Tomichan Matheikal's blog

My village river in spate The teak that stood on a side of my house came down yesterday. It had to be felled before the cyclonic winds brought it down on our house. A tree that had stood there for some three decades lay flat on the ground in less than an hour. The lithe man who brought it down branch by branch is 74 years old, I am told. He did look old, though 74 might be hyperbole. He threw a rope over a tall branch of the teak with the help of a weight attached to the end of the rope and once the rope was tied securely on to the branch, the man climbed it up like a monkey. He was right on top in the wink of an eye. The teak being felled Winds are bringing a lot of trees down in Kerala these days. Every day we hear reports about the ravages of winds. Electric power fails because trees fall on the lines. The monsoon has just started. Monsoon in Kerala means incessant rains and constant power failures. When I was a young boy, Monsoon in Kerala had similar incessant rains. But we ...

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...