Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Re-reading Colleen McCullough’s novel, The Thorn Birds , after a gap of about 25 years was as much a delightful experience as the first reading.   The novel that runs into almost 600 pages tells the story of three generations of the Cleary family.   Paddy and his wife Fee lived in New Zealand along with their 6 children (and more would be born eventually) and managed to eke out a living until invited by Paddy’s sister to Australia.   Paddy was to inherit the fabulous wealth (13 million pounds) of his aging sister after her death. Mary Carson, however, changes her will when she sees the relationship that unfolds between her young parish priest, Fr Ralph, and the little Cleary girl, Meggie.   Meggie is a charming young girl.   Mary knows that she will grow up to be one of the prettiest women in the parish.   Jealousy, more than malice, motivates Mary to write a new will according to which her entire property will go the Catholic Church and Fr Ralph will be its manager.   Mary

Cartoon from Deepika This morning's Malayalam newspaper, Deepika, delighted readers with the above cartoon on the front page. Modi is portrayed as Bhima in quest of the Sougandhika flower.  He encounters Hanuman on the way and is unable to meet the challenge posed by Hanuman.  Finally Bhima will understand the real power of his interceptor and seek his blessings. Fabulous cartoon, I mused.  It depicts the present situation tersely.  And there's a deep irony too in it. Neither Modi nor Advani is worthy of any comparison with the epic characters.  Both have acted from selfish motives thus far and continue to do so. But the nature of the Kurukshetra has changed too today.  Today our heroes are no better than these characters.   

The way to heaven is narrow...

A scene from rural Kerala

Tuskegee was a little town in Alabama, USA, when Booker T Washington was invited to establish there a school for the coloured people of the state in the year 1881, 16 years after the Emancipation of the Negroes.   The Tuskegee Institute became famous for the holistic education it provided to the coloured students.   Washington did not provide mere bookish learning; he taught the students one trade or another so that they could earn their living as soon as they left the school.   Mere earning of livelihood was not Washington’s objective, however.   Education is “any kind of training... that gives strength and culture to the mind ,” says Washington in his autobiography, Up from Slavery (prescribed as an optional supplementary reader by CBSE for class XII). Washington’s book is a heart-touching expression of a profound philosophy which seeks to discover the good in every individual and cultivate it irrespective of race or religion.   There is a passage in the book which eloque

Dr Manmohan Singh, our Prime Minister, reminded recently of the country’s economic security.   On the basis of GDP, India ranks at the 10 th place in the world.   However, when it comes to per capita income the country’s rank is a pathetic 141.   We are a rich country with poor people, in other words. GDP is the sum of all the products and services of a country.   If we calculate the sum of the entire amounts spent by the government and the private sector including individuals as well as the savings and earnings from exports and then subtract the sum spent in imports, we will get the country’s GDP for the concerned year. Interestingly, the GDP will grow when prices rise.   When you spend more money on petrol or shopping or medicine, you are raising the GDP of your country.   If you wash your own clothes instead of paying a launderer for that, or polish your shoes instead of paying a shoeshine boy, or cook your own food instead of eating at a restaurant or some such plac

Reading Deepak Chopra’s latest book, The 7 Spiritual Laws of Superheroes , is like experiencing a dream.   Chopra has a peculiar fascination with the number 7 just like Ayurveda has a fascination with odd numbers.   The number is quite irrelevant, I think.   The message is quite simple though profound: live with a clear idea of what you want from life and you will be a superhero. “It’s not the moments of tragedy that define our lives,” says Chopra quoting his son Gotham who is quoting Batman and who is also the co-author of the book under review, “so much as the choices we make to deal with them.”   The entire book, just like most other books of the kind, is about how we can equip ourselves properly so that we will make the right choices when faced with tragic situations.   That’s why reading it is like experiencing a dream: we know and love the ideal, but the bitter struggle between the ideal and the reality constantly wakes us up. This time Chopra has chosen to take exam