Tomichan Matheikal's blog

It’s rather rarely one comes across an article that highlights the goodness of politicians. Today I stumbled upon one such article in Malayalam written by one Abdul Rasheed . He mentions how G. Sudhakaran got a bank to write off a loan in order to save an old, impoverished woman from losing her home. Just a few phone calls and some instructions: that’s all what it took for the minister to bring a new life to that woman. The writer also appreciates the recent visit made by Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala to the flood affected regions of the state. They shared the same helicopter putting aside their political rivalry.   Image courtesy Yoyo daily The article goes on to say that Pinarayi’s government has already extended financial help to 234899 people in the last two years of its governance. A sum of ₹ 423 crore reached those people from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Most of that money came from the state-run lo

മീശക്കാരൻ കേശവന് ദോശ തിന്നാൻ ആശ തോന്നിയപ്പോൾ കീശ തപ്പിനോക്കി. കീശ  കാലി. മേശ പണ്ടേ കാലിയായതാണ്. പണ്ടേ എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞാൽ ഏതാണ്ട് demonitisatioന്റെ കാലം മുതൽ. രാവണന്റെ കാലം. Oh, that's doing injustice to Ravana, thought Kesavan. Ravana had some ethics. He didn't touch Sita because she didn't permit him to do that. ചിന്ത കാട് കയറുകയാണ് അല്ലേട കേശവാ? ഇതാണ് മലയാളികളുടെ main പ്രശ്‍നം. മനസ് നിറയെ കാടാണ്. കാട് നിറയെ  മനസും. കാട്, കറുത്ത കാട്. മനുഷ്യനാദ്യം പിറന്ന വീട്. കൊടുംകാട്ടിൽ തളർന്ന ചിറകു വീശി തകർന്ന പൊന്മാൻ ഇരുന്ന വീട്. "എന്ത് ചേട്ടാ?" ചായക്കടയിലെ ഭായിയുടെ ചോദ്യം കേട്ട് കേശവൻ was jolted. Bhai, aren't you a Bangladeshi? Kesavan wanted to ask him. ഈ ബെന്ഗാളികൾ എന്താ ഇങ്ങനെ പെരുകുന്നത്? ഇവർക്ക് വേറെ പണി ഇല്ലേ? എവിടെ നോക്കിയാലും ബംഗാളി മാത്രം. ചുമ്മാതാണോ മോഡി ഭായ് ഹിന്ദുത്വ പറഞ്ഞു  പെരുക്കുന്നത്? ഇളിഭ്യനായി കീശയിലും മേശയിലും കാശില്ലാത്ത കേശവൻ വായ് നോക്കി ഇരുന്നപ്പോൾ local RSS leader ആ വഴിയേ  വന്നു."No work, man?" ഉണ്ണികൃഷ്ണൻ നേതാവ് ചോദിച്ചു. "എന്നാ

Image from CNN Asia My job keeps me in touch with young people. An alarmingly increasing number of these young people tell me that they wish to leave India and settle down in a liberal country. I encourage them. India is governed by a warlord whose mindset belongs to the medieval era of fanatic wars. As a result, mindless violence is spreading across the country like a terminal cancer. If you surf the writings on social media such as Facebook, you will realise that there is a whole army of people who propagate violence as the need of the hour. What is the need of the hour specifically? Once again, it shocked me to realise that the projected need is the redemption of Hinduism from its enemies in India. Who are the enemies? The Muslims, of course, first and foremost. And then the Dalits, the Christians, and so on. The very first premise of all that logic is wrong . Hinduism has never been in any danger in India. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been the religion of the major

They are the opposite poles of the continuum that stretches from cheerful despair to sad optimism.   The cynic is a sad man who laughs away his blues with the soothing belief that life won’t be any better than this. The monk is a happy man who wearies himself with the longing to make life holier by staying away from its inevitable pollutions and then preaching cleanliness to the miserable wretches who are condemned to wallow in the filth. However, there is something common to both the cynic and the monk. Both reject the world. The cynic is afraid of the world and hence says No to it with masqueraded cheerfulness. His No is his shield held against the pains and dregs that life will inevitably bring if he dares to say Yes to it. The monk appears to say Yes to life but is in fact saying No to a lot of things. While dark humour is the natural tool of the cynic, rubrics are the monk’s knights in shining armours. While George Orwell’s donkey Benjamin is the cynic, the Biblical Moses

Until someone from my Delhi days called me yesterday evening, I was not aware that it was friendship day (1 st Sunday of August). I transferred the phone to Maggie as soon as he enquired after her. The call ended soon which was what I wanted. Friends – I’m scared of many them. My experience with friends has been such that friendship is a nightmare for me with the exception of a few souls who don’t wait for friendship day to call. When a Catholic priest who was my teacher for a brief period extended friendship on Facebook recently, I accepted the offer with considerable hesitation. When he wrote on my page yesterday that he prayed for me I became really terrified and wrote in response that attention from religious people had always spelt disaster in my life. I had my own perversions and idiosyncrasy which made me an outsider in any society. Most of those perversions were worked to their bizarre extremes by certain religious people who took it upon themselves to reform me. As

Mediocrity encroaches on everything. That is a natural law. Religions become mere trade of illusions and delusions under mediocre priests and other leaders. Politics becomes trade of power. Writing becomes a similar trade too. The true worth of each of these is brought down to the quagmire of pedestrianism by mediocre people who always rule the roost, thanks to the natural human craze for power and wealth. Blogging has not escaped this fate either. Much of what you get these days on blogs is just uninspired pettiness that masquerades as supernatural wisdom. Almost every blogger you meet these days is an expert on something like parenting, nutrition, or lifestyle. There are good writers among them, of course as there are good religious leaders and good politicians too. “Is it correct to always convert a passion into a profession?” That is the question raised by an eminent blogger, Arvind Passey , at Indiblogger , a blogger’s community. “Does this destroy the essence of blogg

Image from videohive Hope was the last item in Pandora’s Box. Pandora was the Greek predecessor of the biblical Eve. Like Eve, Pandora was the first woman of mankind and the sole purpose of her creation was to bring evils and misery into the world of men. She descended on mankind with a box that contained all the evils which were let loose as soon as she reached the earth. Hope was left behind in the box where it still remains like a mirage. Was hope left behind in the box because it was another evil, the ultimate evil? Hope can be a terrible evil if it gives you false aspirations and destinations. Imagine the common man on the street or the adivasi in the jungle who hopes that one day a Messiah will come to deliver them from the exploiting and mendacious politicians. Messianic hopes are quite asinine if you know the story of this donkey from the circus which was asked by a launderer’s donkey, “Why do you endure such painful and risky acts? Why don’t you run away and j