Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Fiction “A centipede is crawling across a road with a velocity of one foot per minute.    There are vehicles plying on the road at the rate of one per five minutes.    The vehicles are of various widths like bikes, cars and buses. What is the probability of the centipede crossing the road alive?” “Nil,” said Rohan without even thinking for a moment. Radhakrishna, the mathematics teacher, was stupefied.    He had expected the brilliant student to sit and apply some formulas.    What is mathematics without formulas?  Radhakrishna had given the problem to Rohan in order to keep him quiet in the class.    Rohan was an ADHD student according to the counsellor of the school.    He needed a lot of attention.    ADHD means that, hai na?    Attention Deficit?    So the loving and caring mathematics teacher gave him all the attention he could.    He gave him all the problems...

Old man.  Still going around grabbing. Grabbing both girls and land. Does he look holy? Just look at his face.  I have taken this photo from today's Hindu newspaper. The latest report on him from that newspaper: P anel to look into Asaram's "illegal" ashram in Ridge area . I'm looking for a Baba who can give me some holiness!  Hahaha... But I'm not joking! Just search the internet and you will get umpteen such reports about Babas and Modis.  Good nexus. Good Holiness, I mean. Goodness Heavens! How many of us will survive in the world of such holiness? Are we creating another Hitler in the form of Modi? I'm not going to post all the links on Modi's verbal assaults on people.  A simple Google search will give you all those. Modi and his Babas will reign.  How long, but? As long as we (I mean WE, the people) choose. I'm not saying that Modi supported the Babas.  I'm saying that the Babas created Modis. Joke.  Hah...

Fiction Unexpectedly the clouds burst.  Maybe, it was not so unexpected; I had ignored the gathering clouds.  I have a way of deluding myself that life will treat me well since I am a person with no malice in my heart.  I am kind of a Narcissist, if you like. The clouds burst anyway.  I had no choice but run into the nearest building which looked dilapidated.  Not in ruins really.  It looked like someone had pulled it down intentionally before its time had run out.  Not a terrorist attack; not so random.  It looked like a planned attack.  Destruction part by part.  Slow ruin.  Painful ruin. These thoughts were running in my mind when I noticed someone sitting at one of the many doorstops that led to endless emptiness in that ruined building.  He looked like a lunatic.  He had a stubble, unkempt hair which was dripping with rain water, and a burnt-out beedi stub between his fingers.  He sucked at the b...

Fiction Manohar didn’t go home after he left his office.  Instead he walked up the mountain where Baba lived.  Baba was said to have the powers to see one’s future and give appropriate counsel. Yesterday Sunanda Pushkar proclaimed her love for her husband and today she is found dead in her bed.  Aam Aadmi Party’s law minister took the law into his hands and ordered the police to do something illegal, out of the natural earnestness of the new broom to sweep clean rather than malice.  Life is more complex than death. But these were not the problems that really nagged Manohar.  His office was in turmoil.  People were just disappearing from the office day by day just like they disappeared during Stalin’s rule in Russia.  More than half of his colleagues had disappeared without a trace.  If Sunanda Pushkar can die laughing and without a warning, people can disappear equally mysteriously.  Yet… yet, something seemed uncanny to Manoh...

How much land does a man need?  is a short story by the classical Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy.  The story highlights human greed. Pahom, the protagonist, is a peasant.  He thinks that more land means more happiness for a peasant.  But how much land does a peasant need?  Making the question more general, how much wealth does a person need? This is the question that Tolstoy answers in his story.  Using all his savings as well as selling his colt and a sizeable share of his bees, hiring out his son, taking advance wages and borrowing from his brother-in-law, Pahom collects enough money to buy more land thinking he would be happier.  In fact, he became contented with all the vast acres he possessed.  But human nature is seldom contented.  It always wants what it does not have.  [Leave out exceptions like saints (extinct species) and lunatics.]  Pahom learns about a place where a Commune gives 25 acres of land free to ...