Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Source: The Hindu

Happiness and intelligence seldom go together, said Ernest Hemingway.  Malayalam poet, Akkitham (who will be turning 90 exactly a week from today), illustrated it with an example in one of his poems.  The little son joins the father on the latter’s morning walk.  On the roadside they see the body of a woman who was raped and killed in the night.  The father tells his little son, Light is sorrow, my son, Darkness is solace. Was the Buddha a happy person?  Was Jesus?  The existential sorrow that haunted intelligent people like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus is reflected throughout their brilliant novels as well as non-fiction works.  Can Mahatma Gandhi be described as a happy person? On the other hand, can we describe any of the above as essentially unhappy persons? They were happy at a level that the mediocre people don’t ever achieve.  Wealth, luxury, possessions, power, entertainment, delicious food – the list of things that serve as sources of happiness

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  The President has already withdrawn himself from the event having realised the threat it poses not only to the Yamuna and its environment but also to his own reputation.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

The last book I read is a novel, The Palace of Illusions , by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.  Like the Mahabharata, which is retold from the point of view of Draupadi, this novel has the potential to spark infinite thoughts in the reader.  Karna comes across in the novel as a man of nobility, loyalty, pride and, above all, uncomplaining acceptance of the injustices of his life.  Anger seethes within him and yet he is capable of great forgiveness.  Destiny was particularly harsh towards Karna.  He was born of a frivolous experiment carried out by Kunti who had not yet grown out of her childhood but was given a boon by the irascible sage Durvasa.  The boon was a mantra with which she could invoke any god and have a son by that god.  Kunti plays with the mantra even as a child might play with her new toy.  It is none other than the sun god whom she invokes.  Karna is the offshoot.  Terrified by the disgrace that might visit her for giving birth to a fatherless child, Kunti abandons

Book Review The Mahabharata is a complex work.  Gods, demons and human beings interact freely making us wonder what really distinguishes one from the other.  Who is good and who is bad?  What is morality?  What is dharma?  The fabulous epic does not give very clear answers to these questions.  Is the complexity and inscrutability an integral part of the cosmic plan that unfolds in a process which we cannot alter much?  In other words, are we puppets in that cosmic game?  Do we really have free will? Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s novel, The Palace of Illusions , is a retelling of the great epic from the point of view of Panchali, as Draupadi likes to call herself in the book.  The plot is the same.  The very same characters not leaving out the man-like gods and the whimsical sages.  The point of view is different and that matters pretty much. Panchali is a rebel in Banerjee Divakaruni’s retelling of the epic.  “Perhaps that has always been my problem,” Panchali tells us