Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Too many people lead fake lives and hence the world is a sad place. Our pursuits are fake, borrowed from others. We hanker after wealth because everybody seems to do just that. It can be power or glamour or something similar that catches our fancy. We dedicate our entire life to the pursuit of fanciful goals. Even our religion is a fancy item. If wealth could give us happiness, the wealthiest people on the earth would be the happiest too. You can replace wealth with power or glamour or any such thing and the statement will remain valid with the necessary modifications. The classical Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, dramatized the futility of our common pursuits in the story of Ivan Ilyich. Ivan led a very inauthentic life. His pursuits were superficial. Ivan is a successful person by worldly standards. He has money and influence. He is the pride of his family. What he has done all his life is to follow the example of the successful people. He imitated their manners and accepted the

Horse: If you don’t want to be a caterpillar, how can you become a butterfly? Caterpillar: Did you pass through so many stages before you became a horse? Horse: Not exactly the same stages.  But stages, yes. Caterpillar: Was it hard?  The stages, I mean. Horse: It depends.  Being a caterpillar is not hard for all caterpillars, I guess. Caterpillar: One grows up only by passing through the stages? Horse: One grows real only by passing through the stages. Caterpillar: Real? Horse: Opposite of fraud, let’s say. Caterpillar: Why should anyone be a fraud? Horse: Discontent, I guess.  Not happy being what you are.  Wanting to be something else.  Somebody else. Caterpillar: Like me? Horse: Well.  There are many creatures who are unhappy about what they are.  Who want to be somebody else.  Becoming real is a slow process, I guess.  It needs patience.  Like being a caterpillar crawling on leaves.  And then a chrysalis.  Caterpillar: But o