RIFLE RANGE BOY

It had a fiesta mood, jovial demeanour, smiling faces, honking road users, the same colour motif and the chant. The roads were their path to reach the point of salvation. Interlaced amongst the crowd were banners, placards and cheeky messages. Everybody was courteous and everybody wanted their voices to be heard. Orang asal with years of neglect were down with their banner. So were the workers with minimum wage on their mind. The LGBT representative was there with his rainbow hued flag to be counted. The only time I last saw so many people don yellow was during Thaipusam celebration during my childhood back in Penang! Come to think of it, there were so many similarities between this peaceful march and Thaipusam celebrations in Penang. People would come from near and far to witness the procession. The joy was in the walk as there was where old friends of yesteryears would be met. The march would be interrupted by occasional kavadis that would tickle our interest- in Bersih 4.0...

Courtesy: iyermatter.wordpress.com I have a friend whose ancestors hail from the land of the Kamasutra. Even though born and bred here, he has not quite severed his umbilical attachment to his roots. His roots are still deeply rooted there. His religious conviction handed down by his ancestors are quite strong and has no qualms displaying his beliefs. He makes frequent pilgrimage trips there and is quite in tune with the latest flavour of the month of the sub-continent. He once told me of a relative holding quite a high post in the Indian Air Force. Like my Brahmin friend, this guy was steadfast in continuing his Vedic practices through rituals, prayers, regalia to display of proof of his theological conviction on his forehead, vermilion, ash, sandalwood paste and all. But once he dons his uniform and leaves his abode, he makes it a point to take a glance himself at the mirror to erase all traces of his religious beliefs. He, being a servant of the state, had to display a secu...

Somehow we got a good deal. The maker was in a good mood he made us, our country. The lush of greenery, the evergreen trees, the stable tectonic plates, the absence of major catastrophes, the strategic location was our selling point. Our quaint lazy ambience with rich natural resources must have earned our nickname comparing it to a golden land. Ah, people were always lousy... But there was a world, once. This same trait must have been the pulling factor that drew unsavoury visitors who wanted all for themselves. The early settlers, with no malice on their mind, ushered them in with open arms, typical of how they would honour their weary guests as described by most of the holy scriptures that they knew. The conniving guests, with evil exuding through their eyes and souls plot devious mischiefs to create pandemonium just to appear of as peacemaker at the same time. The host started fragmenting. The guests suddenly appeared more composed, more cultured and wiser. With th...

Papilllon (1973) Steve McQueen, the macho guy of the 70s is seen here acting out as Henri Charrière, a French convict, a safe-cracker accused wrongly of killing a pimp. The film narrates the friendship bond that he built during his incarceration in French Guiana and his escapades to escape from confinement, first from prison then from exile in Devil's Island. By standing up for his fellow inmate, Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman), a master forger and counterfeiter, they built a bond so strong that forms the basis of this movie. Papillon is the French word for butterfly, the tattoo that Charrière wears on his chest, hence his nickname. Between cruelty in prison and solitary confinement, he still managed to plan a daring escape. Dega, the reluctant escapee, was quite content in believing that his beloved wife in France would fight for his release. (It never materialised till the end of the movie!) The attempt at escape was marred by fraudulent agents. A liaison with a group o...

The Sea and the Hills  The Life of Hussain Najadi (An Autobiography; 2012) He survived the feared Bahraini intelligence who worked under the hawkish eyes of their British colonial masters as he stirred his leftist ideas after the Algiers uprising through his rebel movement at the age of 16. The Bedouin travellers took a special liking to his as he escaped to Beirut through the mirage inducing hostile environment of the Arabic desert and its scorching heat. Somehow he even escaped the infamous Iranian SAVAK police. The storm aboard the vessel along the Mediterranean Seas did not dampen his spirits. By twist of fate he missed an ill-fated Swiss flight which crashed soon after take-off. And he averted an invitation aboard a Filipino flight which later crashed. He even survived an automobile accident on the notorious Malaysian highways. To cap it all, he even endured 8 years of imprisonment in a Bahraini prison after incurring the wrath of its royalty. He raised the ladder of...

A friend whom I know was complaining to me recently. I know him as a faithful servant of a temple. He spends most of his precious free time doing chores at a temple with the believe that he was doing his bit to keep the faith going. He was hoping that his little deeds, will keep the seed of his religion going. His conviction was further strengthened when an offspring came into the picture after many futile attempts of medical intervention at fertility. He was compelled to accept that that produce was indeed divine in origin but not the immaculate type! Tmn Connaught to Angkasapuri Hence, his journey into the Divine deepened. He felt that he had to give his life and soul trying to live up the messages imbibed in the good Books. Within the confines of his abode and the surroundings of his place of worship, living it up to the teachings were no brainer. Everyone visiting the house of God naturally became well behaved. He had control of the behaviour of his family members in his hou...

Thanks Malaysian Heritage and History Club and Buruhanudeen Abubakar for sharing. Even though these photos may be look old, I remember seeing these scenarios during my walks from Hutchings School to the City Council in Victoria Street from the early 1970s all through to 1975. Those were the daily sightings in my life as my young eyes ponder and imprinted all those everlasting memories in my grey matter. These laborious people in the pictures may have passed on, setting a foundation for their dependants to have a cushier life than theirs. Well, that must be the foundation of human existence - to do things easier, to go further, to smoothen things, to provide, to survive, to move up a notch in their social strata, to enjoy, to savour life and wither away living in the joyous memory of the past wishing that if only the present and the future could be as uncomplicated as the past. Human Cart for transportation of goods Fruits, anyone? Tailor made underg...