RIFLE RANGE BOY

Foxcatcher 2014 It is weird watching Steve Carrel in anything but a comedy role. Here he is a dark psychologically disturbed millionaire with a childhood issues. He is portrayed as a cold blooded and self centred man who would use his money to buy love and importance. It is based on a real life story of an American Olympic wrestler and his brother, also a wrestler and his coach with a multi-billion dollar heir to a rich family who promotes his grounds for the love of the sport of wrestling. Hidden deep in the heir's psyche is his protected and lonely upbringing. As the movie progresses, one is left wondering where the film is heading. The wrestler, Mark Schultz, trains in his estates, in the eerie presence and hawk-eye of his sponsor, the heir, John du Pont. One wonders what type of relationship they are having. On one hand, he is said to be a father figure. On the other hand , they are seen snorting cocaine together. Sometimes, Mark appears helpless like a slave! Is there...

Madadayo ( まあだだよ   Not Yet, Japanese; 1993) Director: Akira Kurosawa This sombre offering is Kurosawa's swan song. Ironically, it is a comedy but the subject deals something as depressing as life after retirement, war and essentially waiting for death! If fact, the title of film is a joke often told the main character referring to his life whose time (end of it) has reached yet - not yet! Professor Uchida (whom his students address fondly as Sinsei) is a lovable German language professor in Japan who is at the tail end of his teaching career. It is set at a time just before the second World War. After his retirement, he continues entertaining his students at his humble home sharing his own trademark jokes. The students, even after growing old continue his acquaintance. Periodically, he gather for his birthday. They even help him out when his home is raged by shell after the war. The movie shows the cordial respect between teacher and student. Just when the student think the...

A Japanese balloon bomb (Fu-Go)  photographed in New York,  July 2, 1945.  Associated Press I always thought that American soil was infiltrated only once by the Japanese, in 1941 at Pearl Harbour. And the second, of course was 9/11. No, wrong. That was indeed another successful bombardment of USA, not in the fringes of the country but at its belly! It fact it was kept hush hush for many years. After the 1942 humiliation of the Japanese by the US bombers led by Colonel Doolittle who flew past the royal palace, the Japanese wanted to get even with the Yankees. They wanted to get even with their foes. In spring of 1945, a pastor went on a picnic with his pregnant wife and 5 lads. While emptying the luggage, before he could alert his family an explosion killed all 6. They had been fascinated by a balloon contraption. Many similar devices were seen all over Oregon. Panic set in the local community. They were fearing for the worse. Like 9/11. they thought en...

http://foreignpolicy.com/slideshow/once-upon-a-time-in-singapore-lee-kuan-yew/ LKY's Singapore: Dream materialised. Mission accomplished. Bon Voyage. Sleep tight...!   

Every aberration on our skin has a story to tell... That scar on your forehead may have been Voldemort's doing, or it could have been just the punch that your baby brother landed on your face while you were playing or rather fighting over a football! The ugly keloid on your knee could be due to that fall you had while scrambling away from the neighbourhood dog, which explains your morbid fear of the canine species. The long surgical scar reminds you of the prolonged labour that you endured in the monsoon floods while you did your tour of duty in Julau, Sarawak. Talking about Sarawak, having a tattoo is a sort of coming of age for a young adult. It is a ritual that they have to go through to achieve adulthood. The same goes for many ancient tribes and those who want to preserve the old age practice. In modern times, a tattoo may unfold different phases of one's life. Perhaps, a butt ornament to reminisce that dizzying post varsity carefree days, the regrettable name of th...

Tragic Orphans - Indians in Malaysia Author: Carl Vadivella Belle This book can easily be described as one of the most depressing books I have ever read. Extensive research by the author into all nooks and corners of Malayan/ Malaysian history from the pre-Malaccan sultanate all the way to the 21st century makes it an excellent go-to book for history. Along the way, he narrates how Indians landed and got entwined in the country's fate and how some's fate never changes over the 7 generations that have lived here. It is mind-boggling that even though Indian coolies were sent to various colonies in the British Empire as labourers, most immigrants in other countries (Fiji, Surinam, Ethiopia, Trinidad, Tobago, South Africa) mostly have reached great heights. Unfortunately, their poor cousins in Malaya remain weak and even more pathetic than they were under their colonial masters. In many ways, this book reminds its readers of Janakey Raman's 'Malaysian Indian Dil...

Still Alice (2014) This intense drama depicts the trials and tribulations of a Columbia University linguistic professor who is stricken with a rare form of early onset Alzheimers' disease. It portrays the heartaches that she and her family go through as they sail through the journey of progression of the disease. It is disheartening to see an articulate and expressive person slowly slide down the slippery slope of hopelessness. Julianne Moore gave a sterling performance as mother of 3 who inherits a rare form of hereditary early onset of the dreaded disease. Our life basically goes on uninterrupted based on the things that we learn through memory. Even our bond with our family is strengthened with memories of things we did together. Remembering the moments of seeing our offspring growing up and achieving baby steps towards their steps is all part of harmonious life. When that faculty fails, it can be frustrating. Furthermore, how long your loved ones be tolerant enough to bear...

Selma (2014) This movie did not garner much publicity even though it earned many accolades to its belt probably because it is a black movie made by blacks about something close to the blacks.  It tells about a tumultuous time in America which they have not come in terms with. The relationship between the slaves and the slave-owners which had gone through many rough patches, again and again, all through the civil war, black rights movement and even to date with the rampant cases of police racial profiling as in Ferguson incident. In 1964, the right to vote in the southern states was made extremely difficult by the Little Napoleons of the civil service. Without the right to vote, the blacks do not get a right to stand as jury in court, and without that, a black convict is not deemed to get a fair trial. Martin Luther King Jr, a Nobel prize winner in 1964 for Peace, argues with President LB Johnson and Governor Wallace of Louisiana towards this end. As a political statement, pe...

It is strange how history plays games with man. Many seemingly unrelated events actually follow a particular pattern. We would not know as it is unfolding only to realise it in hindsight. I noticed a few patterns of late which is actually what had happened before, many years ago... At the turn of the 20th century, the civilised colonial masters decided to civilise the natives making them a feel that the visitors with the purest intention at heart to make their land (the natives') as developed and cultured as theirs. They brought in plants that were foreign to this land and developed them to make its produce an irreplaceable and invaluable commodity in the world market. They discovered minerals that were sitting right under their feet all these while and brought it to greater heights. When labour was scarce and was needed for these labour intensive feats, the masters told the natives not to worry. The masters assured them that the natives' importance and well being would be t...

Lucy (2014) Even though the subject matter is of something quite profound, the film, in my view, did not live up to its name. Scarlett Johansson assumes the role of a high invincible superhuman in one bizarre situation where she trapped to be a drug mule of a cartel to carry a bag of brain stimulant named CPH4. CPH4 is supposedly produced in minute amounts by pregnant mothers to aid the growth of foetuses. So when the package in Lucy's stomach (Scarlett Johansson) starts leaking after she is punched in the tummy, the drug stimulates her brain. The pharmacological effect of brain function is narrated cleverly by Prof Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman). Man, over the generations, have only been using less than 10% of his brain function. CPH4 gradually increases brain power till its use reaches 100%! With increasing use, man develop telekinetic power, extreme brute force and even travels time when it reaches 100%. This film boasts of fantastic cinematographic prowess and awe but it...

Published: Friday March 13, 2015 MYT 12:00:00 AM I WOULD like to draw the attention of the Education Ministry to at least five factual errors in the current Standard Five History textbook first published in 2014 (See diagram). What disturbs me most is the glaring bias towards glorifying one particular ethnic group and religion whilst downplaying the role of the other ethnic groups and religions, a continuing trend which started in the 1990s. Our textbooks in the 1970s and 1980s used to have separate chapters on the impact of Indian civilisation (e.g. Hinduism and its Impact on Malaysian Society, and Buddhism and its Heritage in Malaysia). The current Standard Five History textbook sums up the influence of Hinduism and Buddhism on local society in merely one sentence on page 14. The textbook greatly downplays the role of Yap Ah Loy (not even mentioned in the main text) in developing Kuala Lumpur. All historians worth their salt will admit that Yap Ah Loy was primarily responsible for r...

Time warps for a young surgeon with metastatic lung cancer By Paul Kalanithi Photography by Gregg Segal In residency, there’s a saying: The days are long, but the years are short. In neurosurgical training, the day usually began a little before 6 a.m., and lasted until the operating was done, which depended, in part, on how quick you were in the OR. Extras: video  video interview volumehigh  audio interview layers Paul Kalanithi Time at home. Time well spent A resident’s surgical skill is judged by his technique and his speed. You can’t be sloppy and you can’t be slow. From your first wound closure onward, spend too much time being precise and the scrub tech will announce, “Looks like we’ve got a plastic surgeon on our hands!” Or say: “I get your strategy — by the time you finish sewing the top half of the wound, the bottom will have healed on its own. Half the work — smart!” A c...

http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E005466b.htm  (A write-up on the College web page) Balasegaram, Manickavasager (1929 - 2014) MB BS King Edward VII College 1955; FRCS 1960; FRCS Edin 1960; FRACS 1968; FICS 1968; FACS 1969; Hon FPCS 1975; FIAP 1977; FCICD 1978. Born 15 April 1929 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Died 5 May 2014 Occupation General surgeon and Liver surgeon Details Manickavasagar Balasegaram was a pioneering surgeon in Malaysia, who gained prominence for his anatomical studies of the liver and for his development of the 'Balasegaram clamp'. 'Bala' or 'Prof', as he was known, was renowned for taking on complex surgeries that few others did in the region. He was also highly respected as a teacher and mentor. He was born on 15 April 1929 in colonial Malaya, the son of poor Ceylonese migrants. He had an unsettled childhood, living in boarding houses in order to go to school. At 15, after his father's arrest by the occupying Japanese ...

Everyone thought he was just a loafer, a whiner, a sourpuss and a troublemaker. Being quite familiar with his unpredictable and labile temperament, people generally stayed away from his path. Friends, he had only a handful. Still, he volunteered himself to be active in the unrewarding job of the Resident Associations' committee member. Perhaps that was his only way to get back at his unforthcoming neighbours. People thought he found joy in pushing people to do things all in the name of authority bestowed upon him. It was a frequent occurrence to see him at loggerheads and trying to prove his point at the top of his voice, sometimes in a thuggish manner. In short, he was no different from grumpy old Scrooge - a neighbour fron hell! When Chinese New Year came around, everyone was expecting his home to be a drab devoid of pomp, hues, smell and merriment pathognomonic of the festivities. Surprise, surprise! Everyone was pleasantly perplexed that Mr Gloom Doom also had a string of...