Tomichan Matheikal's blog

One of my friends in the village narrated an interesting anecdote. He heard a villager pray to his god one day for a strong wind in the night so that one of the trees in his neighbour’s farm would fall. “That would give me firewood for a month,” the villager explained when questioned. His neighbour is a very kind man who lets him take firewood whenever dry branches of trees fall in the farm. “But why don’t you ask your god to solve your problem without wishing harm for your kind neighbour?” My friend questioned the villager who knew the neighbour too. The villager said, “That’s true. I never thought of that.” The villager was quite innocent. He really didn’t mean harm to his neighbour whom he held in high regard. But his firewood was running out and winds were quite common in the area and the winds brought down branches of trees frequently. It was only fair to ask god to send a wind in the nearest farm. It would be easier to carry the firewood home from the nearest f

Ayodhya Temple, national pride? In a few hours from now Prime Minister Modi will lay a 40 kg silver brick in Ayodhya to mark the beginning of the construction of a humungous temple. India is grappling with a deadly pandemic like most countries in the world. India is the fifth worst affected country and given the country’s enormous population any sane leader would think of spending revenue on providing better medical facilities. But Modi knows how to earn his place in recorded history: architecture. He spent an incredibly large sum on a statue that stands 600 feet tall on lands that belonged to 185 families. Mr Modi seems to think that the statue will give a stiff competition to the Taj Mahal. If not the statue, this temple in Ayodhya should give that competition. There’s more in the offing too: Central Vista in Delhi. Mr Modi can surely hope to get his name imprinted in history as THE ARCHITECT of endemic India in pandemic times . The Ayodhya temple has much emotive po

Krishna Hari is a class 12 student. She writes stunning poems which carry evocative images and provoking metaphors. As her English teacher, I am proud to feature one of her poems in this space.  Krishna Hari The old birds in my yard⠀ Fly away to distant lands⠀ For deceptive summer eves have come⠀ Yet again with their wild rains⠀ And malicious clouds.⠀ ⠀ I sit on my balcony cross-legged⠀ Sipping warm whiskey⠀ Watching the sunset paint ⠀ The northern skies sepia.⠀ ⠀ I hear the rustling leaves of the devil's trees⠀ Within the premises of that old temple by the lake⠀ Where women used to worship serpents and fairies once⠀ Collapsed into a rubble of stones with time.⠀ ⠀ Eerie questions suck on the abysses Under my skin like leeches⠀ And I feel as if I'm⠀ On the edge of an apocalypse.⠀ ⠀ I ask, "Who makes leaves fall in autumn"?⠀ "Why were thorny roses prettier than tranquil jasmines"?⠀ "Where do old birds go to die ?⠀ Do they ever cry for their wrinkled dest

Fall is an integral part of human life. There is the natural season of fall (autumn) and there are the human falls of errors and misfortunes. There is also the sweet falling in love. Falling out of love is also a part of life. A Fallen Leaf is an anthology of 15 short stories written by 15 different writers but blend together coherently like the warp and woof of an elegant fabric. These stories revolve around the various falls in human lives.   All the stories are written in the conventional method of plot development. There is a problem which grows complex towards a denouement and the final resolution. Sharanya Mishra’s ‘A Mosaic on the Garden Floor’ is an exception insofar as it melds a couple of subplots and builds up a mosaic instead of a single picture. Each story has its own conventional lesson to teach too. Even Olinda Braganza’s ‘A Tryst with a Twist’ which has the trappings of science fiction ends with a blushing hint of a moral lesson. In short, here are 15 stories that

Outside Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi [2012] In one of her Harry Potter novels, J K Rowling describes adventure as “that flighty temptress”. Life is a flighty temptress and adventure is the wicked witch with her magical potions. I have drunk deep from both: the witch as well as the temptress. Life would be sheer wasteland without these two seductresses! The best adventure I have had was in the Garhwal Himalayas. The school where I taught in Delhi gave me the opportunities to trek on those rugged landscapes that belong to the gods and apsaras. My first such trek was to Hemkund with its altitude of 15,000 feet. Another unforgettable trek was to Gaumukh a few years later. There were many less adventurous treks in between in the Land of Gods where, as Arun Kolatkar would say, every stone is a god or his cousin.   Mountains seduce me far more immodestly than gods and their cousins. Mountains tease you with their peaks. When you conquer each peak, you transmu

Source: Dawn From the highlights available so far, the New Education Policy 2020 [NEP2020] seems to be well-meaning. There are certain changes that are very much needed. For example, it seeks to make school education more pragmatic and career-oriented by introducing vocational education from grade 6 with internship. It will certainly help a lot of students to find jobs much earlier than the present system does. The objective of NEP2020 to foster “holistic development of learners by equipping them  with 21 st century skills, reduction in curricular content to enhance essential learning and critical thinking and greater focus on experiential learning” can also work wonders if properly implemented.  The existing system lays undue stress on rote learning and mere reproduction of that memorised knowledge without any creative and critical thinking. This system does not take the students beyond the most fundamental objectives of education: acquisition of basic knowledge. In

Fiction It was when the coronavirus disease had forced Ravindran to stay at home day and night that he began to understand the language of the lizards. The lizards were there all over the house ever since the house was built nearly two decades ago. Less than two decades, in fact. It wasn’t easy to forget the year. Lizards shared the house with Ravindran right from the time he built the house. They behaved as if they were the real masters of the house. Not that they made much noise about it; they were usually quiet. Once in a while they would let out a cry, a click, or a squeak. Krishnan, one of the oldest men in the village, once told Ravindran that the sounds made by lizards have specific meanings. The meaning depends on the time and direction, he said. What time of the day or night and from which direction – east, west, etc. Ravindran dismissed Krishnan’s theory as mere superstition of an ignorant villager. Now he understands the language of the lizards. They are say