comes to practical life, we look for other things such as wealth, social rank, physical looks, and so on. As the King says in this play, “If a girl is beautiful, it is easy to assume that she has, tucked away inside her, an equally beauti...
31 comments
Read more

Waiting for the Mahatma

Book Review I read this book purely by chance. R K Narayan is not a writer whom I would choose for any reason whatever. He is too simple, simplistic. I was at school on Saturday last and I suddenly found myself without anything to do though I was on duty. Some duties are like that: like a traffic policeman’s duty on a road without any traffic! So I went up to the school library and picked up a book which looked clean. It happened to be Waiting for the Mahatma by R K Narayan. A small book of 200 pages which I almost finished reading on the same day. The novel was originally published in 1955, written probably as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and India’s struggle for independence. The edition that I read is a later reprint by Penguin Classics. Twenty-year-old Sriram is the protagonist though Gandhi towers above everybody else in the novel just as he did in India of the independence-struggle years. Sriram who lives with his grandmother inherits significant wealth when he turns 20. Hi...
9 comments
Read more

A Government that Spies on Citizens

Illustration by Copilot Designer India has officially decided to keep an eagle eye on its citizens. Modi government has asked all smartphone manufacturers to preinstall a government app, Sanchar Saathi , on every phone in such a way that no citizen can ever uninstall it. The firms have been also ordered to install the app on existing phones too using software-update technology. The stated objective is to strengthen cybersecurity and protect users from fraud. The question is why any government should go out of its way to impose “security” on its citizens. For over a month now, I have been receiving a message every single day from the Government of India’s Telecom Department to install the app on my phone. I wanted to block the sender, but there is no such option. Even that message is an imposition. I don’t trust any government that imposes benefits on me. “ Beneficent beasts of prey ,” Robert Frost would call such governments. When Modi government imposes security on me, I ha...
8 comments
Read more