Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Book Review Title: Our Moon Has Blood Clots Author: Rahul Pandita Publisher: Random House India, 2013, 2014   ISBN: 978-81-8400-513-4 Pages: 257 Price: Rs 350 History has to be saved from the mediocre.  The mediocre rule the world.  And their vision extends little beyond their own noses.  Their memory goes as far as the comforts and wellbeing of themselves.  “… my memory must come in the way of this untrue history,” as Rahul Pandita paraphrases Agha Shahid Ali.  The memory of those who find it difficult to accept convenient truths that ensure the present wellbeing must come in the way if history is to be redeemed.  Rahul Pandita’s book is an endeavour to redeem the history of the Kashmiri Pandits who were driven out by the Muslim fundamentalists.  The book deserves to be read by every Indian, especially by the Muslims of India. Kashmir was a paradise where people belonging to two different religions, which later became bitter enemies, lived together in exe

The first thing that Rohan noticed when he entered the campus of New India Public School was a network of cables and wires.  Telephone wires, Internet cables, TV cables and intercom wires dangled in the air mingling effortlessly with one another.  Above them all lay stretched tight and rather majestically the electric wires.  Wires played a vital role in New India Public School. In the hostel they did play an undeniably vital role as Rohan realised within a few days. As soon as the Supervisor, Mr Rathode, left after making a perfunctory but imperious announcement through the PA system that it was the lights-off time, all lights would go off, for some time at least, and then the wires would come alive. There was a frantic rush to the switchboard by the students who wanted to charge their mobile phones.  Mobile phones were forbidden to the students in New India Public School, “a fully residential school for boys for overall development of your child’s personality.”  But every student

A K Antony Mr A K Antony’s recent remark that the appeasement of minority communities by the Congress party has led to its disgraceful defeat in the last general elections may generate some debate in the country.  However, it is not only the Congress but also many other political parties in the country that should take an introspective look at themselves vis-à-vis their attitude towards religions.   One of the greatest tragedies in independent India has been the misuse of religion by its politicians.  The catastrophic misuse started even before Independence and the British imperial government’s divide-and-rule policy added the necessary fuel to the fire.  The vision embodied in the Constitution of India with respect to religion is very noble indeed.  It respects every religion and allows the citizens to follow the religion of their choice or not follow any.  What happened from the time of Indira Gandhi onward has been disastrous for the country, however.  After her rout