RIFLE RANGE BOY

Tweet (2016) Isa Kamari We, human beings, like to think that we are unique; that everything that happens around us revolves for us and is about us. Maybe, just maybe, animals just like us, do indeed have a consciousness to aspire things in life. They, like us, have hierarchy and order in life. On top that that, they may want to have big dreams and long to be in an imagined place of bliss. 'Tweet' is a thin book which looks sarcastically at the goings-on at a bird park in Singapore. Concurrently, the story tells the conversation between a grandfather and grandson as well a purported communication among and between species of birds in the park. At face value, the man-boy conversation may seem simple, it is laced with symbolism and philosophy of life. The birds too feel trapped in an environment so alien to their natural habitat. Even though the park promises to be right and fair to its inmates, the whole idea is just to create an aesthetically pleasin...

I should be king, you old man! We came here first, you pendatang! I am the fairer sex, despite my hue! And I am left with this miserable fish! I told you to keep the feet off my territory, as the First Amendment says! I will get you if that is the last thing I do! Who is the idiot who stepped my petite toe? I told you that chick is mine! I am home alone again while my guy goes gallivanting! Huh, caught you red handed (footed)! And you told me it is over between you and the tramp! Ugh! Tasteless! I told you not to fly. Cis, bedebah, berani kau? Nah, ambillah habuan kau! What miserable life? Feeding these bottomless pits! (Saapaatu Raman - சாப்பாட்டு ராமன்  )

It looks like in a cycle of every 10 years, someone from some corner of the world will come up with some droll characters which will be personified with human characters and cute aesthetically pleasing features and the world by storm. At the end of the day, it would be aimed at reaping financial benefits out of it. That is always the bottom- line, is it not - $, £, ¥ and €? In the 1980s, it was the irritating pink female feline kitten which ruled the world. Suddenly, it was Hello Kitty everywhere! There were even shops selling only Hello Kitty merchandise - dresses, slippers, make-up, night gowns, accessories, you name it. I suppose even before that people used to have to fetish for domesticated hairy bears fondly named Teddy after Theodore Roosevelt! And the China Dolls, of course now it means something else...or Japanese porcelain dolls ala Chucky! Just for information, as of 2003, Sanrio, the Japanese company who designed this Kitty, was earning USD 1...