RIFLE RANGE BOY

Usually, I do not give too much importance to things that are spiritual in nature. I just simply join the bandwagon to keep people, especially my loved ones, happy. Like when I, the first born to my father, was summoned to perform certain rights on the first anniversary of his death, I just obliged. I knew it would make my mother happy to see my father 'sent off' to the ethereal world in a proper manner. It does not matter that my parents towards the tail end of his life, could not stand each other but that is another story for another day. The purpose of the prayers on the day of first death anniversary is to remind the soul of departed that he is not forgotten here on Earth. By invoking the forces of Nature, appeasing the feminine forces and cajoling the spirits of the ancestors, it is hoped that the deceased will keep a cursory eye on the wellbeing of the living. Do these things really happen or is it just another mumbo jumbo set up to put the element of fear of t...

The Indian side of the border. A spanking new complex in the pipeline. It is a daily affair, of public display of brotherly rivalry. The old wound of a state that was curved at will at a stroke of a pen. As the sun sets, both nations remind themselves they are of one DNA but two divided by politics and religion. It has become a ritual to irritate and provoke either side with their high flying kicking drills, the heaving of chests at each other and theatrical display of mocked emotions. Even though similar ceremonies are carried at two other border towns, the one at the trunk road between two sister cities, Amritsar and Lahore take the cake. They share a strong bond. Maharajah Ranjit Singh who united the states in Land of Five Rivers (Punjab) and held the honour of being the only force in the history of mankind to tame the hill tribes of Afghanistan, made Lahore his capital and honoured his guardian religion by building a golden outlook to the Hari Mandhir to see it as ...

Today's pointless discussion is on some of the meaningless celebrations that we as Tamilians honour. It caught my attention when one of the neighbours in my housing estate erected a canopy across the road blocking half of the road just to officiate the erection the small Muniswar statuette in his house compound. From my life experiences, I can say with conviction that the usual justification of such an erection is usually as part of fulfilling the demand of a dream. The Gods (or some of their representation of them, e.g. dog, whip or an apparition with a big moustache) would have manifested during their sleep and demanded or hinted for something of that nature. You cannot say this is something new or nonsensical as others have also known to have done this in the name of religion. Abraham (Ibrahim) almost put his son (Issac/Ismail) to the slaughter as God supposedly manifested in his dream to test his faith. Just as the unthinkable was about to happen, the 'sacrificial lamb'...