RIFLE RANGE BOY

The Sun rears its orangey hue over the horizon. Yet another new day dawns. The Sun does not know it is starting a new horizon. It performs its preordained duty, firing nuclear fusion reactions on its surface. It is the round Earth that revolves around the Sun. The Earth does not know a new day has begun. It just revolves counterclockwise on its axis. It has multiple new dawns at its manufactured latitudes. It neither knows where it started nor its point of reference. A series of celestial accidents brought it to be with its speed and its faithful lunar companion. https://borderlessjournal.com/2025/02/14/just-another-day-2/ This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .

When I was young, I was taught that the Tamil month of Margazhi (Dhanur Maas, Margashira) in mid-December was inauspicious. That was why weddings were not held in Margazhi but in the month preceding, Kaarthikai and the month following, Thai. In fact, the adage ' தை பிறந்தால் வழி பிறக்கும் ' (ways open up when the month Thai is born), convinced us that good things only happen in Thai - Thaipusam and Thai Ponggal. Thaipusam celebrations are to venerate Lord Murugan for defeating the demon king, Padmasooran. Ponggal is a harvest festival to appreciate Nature's interplay that sustains us. Then I heard a Kannadasan song composition classic from the movie 'Paava Manippu' ( பாவமன்னிப்பு ) named 'Kaalangil Aval Vasantham' ( காலங்களில் அவள் வசந்தம் ). In that song, the hero describes all his beau's excellent traits. If she were a flower, she would be jasmine; if she were a bird, she would be a dove and so on. He goes on to say if she were the month in the calenda...

COVID-19? jumping species or wannabe predator?? Is it funny that every time Man thinks that he has it all figured out, Nature (or fate if you like to call it) just jolts him back to reality? Like Will E Coyote and his spanking new latest invention from ACME Corporation, it just falls flat and blows right on his face again and again, and Roadrunner always goes scot-free, scooting off yet again, screeching "beep..beeep!"  The latest viral scare of COVID-19 ( Co rona vi rus D isease 20 19 ) just opens up our vulnerability. All the so-called foolproof systems that we had installed are just scribblings on the sand - they cannot withstand the test of time. And they are so porous. We thought we had all the arsenal that could not only not annihilate our enemies but ourselves in the process too. All these are useless in combating our electron-microscopic size enemy. We are literally crippled by an unseen offending foe. All the King's horses and the King's men cannot p...