Tomichan Matheikal's blog

During my childhood summer vacation was a whole long tedious period of two full months.   More than a month would go burning in the anxiety about the annual exam results.   The system was not at all student-friendly in those days.   During the ten months at school the students would be made to memorise a whole lot of things and caned mercilessly if their memory failed.   The evaluation process of exams was as severe as the caning.   The teachers were more eager to find out the mistakes in the answer sheets unlike their counterparts today (which includes me too) who go out of their way to reward whatever happens to be right in answer sheets.   Passing exams was quite tough in those days.   It appeared that the only purpose of exams in those days was to make as many students as possible fail.   The only thing that made me forget the anxiety about the ‘result’ was the fairly long visit to all the maternal uncles some distance away.   I loved the bus journey in those days.   I

Fiction Anand Shankar was trolled mercilessly in social media when he posted his story ‘Ravana’ in his blog.   He was a little known blogger and hence the tremendous attention that his present story drew came as a rude shock as well as pleasant surprise at once. His story ended with Sita longing to return to Lanka because Rama suspected her chastity.   No, she didn’t return.   In fact, she didn’t even want to return.   A painful conflict arose in her consciousness.   This man, Rama, the Maryada Purushottam, the hero of a whole country, god incarnate, this man faltered when some silly gossip monger raised a question about my chastity , Sita reflects at the end of Anand’s tale.   Ravana emerges as a far better hero in her consciousness.   Ravana who stood before her in Ashok Vatika with love and admiration in his eyes.   And reverence that did not at all match his royal narcissism.   When he knew that his love for her could never surpass her love for Rama, he surrendered

When you’ve learnt to really care, the noises and gestures cease to matter.   The slogans sound absurd.   Rhetoric is out of place.   Any god is okay as long as the god supports the wellbeing of everyone around. If your god and creed become a cause for even one person’s sorrow, be assured that the god is false, the creed is false.   If your prayers don’t envelope the entire world around you, they are mere longings of a selfish creature even if they are addressed to a god and follow the formulas prescribed by a creed. When the tree becomes a mystery, the shower a revelation, and each person out there a spark of divinity, you don’t need temples to worship.   Rather the gods will fold their hands before you in respect.   And your heart overflows with humility. Death need not be the end. Death need not be a transit to hell or heaven or any such place.   Death can be a fulfilment, the fulfilment of your real self without the layers put on it by gods and creeds and their