About Me

James Thanickan

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About Me

Hi,

I am James who in purely literary writings use the nom de plume James Thanickan and in academic papers the official name T.C. James.

I was born and brought up In Kerala,a verdant and beautiful state on the south western coast of India, and I am very proud to be a Keralite as well as an Indian. My ancestral house is at Kadalikad, a lovely country side between a hill and a river on the eastern border of Ernakulam district. If you do an Internet search for Kadalikad, you will find at least 17 sites, that being one of the heritage tourism destinations in Kerala. On a recent yahoo.com search for 'Kadalikad' I got 566 results. Not bad, isn't it?

My job took me to New Delhi, the capital of India and a historical city where tombs of dead royalty and modern buildings of the living intermingle, where I have been living for the past more than three decades.

My interests are classical literature, recent serious fiction and poetry, philosophy, religion, culture, education and history. I am a bibliophile.

I indulge occassionally in writing poetry (shall we say verse?)both in Malayalam and in English. On this web site I will be putting some of my poems in English.

Some times I scribble down light articles. I may add on to the texts on this site some of them which I feel are of contemporary interest. I write academic papers on Intellectual Property Right matters, especially on copyright and related rights, on education and on Kerala and Christians of Kerala, besides occassional reflections on Biblical sayings. I will upload on to this site some of my papers.

I get lots of invitations to speak at seminars and workshops on intellectual property right matters, some of which I accept if they don't clash with my job.

I have a very loving and devoted wife (an envy of many)and a trusting and affectionate son, one of the best mothers in the world, a caring brother and a lovely sister, some very dear cousins and aunts, besides lots of very good friends, many of them are like brothers and sisters for me and without them perhaps life would not have been worth living.

My favourite authors are William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Daphne du Maurier, Nikos Kazantzakis, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, M.T. Vasudevan Nair (Malayalam) and now Paulo Coelho.

My philosophy of life is Karmanya evam adhikarasthe ma phalehu kadachana. My approach to life is do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I would like to be remembered as a person who essayed to love and respect all. The three prayers after the Lord's Prayer I like best are the Prayer for Peace by Francis of Assissi, Lead Kindly Light (first stanza) of Jahn Cardinal Newman and the hymn Abide With Me, besides the Sanskrit Om Sahanavavathu.....

My favourite bedside books are The New Jerusalem Bible, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Complete Works of Shakespeare, The Greatest Works of kahlil Gibran, The Quran and The Teaching of Buddha.

New Additions to my home library

The Intellectuals by Paul Johnson

The White Tiger by Arvind Adiga

Those interested in reading a sentimental account about my recent bout of illness may go to the page 'Articles and Essays' and read the piece 'Long Live "J" my Love' by Rani James.

I am presently a free lancer on intellectualproperty rights matters. My wife had earlier been working in a non-governmental organisation. My son is a professional film editor,

My brother is in the journalism line and sister a home maker.

My friends are from many different walks of life.

Favorites

My passion is for books and my favourite books are The LIttle Prince, Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Brothers Karamazov, and War and Peace.

The Sound of Music is still my most favourite film, followed by Love Story and Doctor Shivago.

Do I sound a little old? May be so.

Here's a list of some of my favorite music:

Karnatic Classical and Classical Western particulalry Mozart.