RIFLE RANGE BOY

You think you have your life under control. You know what you want to achieve and get your path mapped out. You have a Plan B and a Plan C just in case the inevitable happens. You work your butt out, knowing the way laden ahead is no walk in the park but one paved with shrapnels and gravel. But you persevere. Just when you look at yourself and think you have made a somebody out of yourself and think life cannot be any better, that is when life gives a devious smile and shows you who is boss. By then, you decided that life must be more 'complete'. You bow to societal pressure to be complete for the continuity of progeny. You import your significant other into it, and the other accompanying condiments ensue afterwards. Progressively you feel you have hit a dead-end. Nothing seems to progress at the individual level or as a collective unit. And it becomes gradually more difficult to amend the course or steer the ship. Things that were once in our control are no more. Sadly, you a...

Maverick School, Malaysia. I am amused by how some establishments have probably wrong choices of names. In my mind, their names have negative connotations. Or it was intended to be so. As they say in business, any publicity is good publicity. Anything that would stir the readers' curiosity or turns any head is good for business. Recently I came across two such instances. A private school called' Maverick' was set up in the Klang Valley. I always thought a maverick always has something up his sleeves. He has a scheme, a sleight of hand, that would benefit him. I perceive a maverick as someone like Artemus Gordon of 'The Wild Wild West' (1965), a secret service spy with tricks up his sleeves to protect the US President. Apparently, over the years, the term maverick had evolved from giving a negative connotation to something positive. People are no longer expected to be conforming and obedient but to think outside the box to be innovative. Correspondingly, students sho...

Elippathyam (Rat Trap, Malayalam; 1982) Story, Direction: Adoor Gopalakrishnan We are all caught in cages. The trouble is we do not know we are trapped and go around in circles with our daily chores. Like a  rat in her trap, the rat continues eating the bait left there. So here we are, caught in our comfort zones and contending with the status quo. We do not realise our fate is sealed, but we still carry on unperturbed, like an ostrich burying its head underground, hoping everything will disappear. We find this approach easier. Cracking our brains and thinking of the possibilities of things that may or may not go wrong is exhausting. May as well just go with the flow. The master moviemaker, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, came up with this simple story with symbolic reference to the changing times in Kerala, where feudalistic ways slowly evolved by revolution by the people. The feudal lords, who did not keep up with the change of the times, were just run over. Rat trap is a metaphor for life...