Tomichan Matheikal's blog

“Welcome to the Land of Gods” is a signboard that will greet you the moment you reach the Garhwal Himalayas.   What Arun Kolatkar wrote about Jejuri is quite true about the Garhwal Himalayas too: “what is god / and what is stone / the dividing line / if it exists / is very thin / at jejuri / and every other stone / is god or his cousin” (in the poem, A Scratch ). On my way to Gomukh from Gangotri My recent trekking to Gomukh with a group of 35 students taught me quite many a lesson about gods of all hues including wealth. We started our trekking from Gangotri soon after breakfast.   Gangotri, as the name implies, is (supposed to be) the origin of the holy river Ganga.   We had reached Gangotri a day before our trekking with enough time left for a wandering in the holy mount.   One of the places that caught our fancy during our wandering was the wooden cabin of a Baba (sage) who lives very close to the place where the Ganga spouted forth lustily through the gap between two r

When I took up my present job in Delhi at the age of 41, leaving my previous job in a romantic place like Shillong, what I really wanted was a nice place to live and enough money too.   It didn’t take me much time to find the present place and job which fulfilled both conditions.   An excellent campus (a school) with more greenery than most schools in Delhi can afford.   What Providence (I am an agnostic, please) gave me was better than what I had expected.   A green campus, enough place to move around even in the kitchen of the accommodation that was provided, and – best of all – a cool environment all along the scooter ride from where the city ends (Chattarpur).   I used to love those scooter rides.   Even my wife did! That was 11 years ago.   Today, I wouldn’t like to go out of the campus.   The moment I step out it’s the devil of a dust that greets me anywhere.   Gone are the days of a nice environment.   The environment has been killed.   The marble industry took over the

The wicked grow like the palm tree.   Grow taller and higher and mightier.   The Bible says that, though not in the same words.   Reliance Communications has been awarded the ‘Best Quality of Service Award’ for the 2 nd consecutive year at ET Telecom Awards 2012.   Thank you . The above message landed in the Inbox of my Reliance mobile phone which connection I’ve been sticking to out of necessity for eleven years.   I added a line to that message and sent it as many friends as possible.   The line I added is: Not much money was reqd to buy d award! Reliance must have bought the award.   Capitalism is about buying and selling, and not quality of service or professional ethics, let alone moral values. While I cannot complain about the services of Reliance mobile phone, I have a whole lot of complaints about the company’s internet services.   I wrote earlier too about it.   For example, Corporate Greed – Reliance Style .   I have a Reliance 3G net connection.   This co