Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Walt Whitman longed to be an animal.   “They are so placid and self-contain’d,” he argued.   He found a lot of qualities that make animals superior to human beings.   They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another… Walt Whitman Poetry is not to be taken literally.   Whitman was not glorifying animals really.   He was just using them to highlight our own pathetic condition.   Whitman’s original religion, Christianity, laid much emphasis on man’s sinfulness.   Christianity believes that man is an evil creature unless redeemed by Jesus Christ.   Christianity instils a terrible sense of sinfulness in the soul of the believers.   So ‘good’ Christians are condemned “to lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins.” But all that weeping has p

“Why have they done this to us?” Fatima lamented. Sheila had no answer.   Her man had to join RSS if their son was to get admission in the medical college.   “Don’t talk to the Muslims anymore,” her husband had told her the day he secured his son’s medical college admission.   They were friends from childhood, Sheila and Fatima.   They studied in the same school and were later married to men in the same neighbouring village.   They were happy to continue the friendship even when they had husbands to love and later children of their own to love.   Love is unlimited, they realised.   You can love anyone if you want.   Love doesn’t get exhausted.   Rather, it increases when given liberally. “Our son’s future is more important than your friendship,” said Sheila’s husband.   “Muslims are antinational.   Keep away from them.” Their son got admission to the medical college run by Swami Radhadev on the condition that her husband join the local RSS shakha.   The shakha dec

Sensible people will keep religion in the temple or mosque or wherever their god resides.   Mediocre people will insist on carrying their god to where the angels will dread to tread.   Villains know how to subjugate others using religion and god. Sensible people are rare in India like in most other countries.   That’s why secularism never took roots in the country though many prominent leaders like Nehru and Ambedkar would have endorsed secularism a million times over theocracy.   India was fortunate to have leaders like Nehru who were not religious and hence were able to redeem India from the clutches of bigots who would have made it another theocratic nation like the rival Pakistan.   Mediocrity insists on making people like their enemies.   Hence the sublime vision of people like Nehru was doomed to fail in the normal course of time.   The Congress party itself betrayed Nehru’s concept of secularism which gave equal respect to all religions.   The ideal would have be