Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Illustration by Gemini AI Yudhishthira hesitated at the threshold of heaven. They had won the war. But what did they really achieve? Behold this field teeming with kinsmen and friends , Yudhishthira had lamented looking at the mutilated corpses on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Vultures and jackals had started feeding on the bodies of people he knew, he loved, he never wished to kill. What glory lies in a kingdom won at such a cost? His brothers looked at one another. They had no answer to their eldest brother’s, the new King’s, question. The immoral Kauravas had been routed. Duryodhana’s arrogance and egotism lay crushed in Kurukshetra’s dust. Even the mighty Karna, with his nobility that had deserved acknowledgement and appreciation, was decimated. Immorally. A lot of adharma was perpetrated by the Pandavas in the name of Dharma! Even Krishna couldn’t win it without some adharma. Much adharma! Yudhishthira bowed his head in shame. What did our victory mean? He knew that...

Book Review Title: The Lucky Ones: A Memoir Author: Zara Chowdhary Publisher: Context – Westland Books, 2024 Pages: 309 At the beginning of Julian Barnes’s novel, The Sense of an Ending , history is described by a young student as “the lies of the victors.” His teacher reminds him that it could also be “the self-delusions of the defeated.” Later, as the young student grows up into a mature adult and sees more of life, he learns that history is “more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious nor defeated.” Zara Chowdhary is a survivor – neither victor nor defeated – of the 2002 anti-Muslim Gujarat riots which she calls “genocide” many times in her book. She was a 16-year-old girl just about to complete her school when she and many others like her got trapped in the little worlds of their houses as murderous mobs went around entering the houses of Muslims, killing the men and raping the women, and perpetrating some most inhuman deeds such as ripping...

India has retaliated. My morning news on Asianet used the word ‘revenge’ gleefully. India has taken revenge on Pakistan . A few friends texted me personally to imply that Modi, whose faithful critic I have been, is a real hero, fit to be a world champion. A septuagenarian and former professor of sociology quoted Modi proudly: “ Ab Bharat ka pani Bharat ke haq mein bahegi. ” Now India’s water will flow for India’s benefits. The rivers flowing into Pakistan have been blocked by Modi. My response to the prof, who is apparently aging without acquiring wisdom, was: “That’s a jingoistic view. I’d put is as: India won’t tolerate terrorism and we know how to deal with it.” I’m not against violence per se. You can’t preach nonviolence to an aggressive buffalo, as a proverb in my mother tongue says. I salute India’s latest action on Pakistani terrorists. They deserve it. However, my question to my old prof friend – who is as much a fan of Modi as I am his critic – is: Does that retaliati...

General Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah, Pakistan’s Army Chief, is a very religious person who memorised the entire Quran as a student and earned the title of ‘Hafizi-Quran.’ He quotes the holy book while navigating the ungodly terrains of geopolitics. A year back he declared that Pakistan, under his leadership, is “waging jihad in the path of Allah and success will be ours. The Pakistani army’s objective and principle is to be shahid (martyr) or ghazi (god’s warrior).” Munir had just overthrown Imran Khan as Prime Minister in a ‘parliamentary coup’ orchestrated by him and then set up himself as the army chief as well as the Messiah of Pakistan. Being a very religious person, he took upon himself the noble mission of pointing out to the PM that his wife, Bushra Bibi, had shady economic dealings. Imran Khan, being not so religious, chose to act not against his corrupt spouse but against the whistle-blower. Munir lost his post as the Head of ISI, Pakistan’s notorious Intelligence agency. ...