Tomichan Matheikal's blog

The less we know, the easier it is to assume our identity.  It is much easier to perceive ourselves as Indian or Pakistani or Hindu or Muslim than to understand the complex range of crucibles and forges which gave shape to most people’s identities on the planet called the earth.  The more we know, the more ridiculous re-conversions and identity arrogations become. Who was an Indian before India became an independent republic?  How did the Indian become a Hindu, a Muslim, a Sikh, or whatever?  What about the increasing number of agnostics and atheists in the country?  What about other identities which may be more important to certain individuals such as feminists, environmentalists, or even Maoists?  If I travel back in time and see the entire history of my ancestors, what will my identity be?  Will I see myself as a person whose helpless ancestor was forced to convert (or re-convert) to some religion by an emperor or his/her given situation?  Why should any one particul

Was Hanuman the first space traveller?  Did Ravana’s ten heads give him the intelligence and skills required to make an aeroplane?  Did Lord Ganesh receive his elephantine tusk through plastic surgery in an ancient All India Institute of Medical Science? If you answer ‘yes’ to all such questions you are eligible to present a science paper in the 102 nd Indian Science Congress being conducted by Mumbai University.  “One paper, co-authored by Captain Anand Bodas, retired head of a pilot training centre, and Ameya Jadhav, a teacher, claimed there was evidence of ancient aviation in the Rigveda,” says a Hindu report .  There were 200-foot planes that could fly forwards, backwards and sideways and even hover in mid-air during the Vedic age.  The Captain claimed that the planes, invented by a sage called Maharishi Bharadwaj over 7000 years ago, had up to 30 engines and were equipped for warfare. The Head of the Sanskrit department of the University claimed that Pythagoras Theo

Babri Masjid destruction 22 years ago Religion benefitted immensely whenever political power became its handmaiden.  Christianity, for example, was a suppressed religion until Emperor Constantine (r 307-337) was converted to it after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. As Paul K. Davis, scholar of military history, writes, "Constantine’s victory gave him total control of the Western Roman Empire paving the way for Christianity to become the dominant religion for the Roman Empire and ultimately for Europe." Buddhism spread far and wide after Emperor Ashoka became its votary.   Later some Shaiva kings ordered the destruction of Buddhist monasteries and the killing of monks in north-western India in the mid first millennium A.D.  Later still, Muslim rulers in India destroyed many Hindu temples or converted them into mosques. Christian church destroyed in Delhi on 2 Dec 2014 More recently, in our own times, the Babri Masjid was destroyed by the knights of our ow