RIFLE RANGE BOY

I must be appearing like a painful unfriendly doom prophet to people around me. Pretty soon I would not be surprised if people run away from me to keep me at arm's length rather than engage in a tête-à-tête with me. Why? You may ask! Just the other day, a guy whom I know, was boasting of the new management in the company that he was working. The management had recently changed. The company that he had been working for so many years used to be one of last bastions of multinational companies managed by local businessmen. After many business wranglings and buying overs, it came to be run by a famous foreign company. He was singing praises of the management of the new company, its efficacy and ease of getting things done. And he went on and on... So, I told him how 3 centuries ago, a  certain group of businessmen presented themselves with exotic gifts and proposals to elevate their lifestyles as well as ease their lives. Then came troubles over troubles. And poof! The b...

The latest catch phrase or latest hip lingo to use in speeches seem to be to include 'leave all your troubles  worries at the lotus feet of Lord and surrender yourselves'. Hey, they remind me of a camping song we used to sing in school - Pack all your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile... Unfortunately, the song 'pack all your troubles' was a propaganda song of World War 1 to motivate the youngsters to sign the life away to the cause of the war all in the name of nationalism and world peace. Is it not ironic that man has to go to war to maintain peace! I suppose in the same way, leaving all your troubles at the divine lotus feet is akin to sweeping the proverbial trash under the carpet. It just gives us confidence to clear our mind to gather resources to strategize our next moves to rid the trash that form our source of worry. It may just be a soliloquy or monologue similar to a listening ear or a shoulder to cry ...

No Bed of Roses (Cecil Rajendra, 2013) Malaysians can never get over the romanticism of the time when we, as a nation, were euphoric over being independent. The years after independence with their favourite Prime Minister at the helm will be forever remembered as the golden era of our young nation. People were accommodative and non judgmental in their outlook. At a time when the colonial masters' way of living and socializing was universally accepted, nobody would look at another with a 'holier than attitude'. Muslims consumed alcohol and no watchdog moral police stopped them. After the terrible trying times of the second World War and the economic prowess of their commodities at all time high, it was time to celebrate and did they celebrate. Against this backdrop emerged a rose which sparkled for a while but it could but not leave without leaving behind a legacy of a time not easily forgotten. This book is not a biography in the real sense. It does, however, enumerate...

Dhoom 3 (Blast 3, Hindi, 2013) I may not be the best person to write a review as I was hovering between slumberland and consciousness just an hour into this 3 hour long movie. No, there  was nothing lack of noise and gravity-musculoskeletal defying matrix infused type of mind boggling stunts to complement the story. Neither was there dearth of breathtaking scenery and landscape of Chicago (only the aesthetically pleasing parts of the city) or attention arousing Bollywood hip swaying  dances to excites you. Even the story which was plagarised from Christopher Nolan's 2006 film of 'Prestige' ( review ) could not stop the drooping eyelids. Perhaps Mr Bean would have used toothpicks! Even the pre-viewing meal washed down with double expresso could not do its trick - as it was way too long! My favourite Hindi actor, Aamir Khan, gave a stellar performance of a disgruntled acrobat who had a bone to pick with the capitalist minded bank which was the reason for the suicide of h...

Heard about an internet dating service that promotes affairs. Their tagline says it all, "Life is short, have an affair". They allegedly have 20 million over subscribers to choose from to have a fling, discreet, safe, yadda yadda yadda... Of course, people are up in arms on both sides of the fence for and against such a site's legitimisation. On the one hand, there is the argument that one should be left to do what one pleases as long as it does not hurt the other party. We should not criminalise affairs as Man, by Nature, are polygamous, and Nature encourages the selection of the best for continuity of species. Whether we like it or not, infidelity is going to happen, just as corruption and cheating. It is always better to do things in the open than doing it clandestinely. They often quote the therapeutic effects of affairs and spouse swapping to release sexual tensions and mismatch. On the other side of the fence, the naysayers argue that affairs are cheating, and peo...

Malaysia’s Forgotten Music Man EDITOR'S PICKS ;  FEATURES    /    20   DECEMBER  2013 This hotel pianist once wrote songs for Sudirman and toured with P. Ramlee.  Jon Chew  hears his extraordinary story. 34 Ooi Eow Jin, pianist at the Hotel Majestic. Photo by Stacy Liu. At three o’clock,  Tuesdays to Sundays, underneath the gold-leaf dome roof of the grand five-star  Hotel Majestic  in Kuala Lumpur, a man hunches over a black Yamaha piano. He wears a bow tie, a white jacket, and a hearing aid on his left ear. Slowly, he takes out a small turquoise clock, and leaves it on the left-hand ledge. He places a file of loose sheet music next to him. He takes a pause. Then, he begins to play. He doesn’t smile. His fingers dance on a white ivory floor, born again like a young ballerina’s joy at touching the ground with the tip of her toes. He starts with “Moon River”, segues into “Top ...