RIFLE RANGE BOY

The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking: How Irrational Beliefs Keep Us Happy, Healthy and Sane. Matthew Hutson (Author) 2012 I think one of the things that made Freud and his mentee, Jung go different ways was the belief that things happen for a reason. Sigmund Freud insists that the only real thing is that we are here, on Earth, we live, things happen and we take a bow. Events that happen around us occur at random at its own pace unrelated to our existence. Jung, on the other hand, felt that everything happened for a reason. There may be a cause for an event if we look hard enough. But, are we over analysing and trying to convince ourselves of some fixed ideas that we had concocted to allay our own anxieties? Thanks to Kr and SK for sharing this book. The author of this book is trying to convince us, in his own witty way, that, despite our different levels of religiosity or therein lack of, we are all believers of magic. We place our trusts in objects, events and signs t...

There was an anaesthetic medical officer with whom I had misfortunate to work with always had the, at least I thought so, annoying habit of encouraging the patient that he was going to anaesthetise to engage in a little prayer. He would do so as he was just going to induce sleep. The puzzling thing is that even when a regional anaesthetic failed to induce desired actions, he would ask the patient to brace and say a little prayer! To a staunch believer, what the good doctor does seem to appear just right; that we are mere mortals, that we should not be too cocky, that everything is indeed not under our control and that we are not infallible. In the other words, we dress the wound, He heals it! To most people, rationalists and atheists, a call for prayer may sound like a desperate measure and the one that most people resort to when all other humanly endeavours have failed! In other words, a mayday message saying, "only a miracle can save you now!" In the modern world, i...

Nadu Iravil (Tamil, In the middle of the night;1965) Director: S Balachander Another obscure film from the annals of the not-so-popular list of old Tamil movies is Nadu Iravil, directed by a multi-talented director, S Balachander, a talented veena player who also acts in this thriller drama. This flick is based on Agatha Christie's 1939 novel 'And then there were none' (a.k.a Ten Little Niggers). Initially shunned by distributors for its unique storyline and the dearth of melodious songs, which was typical of blockbusters those days, the reels were in cold storage for about five years before Balachander financed and distributed it himself to astounding success! In the typical whodunnit fashion, the story's setting is in a big isolated bungalow on a remote island, entirely cut-off from civilisation. On the island lived an old couple, Dayanandham and his mentally challenged wife (probably PTSD), Pandari Bai, in recluse, with his comical butler (Cho) and a reliable...

The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise Muslims, Christians and Jews under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain Darío Fernández-Morera (2016) My understanding is that Islam experienced its zenith of growth in Andalusia (Al-Andalus, Islamic Spain). It was the time of the golden age of Islam where everyone lived happily, believers and non-believers alike. I thought Jews and Christians lived in harmony in mutual respect as the 'people of the book'. But, wait! This book by a contemporary historian will burst that bubble. Darío, armed with archaeological evidence from scripts written in Spanish and other European languages, has set a 200-pages bibliography to showcase the extent of his research. He claims to have access to scripts of Christians who fled the tyranny of the marauding Berber horsemen. He describes our present knowledge of Andalusia akin to learning about America from the life and times of Hollywood actors or about the Arabs from the Saudi royal family. The real situati...

Sujata (1959) Director: Bimal Roy It is said that aptitudes of human being draw them into certain professions. Individuals with scholarly abilities dealt with the law and sciences; those with fine physical attributes would be assigned to guard the state; merchants will be from those good with dealing with money, and some may be good with acts that are repetitive in nature. Over time, as specialisation set in, when people who had learnt every nook and cranny bit of the trade were an asset. Slowly the system divided people by birth to professions as apprenticeship started early in life. Thus started the caste system, otherwise, a social class system that is no different than in any other society. This movie shows the ugly side of segregation of people by birth. By virtue of their birth, they are deprived many things which are considered basic necessities in life- education, a social support when their family is displaced and the dignity that every living be...

The whole nation has been hit by a spate of bullying, of late.Youngsters, without batting an eyelid, have no remorse to resorting to violence to assert their authority over the others whom they perceive as weak, disadvantaged or just different. perhaps, they are just apeing their role models, their parents or even leaders. In the latest incident, the nation is reeling from the death of a 19 old boy who never gained consciousness after being hit on and sodomised for being effeminate. Although the information is patchy, the gist of the string of events is that a quarrel ensued over a heckling which progressed to a lopsided fistfight and bashing of the victim and his friend by four other teenagers. Looking at the faces of the helpless relatives, one can just wonder at the meaning of this violence. Forget the fact that we should all live within our boundaries, live and let live.There are people that who are different from us for us to learn and appreciate but not to c...

Bandini (The Female Prisoner, Hindi; 1963) This must surely be one of the early female-centric Hindi movies with Nutan taking the leading role. It is a subtle movie without the overt melodrama usually associated with Bollywood films. The black and white print set the tone for sombre nature of the subject the story is trying to tell. Set in the 1930s Bengal, at the height of Independence movement, Kalyani (Nutan), a poem loving lass with a sad life in her past, losing her brother and mother, falls in love with a freedom fighter, Bikash. He promises to return to marry her but never does. Unable to tolerate the vicious bad mouthing of the villagers, she leaves home. She eventually works a nurse to care for a very demanding mentally disturbed patient who happens to be Bikash's wife. In the fit of rage, Kalyani poisons her and is imprisoned. It is at the prison that the movie actually starts and the rest are told in flashbacks. The prison doctor (Dharmendra) falls in love with ...

A NASA telescope called NuSTAR for short, which is roaming around approximately  324 million  light-years from Earth,   happened to be  in the perfect position  to see a black hole's powerful  gravity tugging on X-ray light emitted from a  nearby Corona. The discourse started over an article about a poor Hindu man who tried to advise a Muslim man against urinating in the open in a public space. The ego-dented Muslim called his friends to give the Hindu a nice bashing that he would never forget. Well, he never had the chance to remember. He was beaten up in the plain view of the public who, sadly, not one person came to his help or did call the police. The poor man succumbed to his injuries. The incident escalated to a racial clash when the real issue is public apathy and the curse of being born poor. From that angle, the debate went on to whether being poor is one's own fault or it is due to a composite of factors. My friend insi...

Bommai (Doll, Tamil; 1964) Came across this not so famous movie director S Balachandar, but a with a brilliant song which used to be a regular feature over the airwaves in our childhood - ' Thatti thatti Nadanthu Varum Chella Paapa ' was immensely popular.  It is one of those rare suspense thriller films made in the Tamil cinema. It is supposed to be modelled after Alfred Hitchcock's 1936 Sabotage. It was a story of confusion when a bomb-laden doll meant to kill an entrepreneur is misplaced and fail to reach the intended recipient. By a twist of fate, the toy gets going around from hand to hand. The protagonist of the film, the loyal office worker, goes on a wild goose chase trying to locate the doll and avert catastrophe. In spite of using mainly unknown actors, the film was a hit at the box office and passed the psychological mark 100-days' screening which marks the acceptance of the movie by the public. The only familiar faces in the cast are the captiv...

Ninotchka (1939) At one look, it appears like a movie from the genre of, what we would call 'romcom' (romantic comedy). Look deeper, it is a parody of communism and poking fun at the lifestyle of Bolsheviks who oust their bourgeois to distribute the wealth of the nation to the working class people. Look deeper still, you will find the unanswerable question of life. Is the purpose of life is to enjoy the moment, here and now or is it a journey of self-discovery, self-discipline, following of a preset path for a mission to be attained at the end of it all? This preWW2 film was banned in the Soviet Union and its controlled countries as it painted a lifeless, caricatured and an automaton-like picture of Soviet people and its officers. In the film, life in Russia is portrayed as pathetic. Living in cramped quarters with privacy being an alien word and eating omelette is a luxurious cuisine. It is the post-Bolshevik Russia and three Soviet officers are sent to Paris to auction...

They say love makes the world around. It is said to be the last bastion that would the human race from annihilation. Our neocortical part of the brain, no doubt brought about leaps of advances to ease civilisation, from organised building civil societies, mammoth engineering feats and abstract thoughts, it is no match for the dormant reptilian brain which is lurking in the background. It is scheming its next movement to destroy his neighbours not only for mating and food but just he does not share his beliefs, dress and speak differently. It is fear that makes the world go around. Fear is the one that puts us on our toes to leap forward to new heights, new discoveries and innovate ways to lead to our destruction. Our fear of foreigners, of people different from us who do things different than how we do things push us to the limit to 'protect' ourselves from the destruction of our own convictions. We satisfy ourselves in short term thinkings to create an unreal picture of...

Chasing a Mirage (2008) The tragic illusion of an Islamic State Author: Tarek Fatah Islam has not been receiving a good report card of late. It needs rebranding and an exercise in an improvement of public perception. Tarek Fatah, a vocal advocate against the militancy in Islam and their return to the so-called 'glory days of Islam', is famous for spreading the idea of rational thinking when it comes to religious practices. He opposes unquestioning loyalty to the ulamas and the man-made laws in the guise of religion. Unfortunately, his voice together with the same minded intellectuals like Parvez Hoodbhoy and Hussain Haqqani who call for ijtihad (using the mind to reason) are muffled in the ever loud yells of the radical-minded bigots who are hellbent to infuse their brand of religion to the masses. Even though many disillusioned Muslim citizens from Muslim dominated countries migrate to non-Muslim countries for a better life, their umbilical cord to their old pra...

Written for IndiSpire... Edition 172 Growing up in the poorer side of town, people generally did not form any high opinion about me. My physical attributes did not compensate for the deficiency. Whether one likes to admit or not, society judges. A fairer skin would perform better in the impression department and I fail miserably. I would not be surprised if people do judge me to be incapable, unimpressive and unconvincing. But the question is, "do I give a damn?" It is a free world and everyone is entitled to the opinions. Just like how I have mine. I do not owe anyone a living just like they, on me. One humbling experience about judging others was shoved down upon me a good 24 years ago... This posting is an old one from my collection in  Rifle Range Boy . Back in early 90s, whilst I was still a green horned newbie at the art of healing in Malacca, I was approached in the course of my daily dealings, by a lady who despite her outwardly ultra conservative appear...

Why We Get Fat (and what to do about it) Gary Taubes For the most part of Man's existence, over 99 % percent of our lives of Earth, our food pyramid had been quite different. If now, carbohydrate forms the broadest base of the pyramid, it was never like this before. As hunters and gatherers, our food mainly composed of protein and fat. Carbohydrate constituted a small portion and was found in complex forms, not refined. Come late 19th century and beyond, we started loads of carbohydrate both in simple refined forms like sugars and complex ones like in potato, wheat and rice. I suppose it must have been quite alright when we were members of an agrarian society but it soon became toxic when our lifestyles became more sedentary with the ease of performing tasks after leaps in science and technology. So, it is the carbohydrate that makes us fat. Insulin has pushed to the brim that our systems have been hardwired to use glucose as the first resource of energy. Ketones which ...

Unseen images of the war from the winning side by Alex Q. Arbuckle 1972 Activists meet in the Nam Can Forest, wearing masks to hide their identities from one another in a case of capture and interrogation. From here in the mangrove swamps of the Mekong Delta, forwarding images to the North was difficult. "Sometimes the photos were lost or confiscated on the way," said the photographer. IMAGE: VO ANH KHANH/ANOTHER VIETNAM/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BOOKS UPDATE, Feb. 10, 2016, 9:30 a.m.:  Based on serial numbers visible on the tail fins, readers have deduced that the crashed aircraft in the sixth photo is AJ 310, piloted by Lt. Stephen Owen Musselman, which was downed near Hanoi on Sept. 10, 1972. For much of the world, the visual history of the Vietnam War has been defined by a handful of iconic photographs: Eddie Adams’ image of a Viet Cong fighter being executed, Nick Ut’s picture of nine-year-old Kim Phúc fleeing a napalm strike, Malcolm Browne’s ...