RIFLE RANGE BOY

To all those in my life who think that they know everything about everybody, their own self and matters of the world and the universe... An interesting story of a lady and the malady that struck her that I heard over a podcast over Radiolab should be testimony that nobody can be cocksure about anything and anybody. In 1985, a 36 year old lady (Penny Beernsteen) went for a jog at a beach during a family outing. She was sexually and physically assaulted at a secluded part of the beach. As she could not give a good fight against her assailant, she did the next best thing. She mentally made notes of his short stubby fingers, his mustache, his hair colour etcetera. Penny Beernsteen She survived the ordeal and positively made her cocksure picking out of the suspect without a shadow of doubt during an identification parade. A Steven Avery with petty crime records was picked out. During the trial, his witnesses were weak comprising mostly of family members. Even though he ...

So this is life? After 52 years of wedded bliss, what do I have to show to myself? What am I left with? A big house which used to be a home with hive of activities that never tend to stop, the Christmas parties that never ended, the stream of friends that we never knew we had. Now I only have loneliness as my constant companion. Solitude is my trusted friend who lassos remote almost forgotten visions of my one and only. The bond that we shared were beyond physical worldly pleasures. Beyond the age of physical allure, our magnet attracted each other like no magnetized ferrous chunks could.  Prove of our union love is the five lovely offspring that we cared for so much. A little squeal from one used to sound like a wail to you. And the ups and the downs that through together. And the sickness and the health! You are the only that I knew.  I know I cannot be sniffling like a teenage girl over your demise. I had more than my share of happiness in the lifetime. O...

A few recent events make me wonder... In the late 70s, we could not verify when a rumour emerged that Michael Jackson had died. Many rumours came about certain leaders which never could be proved but when a rumour was told again and again, it automatically gained authenticity! Fast forward to the iphone age... Literally at our fingertips, information is just a few swipes away. And yet the uncertainty of certain information still lingers. First they would flash a sensational news, something so ridiculous that it is simply impossible to be true. Then more lay people will vouch for it in the social media with 'documented proof'. It would followed by hue and cries asking for first blood. Only then, people in authority and some kind of stature to know the situation would break the ice (awake from slumber?) to say something akin to 'harsh action would be taken. No stone would be left unturned. We will investigate!' And they would recoil into their snoozing position again....

*Lyrics from Joni Mitchell's ' Big  Yellow Taxi ' It is said that India is the only country that did not persecute its Jews. It is said to be ever embracing other cultures without making compulsions. The Indian civilization view every moment of time of a lifetime as a continuum, a figment of time, a drop in the proverbial in the ocean of milk a.k.a. Milky Way. People may come and people may go. Civilizations and conquerors spring and dissipate but Mother Nature drags on through space. This analogy is succinctly depicted in the history of Mauritius. The inhabitants were leading a peaceful life with their dodo birds and forest. Life was peaceful and the equilibrium was maintained under the auspices of Mother Nature. Civilizations decadent of their own doings, full of disease and ill intentions had to escape their shores, like roaches escaping their hideouts after a whiff of insecticide, started crawling to their shores. Stories like these are too far too many to be ...

Mayfair Set (Documentary, 1999) Produced, Written, Directed by Adam Curtis #4 Twilight of Dogs 1987 was a good year for Britain and Mrs Thatcher. Her idea of a free market stimulating the economy seem to be working. So they thought, until Black Monday showed up, wiping out 20 percent of its capital. This final episode tells us how the unhealthy mix of businessmen and politicians produced a ruling system that was corrupt and powerless to the power of the market forces. The bankers became the play makers and could dictate terms. In 1971, the Heath's Labour Government started pumping money into the economy, trying to recreate the Renaissance of British businesses. In 1973, however, they were embroiled into a crash which was worse than the 1929 crash. The leaders then realized that they cannot control the economy. In 1979, during Thatcher's administration, the economy was not controlled and the markets had a free rein. Exchange control was deregulated making money move easily ...

Mayfair Set (Documentary, 1999) Produced, Written, Directed by Adam Curtis #3 Destroy the Technostructure This episode showcases how vulture like businessmen squandered money and power from the Government and established big corporations and transferred them to the stock market. In the process, in the name of enriching the stockholders, they also fattened their profits quite handsomely. After acquiring companies through hostile takeovers, they would sell off their assets, downsize their staff and just destroy the business altogether. That was their modus operandi. 1976 was not just the hottest summer in the UK, it also saw the fall from grace of the original Clairmont club members. James Goldsmith almost became bankrupt trying to sue a newspaper and subsequently left to the US. James Goldsmith He moved in to US at a time when the economy, under the leadership of Ronald Reagan, was opening the markets. Power was transferred to the markets. This was a move away from FDR...