I went to a government public school in Trichur in Kerala. There the boys start smoking early. My friend and classmate Anees Ibrahim started in the sixth standard. I don’t know where he got the money to get cigarettes and beedis from, but he was smoking all the time. Whenever the teacher was not in […]
Category: Journals
Ideology- Tales that thrill- and kill
A venerable old official sleeps at a meeting. The Dictator orders him killed. It is interesting to think that the Dictator was originally part of a plan for the salvation of all mankind- a plan for an equal and just society. Let us go back a few years. At a meeting to felicitate Stalin, as […]
Why Nationalism is like Money
-Both are valuable and essential. Have doubts?- ask a bankrupt man. Or ask a Palestinian, a refugee from Syria lurking on international borders or a hemi-nation in a warring region of Africa. -One can inherit it. If we have benefitted from the status quo, we can have too much of either. -An excess can lead […]
Gold, Silver and Bronze- And Happiness
Like everyone, I was ecstatic when Sakshi got the bronze medal in wrestling, in the Rio Olympics. Her exuberant exultation showed that she was, too. I watched Sindhu get her silver in badminton. She is the first Indian woman to get a silver in the Olympics, ever. What a marvellous achievement! It beats Sakshi’s bronze […]
Towards a Rational Nationalism.
Yesterday I heard it again- ‘Our country is going to the dogs’. I looked outside. Many innocent members of the canine species looked back amiably. Some middle class Malayalees hurried along the road, looking focussed. Scores of construction workers from various corners of the country were building a Metro Rail track on which I and […]