Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Cruelty is born in the heart.   One who can harbour cruel thoughts in the heart is no less cruel than the one who commits the actual acts of cruelty.   Baba Ramdev’s wish to kill lakhs of people if they refuse to chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ makes him a potential mass murderer.   His wish raises a lot of questions that we should ponder upon. Courtesy One India First of all, Ramdev claims to be a yogi.   A yogi is one who has mastered self-control.   It’s control over body and mind.   It’s control over one’s passions of all sorts.   A yogi towers above the rank and file by virtue of that self-control.   There is no place for hatred of any sort, let alone murderous thoughts, in the heart of a yogi.   Is Ramdev a yogi?   Does he deserve the veneration that is being lavished on him? The man forfeited his claim to that venerable status long ago when he commercialised spirituality and Ayurveda.   His Ayurvedic products have been called into question for their quality time

We live in an inverted world.   What Yeats said in his apocalyptic poem ‘ The Second Coming ’ is truer today than ever: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” That’s why I picked up D B C Pierre’s 2003 Booker winning novel Vernon God Little for a second reading.   It’s the story of fifteen year-old Vernon Gregory Little who has been accused of murdering his friend Jesus.   Eventually he becomes a serial killer who has murdered sixteen of his schoolmates as well as many others in the town. One of his teachers, his psychiatric counsellor, his girlfriend and the media, all play cynical roles in making him a serial killer though he is innocent. All of them have purely selfish motives in making Vernon the killer.   Taylor Figueroa, the girlfriend, sees her opportunity to become a media star by doing a sting operation on Vernon. She seduces him into admitting that he killed all those people for her sake, for her love.   The no

Fiction Weird spectres haunted Sreelakshmi’s dreams night after night.   They had the shapes of the rapists whose images she had seen in newspapers day after day. Sabka Saath, Sabka Balaatkar has become the motto of the country, it seems, Sreelakshmi muttered to herself as she walked into grandma’s room. “Grandma,” Sreelakshmi said more affectionately than ever. Grandma smiled.   She was familiar with the various shades of her granddaughter’s affection.   She put aside her rudraksha mala and said, “What brings my beloved here now?   Isn’t it time to get ready for school?” “Holiday today,” Sreelakshmi said without the cheer that is usually associated with holidays.   “ Hartal . Some political party is observing hartal today because some of their members were prevented by the police from beating up members of some other party.” Grandma smiled her toothless smile.   Her gums grinned and Sreelakshmi was not frightened because she was familiar with the gri