Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Books become my ideal companions in times of political turmoil. Right now, as you’re reading these lines, there are dozens of active armed conflicts going on around the world. Besides, developed countries like America are asking foreign students as well as others to leave. The global economy is experiencing significant instability, characterised by weak growth projections, persistent inflation, high debt levels, and geopolitical conflicts. Even when a country like India advertises itself as becoming the third largest economy, the living conditions of the poor aren’t showing any improvement. Nay, the world isn’t becoming any better than it ever was. It's when such realisations hit you from all sides, you need the consolations of an abiding hobby. Reading is at the top of my list of such hobbies. First of all, books help us understand current events in a broader context . They can reveal patterns in history: how democracies falter, how propaganda spreads, how resistance movements...

  When Indira Gandhi imposed a draconian Emergency on India 50 years ago on this day (25 June), I had just completed the first train journey of my life and started an entirely different kind of life. I had just joined a seminary as what they call an ‘aspirant’. One of the notice boards of the seminary always displayed the front page of an English newspaper – The Indian Express , if I recall correctly. I was only beginning to read English publications and so the headlines about Emergency didn’t really catch my attention. Since no one discussed politics in the seminary, it took me all of six months to understand the severity of the situation in the country. When I was travelling back home for Christmas vacation, the posters on the roadsides caught my attention. That’s how I began to take note of what was happening in the name of Emergency. A 15-year-old schoolboy doesn’t really understand the demise of democracy. It took me a few years and a lot of hindsight to realise the gravit...

India’s Central Board of Film Certification has directed the makers of a movie to change its title just because it contains the name of Janaki which is a synonym of Sita, the Hindu goddess. Worse still, the Board has demanded a name change for the titular character in the movie too – from Janaki to Jayanthi. The Government of India is presumably formulating laws banning the use of certain names - like: ·       Rama in zoos: we can’t have monkeys hailing Jai Ram to their leader. ·       Durga in gyms: how can we have Durgas lifting dumbbells? ·       Lakshmi in banks: the goddess of wealth deserves better than being reduced to a finance firm offering 3.5% interest. You are welcome to give more suggestions if you are a genuine nationalist in India. You can give other valuable suggestions too like the nationalists in West Bengal are demanding a ban on the consumption of fish because fish was one of the inc...

From X Amit Shah turned a prophet recently. A day will come when those who speak English in India will feel ashamed, he prophesied . It’s high time his son felt ashamed of his English which is quite hilarious to say the least. But let’s look at more honourable right-wingers and their children. Nirmala Sitharaman, finance minister, speaks chaste English, and her daughter studied in London School of Economics like the mother. Will they have to be ashamed too? What about Smriti Irani whose communication is heavily English-oriented? Maneka Gandhi is another fan of Amit Shah’s cultural nationalism though she sent her son Varun Gandhi to London School of Economics as well as Oxford. Ravi Shankar Prasad’s daughter, Aditi Prasad, also studied in the UK. The daughters of Subramanian Swamy studied and worked in Harvard and other top US institutions. Shouldn’t they all feel ashamed first? There’s an excess of hypocrisy about the whole bandwagon of BJP’s cultural nationalism. Mr Modi himsel...

From The Hindu Whenever a policeman waves my car down, a flicker of indignation rises in me, tinged with a trace of ironic amusement. I was taking a shortcut yesterday morning when a constable stopped my car right in front of a big ditch on a narrow rural road. It was a strategic point: no one could speed away ignoring the police because of the rainwater-filled ditch that spanned the entire width of the road ahead. Another constable came with a breathalyser and asked me to blow into it which I did with a smirk that was intended to convey my indignation. First of all, it was too early in the day for any normal person to be drunk. Secondly, they chose a place which revealed in all its gruesome ugliness that the government didn’t give a f*#k to the safety or wellness of the citizens, travellers in this case. Kerala is a state where an average of over 130 road accidents take place every day. 48,841 accidents occurred on Kerala’s roads in the year of 2024, according to the website of...