RIFLE RANGE BOY

So it all takes is for someone to snoop around to look for another destination. A place where people lead an idyllic life living in symbiosis with the elements of Nature with the divine forces as their guiding light. Venture capitalists move in. They show them the carrot and the lure of what money can do to enrich their 'impoverished' lives. They influence the elders who steamroll all oppositions who want to maintain the status quo. The general public thinks the opposers are just spoiled sports, reminiscing the old times, living in the past and naysayers who do not move with the times. The time to live is now, and they do not want to be left behind. So builds a frenzy to join the bandwagon to draw sightseers to see what they had to offer. They were willing to play dance monkey to the tune of the first world revellers. Slowly, the native's lives change. Their age-old tradition of caring for humanity rather than worldly materialistic things is but a thing of the past. Ri...

The Great Global Warming Swindle (2007) Channel 4; UK. I thought that it is a given thing, that Man's existence is the reason for nature's degradation, that our carbon footprint is leaving irreparable damage to the ecosystem, that our reaping and raping of its resources for our selfish needs is going leave our descendants cursing at our lackadaisical attitudes, that our mere existence is going to increase the atmospheric carbon dioxide content and raise the global temperature. That was the prophecy that had been pushed down our throats all this while. Well, now a group of scientists say that this is not the whole truth. That is the problem in the post-truth world where nothing is so clear cut anymore. For any argument, there is always another equally convincing counter-argument. The listeners are left baffled, confused and come to understand that the truth is a multilayered animal that is neither black nor white! This polemic documentary film is emphatic that...

They ask why the poor always gets the short end of the stick. They never have it good. Life is but a constant battle, juggling between misery, heartaches and disappointment. Relief is but short lived. "Why?", they ask. They are told that it just God's test on His followers. He is just testing their faith. They are cajoled to weather the storm and pray for His guidance. He will show them the way. The pragmatist tells them to get real. The poor's melancholy is just the side effect of economics. They are on the lowest rung of the food chain.When the going of the world is good, the occupants at the top of the pyramid get the lion's share of the kill, the good fortune. Of course, the trickle-down effect enables the have-nots to pick up the crumbs and the loot. The social structure is such that the economic model ensures that the poor is easily duped and lured to depart from the hard-earned morsel with clever advertisements using psychological techniques that stir ...

W. (2008) George W. Bush had the unenviable record of being the US President with the lowest rating ever, at the end of his second term. His tenure marked the making the world a hostile world to live in and the unleashing of the genie of destruction from the Middle East. Somehow I could not help but compare W as a President to Truman. Truman was not the first choice for Vice President but was chosen over the left leaning pacifist Henry Wallace. W was made President after a controversial election. When FDR died four months into his VPship, Truman was left asking himself, whether he was man enough to be the President? Like Truman, W had a disturbing past. Harry Truman grew up as a recluse and a nerd for being small, book-wormish and with thick glasses. Because of this complex, probably, Truman turned out to be a 'gung-ho' leader who threatened the whole world, especially the Soviet Union, with his new found toy, the Nuclear Bombs. W had always grown under the shadow of his b...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/02/03/the-dark-side-of-winston-churchills-legacy-no-one-should-forget/ By Ishaan Tharoor February 3, 2015 The statue of Britain's former Prime Minister Winston Churchill is silhouetted in front of the Houses of Parliament in London, January 30, 2015. (Eddie Keogh/Reuters) There's no Western statesmen — at least in the English-speaking world — more routinely lionized than Winston Churchill. Last Friday marked a half century since his funeral , an occasion that itself led to numerous commemorations and paeans to the British Bulldog, whose moral courage and patriotism helped steer his nation through World War II. Today we remember our greatest ever Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who saved our country. pic.twitter.com/uRkfSAy7ya — David Cameron (@David_Cameron) January 30, 2015 Churchill, after all, has been posthumously voted by his countrymen as the greatest Briton. The presence (and absence) of his bust in ...

Bama Vijayam (பாமா விஜயம், Tamil; 1967) The perpetual clash between the old wisdom and the new, between modernity and the time-tested traditional values, between the conventional economy and the New World Order whose lynchpin is credit and counting the eggs before they are hatched. This lesson, together with the advice of living within your means and to forget keeping up with the Joneses, is nicely depicted in this song. The clash between the generation is evident here in this song composed by Kannadasan, as the member of the older, as depicted by the retired schoolmaster (TS Balaiah) who is probably the patriarchal head of the household and a widow, is debating his views about life and management of economics with his three sons, their wives and their kids. The grandchildren tend to side with their grandfather, probably just joining the fun, clueless about the complexities of adulthood. The older generation, after enduring the effects of Schools of Hard Knocks and Uncert...

Sixth Sense (1999) Written, Directed and Acted by M. Night Shyamalan During the Mothers' Day celebrations, messages with cheesy words like, "God couldn't be everywhere, so He sent Mums!" are rife. The Divine forces work in mysterious ways they say. Many seemingly impossible incidences happen on a regular basis in our daily lives. People with strong religious convictions are content to assume these are holy interventions sanctioned by The Forces that are carried out by his serfs, godly angels. On the contrary, when the outcome is not quite expected or favourable, the blame is passed on to the ungodly demons and djinns. These energies are said to work on different astral planes than the ones mortal Man are familiar. Clairvoyants are able to harness their perception into this dimension to perceive things which normal humanly sensations cannot appreciate. Medical sciences, however, would label it hallucinations and its practitioner of having delusions. Proponents...

Parched (Hindi; 2016) India is said to be a land of contradictions. On one hand, they talk about the might of the feminine power, that the Goddess guarding Earth is Booma Devi, Mother Nature, a matriarchal force. Then they say Shiva is nothing without the power of his better half, that Shiva is nothing without Shakthi and there is no force like the union of Male and Female power, the elixir of life, the essence of life, ShivaShakthi! Then there is Dussehra which is celebrated as the victory of the good feminine powers over the evil masculine power, the  c elebrates the killing of demon Mahishasur by Goddess Durga. Dussehra celebration spreads the message of the balance of the world put to order by the positive female energy. They can talk and write volumes and volumes, in their works of literature, about the greatness of the ladies of the yesteryear and their timeless feat. They donned military garbs to lead kingdoms. They fought for social justice. They wrote great poe...

Pichaikaran (பிச்சைக்காரன், Beggar, Tamil; 2016) My friend told me that the tone for Chinese New Year this year is somewhat sombre, to put it mildly. Gone are the days when the eardrum exploding firecrackers used the usher the arrival of the lunar new year. Some low ranking staff are tightening their belts, resorting to wearing last year's unused garments for this year's celebrations. Sure, that is austerity but ask someone who has been on the other side of the numerous success stories of capitalism, the ones that the narcissistic politicians like not to talk about. The people on the losing end of economic development have often been accused of many things; that they are lazy, have poor work ethics, that they do not plan, that they lack willpower and creativity. In reality, most of them do not fall into the categories above. They certainly do not lack in the creativity department. They have mastered the art of stretching the last ringgit to its last fibre. They live in a w...

DMT: The Spirit Molecule (2010) Every now and then, humankind experiences leaps and bounds into a higher level of knowledge, maybe not so much of wisdom. Still, they discover, one by one, about things around them; the laws of motion, thermodynamics, nuclear fission and fusion and quantum physics. The more they learn, the more they realise that there are things that they do not know! Perhaps they should now look inwards, introspect into their good selves to reach heights beyond their wildest dreams. DMT seems to be the linking bridge towards this end. DMT, N, N-dimethyltryptamine, is a compound widely found in nature; in plants and animals alike. It has a ring structure with four attachable poles and is converted to tryptophan, a building block of life. Scientists are wondering if it is indeed the common language between beings. Dr Rick Strassman, who spent a good five years of his life experimenting on this hallucinogenic agent which is an analogue of serotonin and melato...

HyperNormalisation (2016) Written and Directed by Adam Curtis Before the infamous 2004 tsunami hit Phi Phi Island in Thailand, there was a kind of an eerie silence. The shoreline receded and thousands of fishes were washed ashore. The cockle collectors had a windfall. Everyone was in a quandary on the bizarre turns of events. Then it hit them, the towering waves and destruction. www.spectator.co.uk That is what is happening in our world. Many strange and damaging thinks are happening right before our eyes. Our leaders are telling us that everything is okay and it is business as usual or rather life goes on. However, everybody knows it is not alright but still nobody wants to do anything because things are too complicated. This, in simpler terms, is the essence of the meaning of the word 'hyper normalisation', a term coined by a Russian writer (Alexei Yurchak  in 2006 book, 'Everything was Forever, Until it was No More: The Last Soviet Generation') referring...

Snowden (2016) The Federalist Papers were a series of 85 letters penned by the founding fathers, John Jay, James Madison and Andrew Hamilton under the pseudonym of Publius to cajole the American public to ratify the American constitution. The essays are said to be very foresighted in its outlook. It admits that man, being man, can never be unbiased. He is forever swayed by emotions, lust, greed, power, control and all the traits that makes him human. Hence, he cannot be entrusted to be a just leader. Checks and balances had to be put to ensure continuity of the sovereignty of the nation. They suggested that the fall of great empires in the past due to it absence and placing of too much power on the elite few. The common man too had a duty to partake in the running of his country. Maybe the placing of too much of emphasis on the idea of nation and less on humanity, some 'well meaning' group of people or vested individuals took the concept of nation security and fear of losi...

Raees (Hindi, 2017) When a man is desperate, when his next meal is an impossible dream, any form of work that comes his way is God-sent. He will be grateful that the Divine forces are responsive to his pleas to meet his biological need. When his position is a bit stable, he introspects. He wonders whether his line of duty may irk the Creator. He feels guilty. He knows that his line of work is not sanctioned by the religious leaders who delved into this type of theological matters. He knows he has himself knee deep to retreat. His dependents, who by now are quite used to the good life start demanding. He would set his own modified rules, cherry picking rules and regulations to justify his illicit trade. He draws his boundaries, area which are a no-no and would defend his modified predilections to the core. Deep inside, he knows of his ill actions. To sanitise his 'sins', which actually do not appear in his psyche anymore, he immerses himself in philanthropic deeds and in th...