Tomichan Matheikal's blog

  Book Review Title: Beyond Fairy Tales Authors: Deepika and Shalini Format: PDF E-book Fairies inhabit a world different from ours. In that world, they hold mirrors to us wherein we may see the images of our inner selves. Or sometimes we see the images we wish to see, as the authors say in this book: The women of the globe secretly call, To the mirror on their wall.   They see in themselves the beauty of Snow, To uplift their spirit that might be lying low, Not bothering about opinions of a friend or a foe, They help their unique grace and enchantment grow. Fairy tales were created at different times for different purposes. They entertain little children while teaching them certain lessons of life. They engage children creatively. Yet many of them don’t seem to be meant for children at all. This book presents us 26 fairy tales taken from various sources. The presentation is unique and that is what makes this a special book. We are given minute details about

Image from recoveryworkscanada C V Raman’s consciousness level is not Ramkrishna Yadav’s. We all have different consciousness levels. Criminals exist at very low levels of consciousness and are driven by hostile emotions. Psychologist and author, Dr David Hawkins, places shame-based emotions at the lowest level of consciousness. People who exist at the level of shame tend to be cruel, brutally cruel. A little higher on the hierarchy of consciousness is guilt. Apathy comes next. And so on, it goes. A vast majority of people, 85% of the entire population, live at these low levels and grapple with very serious psychological problems in life. Too many people are mentally unhealthy, in other words. Quite a few of them take shelter in drugs and alcohol. These addicts and potential addicts are probably better persons than the so-called ‘normal’ people because the search for a ‘high’ is an indication of a desire for a better existence while the ‘normal’ people are contended with low levels o

  Book Review Title: Random Thoughts on Random Words Author: Rajeev Moothedath Format: PDF E-book There are some books which make you want to meet the author as you read it. Rajeev Moothedath’s new book, Random Thoughts on Random Words , is one such book. Reading it is like sitting in a relaxed seminar room listening to a motivational speaker whose personality is as charming as the wisdom that descends like the purple glow and the linnet’s wings of Yeats’s Innisfree. Let’s not forget that the author is a motivational speaker and a corporate trainer. He has been successful in translating the mood of his training sessions into this book. There is nothing as charming as sophisticated simplicity. Imagine someone explaining the theory of relativity or the Euler’s identity in a language that a school child can grasp. Spice it up with a pinch of humour and a couple of anecdotes. Now add the grace of a self-effacing personality. That is what Rajeev’s writing is like. This boo

  From New York Times Weekend contemplation “Don’t be so humble; you’re not that great,” Golda Meir, former Prime Minister of Israel, once told somebody (whose humility was probably nothing more than obsequiousness which comes easily to politicians). Humility is not a common virtue. Really great people possess it because they are aware of their own limitations. One of the requisites of greatness is an acute sense of self-awareness. The oracle of Delphi was once asked whether anyone was wiser than Socrates. The oracle asserted that Socrates was the wisest. Socrates who was present at the scene refused to acknowledge it and went on to do some research and find out wiser people. He spoke to many wise people and learnt that they were not as wise as they pretended to be. Socrates’s greatness lay in the fact that he acknowledged his ignorance when he did not have the required knowledge while the others claimed to know more than they really knew. Socrates possessed humility. Socrates wa

  Courtesy Nala Ponnappa Praful Khoda Patel has made pimping an art. He knows how to sell India piece by piece to certain clients who have high connections. He sold Daman and Diu to CG Corp Global in 2018. Now he is selling Lakshadweep to other VIP clients. Thousands of indigenous people are displaced by him with impunity because he is acting on behalf of the central government which reportedly has “dreams for the people”. This Patel is a phenomenon. His father, Khodabhai Ranchhodbhai Patel (a mouthful of a name) was an RSS leader whom Narendra Modi regarded as a guru. Our man became an MLA in Gujarat in 2007 and took over the entire charges of Amit Shah when the latter went to jail for arranging the encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheik. Now you can understand the ‘greatness’ of this phenomenal Patel. No ordinary man can take the place of Amit Shah under Narendra Modi. The people of Gujarat failed to perceive that greatness, however, and Patel lost the 2012 election. But soon M

Book review with a difference Title: The Story of Story: Why People Read Stories Author: Ravish Mani Foramt: PDF E-book I want to get personal with this review precisely because this is a book with a difference. First of all, this book was written in a period of two days on a mobile phone. The author was getting another book ready for submission to the Blogchatter E-Book Carnival . But two days before the submission deadline, a lightning struck his house damaging his laptop along with other appliances. The lockdown aggravated the problem. Ravish Mani is not one to give up, however. He has a clear vision and sheer grit. Picking up his smartphone, he started: I wanted to talk about how to make your readers forget the sense of time, even the state of their being, & have blissful satisfaction when they get absorbed in your story . The first thing I admire about Ravish is that unassailable spirit. The next is his idealism which is reflected in what he calls “Uncopyright” ac

  Book Review Title: Heartfelt Symphonies Author: Chinmayee Gayatree Sahu Format: PDF E-book All genuine art is a longing to transcend the self. Chinmayee Gayatree Sahu’s poems articulate that longing eloquently and evocatively. Heartfelt Symphonies is a collection of 40 poems divided into three groups entitled Nature, Fire and Life. The first two poems act as a kind of invocation of the divine. Interestingly, the very first poem, ‘Devi’, is an assertion of the divinity of the feminine as much as it is an invocation of goddess Durga. “Look around and you shall see HER (goddess) in each feminine body,” the poet asserts vehemently. It is also interesting to note that the second poem is an invocation of Shiva, the potent male counterpart of Durga. We meet Shiva’s various avatars here: Adiyogi, Ardhanariswara, the Tandav dancer, and Neelkantha. The tremendous energy possessed by these two deities suffuses the remaining poems all of which are thoroughly secular and worldly. A