Tomichan Matheikal's blog

  In one of his novels, O V Vijayan illustrates destiny with the story of a bullock. The bullock was one of the two used to draw a cart. This bullock was always tied on the right side of the cart and hence got most of the whiplashes the driver being right-handed. The bullock was not happy with his destiny and envied his counterpart on the left side. I added a twist to Vijayan’s story while discussing destiny once. The bullock prayed for a change; it wished to be on the left side of the cart. God answered the prayer. The bullock cart was sold and the new owner tied our bovine hero on the left side of the cart. But his destiny didn’t alter. The new driver was left-handed. You can’t escape the whip if it is in your destiny. Some whips are indeed ineluctable parts of your destiny. Your genes, for example. There are catastrophes that strike you with divine vengeance. Even your government can be your destiny with its policies that may hamstring you. As a young man, I poohpoohed the n

The Great Wall of Ahmedabad: symbol of Modi's poverty policy Image from The Hindu The ‘Hunger Watch’ survey conducted in Gujarat by Anna Suraksha Adhikar Abhiyan [ASAA] reveals that one out of every 5 persons in the marginalised communities of the state go hungry in these pandemic times. Some of them do not have even a single meal on certain days. This is happening in a state that has been projected as a model for development over decades. With a tragic irony, we should note that the same person who brought about that pathetic condition in Gujarat is ruling the country today. He has met every opposition to his imperial rule, every demand for justice and human rights, with an iron fist. He suppressed the protests against Citizenship Bill and Act. He spent a huge sum of money to erect a wall meant to hide a slum from visiting Donald Trump . The money spent on the wall would have been enough to rehabilitate the slum dwellers, to give them a life of dignity. But Modi chose to hide t

    Suffering is the university of egocentrism . Milan Kundera, Czech writer [1929-] Suffering is inevitable. That is a fundamental lesson of life. Religions teach us that, philosophy does, and literature shows the same too. While dealing with the inevitable though unwanted, our options are quite limited. We should change what can be changed and accept what cannot be changed. We may need to adapt ourselves in the face of what we cannot change. Religion, philosophy, the arts, and a lot of things can help us to make life easier in the face of suffering. Aren’t these things primarily meant for that: to help us make life bearable and as pleasant as possible? Why haven’t they been able to achieve their purposes? Obviously, they have not been used rightly. On the other hand, they have been misused by certain people. Religion joined hands with politics and became a tool in the hands of bigots or the power-hungry. Philosophy is dead for all practical purposes, killed by our pursuit of

  When human beings discovered laws They knew they had struck a gold mine And more, much more. It was easy now to subjugate people. Tell them what to eat, what to wear, what to speak, In the name of the most divine gods sitting up in the mighty heavens From whose feet were you born while we emerged from the head. Wearing sacred threads on our breasts We tore off the clothes that covered the breasts of your young women And dropped our divine seeds into their vaginas So that your race would improve; our generosity, our compassion, By the mercy of the rules and rubrics sanctioned by gods.   Divine laws dispossessed you of your lands, Call it Article 370 or whatever. Divine laws made your women ours Just for a few minutes, that’s enough. Divine laws brought fire and fury Upon you through us, we decide your fate. Didn’t our ancestors decide the fate of widows Who burnt on the funeral pyres of their husbands? We know what’s good for you. Our gods t

  Listen to P Sainath about the farmer's issue and its lethal implication Narendra Modi has been bluffing a whole nation of 1.35 billion people for over 6 years. He has failed on most of his promises. He promised to deliver petrol and diesel at affordable prices. But their prices kept on rising higher and higher and now they stand at record highs. Same with cooking gas. Same with most other things including essential food items. He had promised a whole lot of things to India’s farmers too. Sample a few of them. 1. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana was set up in 2015 for improving irrigation facilities. Rs 50,000 crore was to be invested in irrigation projects by 2020. The actual figure invested so far stands at Rs 8,000 crore. The Yojana hasn’t done much good to most farmers. Most of the projects promised under it are yet to take off. 2. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana was a much-publicised scheme meant to provide crop insurance to farmers. Even this morning some new

  A page from a Malayalam newspaper of today expressing disagreement to the Centre's decision to rename the institution The BJP government’s decision to rename the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology in Thiruvananthapuram after M. S. Golwalkar has not found many takers in Kerala. A lot of public figures have come out with strong opposition to the move. Understandably so. Who was Golwalkar? Does he deserve such a great honour? Golwalkar was a detestable bigot. In his book We or Our Nationhood Defined , Golwalkar calls all non-Hindus in India “traitors” and “idiots”. Let me quote his entire paragraph: All those not belonging to the national, i.e. Hindu race, Religion, Culture and Language, naturally fall out of the pale of real 'National' life. We repeat: in Hindustan, the land of the Hindus, lives and should live the Hindu Nation - satisfying all the five essential requirements of the scientific nation concept of the modern world. Consequently only those movements

  The mobile phone has a calendar making planning easier than ever. But for those who love to play with numbers, the calendar can be a fun game. You can keep the entire year’s calendar in your mind if you can remember 12 numbers, one for each month. Be prepared to do a little arithmetic too. It’s fun if you love numbers. 400 351 362 402 Can you memorise those numbers? Easy, right? Now what do you do with them? The first number is for January, the second for Feb, and so son. Let’s see which day of the week is the next Republic Day. The Republic Day is on Jan 26. Add the number for Jan to the date. 26 + 4 = 30 Now divide that sum (30) by 7. The quotient (the answer you get when you do the division) is immaterial for us. We only need the reminder. In this example, the reminder is 2. 30 ÷ 7 = 4 & reminder 2 So Jan 26 is Tuesday. If the reminder is 0, it’s Sunday. Reminder 1 = Mon Reminder 2 = Tue Reminder 3 = Wed Reminder 4 = Thu Reminder 5 = Fri Re