Skip to main content

Identity Crisis


Sometimes the society gifts me an identity crisis.  My association with the society is usually limited to my workplace and that being a school there is little problem.  [I must admit that I get an enviably fantastic set of students year after year.]  However, when I meet people occasionally in certain gatherings like wedding or funeral, friends and relatives often introduce me to others as a fiercely anti-BJP blogger.  That has always embarrassed me.

When I look at my blog posts, I find that politics is a rare subject in my writing.  I write short stories, book reviews and reflections on life much more than politics.  Yet I get labelled as “fiercely anti-BJP” probably because I articulate my political views without the sweetening additive of diplomacy. 

Lack of diplomacy has always been my nemesis, my lifelong companion.  That’s one of the reasons why I chose to stay away from the society.  I’m incapable of sweetening harsh facts.  Light doesn’t terrorise me and I’m incapable of understanding why it terrorises others.

I’m incapable of many things.  For example, I don’t understand or can’t appreciate most of the messages forwarded to me in the different WhatsApp groups to which I belong more by necessity than choice.  I can’t understand why people believe such balderdash and why they think it worthy of being passed on to thousands of others. 

I understand that I don’t belong in too many places.  My blog is a virtual escape, the quiet bower that John Keats discovered among daffodils and musk roses.  Even my political blogs belong to that escapist realm.  It is not fiercely anti-BJP, it is fiercely escapist.


Comments

  1. जितेन्द्र माथुरDecember 2, 2017 at 9:15 AM

    People with a polarized mindset (such people are in abundance now-a-days) can only perceive you that way Sir. People having an unbiased, rational, objective and balanced approach towards various things and thoughts can't, don't and won't do so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 2, 2017 at 9:40 AM

      I agree. It's not easy to find rational people, however.

      Delete
  2. Ravish ManiDecember 4, 2017 at 9:46 AM

    As I see, one's identity is the real cause of one's misery. It's good that you are having identity crisis. Get rid of it as soon as possible. We don't need identity to live a quality life. One's identity only feeds one's ego. It's said true happiness lies in egolessness. I think I should stop now. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 4, 2017 at 6:41 PM

      The problem is other's rather than mine 😀

      Egolessness is too mystical a state for a very ordinary person like me.

      Delete
  3. A Homemaker's UtopiaDecember 8, 2017 at 9:10 AM

    Your post is an inspiration for me..I fear the idea of belongingness itself,when you belong you have to obey all sorts of stupid social rules and diplomacy..As Mark Twain said,'Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.'Keep writing..keep inspiring.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousDecember 10, 2017 at 12:25 AM

    Sir, can you please go through my essay on Ayodhya issue and tell me what you thought of it? I'll be very grateful. Thank you.

    http://rantsofabookishboy.blogspot.in/2017/12/thoughts-on-ayodhya-issue.html

    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

Whose Rama?

Book Review Title: Whose Rama? [Malayalam] Author: T S Syamkumar Publisher: D C Books, Kerala Pages: 352 Rama may be an incarnation of God Vishnu, but is he as noble a man [ Maryada Purushottam ] as he is projected to be by certain sections of Hindus? This is the theme of Dr Syamkumar’s book, written in Malayalam. There is no English translation available yet. Rama is a creation of the Brahmins, asserts the author of this book. The Ramayana upholds the unjust caste system created by Brahmins for their own wellbeing. Everyone else exists for the sake of the Brahmin wellbeing. If the Kshatriyas are given the role of rulers, it is only because the Brahmins need such men to fight and die for them. Valmiki’s Rama too upheld that unjust system merely because that was his Kshatriya-dharma, allotted by the Brahmins. One of the many evils that Valmiki’s Rama perpetrates heartlessly is the killing of Shambuka, a boy who belonged to a low caste but chose to become an ascetic. The...
8 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

Maveli in the Pothole Republic

Illustration by Copilot Designer I was trying to navigate the moonscape they call a ‘national highway’ when my shoe vanished into a crater big enough to host the G20 summit. Out of it rose a tall figure, crowned and regal, though with a slight limp. “Maveli!” I exclaimed. “Yes,” he said grimly. “Your roads are terrible. I thought the netherworld was bad, but this—this is hell on asphalt.” I helped him up. “Don’t worry, Maveli, our leaders say we’re heading toward becoming a global economic superpower. See, even Donald Trump is impotent before our might.”   Maveli frowned. “Yes, yes. I saw your leader guffawing in the company of Putin and Xi Jinping. When he’s in the company of world leaders, he behaves like a little boy who’s got his coveted toy.” “Are you a little jealous of him, Maveli?” I asked. “I have reasons to be, but I’m not. Let him enjoy his limelight. A day will come when history will put its merciless foot on his head and send him to his own Patala.” Tha...
8 comments
Read more

The Real Enemies of India

People in general are inclined to pass the blame on to others whatever the fault.  For example, we Indians love to blame the British for their alleged ‘divide-and-rule’ policy.  Did the British really divide India into Hindus and Muslims or did the Indians do it themselves?  Was there any unified entity called India in the first place before the British unified it? Having raised those questions, I’m going to commit a further sacrilege of quoting a British journalist-cum-historian.  In his magnum opus, India: a History , John Keay says that the “stock accusations of a wider Machiavellian intent to ‘divide and rule’ and to ‘stir up Hindu-Muslim animosity’” levelled against the British Raj made little sense when the freedom struggle was going on in India because there really was no unified India until the British unified it politically.  Communal divisions existed in India despite the political unification.  In fact, they existed even before the Briti...
16 comments
Read more