RIFLE RANGE BOY

With the year-end malaise and festive mood, not to mention the sinful over-indulgence and the mounting of unnecessary calories and pound, the desire in partaking in the Newton 25km Challenge started waning as the days got nearer. With many casualties as well as other pressing commitments in the rest of the members of the running gang, I became the lone, lonely lifeless representative. The thought of scaling the slow gruelling ascends of Puncak Bukit Jalil just send shivers down the spine. It ain't no bed of roses and no pleasure cruise! The wild west adage kept ringing in my ears, "a man got to do what a man got to do!" "For what?" asked my horned red-eyed inner demon friend. "For the glory of motherland or bragging rights as you smoast on the social media?". The tussle continued with my haloed friend retorting, "For health, to ensure smooth laminar flow of blood in your vessels, for strengthening the inner fighting spirit of the soul, to s...

Chocolate (Thai, 2008) Why Chocolate? I am still wondering after completing the film. The only thing remotely linked to chocolate is that the protagonist loves M&M and in one of fight scene there were stacked boxes labelled 'Chocolate' on it. Generally, I do not fancy violent shows but this is an exception. Kudos to the believably natural stunts in place unseen before on films - in a pork market with cleaver swinging thugs and the climax fight scene off a roof and parapet. At the end of the movie, we are shown that many stuntmen and even the actress (Yanin "Jeeja" Vismitananda, a 3rd dan taekwando exponent) get injured on numerous occasions. The story is nothing to shout about but the martial arts are out of this world. It is a combination of Bruce Lee's acrobatic moves, Jacky Chan's practical fighting using things that come along the way like doors and muay thai type of kiss-ass movements! Zin angers the Thai underworld warlord (no. 8) when she leav...

Taxi Driver (1976) After watching Satyajit Ray's 1962 Abhijan about a cynical taxi driver, the only natural thing to is watch another cynical taxi driver. This time in the form of Martin Scorsese's depiction of a mentally disturbed Yellow Cab driver in New York. If Ray's protagonist was trying to find the answer to life and morality, Scorsese's character, Travis Bickle (a young Robert De Niro) takes his own moral judgement on the wrongdoers. A honourably discharged ex-Marine Travis, takes the job of night cab driver to make some money and as he is as awake as an owl at a time when most sane people are sleeping. He cannot stand the filth and vice that goes on in the streets and wishes that something could be done to clean it up. We can see that he is having some kind of post traumatic stress disorder as he narrates his life in his journal. He is infatuated with a Presidential candidate campaigner, Betsy (a young Cybill Shepherd). He finally plucks some courage to a...

Lolita (1962) Director: Stanley Kubrick Another controversial movie made in the early 60s involving incestuous pubescent love. It is an adaptation of a Russian story. Still, due to the sensitivities of the general public of that era, the screenplay had to be altered significantly, and many scenes were just suggestive dialogues left to the imagination of the viewer. Humbert Humbert (James Mason) is a European 40 something divorced professor who has some time before starting his stint in the university. He rents a room from a promiscuous widow (Charlotte, Shelly Winters) just because he fancies the precocious teenage daughter (Lolita, Sue Leon). He gets along well with them while writing his book and joining in the family outings. The landlady forthrightly expresses her feelings to our professor while the daughter is sent off to a summer camp. They marry. An argument breaks out when Charlotte reads his diary. Here, he had written his desires for his stepdaughter and had ...

Abhijan (The Expedition, Bengali;1962) Director, Script: Satyajit Ray Yet another gem from master film maker. Narsingh (Soumitra Chatterjee) is a disgruntled hard drinking taxi driver whose wife has left him. He is quite proud of his ancestral heritage, coming from a string of horse riding warriors. Unlike his ancestor who found pride in galloping on their horses, this Rajput has to make do with his 26 horse-powered 1930 Chrysler which he uses as his taxi with his loyal companion, Rama. One day, after driving dangerously, Narsingh is dismissed by his boss. Disappointed, he and his assistant head back home. En route, he is stopped by a rich man Sukhanram and his maid (as he is initially told) Gulabi (Waheeda Rahman) who are stranded by their dismantled bullock cart. After helping him to get home, the rich man proposes to Narisigh to start a taxi service from his town Shyamnagar to Panchmati. While checking out the new town before agreeing, he bumps into his childho...

Thanks to RS for this collection of pictures starting from a time more than 150 years ago... Sikh Cavalry Officers, British India Army, attending Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1873 in London, England. circa 1919.. Photograph by Randolph Bezzant Holmes (1888-1973), India, North West Frontier, Indian army camel corp in Miran shah.. From an album, of 74 photographs compiled by Neville John Gordon Cameron,  1st Bn Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. A British officer with his family, 1877, Mooltan. Five Indian soldiers near Miranshah, Tochi Valley, Waziristan, 1898 Military encampment in the Razmak,1898 Indian soldiers and elephants, Multan, 1898 British and Indian soldiers with elephants, Multan, 1899 Hyderabad contingent regtl center band in Toochi..1895.. Churchill introduced to Sikh VCOs in Shillong,1945.. 4th Sikh Regiment of the Indian Army. Group portrait of the Sikh officers and British captains of the 14th Sikh Regim...