RIFLE RANGE BOY

Mindhunter (Miniseries, S1-2, 19 episodes) Director: David Flincher et al. Growing up, being exposed to all those Hollywood movies and T.V. crime dramas, I used to wonder why was it that they were so many serial killers in America. Fast forward to the present, not necessarily much wiser; I think this type of crime is evenly distributed worldwide. As people become aware of such psychologically-related killings, more get exposed. It used to be that crimes and murders happened because of money, women, power and anger. Now we have another component to feed, our unexplainable inner desire to inflict pain, destroy and gloat in the joy of executing, planning, reminiscing, reliving the moment and being in the limelight dodging it.  One reason why serial killer murders can be extensively investigated in the USA and Europe is the availability of funds and manpower. Even years after the cases have turned 'cold', there is a push from society to continue investigating these cases. The State...

Fair dues warning: This is a spiritual post. Please leave if you are easily offended.  Krishna demolishing Kansa I heard a talk from a Hindu scholar recently. He was narrating the story of Krishna and the troubling times he was born into. Rather, the Protector of the Universe, Vishnu, manifested himself as Krishna to maintain law and order. Too many influential people were abusing their positions to create chaos, which needed to be curbed. Krishna 's immediate duty was to defeat Kansa, his uncle, a demonic King. Trouble started when Kansa married off his sister, Devaki, to Vasudeva. Deep inside, Kansa intended to usurp Vasudeva's land. At the wedding, a prophecy was heard that Devaki's eighth child would be the reason for Kansa's defeat. Kansa imprisoned the couple, and Devaki's seven children were all killed at birth. Why all the other births, too, not just the eighth? Somebody alerted Kansa that the seven siblings could rally behind the eighth to attack him. When ...

Diary (Tamil; 2022) Director: Innasi Pandiyan The story is based on an urban legend that arose in Beijing in November 1995. A local bus, no 375, left its station late one night to a remote destination. An old lady and a young man were travelling on it. Three people in traditional garb waved it down as the bus moved on. When the old lady saw these people, she started a quarrel with the young man she had come up with. She accused him of stealing her purse. Startled, the man fought back. They were both forced to get down by the bus conductor to sort it out at the local police station. Once they were off the bus, the old lady apologised to the young man for creating a ruckus. She told him the three characters who boarded the bus had no feet, so she thought they were ghosts. She just wanted to get away from them. They both went to tell the police about their experiences, but their story was laughed off. The next day, it was reported that the bus never reached its destination, and two days l...

Kalki 2898 AD (Telegu; 2024) Director: Nag Ashwin Why is it that every culture predicts a nihilistic future where annihilation is the final outcome? Almost all paint a picture of chaos where morality is down the drain, virtue becomes an alien feature, and pandemonium is king. According to Hindu culture, time is cyclical in Nature. A time unit, chaturyoga, lasts 8.64 million years. It is divided into four yugas—Satya, Treta, Dwarpa, and Kali. We are in Kaliyuga, which commenced in 3102 BCE and will last for 432,000 years.  Each yuga depicts further deterioration of human behaviour. Like the four seasons on Earth will repeat indefinitely. By the end of Kaliyuga, human behaviour will be despicable, with total anarchy and chaos, reaching the point of entropy. Decoiry, emphasis on external beauty, false divinity, fakery, greed, and the list go on about what can be expected by the end of Kaliyuga. Nature would need to reboot and restart the system, returning to Satya, the golde...

The Etymologicon:  A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language Author: Mark Forsyth (2011) This book will excite you if you were one of those, me included, who gets excited knowing things that add minimal value to your mundane day-to-day life. It gives you a false satiety that you are a bigger being for realising some worthless fact. In no imaginable way is it going to improve your life. Perhaps, a transient warm fuzzy feeling when you sigh and say, "Ha. I see, that's what!" Well, reading is not about passing examinations. Sometimes, it helps you pass that awkward moment in a boring or break the ice with a total stranger when mysteriously transplanted in the company of a haughty visitor that your wife conveniently pushed to you to entertain. These are moments when you find worthless information, a boon that could morph that awkward silence into lighter moments. The danger in this strategy is that your wife's unsavoury friends could change...

Ullozhuku (Undercurrent, Malayalam; 2024) Director: Christo Tomy An old Tamil proverb goes, ‘Tell a thousand lies to make one marriage happen.’ In Indian society and most Eastern cultures, a person is highly encouraged to get married once he or she is of marriageable age.  Before Bharat Matrimony and Shaadi.com came into the picture, the services of marriage brokers were often summoned. Like St Jude Thaddeus, the patron of the impossible and lost causes, the broker, armed with various biodata including age, educational status, skin fairness chart, horoscope, Varna, and juicy family scandals that needed to be suppressed, would come the most appropriate match.  Like in game theory, both sides may have their bag of worms but would find it appropriate to keep them buried. After all, they would see the bigger picture. A married person reaches a certain elevated status in society. Even funeral rituals are slightly different for the unmarried. With time, all these societal norms have...

Anjaamai (Fearlessness, அஞ்சாமை, Tamil; 2024) Direction: S P Subburaman I thought having private tutoring was only confined to school children caught in the rat race of wanting to excel in public examinations. So I was taken aback when a colleague I was working with in 1988 in Malaysia told me he engaged a private tutor to coach him to pass his medical examinations as a medical student in India. No, not passing medical tests but to secure a pass in his exams as an undergraduate. Until then, my understanding of tuition was that it was for weaker students who could barely keep up with the rest of the class. To engage tutors for mature university students, the crème de la crème of the society who were supposed to be handpicked for the clamoured professional degrees, was laughable to me, then. Since then, it seems much has changed. Medical studies in India have undergone much scrutiny as more politicians and politically connected businessmen consider building private medical colleges a luc...