Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Fiction “What are you thinking of so deeply?”  Anita asked her husband as they were walking up the narrow street leading to the school where they were going for a walk-in interview for teaching jobs.  The bus that took them from the suburban rail station had dropped them at the foot of the hillock that was majestically crowned by the school building. “I was thinking of our destiny,” answered Sridhar.  “I’ve just a few years left for retirement.  You have a few more years.  And here we are hunting for a job.” “What is in your destiny, no one can take away.  What is not in your destiny, no one can give you.”  She laughed glumly.  She was repeating exactly what Sridhar had told her the other day when she grieved the death of the school where they both had been working for years.   Their school was founded by an industrialist.  He now wanted an amusement park in its place.  The city needs relaxation, he argued.  People who were not very kind to him said that the school fa

Whatever happens to me and is beyond my control is my destiny.  Natural calamities like earthquakes are beyond my control.  If I happen to be in a place where the terrorists have planted a bomb, that’s my destiny.  Accidents, diseases or other chance occurrences can alter my destiny in ways I could not have foreseen.  The stars that shine in the firmament above me are as much part of my destiny as is the darkness that descends ineluctably into the nooks and crannies along the way.     What I am is my destiny.  What I am is not entirely beyond my control, I know.  Except my genes and hormones.  Except the environment that brought me up and certain impacts of that upbringing.  “I am the sum total of everything that went before me...,” as Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Child says, “of everything done-to-me.”  I am a product of the history that went before me as much as the one that is unfolding around me.  The martyrdom of two Prime Ministers of my country is part of my destiny as mu

One of Osho Rajneesh’s witty tales is about a man who runs into his old friend after a gap of some twenty years.  The man (let’s call him Ram) took his friend (let’s call  him Shyam) home and gave him the best clothes he had.  Then both the friends decided to take a stroll in the village. Interesting body languages Everyone on the way enquired about Shyam.  Ram realised that all the people took note of Shyam’s clothes.  In fact, Shyam looked charming in those clothes.  Beautiful women eyed him wistfully, or so thought Ram.  They visited the houses of some important personalities in the village.  “This is my friend, Shyam, whom I’ve met after some twenty years,” Ram introduced his friend.  Then he said, “he’s a very successful and charming person.  But the clothes he’s wearing, they’re mine.” Shyam flinched slightly but ignored it. A similar introduction was given in the next house too.  When they came out of the house, Shyam said, “You know, if you wish we can e

One of O V Vijayan’s characters narrates a parable to show how we may not be able to alter our destiny, not much at least. A bullock, one of a pair used for drawing a cart, prayed, “Oh God, why did you give me this destiny?  You have not only made me a cart-bullock but also fixed my place on the right side of the cart.  The driver uses his whip relentlessly and it is on my back it falls all the time.  If you can’t alter my destiny of being a cart-bullock, at least change my place from the right to the left side.” God decided to grant the wish.  The bullocks and the cart were sold on the same day.  The new owner placed the bullock on the left side.  And the new driver was left-handed. Well, I really don’t think that our destiny is entirely out of our control.  Some things are beyond our control, but some are certainly within control.  For example, Mark Antony’s meeting with Cleopatra might have been beyond his control, but choosing to let Rome melt in the Tiber of his

The institution was going to collapse.  Everybody blamed everybody else for the situation.  The leader is not good, said some.  The staff were playing politics all the time, said some others.  The infrastructure is outdated, said yet others.  Everyone has a reason for blaming others, to paraphrase the advertisement slogan of an agarbati . Let us do something radical about it, said someone.  The action may make some drastic demands. “Let me ask my husband/wife,” said some. “I’d love to join you, but you know…” said some others. “I’m in the South Pole now, but I’ll definitely join you as soon as I reach our place,” said yet others. You deserve the leader who was foisted on you by your destiny.