RIFLE RANGE BOY

The Prize(1992)  8 part documentary based on Daniel Bergen’s bestseller “The PRIZE: Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power” "The kingdom of Heaven is based on righteousness, The kingdom of the world is based on oil.” This is a mind-blowing 8-hour long documentary detailing from beginning the time when petroleum was drilled on a scale in America in the mid 19th century. Just the gold rush, oil was drilled haphazardly without much planning. With more and more new towns being opened as an oil town, so did shady characters. Interestingly, oil was used for lighting lamps with kerosene. John D. Rockefeller emerged as a ruthless businessman who tried to undercut his competitors by controlling all aspects of oil production, the barrelling, transportation, distribution, by devious methods. An investigative journalist Ida Tarbell exposed his ways. The courts punished him for anti-trust violations, but he found solace in philanthropy and church matters. Rockefeller, throug...

http://m.historyextra.com/feature/weird-and-wonderful/mysterious-disappearance-agatha-christie?utm_source=Facebook+referral&utm_medium=Facebook.com&utm_campaign=Bitly The mysterious disappearance of Agatha Christie The Guinness Book of World Records lists her as the best-selling novelist of all time, and according to her estate she is outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. But what Agatha Christie is perhaps best remembered for is her mysterious disappearance in December 1926. Submitted by: Emma Mason At shortly after 9.30 p.m. on Friday 3 December 1926, Agatha Christie got up from her armchair and climbed the stairs of her Berkshire home. She kissed her sleeping daughter Rosalind, aged seven, goodnight and made her way back downstairs again. Then she climbed into her Morris Cowley and drove off into the night. She would not be seen again for eleven days. Her disappearance would spark one of the largest manhunts ever mounted. Agatha Christie was already...

L ook at me, My mane my crowning glory, Is wiry silvery tufty. The charm the dimple, Has lost its wrinkle, no twinkle. The eyes which sparkled, Is cataractic and arched. The neck so supple, Used to be so nimble. The breasts so springy and proud, Shows its parturient sag. The female chest so proud, Kyphotic and osteoporotic. The naval midriff to exhibit, Left with striae, protuberant and scarred over.  Posterior an asset to pride, Is adiposed with deposition by the side.  The thigh the thunder, Is flabby without tone no wonder.  The feet so petit, Shoe size big fit. They say it’s worth it, To see one in your own mould. To share, to care, I shudder to disagree. My mind is no more mind, As I lost in rearing my kind.  Tme has not been kind As I count my time, In the old folks home. Just look at me!--  FG.

It was 15th August 1947. A day picked out of thin air by the Viceroy to hand over to the natives the freedom to administer their own country any which way they liked it. The highlight of the event, amongst many other similar events in many cities around the country was the hoisting of the new nation's flag. This was happening despite the sporadic unabated violence that was rocking the nation. The Father of the Nation was in mourning, engaged in prayer and meditation, to see his beloved country carved by a butcher's knife by a judge, Sir Radcliffe in what must be anon-gratifying task.To carve up a country with arbitrary geographical landmarks is akin to cutting a limb of a body and expecting the body to function as business as usual! The dendritic roots of brotherhood went way too deep. In the national capital, the sea of people of different creed, caste and social strata thronged to the proud icon to witness the coveted event. The organisers had underestimated the turnout ...

A congregation of people in mass quantities may herald the beginning of a new dawn. Be it a revolution of sorts of minds, of ideology or mass deception. The streets of Moscow reverberated with emotion with echoes of change hailing the teachings of Marx and Engels led by Lenin's secret meetings. The cry for bread of starving mouths orchestrated the march to storm Bastille. Gandhi organised motivational meetings in the guise of prayer meetings to change the mindset of an average Indian while instilling self-dignity, inculcate cleanliness, pride to race, self-confidence and eventually Swaraj (self-rule). On the other hand, we have seen people succumb to persuasions and commit philosophical if not physical suicide. Like the one in Jonestown and Waco, Texas. The unthinking mob mindset of Man is evident. The idea of scores or more voluntarily ending their lives under the spell of the leader is unthinkable but true. I had the privilege of attending one such congregation of people. ...

(...Cont. from Oh deer, my dear! ) I swear I had seen that surname somewhere. But the name Indie? Surely it must be a shortened version of the name Indiana. Indiana for a British? Strange. Anyway, I never understood why someone who name a child after a state. Saying that, Malaysia was the most popular newborn girl’s name in the USA last year among the black community. The only association between England and Indiana that I remember was the riddle when I heard as a young adult about where Prince Charles spent his honeymoon! Go figure. In the modern age, when in doubt, what does a sane person usually do? Google of course. Within a fraction of a second upon typing the surname, the whole anthroponymy of the said name appeared in full glory. Now, it made sense. I could not have guessed. When she offered vegetarian food for the dinner as she thought we did not consume beef as she thought venison and beef were from same cattle of fish (pardon the pun), I was wondering why she said ‘de...

Malaiur Manikam (Malay; 2015) Author: Uthaya Sankar SB From the time of Thales, the first European philosopher, the first from the European perspective, the Easterners claim to have known this earlier, the quest to know the secrets of the universe kept on growing. The Greek philosophers thought that the structure of universe could be explained via trigonometry and mathematics. They were excited when they correctly predicted a solar eclipse in 585BCE. From then on, via critical debates and intelligent deductions, many theories were created. At the heights of the Golden Era of the Islamic Civilisation and the courtyards of Agra of the Mogul Empire, majlis and interfaith dialogues were familiar scenes. Each scholar would go as far as learning each other culture’s language so as to understand the crux of knowledge that each had to offer. They understood that what they knew was the only fistful; when what they need to know was ocean deep! Akbar went as far as creating...

Malaya 1942 There is no such thing as the 'good guy' or that good guys always wear black! Everybody does something not with the purest of thoughts but with the motive of ‘what's in for me?' lurking entrenched in his mind. This, the Asiatic peace loving natives, found out the hard way. About three-quarter of a century ago, Malayans were visited by their fellow Asiatics on bicycles. A group of Malayans were actually happy that their kind of people were coming to liberate them from the tyranny of the foreign oppressors. Little did they realise what waited for them - from the frying pan into the flaming hot fire! In 1945, when Sukarno declared independence and proclaimed Indonesia as a sovereign nation, the British, who gave an aura of being a just army, caring for humanity and liberty, came into Indonesia. The Malayans who once looked at their colonial masters as fair soon realised that they do not care about the people of the East. They were only interested in safe...

Continuing with the topic of contradiction of Man, I read about the epitome of American monopolistic capitalism, JD Rockefeller. In a way, he can be described as the father of MNCs and the founder of Standard Oil. Ironically, oil, as he was extracting and transporting was for kerosene to fuel lamps, not to fuel engines. After all it was the late 1800s. On one hand, on Sunday mornings he is a dedicated Sunday School teacher. He partakes the Baptist Church charitable activities and he was their big contributor. Come Monday, he was a ruthless businessman who had no qualms with undermining tactics and devious business strategies that put other small-time independent family business to the ground. JD felt that what he was doing was right under the circumstances. He used his God-given ability to prosper the people of his kind. Perhaps, his Sunday activity was his way of washing all the unsavoury work over the weekday. After his nefarious work was laid bare for scrutiny by a journalist a...

My nimble mind tells me that karma law says that the soul must complete the cycle before reaching moksha. Depending on how good the soul behaves, it moves up the ladder. The step above man is devata (wise man or demigod). Along the way, the soul has to endure being born a speck of dirt, algae, grass, tree, a maggot, a roach, a quadruped, an ungulate, a man and finally, the soul would break the chain of rebirth bondage. That always made me think that your miseries reduce as you climb the rung of the proverbial karma ladder. The physical body of the soul of the low-life would be trampled upon. Their outcome is non-sequential to the equation of the universe. I wonder how they could boost their standing in their next birth. Dirt and amoeba do not think. In fact, one wonders whether 'lesser' life forms in the hierarchy, below man, even think beyond their primordial needs of fulfilling the satiety of hunger, lust and sleep. A cat does not visualise and have ambitions of wanting ...

© Oh, no!  Here he is again. Three times this week, Pa had appeared at my school. It is the same old story - that my mother is very sick and I have to go back to take care of her! If only I could tell my school teacher, "Teacher, don't trust him!" I had the urge to scream. If only I could tell her the real story. "No, my mother is heartily healthy!" My mouth yearned to verbalise. "She is alive and kicking. She would give me a nice whacking if only she knew what I am doing daily." I try not to look at Pa's direction. I was hoping that he would change his mind and go away. But alas, no! I can see from the angle of my eye that he is almost at the classroom door. "Excuse me, teacher", he said apologetically. I have to give it to him. Despite his relatively low educational achievements, he had the gift of the gab and flair for languages. Perhaps his privileged upbringing gave him the confidence to boss everybody around. Early e...

Whilst reading through the history of Partition of India, I encountered that the people of Punjab gave a lot of resistance to the Radcliffe's line which carved out a portion of the fertile basin which fed a good portion of India. The idea of 'butchering-off' a piece of the cradle of civilisation of mankind seemed ludicrous. The inhabitants there were proud of their heritage. It is said to be the nidus of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. It was at the crossroad of civilisation. Its proximity to the Silk Road promoted the meeting of minds of the Persian, Arabic and Chinese think tanks to discuss knowledge of the known and unknown at a physical and metaphysical levels. They had dwelled into many mystic secrets of the Universe. Forget the fact that by the dawn of Indian Independence, one of its biggest cities, Lahore had more brothels than libraries and its citizens were thinking of their next meal rather than the mystery of the Cosmos, they nevertheless, felt a chip on their sho...