RIFLE RANGE BOY

"... But you just killed a soldier," I tell my sons and nephew who naturally find fine bonding by staying glued to the TV monitor and go on a shooting spree on their computer game named 'Call of Duty'. "But they are baddies, German soldiers!" they reply. I retorted, "..they are also somebody's son, husband, brother and father. Somebody is going to grow up without a father and is going to a psychological wreck!" Before the time when games were on hand held devices, in the late 80s (1989), my house mate who was performing the unenviable lonely but essential anaesthetic service in a district hospital, was a lone wolf in a small town where the siren of the ambulance is the only excitement. To maintain his own sanity, my friend used to periodically visit a gaming shop to have his daily dose of radiation from the consoles of Sega panels. After killing loads of baddies and aliens, he would return rejuvenated, like having a shot in the arm, like back ...

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...