RIFLE RANGE BOY

He had heard of it all. At every corner, the naysayers were there. They were free with unsolicited advice that he should not forget where he came from, that the pinky would only grow to the size of the thumb, and that a sparrow should not dream of flying majestically like an eagle.   As if the road ahead was not uncertain enough, these doomsday philosophers jumped on the bandwagon to sow the seeds of doubt.  Already in turmoil, trying to pull oneself by the bootstraps, the negative vibes are the last that anyone wants to hear. But they yak on... He was raised in an environment where he was told to respect others and not to tell somebody off on the face; he would just smile it off.   The element of doubt still lingered, however. The quandary was whether he was indeed doomed to fail. With perceived divine guidance, he persevered.  He had the grace of his family as well. The answer to his doubt must have been answered finally. Not only has he proved his critics wrong, b...

https://borderlessjournal.com/ 2023/01/20/what-do-rishi- sunak-freddy-mercury- mississippi-masala-have-in- common/ Rishi Sunak’s appointment to 10 Downing Street has made people aware of the significant presence of Indians in the African Continent. Indian-African cultural and trade exchanges had been ongoing as early as the 7th century BC. Africans are also mentioned to have significantly influenced India’s history of kingdoms, conquests and wars. The second wave of Indian migration to Africa happened mainly in the 19th century with British imperialism via the indentured labour system, a dignified name for slavery. It is all semantics. What essentially happened at the end day is a large Indian diaspora in countries like South Africa, Mauritius, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and many more. Many of the Indians who made their way there as labourers, over the generations, began to play significant roles in the economy and professional representations in these countries... https://borderlessjourn...

The Yellow Bird (Singapore, 2016) Director: K Rajendran How does one make a genuinely Singaporean (or Malaysian) movie? What language does he use to make it look authentic? Just look at the ground level. Stand in the marketplace in the heart of town and listen to the murmur. One hears a potpourri of languages spoken by different tongues and in different accents. It must be a treasure trove for a person like Professor Higgins (of 'My Fair Lady') to do his fieldwork. Hence, quite rightly so, the filmmakers decided to utilise a hodgepodge of common languages spoken amongst the characters in the film to make it look believable. One can say this is a Singaporean Tamil film as the protagonist is Tamil-speaking. Still, otherwise, there are Mandarin, English, Singlish and Hokkien spoken laced with a liberal dose of profanity in keeping with the company of the crowd that the main character is associating. When Singapore is shown in any setting, the views that often pop up are the Merlio...

R Arumugam @ Spiderman in action I remember a time in primary school when Malaysia was playing hockey in the World Cup, and we were hosting them. One of my friends, ignorant that he was, predicted that Malaysia would lose, not because India is a good team but because Malaysia had too many players of Indian ethnicity. The Malaysians would not play with as much zest due to allegiance to their ancestral roots. Of course not, I told him. It was like the national goalie Spidey R Arumugam letting in a few goals during Merdeka tournament to India for old times’ sake. No way that was going to happen. In the same way, I fail to see why many individuals of the Indian diaspora are getting all excited, ad nauseam, after the announcement of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden’s running mate. For the record, Kamala is half Indian on the maternal side and Jamaican on the other. Kamala @ Momala with hubby and stepkids. Kamala Harris is an American true and true. She was born in America, read in t...

Contestants: V artika Singh (India) , Mohana Prabha (Singapore), Mehr Elieser (Panama), Priya Serrao (Australia),  Shweta Sekhon (Malaysia). The female members of the clan were ecstatic to learn that they possibly shared the same forefathers of five of finalists who have been shortlisted at the 2019 Miss Universe contest.  I did not want to be a spoilsport to dampen the spirit of achievement; they had no role at all. If anything, it only shows their hypocrisy. On  one end, they want to be assessed on their mental ability and tenacity. They feel slighted when referred to as the weaker sex or given leeway for under achievements. They would like to believe that their successes in life were purely via merit, not by merely being the fairer sex. They raise their gaze when the female gender is condescended upon or depicted in a negative light. But it is quite puzzling that the parading of scantily clad females like livestock raises no concern at all to them. Sur...