Tomichan Matheikal's blog

An Uttarakhand court has fined Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Rs 11 lakh for fraudulence.  In 2012 the District Food Safety Department had found that many food items such as mustard oil, salt, pineapple jam and honey sold by Patanjali failed quality tests.  In fact, many of these items are not even produced by Ramdev’s Ayurvedic units; they are produced by ordinary commercial enterprises and then given Patanjali labels.  Such is the Baba’s fraudulence.  There are scores of legal cases filed against the godman and his so-called Ayurvedic industry.   The Baba is guilty of manifold crimes ranging from misleading people to evading taxes.  In 2012, when the godman was asked to pay up Rs 120 crore as penalty for various offences, Digvijay Singh remarked, ““I have seen many frauds in my life but Baba Ramdev takes the cake. He may be occupying more space in media now but I do not visualise Ramdev making an impact on our society for long.  Such people do ...

When you are on the wrong side of fifties you don’t learn anything anymore.  Whatever happens comes with a feeling of déjà vu.  Even PM Modi’s demonetisation did not excite me though I did gloat a little over the predicament it would bring to some of our political leaders and other traders who stashed away hoards of black money.  I knew it would serve little to curb the black money menace in India or corruption in the country’s politics.  We are by and large a dishonest people.  Expediency is our only solid guideline.  The aftermath of the demonetisation has shown that even the PM’s own party men were quick to amass the new 2000-rupee notes.  That’s how India is: incredible indeed! There’s a lot of hardship that people are undergoing especially in the rural areas (where I now live) where cash is the only means of transactions.  Yet very few seem to be complaining because people seem to believe that their hardships are going to reap rich ...

Patriotism is the desire to see your country as one that promotes the welfare of every citizen irrespective of religious, cultural and other differences.  Patriotism has nothing to do with killing people whose eating habits differ from yours.  Patriotism has nothing to do with playing the national anthem in cinema halls or wearing the national flower on your sleeve.  The recent order of the Supreme Court of India to play the national anthem in the movie halls before the beginning of each movie actually belittles the anthem by making it a prelude to mere popular entertainment.  Worse, most people who visit the cinema halls are not likely to be in a mood to display their patriotic sentiments; they are there for entertainment.  There will be some latecomers who will be still searching for their seats.  There will be physically handicapped or elderly people who may not find it easy to stand at attention.  There are many practical problems, in sho...

I will be discharged soon from the hospital where I remained confined to my bed for the last ten days with a fractured foot.  One of the precious lessons I learnt during these helpless days is that too many people are losing trust in systems including medical services. Hospitals carry out unnecessary tests and even surgeries merely for profit. This was the opinion of the vast majority of my visitors. Most foods are adulterated. Education is sheer business today. Most people seemed to have little trust in any system. The present wave of patriotism that is sweeping the country also came in for much ridicule. The decision about demonetisation was leaked to people who matter. The foulest souls are preaching the noblest ideals like patriotism and need for self-sacrifice for the sake of the nation. Comparisons are drawn between the suffering citizen and the warring soldier. I imagined my wife as a Rani of Jhansi as she shuttled among her workplace, home, my hospital and merciless AT...

Social psychology tells us that friendly relationships and a lot of inevitable gossip can keep a group or organization functioning successfully as long as the number of members does not exceed 150.  Intimacy is impossible when the number of people is large. In such large organizations people will remain strangers to each other to a significant extent. How can strangers be held together for the successful functioning of the group? Myth is the answer. Two total strangers coming from entirely different cultures can be united by a myth to such an extent that they can together fly a jet plane with hundreds of unsuspecting passengers into a skyscraper housing hundreds of innocent people. "Any large-scale human cooperation - whether a modern state, a medieval church, an ancient city or an archaic tribe - is rooted in common myths that exist only in people's collective imagination," according to historian Yuval Noah Harari. Holy cows bind people more strongly than plain tr...