Tomichan Matheikal's blog

  Driving in Kerala is scary. Walking on the road is deadlier. Both can kill you sooner than any other cause. Look at statistics. Covid kept the accident numbers low in 2020. Lockdowns kept people at home. As soon as people were given liberty to drive around, they started driving people to their death. Nearly 55,000 accidents in 2023! That is 150 accidents a day!  Two-wheelers cause most accidents. Youngsters form the lion's share of the victims. Nearly two-thirds of the victims are in the age group of 18 to 45.  My house is situated on a road that is designated as state highway. Actually the road's construction was never completed due to the kind of politics Kerala usually had and hence the highway suddenly ends in the middle of nowhere. Hence the traffic isn't much. But youngsters come from God-knows-where on their roaring bikes which fly on the roads. The speed and the noise, both together can be murderous. A lot of people die  before reaching the age of 60 in thi...

Shyam was grazing his goats on the hillock when a group of men stopped their SUV on the roadside and walked towards him. “If we tell you the exact number of goats in your flock, will you give us one of your goats?” Shyam was amused. “Yes,” he nodded. One of the young men took out his smartphone, fingered with it for a while and said, “123.” [The notorious IT cell of the party had apparently accessed Shyam’s flock too.] “Right,” Shyam agreed. “Pick your goat.” The men picked up a goat and carried it to their SUV. “Are you from any right-wing organisation?” Shyam asked as they moved on. “Yup,” one man said. “How’d you know?” “Simple. First of all, you came to me totally uninvited. Secondly, you taxed me for telling me something I already know. Thirdly, you don’t know a thing about goats. This creature you’re carrying is my dog.” This is an old story that I have adapted for this post. This story was kicked up in my memory by another adaptation of ...

Onam unfolds a floral carpet for Maveli (From last year's Onam celebration in my school) Onam celebrations have already got underway in Kerala though the actual festival falls on 4 Sep this year.   But Onam is a season in the state, not just a day.   It is a mega event which brings together flowers and music, dances and boat races, and of course the legend of Maveli or Mahabali.   The legend is pregnant with the typical Malayali sarcasm.   Mahabali was an asura king, according to the legend.   Asuras are demons and are opposed to the devas or gods.   Mahabali (literally means ‘great sacrifice’) tilted the cosmic balance by refusing to be as evil as asuras are supposed to be.   He was too good, in fact.   He created a utopia in what now is Kerala.   He brought prosperity to his people who lived in perfect bliss.   There was no evil.   Onam celebrates the memory of that great king who made Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas ...

Moral Police struck again in Kochi, Kerala.  This time it is men belonging to Shiv Sena who went on a rampage.  They used canes to drive away the youngsters who were allegedly indulging in “immoral activities.”  Marine Drive in Kochi is too public a place for any couple to indulge in any conspicuously immoral activity.  It is possible that some youngsters crossed certain lines drawn by the (hypocritical) conservatism that marks the social life of Kerala.  But who are the Shivsainiks to wield canes when not even parents are allowed to use physical punishment on children?  Kerala is a state that sends teachers to jails for punishing students.  How come some politicians beat young students with canes in front of the police? Source: Deccan Chronicle The first question that comes to mind is what Shiv Sena is doing in Kerala.  Bal Thackeray founded that organisation for defending the Marathi pride?  Eventually it became an organisation ...

Kadakampally Surendran, Kerala's Devaswom Board minister, has raised a very serious allegation against the RSS in the state. According to a Facebook post of the minister, the RSS is perpetrating certain illegal activities in some temples.  The minister claims that RSS is plotting to convert the temples into storehouses for arms and ammunition. It is a very serious allegation.  Both the RSS and the minister's party [CPM] are at loggerheads with each other.  Both have attacked each other violently leading to many deaths in the past. If the RSS is converting temples into arms stores, the situation needs immediate action. In the last two years the right wing in the country has become more violent than ever.  There have been attacks on many people belonging to minority communities in different parts of the country.  Even the Dalits are not spared by certain activists. Kerala is a state with a high non-Hindu population. Communal riots can become conflagratio...

A year ago, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT) reported that about 4000 people from the West left their homes and countries to join the Islamic State (IS).  Many of them are women.  The reporters had made a special study of the women who joined the terrorist outfit and found that it was difficult to categorise which type of women were particularly drawn to IS. “While most of the girls are young, some as young as fifteen,” says the report,  “there are also mothers with young children who make the trip. Some of the girls have difficulties in school and are said to have an IQ below average,  but there are also women who are highly educated. It also appears that even though a relatively large portion of the girls had (or still have) a troubled childhood, there are some who come from families with no known problems with the authorities. Most of the girls come from religiously moderate Muslim families,  yet some converted to Islam a...

Courtesy: Lawlex Just ten days from the elections in Kerala, I’m left wondering who to vote for.  The UDF government that ruled the state for the last five years has almost ruined the state.  Scams and scandals haunted the government throughout its reign.  It appears that every Congressman in the state is either a money-guzzler or an accomplice of some swindler.  When the Opposition leader, nonagenarian V S Achuthanandan, alleged that there were many charges against the Chief Minister, Mr Oommen Chandy filed a defamation case for a damage of Rs 1 lakh.  Mr Chandy’s reputation cannot be very precious when the wily man had refused to file any defamation charge against Saritha Nair who went on hurling all sorts of allegations against him.  There seem to be very few Congressmen left in Kerala whose otherwise immaculately white, perfectly starched, khadi shirts are not tainted with variegated stains of corruption.  There are a few who are not corrup...

Sarita Nair with Oommen Chandy A long-term entertainment in Kerala Sarita Nair is a symbol of the cancerous rot that has eaten into the Indian polity.  She has been levelling allegation after allegation against various political leaders, particularly of the ruling United Democratic Front, in Kerala.  The media would lap up the allegation, hold prime time discussions, call Sarita “a bomb,” and – nothing more.  Sarita became an entertainment for the watchers of Malayalam news channels.  Why does nothing happen to all the people against whom she levels serious charges? Yesterday she went to the extent of accusing none other than the septuagenarian Chief Minister, Mr Oommen Chandy , whom she had not so long ago described as “a father figure,” of having sexually exploited her.  According to various allegations levelled as the opportunity suited her, she has slept with Mr Chandy’s son also as well as almost every important Congressman in Kerala and the Co...

“No,” I said vehemently into the mobile phone.  But he wouldn’t listen.  The zeal for his “Lord and God” had overwhelmed him. “Why is it that you don’t want me to come to Kerala?” he asked.  “You people claim that it is God’s own land and now you don’t want me, the God’s apostle, to come to God’s own land?” He was Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus.  He wanted to bring the light of Jesus to Kerala.  I explained to him with my whole heart and soul that the Malayalis never accepted any truth from outside the state, though they depended on other states for everything else including vegetables.  They think that they possess all the truth and nothing but the truth. “How can you make such a ridiculous claim?” exclaimed Thomas who was convinced that his Master was the only Truth and Light.  Thomas claimed that he had even verified Jesus’ truth scientifically.  “Empirically,” he amended himself when I asked, “Scientifically?”  He h...