Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Fiction D riving is what I do when I want to get away from. From what? From whom? Well, you see, I’m sort of an escapist. I would get away from anything. From my job that I am incredibly passionate about. From my home which is the only paradise I can ever afford. From my wife, whom I love a lot and who loves me even more. Well, you know, I’m that sort of a disgruntled old man who is unable to shed his narcissism in spite of all the bangs and bashes it has received for decades from well-meaning self-righteous religious people. I suppose you must have understood by now what kind of a man I am. I am old. I am disgruntled according to those around me especially the religious sort of people. And, if you ask me, I don’t really care for other people which means I should be an ascetic. I get overwhelmed, rarely though, by a desire to know what lies beneath the banality and morbidity of human life. That is what asceticism is about, I guess. My wife thinks I’m a bit cranky and hence sh...

  Hasina Kharbhih, image from the website of her NGO As I was reading Ashish Kundra’s book, A Resurgent Northeast: Narratives of Change , the name of Hasina Kharbhih caught my attention. It didn’t take me much time to verify that it was the same Hasina whom I taught in high school back in the late 1980s. This is what Kundra says about her: Sexual exploitation of urban migrants pushed seventeen-year-old Hasina Kharbhih to start the Impulse NGO Network in Meghalaya. She offers a contrarian view of the skilling programme run by the government. ‘Skill India turned our rural youth into labourers,’ she fumes. She pledged to stem the tide of migration of rural women by leveraging an exclusive source of strength of the region: handlooms. Over the years, she has created a network of 30,000 artisans…. A Fulbright scholar, Hasina’s work has won her many accolades and awards. I had read about Hasina a few years back in the magazine, Down To Earth . Kundra’s book gave me more information...

Book  Title: Up Against Darkness Author: Medha Deshmukh Bhaskaran Publisher: Sakal Media, Pune, 2023 Pages: 295 According to an estimate by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), there are over eight lakh women sex workers in India. A good many of them are treated as worse than animals. This book, Up Against Darkness , is a detailed study on the red-light areas of Ahmednagar in Maharashtra. The book highlights the phenomenal service rendered by Dr Girish Kulkarni and his wife Prajakta for the sex workers of Ahmednagar. As a boy in school, Girish was restless and full of energy. “He became unruly in class, troubling the teachers and other school children.” The neighbours too had to bear the brunt of his mischiefs. When Girish saw a sex worker smacking her little son in order to get him out of her client’s way, his heart melted. He was a young college student then. He volunteered to take care of the little boy and eventually he became an apostle of the sex workers...

Fiction The hill looked absolutely desolate in spite of the massive and aging rubber trees. The flourishing undergrowth bore a solemn testament to neglect. The air grew heavy as I ascended the hill in the evening of a cool and dry day in the monsoon season in Kerala. My destination was the mansion on top of the hill. It had belonged to my uncle who is now no more. His lawyer informed me a few months back that Uncle Jo had bequeathed the mansion to me merely because I loved books just as he did. As a child I used to climb up this same rugged path quite frequently just to visit Uncle Jo who lived all alone in his palatial mansion with the company of Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Dostoevsky and so on. I inherited my admiration for these writers from Uncle Jo. Uncle was married once upon a time, people say. But I knew Uncle as a man who lived a reclusive life on top of that hill. His income came from the rubber trees which were tapped by a few labourers who all left the place when the tre...

Book Title: Caged Tiger: How too much government is holding Indians back Author: Subhashish Bhadra Publisher: Bloomsbury 2023 Pages: 303 For over two centuries the British held India captive. And then Indian politicians did the same. This book shows you how India’s leaders held their own country captive almost all through – with the exception of the first few decades. 77 years is not too short a period of time for a nation, especially one that is as huge as India, to reclaim itself from the ravages of history. What has India achieved in fact? “Governments have failed to provide the basic needs of life, such as clean air and water. India has 22 of the 30 most polluted cities in the world, with a child dying every 3 minutes from inhaling toxic pollutants. Also, India has failed to translate its remarkable economic gains into better lives for its most vulnerable; 35 percent of children under five are stunted…” Now, even Bangladesh is doing better than India though it “is poo...

Colours in the making When the monsoon landed in Kerala towards the end of May, the meteorological department predicted excess rains this season. The reality, as usual, cocked a snook at the forecast. It rained cats and dogs for a few days, probably because of certain disturbances in the oceans, and then the sun lashed the state mercilessly. I put trust in the forecast and bought quite a few flower pots to add colours to my close surroundings. I’m not giving up anyway even if the rains ditch me. If I have bought the pots, I will also make sure that plants grow in them. May not be flowers. Even the nursery staff tell me that it is difficult to grow flower plants given the nature’s unpredictable behaviour. So I have collected leafy plants with all possible colours. When they all grow up, I will have all the colours I wanted around my house.  We, in Kerala, are better off than our counterparts in North India where the temperature is well above 40 degrees Celsius in many places inc...

  I don't feel like writing anything today. I want a story to unfold through some old pictures.  One of the most beautiful places in Delhi is The Garden of Five Senses . You will find yourself bathing in an ocean of flowers and floral decorations. This picture belongs to 2010, long before the Radha Soami Satsang people invaded Sawan school and began to corrode our happiness for the sake of their spirituality.  2014. Narendra Modi came to power in Delhi. The invasion of Sawan by RSSB was almost complete. The sprawling playgrounds of the school are what you see in the picture above. Those grounds which were maintained meticulously by the physcial education teachers and their supporting staff were now filled with buses from all over North India. These buses brought the devotees of RSSB for their usual quarterly Satsang.  RSSB left an immense vacuum not only on the campus but also in the hearts of a lot of people.  Monkeys ruled the campus soon. They were alll over....

Fiction Pastor Joshua was watching Prime Minister Modi meditating on the Vivekananda Rock in Kanyakumari when Shanta and Gopan walked into his office. “We are such a blessed nation to have this saint as our Prime Minister,” Joshua said to the visitors whom he had never met earlier. Visitors come frequently to Pastor Joshua’s house because he is an influential person in the village. He is rich and has connections with politicians of all parties. “Alleluia,” Joshua greeted the visitors in his usual style. Shanta and Gopan joined their palms in namaste, the only form of greeting they were familiar with. Ah, some infidels coming for financial help , Pastor Joshua concluded instantly. He was familiar with all sorts of people, from top to bottom. When you are a public figure, you are in touch – whether you like it or not – with all sorts, and you know how to assess people accurately. “May the blessings of Lord Jesus be upon you,” Pastor Joshua said to the visitors. “How can the Lor...

Book Title: Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King Author: Patrick Olivelle Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2023 Pages: xxxix + 356 This book belongs to a series that is being brought out by HarperCollins: Indian Lives . Ashoka belonged to a period about which we know relatively little: 3 rd century BCE. The centuries that followed Ashoka chose to ignore the great emperor because of politico-religious reasons. The Brahmins were averse to Ashoka and his teachings. Hence they chose to project the epic kings, Yudhishthira and Rama, as ideals, and relegate Ashoka to the dark backgrounds of history. Both Ramayana and Mahabharata had kings who were always devoted to the welfare and supremacy of Brahmins while Ashoka strove to forge an egalitarian society. Patrick Olivelle, the author, was born and raised in Sri Lanka. He is one of the greatest living scholars of ancient India, according to Ramachandra Guha, editor of the series of which this book is the first. Olivelle relies ...

Book Title: Assassin Author: K R Meera Translator: J Devika Publisher: HarperCollins, 2023 Pages: 654 There is hardly any goodness in the world of this brilliantly crafted novel. Its world is driven by avarice of all sorts: for wealth, power, status… Halfway through the gripping drama, the protagonist is told rather curtly by a police officer. “You haven’t met good men. That is it.” Satyapriya, the 44-year-old protagonist who has just survived a murder attempt, replies promptly that the Inspector was right. “I have never seen a really good man. Can you show me one?” Leaving aside a couple of characters, every man in this novel is driven by some sort of avarice. The women are the victims of these men and the systems created by them. It may be worth mentioning here that K R Meera is a feminist. Right in the beginning of the novel, we hear Satyapriya telling the investigating police officer that “Luck in love is directly proportional to submissiveness, not beauty.” A few p...

Fiction When Lila sent a voice message on WhatsApp asking Anna to join her on a pilgrimage, Anna was naturally surprised. They belonged to two different religions. And nowadays no two religions are supposed to love each other. Hindus and other religious believers are supposed to hate each other in India, for example. The raison d’etre of the Jews of Israel seems to be killing the Muslims in their neighbourhood. Similarly, the God of the Muslims is too eager to exterminate all non-Muslims from the face of the earth. Why does Lila, a Hindu, want Anna, a Christian, to accompany her on a pilgrimage? It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, thought Anna, though she couldn’t recollect who had coined that extended metaphor and in what situation.   Lila and Anna were classmates in high school. They belonged to nearby villages and studied in the only English medium convent school of the nearest little town. The nuns who ran the school ensured that no two girls ever touched...

From The Hindu “Are you happy with the election results?” A friend asked on WhatsApp. A fan of Modi, he was being facetious. The prelude to that question was proof of the flippancy. The BJP is happy, his message said, “because again we are the largest party.” Congress is happy since the result outdid their expectations and the claims of the exit polls. The message went on to give similar reasons why all parties and even the Election Commission were happy with the results. It concluded with Arvind Kejriwal’s happiness because his “sugars are now under control.” “I am happy,” I responded, “because Modiji’s hubris has got the jolt it should….” I didn’t vote this time though I took Maggie, my sister-in-law and niece to the polling station because they wanted to vote and I am a democrat who lets others follow their choices. I wrote earlier about why I wouldn’t vote this time . The results that came yesterday, however, are a great relief. Democracy is still alive in my country. It’s no...