RIFLE RANGE BOY

Manto (Hindi, 2018) The versatile Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead. Man is full of contradictions. He has laid rules that he proclaims to be of the divine decree, but nobody follows. They say one thing and do something else, knowing very well that their action is directly antagonistic to what they preach. But rules are for others. They say all men are equal, but everybody knows that that only applies to a select group of people with political domination. Others do not really matter. Every community has its codes of decency, social mores and laws to put things straight but vice and crimes never cease. We know what is right and what is not, but we still turn a blind eye to atrocities that happen under our very noses. What is really the duty of writers? Do they have any responsibility at all? Are they there just to preach a utopia that we can all transcend to? Is their job to highlight things as they are on the ground to create a certain awareness to change the status quo? T...

Letters to Home (2016) Young Malaysians write back Edited by Ooi Kok Hin, Aish Kumar, Nik Mohamed Rashid Nik Zurin Just when you had heard enough of whining, ranting, hurling of brickbats at the pathetic state of affairs that the country and possible failed nation status that we may plunge, out comes a book which tries to paint a blue sky, a new dawn and words of hopefulness. At an instance, when most disillusioned Malaysians are leaving our shores to graze upon lush greens elsewhere and when overseas-trained graduates find their comfort zone their Newfoundland, this book gives a glimmer of hope. It tells us that life in this country in the future may not be all doom and gloom. This 234-paged book is a collection of over 30 authors who contributed to this uplifting experience. The writers are mainly millennials who were privileged enough to spend some time overseas in their pursuit of academic excellence, some through state scholarships. Many of them are envious of the ongoing p...

DUKE Inspector Mislan & the DUKExpressway Murders By: Rozlan Mohd Noor Met Rozlan at a book reading event and was convinced by him to give a go at his brand of Malaysian crime pulp fiction. After leaving the police force, one of his lifetime ambitions was to write ten books. Apparently, he has almost filled up with bucket list; two more to go!  He mirrors his protagonist after Horatio of CSI Miami, the mysterious cop with many hidden things in his closet. He juggles life as a single parent of a preteen and his demanding job of busting crimes in the city of Kuala Lumpur.  A car crashes onto a divider in the DUKE highway. Initial investigations soon reveal the victims to be business colleagues and lovers. What is initially reported as a suicide-murder becomes murky as the investigating officer, Inspector Mislan Latif, finds more and more loose ends that do not fit. The case becomes hotter as many people from the top, his superiors and politicians, hellbent ...

I think, therefore I am Lesley Levene (2010) The title takes after Descartes' famous saying 'I think, therefore, I am'. A person is a person, is alive because he can realise his existence, he can think. The same idea was proposed by the great Islamic physician and philosopher extraordinaire, Avicenna @ Ibn Sina. He floated the idea of a blindfolded 'flying man' who is suspended in mid-air. Despite not being in contact with his senses, Man is still aware that he exists even though his senses are numbed. That, in essence, means we exist, that we have a mind of our own! Ever since Man started looking at the sky on a starry night after a hard day's work without much entertainment to idle the night away, he must have noticed the 'star' that he was at the previous night had changed location. He must have called his friend. Slowly, with their newly well-myelinated brain, propelled by their new diet of fat rich food of fish, they must have started putting ...

Snow Phoenix and Me Author: Arthur Y. T. Foo When I got this book from my friend, the author, Arthur Foo, I asked him jokingly, “So you are naming your books after your girlfriend now?” He hushed me and was quick to rebut, “Not so loud, not in front of my wife!” with a coy smile and a wink. Just like his cheeky smile, this is a playful novella set at the tail end of the glorious Chinese dynasties. It is the turbulent of times, and political upheaval is the order of the day. Against this background starts the story of a mix breed Red Indian-Chinese hitman a.k.a Mr. Clean. During one of his hits, he becomes weak in the knees and falls hopelessly in love with a painter at the scene of an assassination! The field is set for an adventure of cat and mouse chase as he goes into hiding when his sifu warns him of imminent danger. Mr. Clean goes into hiding but not without his new found love. The tale goes on to narrate their escapade as they hit the old country road from Shanghai all t...

Malaiur Manikam (Malay; 2015) Author: Uthaya Sankar SB From the time of Thales, the first European philosopher, the first from the European perspective, the Easterners claim to have known this earlier, the quest to know the secrets of the universe kept on growing. The Greek philosophers thought that the structure of universe could be explained via trigonometry and mathematics. They were excited when they correctly predicted a solar eclipse in 585BCE. From then on, via critical debates and intelligent deductions, many theories were created. At the heights of the Golden Era of the Islamic Civilisation and the courtyards of Agra of the Mogul Empire, majlis and interfaith dialogues were familiar scenes. Each scholar would go as far as learning each other culture’s language so as to understand the crux of knowledge that each had to offer. They understood that what they knew was the only fistful; when what they need to know was ocean deep! Akbar went as far as creating...

© Oh, no!  Here he is again. Three times this week, Pa had appeared at my school. It is the same old story - that my mother is very sick and I have to go back to take care of her! If only I could tell my school teacher, "Teacher, don't trust him!" I had the urge to scream. If only I could tell her the real story. "No, my mother is heartily healthy!" My mouth yearned to verbalise. "She is alive and kicking. She would give me a nice whacking if only she knew what I am doing daily." I try not to look at Pa's direction. I was hoping that he would change his mind and go away. But alas, no! I can see from the angle of my eye that he is almost at the classroom door. "Excuse me, teacher", he said apologetically. I have to give it to him. Despite his relatively low educational achievements, he had the gift of the gab and flair for languages. Perhaps his privileged upbringing gave him the confidence to boss everybody around. Early e...

Nari! Nari! (Untuk Bacaan Rakyat Malaysia) Uthaya Sankar SB The moment the author started narrating part of his story at a book reading event recently, I was transported back to the late 1960s. My sister and I, both toddlers, enjoying the spring of lives, without a care or worry in our lists, were living in bliss in Brown Gardens. This is one of my earliest memory of my childhood that I can remember. Puthu Atteh (new aunt), the newly married lady (then) with an infectious toothy smile, was renting a room in my parent's abode. Every living day was a day filled with adventure, exploring new nature's gift to game play. With our neighbour's battalion of kids of two families, we played ' masak-masak ' - 'cooking' up a dishes with leaves, drain water and twigs! and 'robbers and thieves' - hiding behind trees and in culverts! Night-time was out of bounce for games and we were homebound. To let our imagination go wild, there were Puthu Atteh 's ...

Migrating to Australia, good meh? Authors: Ken And Michael Soong. In the typical conceited Malaysian fashion complacent with his comfort zone and would not lift his finger to help his helpless neighbour, most of my friends who saw the title of the book were quick and forthcoming with their unsolicited advice, went on a with unpunctuated liberal last words. "You don't need read a book to know that, come here, I'll tell you!" they said. Sure, it is easy to go on a rant on the merits and demerits of migration, the push and pull factors, of political and economic refuge. Sure, our forefathers took the bold step of giving up they had, which is what they never had, as times were bad then. It was a question of whether staying for a saviour to turn up to save the day, to become a statistic or plunge into the pit of uncertainty. Those were different times with different needs. We have come a long way from living to survive to living to prosper. This book, in my view, g...

The distributor told me that whatever is said, people still judge the book by its cover, hence emphasising the need for a captivating eye-catching cover. Once the book cover caught the eyes, only then would the potential buyer make an attempt to browse through between its covers! Like the Malay proverb says, 'from the eyes to the heart' and 'what you do not know, you do not fall for' - ' dari mata terus ke hati', 'tak kenal maka tak cinta'. In real life too, things are not much different. Sometimes, we are fooled by external appearances. A person can dressed in the nines in tandem with the latest in haute culture cities of world equally spankingly manicured, pedicured and groomed smelling like a rose garden. The enchantment stops short once the person open the gab, enough to give anybody  a heart attack! No, not because of their putrefying halitosis but the illiteracy and nincompoopery that they exude. Well, on the other hand, the most brilliant of ma...

Out now... Crisp from the printers... Inside the twisted mind of Rifle Range Boy ISBN: 978-967-13153-0-9 to order... http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy

Bumped into an old acquaintance recently. As there was too much time to kill, rather than looking at each other, we decided to talk about stuff. One thing led to another till finally he spoke about a book that he was writing. Having too much time in his hands with tip-top condition of his mental capabilities as evidenced by his previous gargantuan presence in the university and the number of journal research papers to support, just rotting away into retirement just because the state uses other people's yardstick to assess seem just too wasteful. Rather than let the Devil set up workshop in his mind, he had embarked on a journey to honour the person he held close to his dear heart - his dear mother. His mother's single-handed attempt to uplift her family from clutches of poverty, she, with her wisdom, albeit her handicap in the education department but not the desire to learn, managed to struggle through the tumultous times of pre-independent Malaya to provide for her offsprin...

Entering a new phase of his life, RRB found himself in the company of solitary confinement dearth of intelligent life form. Solitude trickled his grey cells to trigger some questions about life and its intricacies. Hence began the outpouring of his thoughts into cyberspace for nobody to hear. This is a compilation of some of his thought provoking posts from his blog, Rifle Range Boy (asokan63.blogspot.com). His tangential flight of ideas may not be politically correct or be universally acceptable but what the heck, it is his party and he could cry if he wants to! FG

Horror Stories (2014) Tunku Halim Malaysians have a soft spot for things involving the other world, the unknown one lurking on the other side. Again and again this is evident form their penchant in seeking entertainment involving the supernatural, invoking them to help out out in helping out in their worldly duties and even turning up in droves to view exhibits allegedly used by practitioners of black magic. The reception was too hot and intimidating that the powers that be had to close the exhibition in the National Gallery prematurely a few years ago. The publishers of the book, unashamedly, admit that they print books to make money, not for literary excellence. What better way to strike the pot of gold than to write about ghosts and its avatars. The easy to read book is a collection of 20 horrors stories which characters of which many Malaysians are familiar with - toyol, pontianak, cemetery, bomoh, etceteras. A love struck lowly clerk desperately tries to woo a sophis...