RIFLE RANGE BOY: No one would harm a penguin, except Batman!

My fascination with penguins started long ago during the transitional period when colour TV was slowly being introduced. There was a time, as a teenager, when the greatest excitement around the neighbourhood was knowing which home had a colour TV. Looking across the flat facing mine, I could guess which units had the latest device, which was the talk of the time, which was the flickering flash of hues emanating from each unit. Maybe its occupants purposely watch TV with the lights off to show the world they have indeed arrived!

I was once watching someone's TV during an ongoing show. I had a hard time deciding whether his TV was monochrome or colour. It was a long-shot scene from Antarctica, with a lone penguin walking against a pristine white snow background. That is when I realised that a penguin can fit into any world without creating a fuss. It also struck me that a penguin can be an unassuming animal, just minding its own business, walking, flipping its flippers and squawking all day.

I later discovered that my sisters, who were both in Convent School, had a name for the nun school caretakers: penguins. Dressed in long black robes, with their hands tucked behind their backs, they would suddenly appear at the back of the class unannounced. Against the bright light in the background, they would appear like penguins when students turned to find the nun at the back of the class.

The reference to penguins came again in the late 80s when I was in university. The Iranian Revolution had succeeded, and sympathisers were hopeful of a return to the glory days of the Ottoman Empire. Islamic dressing was the flavour of the day, and pretty soon people were moving around in black garb, complete with black facial veils and gloves. There were even five medical students at the university who had such fashion sense. These 'penguins', as they were referred to by fellow culture-shocked students, were politely told to pursue other academic fields which avoided public interactions.

Embrace the penguin
Times of India

After MH370's disappearance, the South Seas were mentioned as a possible area where the wreckage could be found. I started watching documentaries about these seas and the lands surrounding them, which are described as the harshest places on Earth. Penguins came up yet again. The story of their survival, chicks waiting in winter for their parents to bring food, grow, mate, lay eggs, partners taking turns incubating, all within a short window of opportunity and under the prancing eyes of the predators is just amazing.

Recently, I watched an episode of Season 5 of 'Slow Horses'. Penguins came up again. A group of terrorists sent a warning to the police that they meant business. They detonated a bomb in, of all places, the zoo. The casualty, penguins. One of the investigators cursed, "Who the heck hates penguins?" Another replied, "Batman!"

Almost serendipitously, a certain world leader expressed his intention to control Greenland, which was thought to be a giant icy wasteland all this time. Newspapers tried to showcase the case to the world, complemented by a picture of Trump walking towards an icy oblivion, leading a penguin by its flipper.

Instead of creating awareness of the heady direction US foreign policy was heading, the picture soon became the showpiece of how PR companies could go wrong. Netizens were quick to educate Trump's PR team that penguins do not live anywhere near the Arctic Circle, definitely not in Greenland.

Antarctica - Encounters at the End of the World
The Nihilistic Penguin

Netizens also noted that the penguin picture bore a strong resemblance to the one that appeared in the 2007 documentary 'Encounters at the End of the World' by Werner Herzog. The documentary maker noted that, rather than following the herd, which tends to stay by the sea where its food is, that particular penguin decided to venture away from the pack. At a glance, it appeared the penguin was certainly on its way to meet its maker, which is probably what happened. No matter what the modern management guru may say about taking the path least travelled, what lay ahead of the animal was miles and miles of ice, and more ice. That earned the penguin a quirky nickname, 'nihilistic penguin'. The scientists in the show explained that occasionally one or two penguins stray away from the pack. A possible reason for this behaviour could be spatial disorientation or a brain infection. Scientists, amongst themselves, have an agreed code. Whenever they observe any behaviour in animals that would endanger themselves, they generally do not intervene. They let nature take its course.

So, the image of Trump leading the penguin spells doom and gloom for both Greenland and the USA. Would anyone interfere, or would everyone just let nature take its course?