Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Fiction Ravinder was a fighter.  But that was once upon a time.  When youth boils in the blood like a witches’ brew, it’s easy to be a fighter.  Time, however, puts out the fire beneath the brew eventually.  Experience, rather than time.  You keep fighting with monsters for years, monsters some of whom are real, some illusions and some others are like Quixote’s windmills.  Real monsters have varying motives.  Some want to capture positions of power, some want to swindle money out of the system, and some others want to appear great by belittling others.  Motives abound in the world of monsters.  Monsters are the most motivated creatures, mused Ravinder. And you keep fighting them all through life.  Fight for your dignity, for your principles, or sometimes even for your survival.  And then comes a time when you give up fighting.  You get used to the arrows.  Your skin becomes thick enough to be a shield. Why can’t the world be a place of cooperation rather than competit

Happiness is when I lie down on a beach and listen to the relentless music of the ocean. Happiness is when I touch a flower and feel love in my heart. When I sit on a mountain top feeling the mist washing my soul. When I know that people are what they are because their circumstances made them so.  And so I can understand them.  I can accept them.  As they are. Knowing that everyone is driving the car at the best of her/his potential.  Hooting is a cry for help. Happiness is when I help.  Happiness is knowing that helping is the most painful task I can fulfil. Happiness is the realisation that I don’t need anything more than I already have.  That I can call it quits if I want.  Because I don’t want anything more.  Happiness is the realisation that less is more. Mulberries outside my temporary residence Happiness is the situation in which I can do the job I know on my own terms.  Teach without lesson plans.  Write without research.  Can read Damon Galg

The temperature is soaring in Delhi.  It's less than a month since we, Delhiites, cleaned our woolens and shoved them into the remote parts of the almirah and pulled out the cotton linen for the summer.  The temperature rises at the rate of one degree Celsius per day.  The very air outside scorches your skin. It was not surprising to see honey bees trying to suck water at the taps outside the school's dining hall this morning.  The bees were not worried about the boys coming to wash their hands.  They flew away letting the boys wash and came back as soon as the boys were away. I became curious about the honey bees' requirement of water. A simple Google search gave me the following information: [courtesy:  http://www.glenn-apiaries.com/bee_photos_10.html ] Honey bees collect four substances, nectar to turn into honey for their food source, pollen as a protein source to rear the baby bees, propolis to seal crevices and coat the inside of the hive with an antimico