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Showing posts from February, 2011

Outside the fold (courtsey: Gauri Viswanathan's book title)

There was a time when everybody asked me, “What happened?” I mumbered: “nothing”. I was in a simple time of coma. Not biological, but something different. Then, I asked myself, ‘what happened to me?’ I too had no answer. I am a father. Am about 50, hardly remember my b’day. Neither have a memorable birthday, nor do I have an official record of proof for that. I am an illiterate, but practically boasting to be literate in life. People call me Mathai. You might think about the nasaranite taste of my name. Yes, am a nasarani, hail from central Travancore of Kerala. I go Church, every Sunday. Am a farmer of 100 rubber trees. Academicians might call me middle-class bourgeois, benefiting from the global market fluctuations. I am not bothered about my identity. I know that I exist in this world. Heard that am very decisive in forthcoming elections. Democracy made me a capital for electioneering. Now the fear is about identity-communalism. Am not a person to care this ‘media-constructed