Skip to main content

Good Bye, Politics


“There is a longstanding body of psychological evidence that shows that lecturing people that they are wrong, listing a bunch of facts that conclusively demonstrate that, and busting the myths spread by irresponsible political opponents not only fails to change minds, it makes people more fixed in their views.”  These words of Sonia Sudha in her recent Guardian article, ‘Outrage makes you feel good, but doesn’t change minds,’ set me on a contemplation course like self-help books used to do once upon a time.

When the contemplation was over I spoke to a few friends over phone, something which I hardly do these days.  I had chosen relative solitude for a huge variety of reasons one of which is erosion of trust in people.  The phone conversations turned out to be quite rewarding unlike what I had expected.  The friends were candid in telling me that my political views are out of tune with popular moods or things similar.  In short, I wasn’t achieving anything good by writing them. 


There are good friends still, I thought.  I mean it’s so hard to find people who are not politically correct even while talking to friends.  And I’m lucky.  I put Sonia Sodha’s observation and those of my friends together and decided to stay from current politics for a while as far as blogging is concerned.  I can do better with books and other really worthwhile stuff.  You might even find me writing blogs for some insurance companies which are ready to pay for the publicity. 

[Not a permanent decision, however]

Comments

  1. UppalApril 5, 2017 at 8:58 AM

    Better to leave politics to politicians! There is so much else to figure out in life!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 5, 2017 at 9:19 AM

      To politicians and media professionals. 😀 Indeed life will be better far away from politics.

      Delete
  2. Jyotirmoy SarkarApril 5, 2017 at 9:38 AM

    Good to know about your decision...whatever the reason is.

    ReplyDelete
  3. none to be knownApril 5, 2017 at 2:07 PM

    I too had same views like you had. So I was always glad that someone says those in public. People are not ready to think. They always wants to stay in their illusory world. So you do not belong to their world and they refuses to accept you. But it was great to see someone telling the truth straight forward

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 5, 2017 at 2:18 PM

      This is one way of the old giving way to the new. Mathematics has no feelings, you see 😃

      Delete
  4. Pranju chakrapaniApril 5, 2017 at 3:27 PM

    How much I liked reading your views on politics among other topics. As a reader,although a reclusive one, I would like you to continue writing your views regardless of unsolicited opinions. Never say never. But that's just another opinion

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 5, 2017 at 9:08 PM

      You have to stop writing politics the moment you are seen as anything other than a citizen. India does not have citizens now, it has Hindus or Muslims or Christians. We and They. Even highly educated people have succumbed to the delight of enemy-baiting.

      Delete
  5. none to be knownApril 5, 2017 at 3:29 PM

    With age comes wisdom,but sometimes age alone comes. Have to wait and acquire knowledge and wisdom like you to speak like you. Which is not possible for anyone in the near future for we all have a rush hour these times

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 5, 2017 at 8:36 PM

      Wisdom comes to those who are willing to receive her. You will have your time. Anyway I don't consider myself wise.

      Delete
  6. Rajeev MoothedathApril 5, 2017 at 10:42 PM

    "When the contemplation was over I spoke to a few friends over phone, something which I hardly do these days. I had chosen relative solitude for a huge variety of reasons one of which is erosion of trust in people"
    Glad to note that you broke the stalemate...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 6, 2017 at 8:23 AM

      It was certainly heartening to see that friends remained friends even after a two year-long silence from my part.

      Delete
  7. AnonymousApril 6, 2017 at 1:37 AM

    This is definitely not the best of times to engage in political dialog. Especially if you are already popular and have a readership. The beauty of blogging is that you can say what you want if you are a nobody, since nobody will likely ever find out. With your insights and depth, it will be a huge service if you start writing about books and reading, for example. There is no point in getting into trouble defending your truth against hoodlums.

    ReplyDelete

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

Bihar Election

Satish Acharya's Cartoon on how votes were bought in Bihar My wife has been stripped of her voting rights in the revised electoral roll. She has always been a conscientious voter unlike me. I refused to vote in the last Lok Sabha election though I stood outside the polling booth for Maggie to perform what she claimed was her duty as a citizen. The irony now is that she, the dutiful citizen, has been stripped of the right, while I, the ostensible renegade gets the right that I don’t care for. Since the Booth Level Officer [BLO] was my neighbour, he went out of his way to ring up some higher officer, sitting in my house, to enquire about Maggie’s exclusion. As a result, I was given the assurance that he, the BLO, would do whatever was in his power to get my wife her voting right. More than the voting right, what really bothered me was whether the Modi government was going to strip my wife of her Indian citizenship. Anything is possible in Modi’s India: Modi hai to Mumkin hai .   ...
16 comments
Read more

Nehru’s Secularism

Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, and Narendra Modi, the present one, are diametrically opposite to each other. Take any parameter, from boorishness to sophistication or religious views, and these two men would remain poles apart. Is it Nehru’s towering presence in history that intimidates Modi into hurling ceaseless allegations against him? Today, 14 Nov, is Nehru’s birth anniversary and Modi’s tweet was uncharacteristically terse. It said, “Tributes to former Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Ji on the occasion of his birth anniversary.” Somebody posted a trenchant cartoon in the comments section.  Nehru had his flaws, no doubt. He was as human as Modi. But what made him a giant while Modi remains a dwarf – as in the cartoon above – is the way they viewed human beings. For Nehru, all human beings mattered, irrespective of their caste, creed, language, etc. His concept of secularism stands a billion notches above Modi’s Hindutva-nationalism. Nehru’s ide...
14 comments
Read more

The Art of Subjugation: A Case Study

Two Pulaya women, 1926 [Courtesy Mathrubhumi ] The Pulaya and Paraya communities were the original landowners in Kerala until the Brahmins arrived from the North with their religion and gods. They did not own the land individually; the lands belonged to the tribes. Then in the 8 th – 10 th centuries CE, the Brahmins known as Namboothiris in Kerala arrived and deceived the Pulayas and Parayas lock, stock, and barrel. With the help of religion. The Namboothiris proclaimed themselves the custodians of all wealth by divine mandate. They possessed the Vedic and Sanskrit mantras and tantras to prove their claims. The aboriginal people of Kerala couldn’t make head or tail of concepts such as Brahmadeya (land donated to Brahmins becoming sacred land) or Manu’s injunctions such as: “Land given to a Brahmin should never be taken back” [8.410] or “A king who confiscates land from Brahmins incurs sin” [8.394]. The Brahmins came, claimed certain powers given by the gods, and started exploi...
15 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
19 comments
Read more