Tomichan Matheikal's blog

The President of India has approved the central government’s plan to make Hindi compulsory in CBSE and Central schools (Kendriya vidyalayas).   This is the latest of many surreptitious attempts made by the central government to impose Hindi on the entire country.   Some of the recent such attempts are asking the MPs to use Hindi in the parliament, changing all highway signs in the country into Hindi, making Hindi as the official communication language for central government offices and use of Hindi by government officers even in social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Union minister Venkaiah Naidu does not even know that Hindi is not the national language of the country.   Probably quite many Indians do not know that Hindi is not the national language.   In fact, more than half of the country’s population have mother tongues which have little do with Hindi.   There are millions of people in the country who cannot communicate in Hindi.   How...

A story from history “You will kill yourself,” Emperor Nero uttered majestically staring straight into the eyes of Seneca.   Seneca had been summoned to the Palace.   When he was ushered in, the Emperor was playing a violently cheerful tune on his fiddle.   He made Seneca stand and listen to his recital for a long time.   Every now and then he threw a mocking look at Seneca, his former advisor. “You have the liberty to choose the means of your death,” the Emperor said with ostensible magnanimity. “That’s very generous of you,” said Seneca. Nero glowered at him for a moment, ran the bow on his fiddle to produce a culminating crescendo and then handed over the fiddle to the maid who stood near him holding a chalice of wine. The Emperor took the wine from her hand just as he handed over the fiddle and took a sip. “Death,” said the Emperor, solemn and mocking at once.   “Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all. ...

Fiction/Satire Chicken Makhani was almost ready when Tony de Miranda walked into the kitchen with his usual greeting, “Hi, Dosa.” Aditya Dasa never took offence when his friend called him Dosa.   They were bosom friends.   Both of them belonged to the same low caste.   But Tony studied in an English medium school while Aditya laboured in his father’s dhaba.   Tony’s father was rich enough to send him to school.   He made money by arranging people for the rallies and other functions of the political parties in the town.   Whenever any party wanted people for their function, a leader would approach Rajendra, Tony’s father.   The people who attended the functions never became rich though they were paid for their services but Rajendra did. Tony’s original name was Tanmay.   People used to call him Tony.   It was Father Robert de Silva of his school that added ‘de Miranda’ to the name.   Tony was a brilliant student who stoo...