Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is rapped by clamour Of self-appointed guardians of morality and culture; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, Blackened with clotted blood Of insidious intent. These streets used to be crowded With people and cattle and dogs And longings in hearts. Now slogans have displaced longings And also some of the people. We have created enemies For the sustenance of our arid hearts. The cooing of pigeons hangs heavily in the loaded air, We are in a country where the cattle are deity, That thirst for human blood: History’s way of avenging itself. Don’t worry, history is a ghost that will haunt Wherever you may choose to hide yourself. No escape, no redemption, no hope. But I’ll be with you till the end. What began with a bang will end in a whimper. I’ll be there with you, with the whimper. That’s my love. My helpless love.

Chasing the headlight you drive the car With single-minded determination to the destination. You are in a hurry. Hurry! There’s a whole world to be conquered. The highway is as alluring as the holy grail. Highway is a mark of development. Development is the key to happiness. In the undeveloped underbrush In the darkness on either side Lie mysteries sighing mantras of bliss Fairies and dryads beckon Unheeded Rivers and mountains sing songs of beatitude Beside the highway Highways are full of light. Dazzling light. The world stands bathed in brilliance. I embrace the magic of darkness Away, away from the highway Far away from the brilliance of your lights. PS. Inspired by Indiblogger Edition 164

Here’s why you shouldn’t walk on escalators is one of the headlines in today’s Times of India .  The report, written by Christopher Mele and originally published in New York Times two days back , is an excellent example of how statistics and mathematics can create imaginary worlds which appear real.  Take an example.  Suppose a man wants to calculate the average income of people living on Altamount Road in Mumbai.  He will arrive at a figure which will astound almost all the people living there until they realise that Mukesh Ambani’s house, Antilia, is also situated on their road.  From the New York Times The researcher in Mele’s report did just that.  Let me simplify the findings.  Imagine yourself in a metro railway station which has escalators. Don’t imagine Connaught Place in Delhi whose escalators are so overcrowded at any time that nobody can even dream of walking up or down any of those escalators.  Imagine a sparsely populated metro station. There are ten pa