RIFLE RANGE BOY

Phew! This gem is a real classic that any air breathing Penangite or at least at one part of their life should see.  One can see hive of activities going on albeit at bullock cart speed. It also gives you that de'javu feeling about some of the sites depicted here like the Esplanade, the 'Miami Beach' in Batu Feringghi. Good one!

In a trance behind the drums Lewis Pragasam drummer percussionist extraordinaire... Recently he appeared on radio on an interview and to promote his 30year compilation Music box-set. The Brickfield boy has come a long way from his 'Bintang Harapan' days on TV! with Nor Nikman Dadameah. That is the time most of us were exposed to his kind of music, trying to fuse music of differnt cultures and showing his drumming styles mimicking other traditional instruments and sometimes playing with them. He is now another world famous icon that Malaysia has produced. He is also instrumental in the concept of World Music.

First there was MM- The Malay Mail, then Marilyn Monroe, then Mahathir Mohamad and now you have Marathon Man -Rifle Range Boy. RRB has joined an elite population of the world who has completed a marathon - a tradition in commemoration of the fabled run by a Greek soldier Pheidipides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon  to Athens to pass the message ' Νενικήκαμεν' (We have won)  and die d. 'Fabled' because modern historians actually calculated the distance to be about 300 miles! I feel blessed to have the luxury of eating carbohydrates for recreational purposes rather than to replenish energy for day-to-day menial work to feed the family. Thank you, God! Not many people knew about my clandestine training for the Big One. The long runs were run on early Sunday mornings (6 a.m.). The internet is rife with many training plans to choose from, each tailored to your level of competence.   I decided that the family should remember this momentous moment in style. Thanks to...

Life is a moment in space, so goes the lyrics in the song 'Woman in Love' by Barbara Streisand (a.k.a.the nose) with the lyrics written by Barry and Robin Gibb. Cindy Lauper sang about how time after time she is there every time her friend  needs a helping hand. In my kind of work. (defusing time bombs), time is of essence! Sometimes masterly inactivity seem to be the wisest thing to do whilst in other instances I would be accused of sleeping on my job. Good times, bad times and superstitions arise because of ignorance and the fear of the uncertainty of outcomes of some chain of events. Being apprehensive on possible ominous outcome of certain important events in one's life, it had decreed by our animistic ancestors that certain astronomical positions of planets in relation to the moon, earth and sun may influence end results of events! In the present time, it appears that this hullabaloo is confined to the Asiatic cultures only. Not wanting to rock the boat or being the...

During one of my channels surfing sessions, to avoid meaningless advertisements and melodramatic mind boggling Kollywood dance-around-the-park sequence, I stumbled upon the live coverage our female badminton players slugging it out with the Indonesian pair in the finals of the Sudirman Cup recently. It was not their game that fascinated me (they lost meekly) but rather their (the players and their coach) off court antics. Somehow, in that live coverage, the camera was precariously close to both teams. Every word of their conversation was crystal clear to the TV viewers. The Indonesian coach was ranting away in Indonesian language giving final points in playing. The Malaysian coach, on the other hand, was talking away in what sounded like Mandarin. I do not know whether the coach is Malaysian or Chinese but I would not be surprised if he is Malaysian as it is a common sight indeed to find Malaysians finding it more comfortable (some calling it preserving the dying mother tongue - it use...

Free Malaysia Today B Nantha Kumar  | May 24, 2011 The 'real' Malaysian history would honour people like Sybil Kathigasu who epitomises racial unity. Come June 12, it will be exactly 63 years since Sybil Kathigasu, the freedom fighter, died. Most Malaysians know little of her. This is mainly because she, along with many other distinguished non-Malay freedom fighters, have been “buried” and forgotten by the ruling Umno government. Why this is so is another hotly debated matter. Recent reproaches by the people on the Umno government’s take on Malaysian history, which has erased all acknowledgement of non-Malay freedom fighters, tell of a new awakening in our midst. This brings the focus to Sybil. Sybil is the only Malaysian woman to have ever received the distinguished George Medal (GM) for gallantry and bravery. Instituted by the late King George VI, the GM recognises both civilian gallantry in the face of enemy action and brave deeds. She wrote...

by Temily Tianmay Jaya Gopan ( photo by sateda ) The birth of Baby Shay to Subang Jaya assemblywoman, Hannah Yeoh, has shed light on a minority population that has yet to receive significant attention. Shay’s father, and Yeoh’s husband, is Indian. Most Malaysians are familiar with the local term ‘Chindian’, which describes children of Chinese and Indian parentage. As a Chindian myself, I feel particularly connected to the ongoing controversy surrounding the baby’s race and can’t help but notice that the Chindian narrative regarding this matter has not been considered. When I told my 10-year-old sister about the debate sparked by Baby Shay’s Chindian roots, she told me that her own teacher had insisted that she was Indian even though she clearly told her she was Ch-indian. “I am not Indian. I am different from the other Indians at school even though my paper says Indian. I look Malay but I’m not. But I am also not Chinese. So I can only be Chindian”, she said. She knows first-hand how ...

Just the other day, as usual, my younger son, with his profound questions asked me, "Will our country be a very developed country in 9 years?" I, as usual, could not give a straight forward answer but take him on a long journey of circumlocution and make him more confused than he ever was! To me, being a citizen of the developed nation mean all its citizen have a certain to play. It is not just a matter of having lots of money to spend, mammoth buildings for others to awed, seamless cheap infrastructure for its entire citizens to use for free. With great powers come great responsibly. A citizen from a particular first-world nation is expected to behave in a certain socially acceptable way, just like any professional body has a code of ethics for its member to emulate. Certain current events do not speak well on our journey to be a developed nation. The ruckus and free-for-all that occurred during the Energizer Run is one living example that I witnessed myself. And the ...

It sometimes baffles me to see why something which is quite obvious to me is not to others (or it is made to appear so?). If one were to peruse our mainstream papers, it is quite apparent that there is concerted effort to discredit the two opposition held state governments of Penang and Selangor. They (the forces above) make it appear as if everything is going on bad in these places. If there is a hitch in the hill funicular train service, it appears on the headlines. Also if a baby in a day care nursery in Penang drowns in a bath tub; if the illegal nursery (of the plant variety) in Selangor is asked to vacate after so many years occupying the state plot without paying a single sen of rent, the state is pictured as heartless and do not have the welfare of the people at heart! The wise man knows that civil servants (even if you are uncivil in your behaviour) are independent of the government of the day. The supposed masters of these servants are citizen of the country, ...

The Third Man (1949) An enjoyable movie that I watched recently (actually for the second time) is a 1949 noir classic thriller named "The Third Man" directed by Carol Reed. It is listed as British all-time best movie, starring Joseph Cotten, Adila Valli (Italian Actress, not Indian) and the flamboyant Orson Welles in the leading roles. What makes it different in its own way are the unique musical score, the powerful dialogues and the cinematography ahead of its time. It is set in the poverty-stricken post-WW2 ravaged Vienna, which is governed by various Allied forces. It depicts a pulp fiction writer who arrives in Vienna on an invitation of a friend who dies in an accident which raises many questions. He is sucked into the imbroglio of deceit, racketeering and fake medicine and fake death. It ends with a classic cat and mouse chase in the sewers of Vienna. The music score, being British, is quiet at times, but the whole excitement of suspense, sadness and climax i...

Early this week, my favourite  radio station advertised that they were going to interview the father and son politician pair in their Breakfast Grille segment in conjunction with Fathers' Day over the weekend. I was curious to see (hear) how they were going glorify this father of a figure who attained notoriety via his digital display of his bedroom antics with his mistress which he claimed was with the approval and knowledge of his wife not many years ago. A politician, being a politician, thick lichenified skinned and shameless, managed to return to hold the helm which he once lost. Not much to my surprise, the duo did not appear together. In its place, Sr. was interviewed on his political party and agenda and nothing about being a father. My learned uncle, ever so bitter with his late father, offered his fatherly words of wisdom to me when I was growing up. "Anyone can be father. To be a good one, that's one should thrive to be!". In my books, I suppose a good fat...

This tune (Colonel Bogey March) brings back fond memories of the Penang Free School (PFS) band's rendition of this tune during School Sports Day. It was played solely on flutes while the band marched past the VIPs and parents' shed majestically with their their proud band master, colours and the impeccable laurels to match. Those were the glory days of PFS and its stature as one of the premier schools in the country! Hey, what do you know? It is something like the theme of the movie 'The Bridge of River Kwai'. Living on the pride of our institution! A snippet (Colonel Bogey March )  from the 1957's 7 Oscar winner (including Best Music Score - but there was hardly any 'music' in the movie!) - 'The Bridge over River Kwai' - showcasing pride of the British Army. This is not the kind of movie that my wife or children would fancy - there are no fancy clothes, no promiscuity, no lovey-dovey dialogues and provocative flashing of flesh! Here is a bit of ...

Still writing about 1981. A good year. After spending a good 3 months with Mama, it was back to life and back to reality. So there I was in Lower 6 at PFS, thinking I could conquer the world. Trying to act cool with the back-combed thick hair of the 80s. F6 was an eye opener. Over the Malaysian telly, 'Happy Days' was a hit among the teenagers. Every dude (yours truly included) was trying to 'act cool' and walk around with the hips and shoulders abducted slightly ala-Fonzarelli (The Fonz nee Henry Winkler) as if there boils were growing in the groins and armpit respectively! Suddenly all the Malay friends whom I had known had mysteriously disappeared. The scholarships and matriculation offers came a-knocking on their doors and they reluctantly and half-heartedly accepted them. We heard that a guy who could hardly speak English for nuts got a scholarship to learn English language in US. He had to go for elementary phonetic lessons before he could qualify for classes pr...