Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Sreesanth has a lot of fans in his home state of Kerala.  Some of his fans took out a procession to show their support as well as to solicit others’ sympathy.  A few of them seem to think that the cricketer is innocent.  The thinking of quite many of them,however, may deserve a serious scrutiny. That thinking was reflected in a TV programme presented by the Malayalam channel, Asianet, yesterday.  The crux of the programme’s argument is: There is rampant corruption in India.  There are politicians as well as others who make crores of rupees through fraudulent means.  Why single out Sreesanth?   There’s a similar issue being discussed in Kerala these days.  A Malayalam actor, Kalabhavan Mani, was involved in a drunken brawl with some forest guards.  Mani beat up some of the guards and is now absconding.  Yesterday the ADGP of Kerala’s Intelligence Bureau, T P Senkumar, came out with an interesting argument.  He asked whether the police would have dealt in the same way with a

I introduced A C Grayling’s book, The God Argument , in two earlier posts.   This post presents the professor’s views on good life.   Grayling posits seven characteristics of a good life.   The first characteristic is that a good life is a meaningful one.   Meaning is “a set of values and their associated goals that give a life its shape and direction.”   Having children to look after or achieving success in one’s profession or any other very ordinary goal can make life meaningful.   But Grayling says quoting Oscar Wilde that everyone’s map of the world should have a Utopia on it.   That is, everyone should dream of a better world and strive to materialise that dream, if life is to be truly meaningful.   Ability to form relationships with other people is the second characteristic.   Intimacy with at least one other person is an important feature of a meaningful life.   “Good relationships make better people,” says Grayling.   Broken relationships are one’s own mak

It’s when I went to buy some dress for the month-long holiday I’m planning that I realised the stupidity of what’s called fashion.   I couldn’t get a single readymade pair of trousers which made me feel comfortable.   Fashion has got rid of pleats from trousers altogether.   Get into the showrooms of Pantaloons or Raymond or even my usual, humble Big Bazaar and you will realise how uncomfortable they want us to feel in the trousers they are offering.   I asked the Pantaloons boy whether they had any pair of trousers with pleats.   And which were fairly loose.  He looked at me as if I was some creature descended from another planet.   I explained to him that pleats were invented in order to make the wearer feel comfortable around the loins with a lot of air circulation.   Thank my stars, he didn’t ask me what my profession was.   Instead he asked me whether I had heard of anything called Payback cards.   He said he could offer me one which would entitle me to some reward poi