Tomichan Matheikal's blog

One of the pedagogical models that fascinated me while doing B.Ed. was Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy. The model presents three domains all of which should get due attention from the education system. They are cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of learning and refer respectively to mental skills, development of right attitudes and creation of a value system, and physical skills. The present education system in India is heavily loaded in favour of the first. A lot of knowledge is imparted to students. Certain skills are developed too in the laboratories and playgrounds. When it comes to the affective domain, a lot more remains to be done. This is the most major drawback of the system, I think. If due attention is paid to the affective domain, our students will move out of the schools with a well-developed value system of their own. The way hatred is spread through the social media and other platforms is a clear indication of failure in this regard. Anyone with a clear v

Franco Mulakkal is the bishop of the Jalandhar diocese of the Catholic Church. He has been accused of raping quite many nuns. Many nuns chose to leave their religious calling because they didn’t want to live the duplicitous life that their ‘good shepherd’ wanted them to live. It is too obvious that this bishop is nothing less than a rapist. But it is necessary to protect him and eventually declare him a saint. Why? I have been following the comments on many Whatsapp groups which I belong to by the necessity of wanting to belong somewhere. Yeah, we all want to belong. Imagine the millions of believers whose sense of belonging is threatened by the sins of a villain like Franco Mulakkal. It’s terrible, if you can understand that threat. I am not a believer and hence not shaken in any way. But I’m concerned about the people who mean a lot to me and whose lives are shaken by Mulakkal’s sins. It’s not possible, they tell me. The Fathers are holy. These simple, humble, l

This Independence Day brought me a symbolic ‘gift’. The fact that it came from Reliance Life Insurance Corporation adds a peculiar irony to the ‘gift’. Back in the heyday of my life in Delhi, I received a phone call offering me a “single premium life insurance policy” from Reliance. I had to pay ₹ 50,000 just once and would go on to enjoy a whole lot of “long term benefits”. I leaped at the opportunity as the promises were lucrative enough. The agent rushed to my residence and the paper works were completed hastily. However, when I received the policy certificate I realised I was cheated. It was not a single premium policy at all. My subsequent personal conversations with the staff in the Reliance office (which kept shifting from place to place in Delhi almost every month like a fugitive) made me realise that the office and its agents played tricks on potential clients to foist misleading insurance policies on the latter. I was already trapped and had no choice but carry on

“In the beginning was the word,” says the Bible. Man is a word-making animal. One of the first things he did as he started walking on two legs must have been coining words for effective communication. Words continued to be coined enriching human languages from the time of the earliest cuneiform texts. Man cannot live without the texts. “Is the written word doomed?” The latest In(di)spire forum questions. No, it isn’t. The vlog and the blog will coexist just as the TV and the print media do or the novel and the movies do. True, more people are taking to the TV and the visual media. Video blogging has become quite popular too similarly. Yet the power of the word, the primordial power of mankind, will never be lost. Words create texts. And words will continue to exercise their charm on readers for ages to come. Even today there are plenty of people who enjoy reading the newspapers in spite of the fact that the TV brings the news more efficiently and attractively. Literature c

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