Tomichan Matheikal's blog

A corner of my personal library If I had to make a choice between reading and writing, I would choose reading undoubtedly. I am not much of a writer in the first place. Nobody will miss anything even if I stop writing. Secondly, I cannot afford to miss the magical worlds that unfold when I open books. Writers are great people. I mean good writers. One of the present tragedies is that too many bad writers get too much publicity and hence writing has earned a bad name. Another tragedy is that a lot of falsehood is written today and passed off as irrefutable truths. In spite of all that, if you force a choice on me I’ll go for reading. I have learnt to choose writers who are good for me (and for others as well). I know how to winnow the grain and discard the chaff. Right now I’m reading two books simultaneously. One is kept in my workplace and the other is at home. The one that I read in my free time while I’m at school is Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democ

There is an amusing report in today’s New Indian Express [Kochi edition, 9 July,2022]. It says that the government schools as well as government-aided schools in Kerala are running short of students. This is not news, really. This has been happening in the state for decades. All the people of Kerala who can afford the fees send their children to private schools for the simple reason that they are English medium and maintain far better standards of education though the teachers there are paid a pittance. This is what amuses me. Those teachers who really slog carry home ridiculous pay packets at the end of the month, while those in the government and aided schools who are paid enormous sums do almost nothing! I have been living in Kerala now for seven years. My observation is that most government establishments in Kerala do nothing worthwhile. Go to a government office to get some work done and you will feel as if you are a beggar in the state. Government employees in Kerala think t

I’m now living in a country that should rightfully belong to Shakespeare’s witches who declared, “Fair is foul and foul is fair.” Good people go to prison and bad people to the parliament. Narendra Modi’s acquittal by no less than the Supreme Court in the 2002 Gujarat riot cases did not surprise me. I ceased to expect justice in this country a couple of years back. But I had not anticipated the arrest of Teesta Setalvad along with R B Sreekumar to instantly follow Modi’s acquittal. Even in the world of Shakespeare’s witches, vengeance wasn’t so instantaneous. I should have known better. My own ignorance puzzles me more than that of my compatriots who hailed the apex court’s verdict. Are they really ignorant about Rana Ayyub’s Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up and/or Manoj Mitra’s Fiction of Fact-Finding: Modi and Godhra and/or Gujarat: Behind the Curtain by R B Sreekumar and/or Teesta Setalvad’s Foot Soldier of the Constitution ? Most of them may not have read the books but

  My school days ended long, long ago. Those were days when there were fish in the rivers, birds in the trees, and oxygen in the air. Now one of the two rivers in my village is almost a drain and the other washes all the filth dumped on its banks every day by Development [ Sabka Vikas, Sabka Saath - like Delhi Police, Always With You ]. The birds have vanished except a couple of crows that come to drink water from my cats' plates occasionally. Food is not much of a problem for them since a lot of garbage lies piled up on roadsides. I miss those dragonflies and fireflies with which I held conversations long, long ago. Those were days when people went to temples, mosques or churches and came out feeling compassion for other creatures. At least without hatred in hearts. They didn't bother about Akbar or Macaulay. If a Narendran saw a Hyderali in need on the roadside, he would rush to help. Gods weren't bloodthirsty in those days. Viswanathan, Muhammadkutty and I sat on the sa

Satchidanandan We are living in coffins, according to prominent bilingual Indian poet K Satchidanandan, former secretary of Sahitya Akademi. His recent poem (in Malayalam) titled ‘Man who lives in a coffin’ is the monologue of a man who is shut in a coffin that has a hole which lets in air for him to breathe. He can see a blade of grass or a flower when he looks out through that hole. Occasionally he hears the chirp of a bird or the cry of a calf. He is habituated to lying in the coffin. Even if someone opens the coffin he is not sure whether he will be able to walk outside. He has learnt certain discipline lying in there. He doesn’t know who lies in the coffin next to his. They say that all the coffins together form a nation. [Who are ‘they’? The poet doesn’t tell us.] The man in the coffin can hear one person walking outside. That person carries a painting brush. The man in the coffin can hear that person with brush chanting ‘saffron, saffron.’ With the brush he writes “Vande Matar

The Vallarpadam Basilica The history of Christianity in Kerala goes back to the first century CE. It is believed that Saint Thomas, disciple of Jesus, arrived at Kodungallur (Muziris) in CE 52. That is credible since we have historical evidence of the trade relations between Rome and Muziris in those days. It is possible that one of those trade-ships carried Thomas too. The Christianity that existed in Kerala in those days was not quite different from the Hinduism in the state, according to many historians. There were many rituals and practices common to both. That is natural since no people will cut off their religious roots altogether when they convert from one religion to another. Saint George of Puthuppally and the goddess Kali of the same place were believed to be brother and sister in the olden Kerala. It was believed that Kali drank the blood of the sacrificial animals and gave the flesh to George. Kali wanted only the blood. George, being from the West, relished the flesh

Image from News18 They graduated from wayside lynching to the bulldozer. It was also a shift from crimes committed by apparent rogues to acts of state terrorism. The shift was rather quick. And the progress isn’t going to stop with the bulldozer. Agnipath is the next step. None of these is meant for the resolution of any conflict. They are all convenient and effective tools wielded by certain leaders to gain political mileage. The bulldozer is used apparently for targeting lawbreakers. The lynchers also claimed that they were targeting lawbreakers. What the Agniveers, when released countrywide after the stipulated four years, will do is anybody’s guess and this post will articulate that guess in a little while. The targets of lynching and the bulldozer have mostly been Muslims. Muslims are perceived as the ultimate enemies of proposed Hindu Rashtra. The Hindu vengeance against Muslims has been accruing for centuries. The Hindu battle cry is against Babur and Aurangzeb as much as