Tomichan Matheikal's blog

  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 th

  India ranks first in the number of road accident deaths among all the 195 countries of the world and accounts for nearly 11 percent of the accident-related deaths in the world. Road accidents are a leading cause of death, disabilities and hospitalisation in the country. More than four lakh accidents occur every year on India’s roads. Over 150,000 people die in those accidents annually.   Number of accidents, deaths & Injuries: 2016-2021 Year Accidents Deaths Injuries 2016 480652 150785 494624 2017 464910 147913 470975 2018 467044 151417 469418 2019 449002 151113 451361 2020

Professor V Karthikeyan Nair’s article in the latest issue of the Malayalam weekly Kalakaumudi [June 4-11] is titled ‘The Sengol that tore apart the Constitution’. The article starts with making contrast between India and a few religious nations. Pakistan is a Muslim nation. The UK is a Christian nation. But India towers above them all with a very modern Constitution which states explicitly that Indians can have religions but India does not have a religion and that Indians can have gods but India does not have gods. It is that very fundamental principle that the government of India mocked albeit very solemnly when the Prime Minister received the Sengol (sceptre) as a symbol of power from a Brahmin religious supremo. It is a serious matter that the Prime Minister himself affronted the Constitution. In the days of kings and chieftains, crowns and sceptres were symbols of supreme authority. India liberated herself from kings and chieftains in Aug 1947 when the first Prime Minister ma

I can hear "Time's winged chariot hurrying near" more clearly and seriously than  Andrew Marvell . People younger than me are bidding the final farewell in my neighbourhood in the post-Covid days. As a young man I used to yearn for death quite often. That longing was more than the Freudian psychological condition known as Thanatos. It was a profound acknowledgement of my own sense of worthlessness as a being. Mediocrity, if not worthlessness. Delhi soothed my Thanatos, however. When you live in a residential school along with all others associated with the school, you stop feeling utterly worthless. There’s something you are good at, you suddenly realise. It may be as simple as identifying the goodness in the other person with whom you share the dining table or the department duties. You can’t live with other people 24x7 unless you learn to see something good wherever you look. And when you see something good all around, Thanatos takes flight. Thanatos has returned

Russian Dostoevsky and French Jean-Paul Sartre are both great writers. The latter is more of a philosopher than a novelist, I’d say. Both have left indelible marks in the world of literature. But both have diametrically opposite attitudes towards human society. Sartre apparently hated people (except beautiful women). Hell is other people, he said. Dostoevsky, on the other hand, upheld love as the greatest virtue. Hell, for Dostoevsky, is the suffering caused by a person’s inability to love.  Jean-Paul Sartre Sartre thought of love as conflict. People in love try to control each other, he said. Lovers get trapped in vicious circles of sadomasochistic power games which are meant primarily for keeping the other from leaving you. Love is vulnerable precisely because the other person is free to leave you. Love cannot be forcibly extracted from anyone. But many people do just that: extract it. That’s why love becomes power games. Dostoevsky would look upon Sartre with commiseration. But

Title: Grabber Authors: Nirmal Pulickal & Jehan Zachary Publisher: Puffin / Penguin, 2023 Pages: 208 One of the characters in this novel says that spirits abound all around us according to the Indian tradition. They are not all evil. Most of them are quite harmless. Some are just trapped between two planes of existence like travellers passing through. Some of them may try to get our attention because they need human intervention to help them finish some incomplete tasks here on earth; they can get their eternal rest only after completing the tasks. This novel is about some of those spirits who have a task to complete here on earth. They are the spirits of those people who constructed the Taj Mahal. Qasim, the chief architect, and 31 builders, sculptors and calligraphers had their hands chopped off by Shah Jahan, according to a myth. The author reminds us at the end of the novel that this story is not factual. He has merely used the story for the sake of the novel. In

Book Review  Title: Manual of the Warrior of Light Author: Paulo Coelho Publisher: HarperCollins, 2002 Pages: 268 [Content only one side, however]   You can work miracles if you wish. Miracle is a change of attitude. Miracle is a matter of changing your way of looking at reality. Paulo Coelho’s book, Manual of the Warrior of Light , is a kind of handbook for those who wish to perform miracles. But if you are looking for some shortcuts to miracles, or even some practical psychological tips for self-improvement, this book will disappoint you. How do you transform your attitudes? How to change your perspectives? Sit down and do some serious meditation. Probe within. Probe deep. Question yourself, your thoughts and feelings, your beliefs and convictions. This book can help you do that by giving some starting points. Each page of the book carries a particular thought meant to stimulate your contemplation. Many of these thoughts may not be new to anyone who has read a lot