RIFLE RANGE BOY

A thought flew past me as I was sitting through a lavish wedding dinner in a posh establishment recently. A doctor in the infant years of his career was proudly showcasing his catch to the world to ogle. Set with the high-brow society setting and the ambience to match, we, the mortals were given a sneak peek into the lives and times of the groom and bride through a montage of a roll of photos that was rolling during the function. We gathered that the respective families went through thick and thin, scaling the waves of obstacles to attain the comfort that they had acquired in life.  Well and dandy, all these... But how is a measly paid medical officer in the notoriously underpaid system of Malaysian civil service going to sustain the same type of lifestyle? Is he still going to be that dedicated doctor who will weather all kinds of resistance to put wellbeing above everything else as he chose the profession, not for the glamour but the calling? Is he going through grind t...

The timeline of the known history of the Malay Peninsula (40.000 BCE - 2018 CE). From the arrival of the first modern humans, the spread of cultures, the emergence of Hindu-Buddhist city-states, the era of Srivijaya Empire, rise of Islamic sultanates, European colonialism, up until modern-day states in 2018. (Reference:  Lazardi Wong Jogja  youtube) This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .

Irumbu Thirai (இரும்புத்திரை, Iron Curtain, Tamil; 2018) Every now and then, one can get a fresh new idea popping up in Tamil movies and this is one. As usual, most often the filmmakers, in their best wisdom, would decide that the storyline should be so frivolous that the whole film will end up making not much for an impact, especially to those outside the purview of Kollywood fans.  This film acts more like a PSA (public service announcement) highlighting the general public the dangers of freely divulging personal particular and private data to social media and to people of authority.  The gist of the story is how loans supposedly released for purchases end up with third parties via interception at a digital level. In the greater scheme of things, these wastages are mere paper losses. To the poor debtors, it is a question of life or death; of loss of livelihood. As far the bank is concerned, the transaction is done and the borrower has to pay, no matter what....

Admit it. One cannot remain in the limelight forever. Everyone has their temporary sojourn in the hall of fame, after which they would have to relinquish their baton the next Johnny-come-lately. One cannot stay perched on top of the pecking order forever. Professional decline generally happens in all professions, some earlier than the others. Athletes commence their declines quite early, whereas teachers, writers and researchers lose it much later. Peak performances of many professionals rarely happen at an advanced age. Not everyone takes the dimming of the spotlight gracefully. Charles Darwin 1809-1882 Charles Darwin was just 27 when he returned on the Beagle with his discoveries in botany and zoology. From that time, for the next 30 years, he was the go-to scientist who published the famous 'On the Origin of Species'. After 50, Darwin hit a brick wall. Not keeping up with mathematical calculations that were so important in later researches, he became irrelevant and ...

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) It may be a thrilling experience for a diehard MCU fan. For an average viewer, however, it may just be another a superhero movie of a young boy with too much raw power in his hands. How many times have we been confronted with a superhero with the dilemma of doing the correct thing with the unique ability that he had been conferred? And in how many outings have we seen Spidey's wooing of his beau, Mary Jane? This time around, the story writers had taken us to a time when Peter Parker was still in school before his stint as a part-time journalist with the Daily Bugle and his daily tiff with his editor J. Jonah Jameson.  In keeping with the sensitivities of the times, MJ is no more the blue-eyed, high cheek-boned orthodontist-treated wannabe blonde actress  but a fellow classmate of the member of the minority group. For good measure, the producers had resorted to race-swapping to pacify all quarter. A hijab-clad fellow student and an Oriental...

Insignia of Apollo 11. It all started as squabbles between brothers. Much like Kane and Abel, both brothers thought their respective brand of economic reforms was the way forward. One believed in freedom and liberty whilst the other insists that discipline and order bring the best in people. The world soon became divided into two blocks - the vibrant capitalists and the red communists.  Who said competition is terrible? Did it not surge to dominate over the other? Both tried to showcase their achievements; USA and USSR became the leaders of their respective sects. Industrialisation was viewed upon as the clear proof of success, and soon, the craze of space exploration became the next in-thing. At one time, it appeared like the Russians were winning with hands down. They had managed to send Laika, the space dog to outer space in 1957. Soon they managed to send Yuri Gagarin (1961) and Valentina Tereshkova (1963, a female cosmonaut) to orbit Earth. View of Earth aboard Apo...

Aruvi (Tamil அருவி; 2017) This is a compelling sociopolitical drama which must have surely been written by a card-carrying member of the socialist/communist party. Who else would paint such a bleak picture of modern life and the self-defeating trappings that line every aspect of our lives? Human values take a back seat. A pre-set path is made for us to follow and feel contended. Any deviation from the norm is frowned upon. The whole purpose of life is to promote consumerism, be awed by materialism and to fatten the multinational conglomerates. T his is an absorbing saga of a young girl, Aruvi, who acquired HIV most unconventionally - at the roadside coconut vendor as she savoured a probably contaminated freshly cut coconut! Long story short - she falls seriously ill, is diagnosed, hurled abuses of promiscuity and is chased away by the previously loving family. She wanders around, living with friends and working menial jobs. At every corner, the men in her life misbehaved. They d...

Fleabag (Comedy, Miniseries, 2016 -2019) Created, Directed and Starred: Phoebe Waller-Bridge Fleabag is a dark comedy about a 30-something single lady who is trying to make it her life mission to fall in love and settle down. But it is not easy. In the background are the memories of her business partner who committed suicide (or is it an accident?), her high achieving neurotic sister, her alcoholic brother-in-law, her widowed father who is sort of arm-twisted to remarry with a conniving and eccentric painter and the plethora of suitors who are equally clueless about their purpose in life. Society has evolved over the generations to educate the fairer sex to give an equal place in the sun. Sometimes we wonder if this empowerment makes things more difficult for them to decide what is best for them. Entitlement, not wanting to be shortchanged in their choices of life partners, brings them to the brink of insanity. The options are too many, and nothing satisfies them any more. So why...

http://literaryjournal.in/index.php/clri/article/view/297 CLRI Contemporary Literary Review India Brings articulate writings for articulate readers. eISSN 2394-6075 | Vol 6, No 1: CLRI February 2019 | p- 181-187       Book Review on Farouk Gulsara’s Inside the  Twisted Mind of Rifle  Range Boy Prof Shiv Sethi ‘Inside the Twisted Mind of Rifle Range Boy’ is a melange of profound thoughts penned down by Farouk Gulsara. Hailing from a family where everybody perceives that there is only a single way to deal with the things either black or white whereas the writer is inclined to have an altogether contrary viewpoint. As he advances in the years and grows mature, he becomes aware of the harsh reality that the family of his parents has innumerable blood-curdling  tales to narrate because they had witnessed the seamy side of life during the turbulent times of early Malaya. Farouk Gulsara makes the most of that opportunity and begins...