RIFLE RANGE BOY

V. M. Shamuganathan (1938-2017) Just a few months short of completing his eight decades of existence, the soul that who infused part of his genetic material into my DNA sighed his last breath in the early hours of Christmas 2017. At a time when most revellers would be in a state of a stuporous daze after a long Eve dinner, he did his last bodily duties and travelled into the horizon to the Otherside. He died in his sleep, finishing his dharmic obligations. At a time when serenity was the order of the day in the green-lushed tropical port city of Penang, in 1938, he was a born to first-generation Malaysian parents. His cry was greeted with smiles and waves of laughter of thankful parents and relatives. Growing through the tumultuous years of the Second World War, the sluggish economics years of the post WW2 era, the poverty of joblessness, the street-smart years of the 50s, through the euphoria of the independent Malaya wit...

The Prince Author: Niccolò Machiavelli (1532) Think Machiavellian politics and what comes to mind are Robert Mugabe and even Dr Mahathir. Many miniseries addicts, especially of 'House of Cards' would recall the Kevin Spacey character of Senator Francis Underwood and his modus operandi which are similar to one propagated by the Master himself, Niccolò Machiavelli. At a time when altruism and fear of God were the order of the day, Machiavelli's writing must have been a controversial one. It remains a pioneer scripture in the field called political philosophy. What Machiavelli propagates may not appear just or 'Christian-like', but a leader to stay in power, it must be the divine. A true leader who is convinced is the best one for the nation, whether elected by force or popular demand, has to follow rules laid out by the man himself. He has to remember that he is alone. The only people that he can depend on are general citizens. He must always keep the genera...

The Talwars: Behind closed doors (HBO Asia, Documentary; 2017) It all started with Fr Martin Luther pinning his thesis on the church door some 500 years ago. He posited that people wanted to know and experience the truth for themselves. They want to read the scriptures in their mother tongue. They do not want the Truth to be exclusive to the few in power. The elitists reiterated that the general public cannot handle the truth. Some things are better left to the experts to interpret. Fast forward to the Industrial Revolution and Internet era, people's thirst for the Truth had escalated to phenomenal heights. Still, they feel inadequate, devoid of comprehending most of the Universe's secrets. Media practitioners took the bold stop of mongering news right into their living rooms. They even televised real-time combat scenes as it happened as seen during Desert Storm. This documentary which is a summary of a real-life case that happened in 2008 shows, among other things,...

City Lights (1931) Written, Produced, Directed, Acted: Charlie Chaplin Hailed as one of the best movies of all time, this silent film was released when sound system was already coming to the mainstream. Chaplin also wrote the musical score. The famous musical tune in it, 'La Violetera', was contested for copyright infringement and was won by its Spanish composer Jose' Padilla . Keeping with Chaplin's political views, this story paints a very impersonal picture of modern capitalist living. It is comical to see (besides Chaplin's antics) how the general public is seen in such a hurry to be heading to nowhere. They party in such a meaningless way without actually enjoying themselves. It seems as if the revelry is forced upon them. Almost robotic, they carry on their life after all the merrymaking without any attachments. Town folks only seek for you when they are in dire straits or in need of a shoulder to cry on. Otherwise it just everybody with their ways. ...

Murder at Orient Express (2017) What was supposed to be an Agatha Christie's whodunnit turned out to be highly philosophical one. Sure, we all, by now must be quite familiar with the quirky Inspector Hercule Poirot and his peculiar ways of solving crimes. Here Mon. Poirot carries with him a baggage of a melancholic past and tries to make sense of the actions of mankind; his penchant for criminal activities, his failure to follow the path acceptable as the correct one should be. A single action has many repercussions. A single turn of event that goes against our desires strains our relationships, changes our perspective of the future, increases anxiety, induces phobia, shatters confidence, brings psychosomatic maladies, destroys families literally and metaphorically as well as destroys the whole community in more ways than we realise. All after all the generations of our existence, we still succumb to our primal desires to be blinded by anger and emotions. At the cr...

Just the other day, a discussion brewed in our WhatsApp group. This group was started with the intention of educating ourselves and understanding the nuances of the world. We discussed politics, world events, philosophy, religion, ancient history, epistemology, Trump, Vedanta and almost anything under the sun with the hope of peeling open the sleeping inner eye within us to see the bigger picture of things around us. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: असतो मा साद गमय, तमसो मा ज्योतिर् गमय, मृत्योर मा अमृतम् गमय (Asato Ma Sad Gamaya, Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya, Mrityor Ma Amritam Gamaya) Lead us from ignorance to truth, Lead us from darkness to light, Lead us from death to deathlessness. ( recited at the end of the climatic end of arthi, Hindu prayers, when the Jyothi, fire, is shown to the deity. If only the congregation appreciates the true meaning of the verse and put it into practice. ) On one hand, we see some who perceive the world as one going through a 'dystopian age' of ...

What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response Bernard Lewis (2002) Warning: For mature readers only There was a time in world history when the Islamic world was like what America is today; the place of culture where people could sit down in coffee cafes to partake in intellectual discourses all day whilst the rest of the world, including Europe, was in the dark ages. Fast forward into the 21st century, one would find the situation reversed. People in the Islamic world cannot wait to get out of their toxic countries. If before, refugees used to move from the West to the East, now the tide is reversed. The author asks, 'What went wrong?'. In essence, the event that marked the beginning of the end of the heydays of the Ottoman Empire must surely be the failure at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. It was the time that the improvement in the weaponry and the military planning of the Europeans started to manifest. If before, coffee drinking was introduced by the Mus...

I found it funny that a close friend of mine should call me one day of something that eventually got me thinking. His close relative had been admitted for an ailment and he, who had decided that he was too good for the country, and was residing miles away after emigration, wanted to know whether the physician who was treating her was any good. "Any good?" I asked myself. "Perplexing that he should ask me that. After all, the physician must have been the guy who had probably topped his class academically, had apparently spent his productive years of his youth burning the midnight oil whilst other youngsters were having a whale of a time enjoying their youthful existence, trying not to leave any stone unturned just in case he is caught in a life and death situations in future. These and his other present-day out of office-hours and ungodly hour labours had come to this. Market forces deciding on the expertise and skill of a person who literally has the licence to kill...

Lights in the Dusk (2006) Written, produced and directed: Aki Kaurismäki This must surely be the bane of modern living. In contemporary times, Man lives a loner's life. He is individualistic and tries to find happiness in the company of himself. Koistinen runs life in a routine, doing things that he sees little satisfaction. He yearns for that elusive happiness, wonders where it is, contemplates where it is, questions whether it exists, wander around looking for it at all the wrong places and fails miserably. In his fear of not achieving eudaemonia, he is scared to commit himself in relationships. Perhaps because he spends too much alone, he finds sharing his living space too restrictive. He wants the freedom to explore without being tied down. He wants the cake and to eat it at the same time.  The film, which is the last instalment of Finland trilogy [Drifting Clouds (1996); The Man without a Past (2002)], keeps the theme of lonely life in that country. The...

I Hired a Contract Killer (1990) Screenplay, Production, Direction: Aki Kaurismäki When does a person consider himself a failure? Does it happen when he loses his job and is unable to sustain his existence? Or it happens when he realises that there is no future for him, nothing for him to live for? The path in front of him is just an abyss of nothingness with nothing to call his own. His life is hollow, and his interaction with others is just superficial acquaintances which end at the end of working hours or the break of dawn. Is he a loser when he is unable to provide for his loved ones? Does he lose it when the curtain draws on him and the Maker prematurely call him in? Set in the gloomy, dull days of the 70s in the United Kingdom when economic malaise was the order of the day and financial market was in the doldrums, it depicts the story of the Royal Water Works Board clerk who was retrenched. The Board is being privatised and the protagonist, Henri (...

Wiki:   Markandeya, a boy born of worship of Shiva, was given the boon of profound wisdom but a short life. Markandeya, himself a devout Shiva devotee, could not be taken at the time of his supposed death. He was in deep prayer in front of Shivalinga. Yama's noose trapped the Shivalinga, incurring Siva's wrath. A war ensued. Yama was defeated. People reached immortality and were acting with impunity without the fear of death. Yama was reinstated but, Markandeya was bestowed to stay forever young. This is what my father must be feeling right now. Completing his eighth decade of existence on Earth, he would be soon entering his ninth. By now, he must have got used to seeing his friends falling down like flies, one after another. Until about a few years ago, my contemporaries and I were only used to seeing pictures of relatives donning the obituary columns. Pretty soon, like him, we would start seeing more familiar faces of friends, buddies and soul mates. That, my friend,...

mother! (2017) I went in with both my eyes wide shut, not knowing what to expect. At first, I thought it was going to be a scary movie with all the close camera shots and sudden jerky movements which are often seen in this genre. Then, I thought maybe it was going to be like 'Rosemary's Child' - a happy couple meeting intruders with evil on their minds. Only as I delved further in, did I realise that there were more than met the eyes. It could be a biblical reference to God, Mother Nature, the creation of Adam and Eve, the struggle between Kane and Abel and the seemingly annoying character of people at large. In the typical fashion of an eerie flick, it started with a newly married couple staying in a secluded house out in the middle of nowhere. Then came trouble in the form of a visitor. And later his wife joined in, to disturb the serenity. Then came their sons who fought over the father's wealth. We are told that the father is stricken with terminal cancer. A bra...

Drifting Clouds (Finnish; 1998) Written and Directed: Aki Kaurismaki This modern world is only for the young, the well-heeled and the spendthrift. It is not interested in the older population who are less productive and tend to be miserly in their spending habits. The world revolves around generating economies, increasing debts and squeezing everyone out of their hard-earned money with the promise of giving them that elusive thing called happiness. Sure, there are avenues for one to make a living. It is hampered, however, by enslaving people to the bondage of their jobs. There is no leisure and no time to savour the fruit of their labour. At the same, people have to fulfil their biological purpose of existence and to bear the baggage that it brings, sweat, blood, tears, death and much more. Big corporate firms are only interested in the big players with big capitals. Little people with only determination and tenacity as their collateral do not excite them....

Queen of Dreams Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (2004) For centuries people have always associated dreams with our connection to the alternative realm. The unknown space that is beyond human comprehension that is said to be the link between our world and the inexorable dimension of divinity. For aeons, people have been under the impression that Gods speak to their subjects through this mode which they perceive as His way of communication. They were hellbent on to believing this that one almost severed his son's head and the other went on a world-saving venture impending doomsday by building an ark to converse all animals on Earth, much to the amusement of his neighbours and friends. People like Freud, putting God out of the equation, went on to suggest that these nocturnal visualisations were mere expressions of the mind which were suppressed, repressed or forgotten of the Conscious. It could also be therapeutic if one could critically analyse the cry of the hidden mind. ...