Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Book Title: Farooq of Kashmir Authors: Ashwini Bhatnagar & R C Ganjoo Publisher: Fingerprint, New Delhi, 2023 Pages: 330 This book is much more than a biography of Farooq Abdullah. It is a short history of the trouble-torn Kashmir. Though Farooq remains at the centre of the history, his father Sheikh Abdullah is given ample space in the first few chapters. Towards the end of the book, Farooq’s son Omar gets due attention too. Kashmir went through a lot of pain and misery ever since India became independent. Its political leaders as well as their religious counterparts were mostly responsible for all that pain and misery. Add to that the nefarious role played by the neighbouring country of Pakistan. Pakistan has been a thorn in the very heart of Kashmir right from Independence. The political leaders and religious terrorists of that country have left no stone unturned to make Kashmir their own. Understanding Kashmir’s unique condition, independent India had given the st

Politics is a game like chess. The pawns are sacrificed first. The King remains in the end on the board. The whole game is meant for keeping the king there till the end. Everybody else is dispensable. That’s what the system makes us believe. We all keep playing the game because we have no other choice if we wish to survive at all. That’s how the system is made to be. The book I’m reading now is Farooq of Kashmir by Ashwini Bhatnagar and R C Ganjoo. There’s a lot of amusing info on the Abdullah family of Kashmir in this book. You know those facts perhaps. But there’s no harm in being reminded once again and to draw some parallels with our present ruler. I mean, it doesn’t matter whether you are an Abdullah or a Modi as long as you are a politician. The behavioural pattern is the same.  Politics is a religion by itself. The ordinary people are the foolish devotees and the rulers are the gods. The angels are the crony capitalists who provide the funds, stolen from the ordinary folk t

Book Title: Why do I feel so sad? Author: Dr Shefali Batra Publisher: Jaico, 2023 Pages: 305 Having gone through extreme depression two times, I know how painful the state is. You feel you are the most damned fool on the earth, utterly useless. You curse the day you were born. You long for death. Worst of all, you don’t trust anyone, not even those who intend to help you sincerely. I trusted books, however. Weren’t they my friends forever, the only friends who didn’t ditch me at any time? Dr Shefali Batra’s book, Why do I feel so sad? Your pathway to healing depression , is an eminently companionable text that I will recommend to anyone who is going through depression. The book is divided into five parts. You will get to know the theoretical and scientific aspects of depression in the first part. The title of the second part is self-explanatory: ‘ Thoughts rule you, but when twisted, they could fool you . ’ The subsequent parts take you on a self-re-creating journey. Dr

I have had more female colleagues than males in my entire teaching career. Probably why I survived so long in the job. Let me celebrate this Women's Day with them. I haven't been able to get hold of the pics all of them and I express my immense grief on leaving out quite many.  That's my first school where I was a math teacher. You may not recognise me. I'm the second one from left in the last row. This was St Joseph's School, Shillong. I learnt the art of teaching in that school. It was a convent school with only girl students. I still remember a lot of them, my first students. I know I wasn't very kind to them. Math teachers can't be kind - that was what I thought in those days. My own teachers had created that impression in my consciousness and the subconscious as well. All those girls are now mothers and some of them may be grandmothers. Let me tell them that I never meant any harm. I was happy in those days to see them learning math well. Hi, dear ladie

Book Review Title: Amrita & Victor Author: Ashwini Bhatnagar Publisher: Fingerprint, New Delhi, 2023 Pages: 216 Artists see reality differently. The colours and contours of objects catch their attention first. Most of us who are not so artistic perceive objects conceptually. Non-artists turn images into concepts, in other words. Colours and contours have much to do with emotions and passions. No wonder Irving Stone’s biographical novel on Vincent Van Gogh is titled Lust for Life . Art is a kind of lust, or result of lust. Amrita & Victor is the biography of a very gifted painter who died at the young age of 28 years, having achieved considerable fame. Her full name was Amrita Dalma Antonia Sher-Gil. Her mother Marie Antoinette was from Hungary and she got the child baptised as a Christian. The father, Umrao Sher-Gil, was a Sikh from India who didn’t care much for religion. Amrita got professional training in art right from her childhood. Everyone who came into co

 Guest Post  Susan Stephen is a former student of mine who found a mention in my previous post without her name. She's studying Developmental Social Work in Canada. She sent me a short story of hers this morning and I think it deserves a wider readership. It's the story of a young Indian student in Canada, like the author herself. The pain of homesickness, occasional instances of racism, and the usual hardships of an overseas student are all poignantly portrayed in the story without ever losing touch with the essential tenderness of human relationships. There's touch of professionalism in the story. May Susan mature into a prominent writer of good literature.  Susan Stephen A Warm Winter Day I t was a warm January morning, the warmest, she thought. January mornings back home in India were warmer than this, yet she found today a nice day. She took a hot bath and had a sandwich for breakfast.   While getting ready for college, she thought maybe she should pack something for l

With some former students One of the happiest things in a teacher’s life is former students contacting after many years to show their affection. It so happened that two of my former students texted me on WhatsApp yesterday. One of them was a poet while at school. I once featured her in this same space with one of her poems, Where do old birds go to die? Yesterday, she texted me to say, “I wrote something after ages… Hope you’ll read and let me know what you think.” She is a student of literature now in a prominent college of Kerala. She has learned professors of literature as her present teachers. But when she sought the opinion of her schoolteacher, I had reason to feel proud of myself. And her story is excellent. Let me give you the link: Wounds . As I read the last line of the story, the first question that sprang to my mind was: O my god! Why don’t we have this sort of students anymore? I quit teaching precisely because I couldn’t find the classroom rewarding in any way. Un