Tomichan Matheikal's blog

In one of his poems , Pablo Neruda suggests that if we were not “so single-minded / about keeping our lives moving” we would be a happier lot. We take life too seriously. Take a specimen from our species. Let’s call him Raj. Raj is a ‘focused’ student. He studies all the time. In addition to his school studies is the entrance coaching. Finally he gets admission to one of the best institutions of higher learning. He becomes a professional success eventually. Now he is single-minded about constructing a good house. Then marriage, children and their quality education, promotion in the job, and so on. Raj is a great ‘success’. Is he? Does Raj ever live his life? He exists. He succeeds by the standards of plebeian perceptions. He may appear to be happy too. He has his occasional holidays with his family, hasn’t he? He goes abroad to enjoy them. He has everything he wants, apparently. The reality is Raj may not be happy at all. Worse, he may not even be aware of that deep in...

Sitharaam Jayakumar is a good story teller. This is his second book and I had reviewed the first one too. When you read a second book of an author you’d normally expect a better work. I was a little disappointed in that regard while reading The Krishnapur Kidnappings . The narrative structure has improved, however, with “episodes” and an “interlude” interspersing it. As the title indicates, this is about kidnaps. The motive is not money, however. Motives matter much in crime thrillers. Money is the most hackneyed motive. Revenge is equally clichéd. What about witchcraft? That too with a dash of Dan Brown? The author has succeeded in creating a villain who has a convincing and equally interesting motive for committing the crime. The very opening of the novella is gripping: “The woman looked frightened. She looked up at the man apprehensively and said, ‘I think it is a sin, dear.’” Fear is an alluring theme in crime fiction. When it is fear of sin, it becomes philosophica...

Book Review Narendra Modi has two faces: one which is turned backward towards the cobweb-ridden hoary past of the country and the other which is grandiloquently futuristic. He knows how to use each with the best results for himself. Shashi Tharoor’s latest book, The Paradoxical Prime Minister , dissects with clinical precision both the faces and the entire paradox conjured up by them. The 504-page book is divided into 5 sections whose very titles are self-explanatory: The Paradoxical Prime Minister; The Modi-fication of India; Moditva and Misgovernance; The Failure of Modinomics; and Flights of Fancy. While the first section gives a fairly detailed biography of Modi from his difficult childhood to the royal present, the other four sections deal in detail with the eponymous themes. In the Modi-fied India , the whims of the intolerant majority reign supreme. Tharoor shows why the Prime Minister should take “a large share of the blame” for the prevailing atmosphere of vio...

Violence on a road in Kannur this morning Image courtesy Malayala Manorama The shutdown called hartal is not unfamiliar to Kerala. The state witnessed about two hartals per week in the past year in one part or another. The BJP and its allies are the usual advocates of hartal though the two major political parties in the state also employ it as it suits them. The hartals called by the right wing tend to be more savage than others. The right wing in India, like its counterparts elsewhere in the world, is fiercely savage though its foundations are laid in religion. Should I say because instead of though ? Religion, after all, has always been savage, hasn’t it? Its benignity is only a thin veneer meant to conceal the behemoth lying beneath. The present state of affairs in Kerala is a tragic creation of the BJP and its allies. There was a time when Kerala was a cauldron of religious perversions so much so that Swami Vivekananda described the state as a “lunatic asylum”...

“The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.” Ray Bradbury Half a century ago, Andy Warhol predicted that “In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” His prediction came true partially when the TV channels multiplied and programmes such as reality shows thrust fame on a whole lot of people who would have otherwise remained in total obscurity. Later the internet and the social networks extended similar fame to anyone who wished to achieve such fame. The latest topic of debate at Indiblogger [a blogger community] is whether quite many bloggers are “idiots”. Blogger Arvind Passey initiated the debate and his phraseology is not quite felicitous. Let me quote the motion of the debate as stated by him: “ Most book, tech, lifestyle, food, and fashion reviewers and influencers, reviewers, and bloggers are idiots who hardly understand what they are doing. Do you agree? ...

My friend, Ms S.K. Manimekalai , an English teacher sent me the following report on a seminar that she attended. I thought it deserves to be brought to more readers. I’m reproducing below the report as it was sent to me. Ms Pervin Malhotra, Director of Career Guidance India (CARING), New Delhi, is India's top career counsellor. As a columnist in Times of India, her Query Columns reach an audience of 300 million people. Her Career - i - Opener test ( www.careerguidanceindia.com ) has been helping the youth across the nation to discover the career that is just right for them. A highly informative Career Counselling Session for the Students of Class X and their Parents was conducted by Ms. Pervin on December 29 th , 2018 in the KG Hall of DPS Mathura Road. The session was also attended by the teachers teaching in classes IX and X. The following are the highlights of her keynote address:  Robots are replacing not only mechanical jobs like serving coffee etc., but are...

A view from a residence whose housewarming I attended yesterday I loved it. Yet another year is ending and a new year is beginning. But my job continues as usual. There is no holiday in the name of New Year. I like that. I don’t believe that life has any such endings and beginnings. The earth goes on revolving round the sun. Cyclic processes go on without any distinct beginnings and endings. Where is the beginning of a circle? Where is its end? Time has neither a beginning nor an end. Your life has a beginning and an end. But time is independent of your life. Time has no calendar. You made the calendar in order to tame time. But time tames you eventually. Time is the master. You are just a particle in the electrifying, electronic march of time. New Year resolutions are good in order to assess your place in the glorious march of time. Where do you belong? Where have you gone wrong? How can you make your place safer in that thundering juggernaut of time? Make your re...