Tomichan Matheikal's blog

The world belongs to winners.   Losers have no place in it.   If you are a loser, learn to pretend at least, pretend to be a winner; otherwise you will be an outcast, part of the debris. America became a winner in the 20 th century by bossing over other countries.   There was no morality or ethics in the way they achieved the victory.   Not in the way they treated the natives of that land.   Not with respect to the Blacks.   Today the typical American is ready to kill their perceived enemies – the Asians, for example.   But the plaque at the base of   the Statue of Liberty will go on to proclaim with the magnanimity of a typical American televangelist who is also a close friend of President Trump: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the  wretched  refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless,  tempest-tossed  to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Israel is a winner today.   Having bombarded thousands of

India, under Narendra Modi, is turning more and more Right.   Right wing organisations and groups are becoming hyperactive and imposing their truths on others.   The recent activism of ABVP in some Delhi colleges is just one of the many examples of criminal imposition of one’s beliefs and notions on others.   What is wrong the Right wing is precisely their claims about truths and morality.  They assume that only their beliefs and assumptions are the truths.  Only their practices are moral.  They will decide which god(s) others will worship, what food they will eat, or even what kind of dresses are permissible. Variant thinking is forbidden.  Anybody who questions the Right wing notions is portrayed as antinational and assaulted.  Dissent is treason.  Most of the slogans raised by ABVP recently in Delhi are striking illustrations of skewed notions and thinking processes.  Examples: ‘ Desh main jo rehna hoga, vande mataram kehna hoga, ’ and ‘DU against anti-nationals.’

Book Review Title: Disaster Falls: A Family Story Author: Stéphane   Gerson ISBN 978-1-101-90669-9 Death of a child is a tragedy that can alter the life of the family members in unpredictable ways.  The tragedy becomes even more intense when a parent is involved in it.  The author of this book lost his eight-year old son, Owen, during a rafting trip on the Green River.  The father and the son were navigating the rapids using a ‘duck boat’ which met with an accident, “an unfortunate alignment of circumstances.”  The father was saved and the little boy died.  Pain “mixed with regret, bewilderment, disappointment – and guilt in all guises,” writes the author.  “Guilt for signing the release and letting him board the ducky.  Guilt for not bringing Owen home. Guilt for failing to uncover new memories. Guilt for allowing sorrow to overshadow Owen....” The book is an exercise to deal with the sorrow as well as the guilt feeling.  It took a long while for the family t