Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Anand was a good storyteller. We walked for years on the Mehrauli-Bhatti Mines Road in Delhi in the evenings. He was a good friend while we both were teaching at Sawan Public School. What drew me to him was his ability to create stories out of very ordinary mundane things that happened at school. These stories had a unique touch of humour, one which mingled subtlety, sarcasm and slapstick in just the right proportion. Anand would laugh hilariously at his own stories after delivering the punchline. My laughter was always subdued because life had smothered much of my ability to laugh before I reached Delhi. It was during one of those walks that Anand told me the story of his being hijacked for a short period in his home state of Haryana. He was driving to a destination that was new to him. Those were days when the Google map was not available yet. So he was forced to stop at a particular junction to enquire about the way. “I’m also going to that place,” the man on the roadside said...

How can we trust strangers when friends keep breaking our trust again and again? A 2021 survey by the American Enterprise Institute found that the number of Americans who say they have no close friends has quadrupled since 1990, going from 3% to 12%. Having friends is important, however. Research by Brigham Young University psychologist Julianne Holt-Lunstad has shown that loneliness is a major threat to longevity. The threat from loneliness is equal to that from smoking 15 cigarettes a day or being an alcoholic, according to that study! Why do we avoid interacting with strangers? This is the question raised in the latest edition of a blogger community forum. My simple answer would be that people are even avoiding friends nowadays, then what about strangers? People are shrinking into themselves, I think. Including me, most people I observe seem to be withdrawing from other people. Yesterday, I was invited to an evening party of some friends from my teenage days. I found a conven...

Google celebrated the genius of Shakespeare on his death anniversary (23 April) with a doodle.  Shakespeare deserves commemorations and celebrations.  What has fascinated me the most is the theme of betrayal in Shakespeare.  Our own experiences determine our favourite themes.  “To be or not to be” is a question that rose from the gut of the wavering prince of Denmark whose trust in mankind was betrayed by none other than his mother.  There was poison in that mother’s heart.  When she smiled serpents writhed in their mating pits.  “Die, die,” hissed the serpents to the wavering intellectual.  Death is the noblest consummation in the world of betrayals.  If your mother betrays you, if she betrays her husband your father, what more is left in the world to be trusted?  How many heartaches should we suffer before we can shuffle off our mortal coil?  How many thousand natural shocks is our flesh heir to? Shakespeare’s Ha...

Ready? Go ahead, don't bother about me. I'm just an intruder with a gadget. Yeah, that's it. You are a newborn calf. You believe my words. Soon you will learn not to.