Tomichan Matheikal's blog

I share the cynicism of George Orwell’s donkey, Benjamin, in Animal Farm .  When the revolution took place on the farm, Benjamin with his asinine stubbornness refused to be enthused. “Life would go on as it had always gone on,” he said, “that is, badly.”  The animals were so much overjoyed by the revolution that they did not bother to label him antinational.  Eventually, Benjamin was proved right.  The original motto, “All animals are equal”, changed into “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal.” I congratulate Mr Narendra Modi and his Sancho Panza Amit Shah on BJP’s sweeping victory in UP and impressive performance in the other states. Though impulsive actions like demonetisation bring to my mind the images of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Orwell’s Animal Farm may be a more apt metaphor. Dreams are galore.  Promises abound. In the end, however, some chosen animals remain more equal. I love the dreams, however.  I am a dreamer ...

A country is really free only when its citizens are free.  Freedom is not merely deliverance from foreign occupation.  Freedom is deliverance from poverty, injustice and other social evils as well as personal evils such as greed and jealousy which give birth to corruption of all sorts.  India is yet to be free.    There are millions of people in India who go to bed hungry even after seven decades of independence.  There are millions who don’t have access to basic healthcare.  Our public distributions systems and primary healthcare systems are abject failures.  The country is still enslaved by poverty.  Can we call it a free country? A man who has to carry the dead body of his wife on his shoulders for kilometres because he cannot afford to hire a vehicle should shake us out of our smugness.  He is a poignant symbol of the callousness that marks a governance which gives more importance to cows, idols and myths. India need...

The worst sin is the refusal to confront one’s inner demons.  Redemption lies in accepting those demons and learning to grapple with them.  This is the fundamental theme of Khaled Hosseini’s celebrated novel, The Kite Runner . “... a boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who won’t stand up to anything.”  Rahim Khan, one of the characters, tells Amir the protagonist. Rahim was actually quoting the words of Amir’s father who had assessed his son when the latter was a boy.  Amir never stood up for himself because there was always Hassan, his childhood friend, to stand up for him.  Hassan had no inner demons shelved away neatly in any inner recess of his consciousness. He confronted life as it presented itself to him.  When it was necessary to fight bullies, he did so bravely.  He did the fighting on behalf of Amir too.  But Amir betrayed him.  Amir surrendered to the demon of cowardice.  Every surrender to the inner...

Moral Police struck again in Kochi, Kerala.  This time it is men belonging to Shiv Sena who went on a rampage.  They used canes to drive away the youngsters who were allegedly indulging in “immoral activities.”  Marine Drive in Kochi is too public a place for any couple to indulge in any conspicuously immoral activity.  It is possible that some youngsters crossed certain lines drawn by the (hypocritical) conservatism that marks the social life of Kerala.  But who are the Shivsainiks to wield canes when not even parents are allowed to use physical punishment on children?  Kerala is a state that sends teachers to jails for punishing students.  How come some politicians beat young students with canes in front of the police? Source: Deccan Chronicle The first question that comes to mind is what Shiv Sena is doing in Kerala.  Bal Thackeray founded that organisation for defending the Marathi pride?  Eventually it became an organisation ...

The world belongs to winners.   Losers have no place in it.   If you are a loser, learn to pretend at least, pretend to be a winner; otherwise you will be an outcast, part of the debris. America became a winner in the 20 th century by bossing over other countries.   There was no morality or ethics in the way they achieved the victory.   Not in the way they treated the natives of that land.   Not with respect to the Blacks.   Today the typical American is ready to kill their perceived enemies – the Asians, for example.   But the plaque at the base of   the Statue of Liberty will go on to proclaim with the magnanimity of a typical American televangelist who is also a close friend of President Trump: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the  wretched  refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless,  tempest-tossed  to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Isra...