Tomichan Matheikal's blog

There is a branch of psychology called Cognitive Psychology according to which our thoughts, feelings and behaviour are interconnected.  In other words, our thinking is clouded by our feelings and/or attitudes, and our behaviour is determined by that cloud. Let us take an example.  A real one.  Smiley, please.  A religious leader with a big fan (devotee) following declares openly that he would have beheaded those people who refused to pay homage to Bharata Mata, if the law would not have punished him.  How would cognitive psychology assess the godman? The godman is suffering from a serious cognitive disorder, the cognitive psychologist would say immediately.  His thinking is terribly faulty.  His feelings and attitudes seem to be crude.  And hence his resultant behaviour (making the murderous statement from a public platform knowing that there are thousands of people listening to him with devotion) is neurotic. Bharat Mata is a symbol of the nation and as such deser

March 14 is Pi Day.  Those who have some familiarity with basic arithmetic will know that pi is a mathematical constant - a ratio, in fact - whose value is approximated to 3.14.  So 14/3 (or 3/14, as the Americans write it), today, is pi day. Interestingly or coincidentally, it is also the birthday of Albert Einstein, arguably the greatest genius who ever lived.  The New Yorker has published, among many illuminating articles, a very humorous questionnaire on the occasion:  Diagnostic Exam: Do You Have Math Anxiety?   A sample question: What is a hypotenuse?  (a) A very graceful hypot.  (b) An overweight chanteuse.  (c) The  French word for profound boredom. Mathematics is often assumed to be a scary monster.  Actually it can be sheer fun if we learn to exercise our logical faculty properly.  Most people don't want to think - that's the simple truth.  Mathematics calls for some abstract thinking also which is assumed to be boring or even scary.  Hence many give u