RIFLE RANGE BOY

The 4th Beatle? Paul is dead? 🐕 A successful Bollywood star was once interviewed for a podcast. The star had apparently struggled to climb the ladder of success without any connections or dynastic lineage to boost. He delved deep into his humble beginnings as he cosied up to the interviewer. Soon the whole conversation became up, close and personal. The Tinseltown star started reminiscing the times he grew up pathetically poor. The family lived on the poorer side of town. Five family members, parents and three siblings squeezed into a tiny bedroom. A slight cough, hiccup or even sigh would alert the others to inquire whether things are alright. Besides pacifying each other, they would prepare some kind of concoction. Whether the home remedy worked or not, the love shared obviously did the trick. They were closely knit. Jackie Shroff Lady luck dropped in, and stars sparked brightly. With fame and fortune came a big mansion. Each family member had a private bedroom and attached fittings...

Nature does not give favours. It just spins on its wheel as the Universe goes on moving forward and expanding outwards. It does not care for the weak, the rich or the powerful. It whitewashed the nation in one swing, denuding the land and flattening enormous erections. A pup is born in a freak accident of Nature, combined with the estrus cycle of an ovulating bitch and the mating season. It is not a season of joy but a mere duty ingrained in the female canines to care for the pup. The Nature that brought the puppy is playing its tricks again. Nature unleashes its vigour yet again. At every level, elements strike him. The pup grows because of and despite the forces of Nature. In a way, Nature is strengthening and preparing the dog as it meets the hurdles that will befall it in its future. The weaklings will be cancelled. Its presence would not be missed or recorded in the annals of dog history. Sometimes you wonder what the purpose of all these is? The same force that creates also destr...

Chief, Doggy extraordinaire Credit: IMDB I watched an episode of the documentary 'Forensic Files' where a dog, when it failed to protects its masters, still managed to bring justice to the masters via its DNA to expose the identity of their murderers.  A group of gangsters had entered a couple's home mistakenly thinking that the stash cocaine that they were looking for was there. Chief, a pit bull-Labrador mix pet of the household, pounced at the intruders only to be subdued by a gunshot on its shoulder. The gangsters continued their harassment by shooting the wife dead and giving non-fatal shots at the husband. Despite his near-fatal wound, Chief pounced back on the shooter as he was aiming at his master's chest. The shooter turned and shot Chief right between the eyes. The couple and their pet succumbed to the injuries eventually. Despite all the extensive police investigations, the perpetrators could not be pinpointed. Finally, Chief's DNA and furs were instrumen...

Appa was never a friendly person. In his lifetime, I never saw him had friends coming over for a jolly good time or, he, being in the company of buddies or workmates for one. He is a man of few words. His idea of relaxation is the company of himself, within the confines of the four walls of his home and the accompaniment of his faithful transistor radio.  He is one who taught me that so much could be expressed without verbalising a single word. Bonding can be shown without any unnecessary spoken word or meaningless display of emotion. He could spend a whole hour connecting with his sibling seated in a room for a full hour without a single sound. In short, he was economical with his words and not so expressive in his actions.  All that, however, took a 180º turn when it came to Tango. Tango, not of the Tango and Cash fame, but was a lowly mutt who gasped his last breath quite recently after 13 years of existence. That would equal to 91 in human's equivalen...

Credit: stress.org You think you have it bad, working your butt day in and day out, dancing to the tunes of the loved ones around you and clowning to the antics of your potential clients. You were made to think that you are responsible for your mess. It is not proper for one to absolve himself of his misdeeds. It does not matter if the mistakes were made in the prime of youth when the heart control the mind and the sacral plexus were more dominant than the pre-frontal cortex. You reap what you sow, they say. The demands of the modern world get too overwhelming. The pressure cooker lifestyle that you lead needed decompression. Your friends tell you to de-stress your life. Their mantra sings, "Lose your wife and reduce your stress by 50%; lose your Wi-fi for the remaining 50%!" On top of the world, not looking, without a care in the world!  ©   EsKay SK Then you tell yourself that you have to unleash from the chains of this proverbial dog's life; shooe...

Like a line of falling domino tiles, one by one, they all fall. Yet another one fell prey to the black dog. Even the outwardly strong minded ones with barrage of ammunition to shoot you down if you were to cross their paths, go into fetal position like a helpless infant when the final straw of hay broke their back. Like an epitome of patience, like a turtle she went on her duty on earth with diligence without complaining. Then came the challenges, one, another and another and poof she went all jello. Young and old alike, they seem to be swept by this epidermic. Coming mostly from humble backgrounds, one would have think that after enduring the uncertainties of life for a square meal and other comforts in life, enduring uncertainties by now would literally be a walk in the park. The general consensus is that one could not buy himself out of all troubles. Crying in a BMW, however, certainly looks less pathetic then crouching over a pavement but then the hopelessness are the same. It...

Tomoyuki Yamashita @ Tiger of Malaya 1885 -1946 His name rhymed with dog, so we call him one. Maybe because he tried to live up in the shadows of his brother who was a Valedictorian and school head prefect, Anjing-san wagged his tail around the teachers in the beginning of year for him to be thrown the bone of the unenviable post of class monitor. Our last three doggone years of primary school were filled by his tyranny. Looking like General Yamashita of World War 2 infamy with his physique and hair cut, he fitted the role of a loyal bulldog very well. With his iron-fist style of leadership, he managed to instil morbid fear in our young fragile chicken hearts. During the brief moments that the teacher would leave the class to run errands, Anjing-san would morph to the front ready to pounce as he jotted down names of 'trouble maker' students on the class board for the teacher to peruse. He made it appear as if he had a special one to one divine relationship with the ...

Just the day I was thinking... Unlike my dog in childhood, Rexxie, who used to get all excited, jumpy, tongue waggly, drolly kind at the sight of any of the family members as they return home, Felix (the cat) is not the least bothered. Returning home after a hard days' work, you think that looking at some(one) who is all excited about your return would j ust make you feel alright . But Felix at the corner has other plans... He saunters casually in a relaxed fashion, strutting his stuff, gyrating his hind legs (guess that is why they call it catwalk) walking haughtily  with his nose held high ( like inhaling imported air ) looking away from you without a care in the world. At that moment he does not need anything, only his breathing space! Just leave him alone (s top dogging him around !) pun not intended... catwalk He does not need you right now. You have bought his chow, his litter bag, his playpen, got his veterinary needs fulfilled. He is big and strong, he d...

A coincidence happened a few days ago to convince me that all things will pass and not to get upset about things. And it also convinced me to look at the other side of things. Somehow, wearing the other person's shoes, the problem does not look like a problem anymore!  A few days ago, my neighbour's puppy started barking incessantly. Prior to that, nobody in the neighbourhood even knew of the existence of  a dog in their backyard until the eventful day. Calls after calls rang of the  hook of my neighbour's phone complaining about the nuisance so much so that he became phobic receiving calls and stopped answering them. Almost like magic, during a casual conversation with my sister living 300km away a few days later, she was complaining that her neighbours were unhappy with their loss of sleep over the continual barking of her dog. She was at wit's end trying to get to the root of the problem with no avail. Back in my neighbourhood, the barking ceased. I...

A Stray Hero from Hisyam on Vimeo .