Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Baba was sick of all the crimes that he had perpetrated.  He went to the stone deity in the thick of the night and beat his breast crying, “Oh, goddess, I am a sinner.  I am a sinner.  I have stolen everyone’s wealth to make parking lots for my devotees.  Forgive me.” Baba’s closest disciple, who was always watching his master so that he could sponge up the lessons directly from personal observations, saw what his master was doing and decided to imitate. Imitation of successful people is the stepping stone to success, says the book, Seven Secrets of Success .  The disciple had the bad habit of reading, you see. He, the disciple, went to the stone deity in the broad daylight (so that devotees could see) and beat his breast saying, “Oh, goddess, I am sinner.  I am a sinner.  I have been an accomplice in stealing wealth to make parking lots for my master’s devotees.  Forgive me. Forgive me.”  And he beat his breast many times. ...

The Saint is a short story written by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  In that story, a man named Margarito Duarte always carries around with him a small coffin with a dead body that never decomposes.  It is the body of his daughter who died at the age of seven because of a fever.  He had to disinter the body because a dam that was going to be constructed required the acquisition of the parish cemetery.  All the parishioners disinterred the tombs of their beloved so that the bones could be buried in a new cemetery.  Margarito found the bones of his wife who had died giving birth to their daughter.  But when he opened the tomb of his daughter he was in for a shock.  his daughter’s body had remained intact eleven years after the burial.  His daughter looked alive with her eyes open and sparkling.  Margarito, who had not studied beyond the primary school, believed what the villagers said: “the incorruptibility of the body was an un...