Tomichan Matheikal's blog

The following is a translation of the short story by bilingual writer Madhavikutty (Kamala Das).   This story was written half a century ago, much before the cow became a bone of contention in the country.   Was the author prophetic? One day a little boy picked up a banana peel from a garbage bin on the road. While he was eating it, a cow snatched it from his hands. The boy felt sad; he pushed the beast away. The cow ran along the street, mooing aloud. Some mendicants suddenly turned up from nowhere. “Did you hurt the holy cow?” they asked the boy. “I didn’t. I only chased it away because it snatched the banana peel I was eating.” “What is your religion?” asked the mendicants. “Religion? What’s that?” asked the boy. “Are you Hindu or Muslim? Or Christian? Do you go to the temple or to the mosque?” “I don’t go to any of them,” the boy replied. “So you don’t believe in prayer?” “I don’t go anywhere. I have no shirt. My trousers are torn at th

Amit Shah is a chatur baniya . His political career is mired in filth and blood.   He has used devious methods to bring his party to power in his own as well as other states and also to eliminate enemies.   He is the master of trickery and even encounter killings are part of his arsenal.   He knows how to get what he wants.   Recently he was in Kerala where he hurled an ultimatum to the party workers: win at any cost.   Clashes broke out in Kerala from the very next day.   Sooner than later, Amit Shah can take pride in destroying the communal harmony that existed in Kerala for decades. Courtesy C P Sharma Amit Shah knows how to use power effectively.   His party is changing the history textbooks wherever it is in power.   In the new textbooks, the tin heroes of RSS like Savarkar have displaced the real heroes like Mahatma Gandhi.   The entire freedom struggle is being shown in a different light.   The history of the country is being rewritten entirely.   Fair becomes fo

“Who’s Shakespeare?” John asked when I mentioned the bard in a casual conversation. “Didn’t you study an extract from Julius Caesar a few months back?” I asked with concealed consternation.   John had just passed class ten from CBSE. I come to bury Caesar and not to praise him “Yup!” he remembered.   “ I come to bury Caesar and not to praise him ,” he quoted Shakespeare’s Mark Antony from memory. “What makes that line memorable to you?” “Mark Antony was lying,” said John. “He did just the opposite?” Coming from a fifteen year-old boy, that was quite a brilliant answer.   “Did your teacher say that?” I asked. “Not exactly.   But I liked Mark Antony.   He’s a good politician.” “Good orator, you mean?” “That too. But a good politician,” he persisted. “Because he lied effectively?” He thought for a while.   “He achieved what he wanted.”   In his own style John went on to tell me that he admired Mark Antony for subverting the entire parad