Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Delhi has a lot of godmen.  The place called Bhatti Mines alone has three of them who among them share hundreds of acres of land.  They vie with one another to woo customers by organising various events which are supposed to be religious but appear more like melas.  Neither the simple human morality nor the more noble spirituality of the people has improved any bit with all these godmen and their varied entertainments if we go by the crime rates in the city.  The only thing that is changing visibly is the wealth possessed by these holy men. Now the Art of Living (AoL) guru, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, is invading the Yamuna.  1000 acres of the riverbed and banks have been converted into a gigantic structure meant to hold some 3,000,000 devotees from about 150 countries.  The President has already withdrawn himself from the event having realised the threat it poses not only to the Yamuna and its environment but also to his own reputation.   The Prime Minister is also likely to withdraw cit

Book Review One of the amusing truths about the human species is that in spite of the breathtaking achievements we have made, and continue to make, in various fields, our lives continue to be dominated by superficiality.  There are some manners that we have to learn and practise in order to belong to our class and the manners are, more often than not, quite silly.  Even our physical appearance matters a lot.  'Fair and lovely' is one of those silly norms.  What we boast of in the name of our culture too has a way of attaining superficiality.  For example, we can wear the typical western attire and go to deliver sermons on the ancient Indian culture to youngsters who may be celebrating the Valentine’s Day. Lata Subramanian’s debut book, A Dance with the Corporate Ton , is about the paradoxical superficiality of our species.  The very first sentence of the book will tell us what it is about: “If you wish to be successful in your chosen career, if you desire to build

“(Sorrow) will strike you harder than your husbands because your ego is more frail and more stubborn...” says Krishna to Draupadi in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s novel, ThePalace of Illusions . The word ego is used here in its commonly understood meaning of ‘the extent to which one thinks highly of one’s self.’  In psychology, the meaning of ego is not quite that, though related to it.  Ego is a self-consciousness system in psychology.  Ego is that part of our consciousness which tells our own story to ourselves as well as others.  It is the story that is made up of our thoughts, feelings and actions.  It is the story which inhibits or legitimises our thoughts, feelings and actions to ourselves as well as others.  My ego is my story as I create it moment after moment.  It is shaped by my experiences in life.  It is the identity I forge as I go ahead in life.  If I cannot forge a meaningful identity which gives purpose to my existence, I have ego problems.  Let us look