Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Book Review The Fiction of Fact-finding Author: Manoj Mitta Publisher: HarperCollins, India Pages: 259,  Printed price: Rs. 350 “Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through,” wrote Jonathan Swift three centuries ago.  Our jails are full of petty thieves and proxy prisoners.  The wasps and hornets establish business empires or occupy political thrones. A few are worshipped as gurus and godmen. Some go on to become historical heroes. In his classical work, Civilizations , historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto says that “Heroes do not make history but history makes heroes.”  Hitler would not have become a hero for the Germans unless the economic hardships of the time had not conspired against the German Jews who were relatively better off.  The Jews became a convenient enemy for a people who needed a scapegoat to carry away all their grief and sins. Seven decades later Hitler’s experiment was replicated in Gujarat o

Today (July 28) is the centenary of World War I (WWI).  The War started as a family affair and then spread to the whole world because of more family affairs.  Wars are, more often than not, family affairs even today.  We, the human beings, are still as clannish as we were when our forefathers descended from the tree and started feeling ashamed of the groins that gave birth to families.  Shame breeds wars.  Shame is the other side of honour.   What triggered WWI was the murder of the Austrian archduke Francis Ferdinand.  The year was 1914.  France was already a republic and England was a constitutional monarchy.  The rest of Europe remained conservative monarchies.  But the monarchies were already feeling the fire beneath their bottoms because of what had happened in France and England.  The common man was beginning to assert himself. It was a common man who shot the archduke Francis Ferdinand.  A common man’s crime could not have triggered a world war.  Francis Ferdin

Book Review Title: Our Moon Has Blood Clots Author: Rahul Pandita Publisher: Random House India, 2013, 2014   ISBN: 978-81-8400-513-4 Pages: 257 Price: Rs 350 History has to be saved from the mediocre.  The mediocre rule the world.  And their vision extends little beyond their own noses.  Their memory goes as far as the comforts and wellbeing of themselves.  “… my memory must come in the way of this untrue history,” as Rahul Pandita paraphrases Agha Shahid Ali.  The memory of those who find it difficult to accept convenient truths that ensure the present wellbeing must come in the way if history is to be redeemed.  Rahul Pandita’s book is an endeavour to redeem the history of the Kashmiri Pandits who were driven out by the Muslim fundamentalists.  The book deserves to be read by every Indian, especially by the Muslims of India. Kashmir was a paradise where people belonging to two different religions, which later became bitter enemies, lived together in exe

Chandigarh has a series of museums all adjacent to one another. They are an excellent place to spend a day especially if you are in Chandigarh during summer.  You can engage yourself learning much about history, music, art, architecture, and so on.   The Goddess welcomes you to the Museum The Buddha - 2nd century AD sculpture Maitreya Maitreya, according to Buddhist literature, is the future Buddha. He will come when people will have forgotten dharma and will be living in sheer evil. Similar beliefs are found in many religions. Didn't Lord Krishna promise Arjuna, "... Sambhavami yuge yuge"? The Bible promises a Second Coming of Jesus.  People were always aware of their own innate wickedness.  But instead of working on it in order to alleviate it if not eradicate, people chose to believe in some deity who would come and eradicate it.  Just one of the many futile absurdities of human existence! Gods are the most potent tools for man's escapist gam

One of the many tourist attractions in Shimla is supposed to be the Scandal Point where the Maharajah of Patiala is supposed to have misbehaved with the daughter of Lord Kitchener, British Commander-in-Chief. The British government in India banished the Maharajah, of course.  He went and built a palace in Chail.   The historical fact seems to be that Bhupinder Singh who built the palace in Chail was just one year old when the scandal broke out.  Well, were the Singhs so potent that their one year-old royal offspring could proffer an amorous kiss on the lips of a young woman?  Better still, elope with her (as one of the gossips - I mean, tourist guides, explains!) History is not any better than this, most of the time.  And I'm speaking about the history of just a century ago.   I went to the Scandal Point in Shimla and got the picture below. Perhaps, history haunts the place even today!  This can happen only in India :) Scandal Point It looks like a haunted house.  And

A former student of mine made the following suggestion on FaceBook.  Most European languages can be traced back to a root language that is related to Sanskrit – the sacred language of the ancient Vedic religions of India. Many English words actually have Sanskrit origins. It's a shame however that in our own country we don't adapt anything unless it comes recycled from the west. We must reclaim what's ours and give it a deserving place. A message from the Prime Minister can do wonders in that direction. What do you think, would it not be great if NaMo takes his oath in Sanskrit? The writer later clarified that he was not very serious about it.  However, he had given me a jolt already because I had noticed him as a student who was too passionate about exclusive nationalism.  Personally, I don’t take individual views seriously unless they become a threat to public welfare.  Now that the young man is becoming highly articulate riding on the exultant wave of BJP’s ‘

Short Story When they killed my husband, it was the spirit of undaunted daring and unfailing love that was murdered. You romanticise the love that Shahjahan bore for Mumtaz because he erected that mausoleum called Taj Mahal in memory of his supposedly unfailing love for Mumtaz.  But Mumtaz was just one among the many wives and concubines on whose bosoms Shah Jahan expended his lust night after night.  Your historians will romanticise the heroism of many a ruler just because they went far and wide marauding and massacring. My husband may find no place in such histories.  But he was a genuine hero and romantic lover, a rare combination.  He fought the battles of life more bravely than any conqueror.  He loved me passionately, more than any Mughal emperor loved any of his women. Yet the universe conspired against him just as mediocrity conspires against the genius.  He was subjected to so many deaths.  Deaths in life.  Khusru, my beloved, was also the beloved of the greates

The history of majesty lies in ruins beneath your feet. That's the fate!