Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Image by Gemini AI “Suppose a patriotic Indian claims, with the intention of proving the superiority of India, that water boils at 71 degrees Celsius in India, and the listener is a scientist. What will happen?” Grandpa was having his occasional discussion with his Gen Z grandson who was waiting for his admission to IIT Madras, his dream destination. “Scientist, you say?” Gen Z asked. “Hmm.” “Then no quarrel, no fight. There’d be a decent discussion.” Grandpa smiled. If someone makes some similar religious claim, there could be riots. The irony is that religions are meant to bring love among humans but they end up creating rift and fight. Scientists, on the other hand, keep questioning and disproving each other, and they appreciate each other for that. “The scientist might say,” Gen Z continued, “that the claim could be absolutely right on the Kanchenjunga Peak.” Grandpa had expected that answer. He was familiar with this Gen Z’s brain which wasn’t degenerated by Instag...

“Who created you?” I was asked by the catechism teacher in the Sunday class of the parish church when I was a kid of 6 or 7 years old. Like any other Catholic contemporary of mine I answered as mechanically as an android of today: “God created me.” That was the very first question of the catechism book in those days. All of us Catholic children had to memorise quite a few dozen such questions. It was followed by: “Why did God create you?” Android’s answer: “In order to know, love and serve God so that we will live with Him in the end.” It went on and on though I don’t remember any question beyond those two. I was reminded of that “little catechism” (as the question-answer booklet was known) this afternoon when a colleague of mine – the young physics teacher who found a mention in this very space a few days ago – narrated his experience in grade 12 (17-year-olds, not kids).   He was speaking about the Big Bang in the class in the context of nuclear fusion and fission. He to...

Historically the Enlightenment refers to a paradigm shift that took place in the 17 th and 18 th centuries.  It was also called the Age of Reason because it emphasised the power of the human mind to liberate the individual and improve society.  It argued that knowledge can be derived only from experience, experiment and observation.  It encouraged people to use their own critical reasoning to free their minds from prejudice, unexamined authority, and oppression by their religion or the state. The world made tremendous progress in science and technology because of the Enlightenment ideas.  Consequently human life was revolutionised.  Religion and the superstitions it generated took a backseat.  Priests lost most of their political clout.  Secular values spread considerably across the globe.  Science and technology gave us more leisure and luxury than we deserved.  More gadgets than we could handle with responsibility.  More in...

Historical Fiction “Generally speaking, truth has been suffered to exist in the world just to the extent that it profited the rulers of society.”   [Barrows Dunham, Man Against Myth , 1947] “And yet it moves,” mumbled Galileo as he walked out of the Inquisition Chamber having accepted the punishment imposed on him for upholding the truth.  Galileo (1564-1642) The earth is not the centre of the universe.  Galileo had argued.  The sun was the centre of the solar system.  The earth moved round the sun.  The earth was just another planet like many others. “Your teaching explicitly contradicts the Holy Scripture,” said Cardinal Bellarmine.  “You run the risk of being branded a heretic and being burnt at the stake.  “We exhort you to abandon the mathematical hypothesis completely and unconditionally.  You will not hold the opinion that the sun stands still and the earth moves.  You will not henceforth hold, teach, or defe...

A former student of mine who is a diehard supporter of the BJP and its radicalism wrote on Facebook: “So some of the political parties in my country has (sic) a stern view that 'Astrology' is no science.”  I don’t know if the political parties in India have really stern views about anything, let alone astrology.  Isn’t politics, particularly the kind one finds in India, all about opportunism?  Even the BJP, my student’s own party, would have made all kinds of flip-flops had it not won the absolute majority in the Lok Sabha elections, hugging strange bedfellows and cooking up a bizarre coalition.  The drama that unfolded in Maharashtra after the Assembly elections is a mild indicator of the nature of politics in India. The stars in the heavens do not alter their positions a bit while such dramas unfold all over the world.  Do the stars affect our lives in any significant way?  When the Earl of Kent said in Shakespeare’s King Lear , “It’s the star...

The Cast Narrator Abhinav – student Vinay – student Chetan – student Pradeep – person in 2114 Ravi – person in 2114 Shiv – person in 3114 Setting : A time machine is kept at the centre-back.  Narrator:         Mankind has travelled a long distance from the time we evolved out of the apes.  Somewhere along the way, we became civilised.  We started living more like human beings with reason and imagination than like animals with endless hunger.  We leant to respect others, their languages, religions, cultures.  We learnt to cooperate rather than compete.  We replaced kings and dictators with elected leaders.  We opened up national borders in the name of globalisation.  The world has become a global village.  Everyone is linked to anyone in the world.  The smartphone and the internet, chat zones and the digital technology – together they had made our life very easy, comfortab...

In response to Karan Thapar’s article which appeared in The Hindu a few days back, (which also inspired my last blog: From myths toward mathematics ), an ISRO scientist writes in today’s Hindu : “I am a retired scientist/engineer who worked in one of India’s premier scientific organisations, ISRO, for 38 years.  I believe in Ganesha, and that Shiva exists in Kailash, often riding on his bull.  Can anybody accuse me of having two faces?” I can and I do, dear scientist.  The myths to which Ganesha and Shiva belong and the science which you make use of for probing into the outer space far beyond Mount Kailash are not compatible.  One destroys the other.  Science replaces myths with facts, and myths have always killed scientists literally and metaphorically.  Don’t forget the scientists who were subjected to inquisition and incarceration during the medieval period.  Don’t ignore the crusade that continues even today against science in other names...

Dr K Radhakrisnan Photo courtesy the Frontline Man cannot live by reason alone, if I may paraphrase Jesus so.  Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread alone.”  A friend of mine added humorously, “Man needs butter too.”  Jesus is believed to have meant that people need spiritual food in addition to material bread.  The chief of Indian Space Research Organisation [ISRO], K. Radhakrishnan, paid obeisance to the deity in the Venkateswara temple in Tirupati before the launch of the Mars Orbiter Mission last November.  The Frontline has published a brilliant article about the issue. Can a scientist of Radhakrishnan’s stature afford to be as superstitious as to go with a miniature model of his rocket to a mute statue and seek its blessings?  Isn’t it his duty to transcend the need for the “psychological boost” provided by such an infantile exercise? Or is Radharkrishnan giving us a convincing proof that man cannot live by reason alone?  ...