RIFLE RANGE BOY

Samantar (Parallel, Marathi, 2021) Season 1&2, Mx Player. We understand that life has its ups and downs. Sometimes, the downside drags us so severely that it buries us in the muck so entrenched that it becomes impossible to wash off. Occasionally, choices made at the spur of the moment plunges us into such miseries. If only there was a way to identify these times when these crucial decisions had to be made. Our ancestors came to suggest ways to predict bad times and possibly avoiding bad decisions. Palm reading and astrology charts based on one's birthdate and times form a crucial Indian way of soothsaying. It is believed that celestial bodies in space affect events, behaviour and outcome of events. Hence, the importance of auspicious times in officiating life-changing events. What if someone is given hints of events of the near future? Would he be able to avert maladies, or would he still be subject to the same path he is destined to follow? Is knowing one's fate a way to ...

The birthplace of Jane and Benjamin Franklin. Jane would live here for most of her life while Benjamin would leave to pursue his apprenticeship. (brainpickings.org) Heard a podcast recently on one of the American founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. As is well known, he emerged from a humble beginning, of a son of a poor candle and soap maker, to propel himself away from the clutches of poverty, to pull himself up with his boots strap even though he could not afford boots. Benjamin, a polymath, later became a printer, a master inventor, a diplomat, established the mail service and had a hand in drafting the Declaration of Independence. He was self-taught. Together with his favourite sister, Jenny (out of 16 other siblings), they used to teach each other. Then, Benjamin left his home to work in a printing press run by his brother by a twist of fate. One thing led to another, and he left the job. He later managed to establish himself as a printer. In his printing compa...

Back to the future (Trilogy) 1985-1990 October 21, 2015, has special a significance to BTTF fans, as in the second offering Marty and Doc go into the future. The future that they see in 2015 is a far cry from the real 2015! Absent in real life are the roadless highways, automobiles that run on thrash rather than fossil fuel, the gravity-defying hoverboard  (the futuristic skateboard), among others!  Back in the 80s when I first watched the first instalment of BTTF, I thought that it was the smartest storyline ever produced with its catchy dialogue. One particular scene that stuck on my mind is when Marty performed a lead guitar rendition of Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode'. One fellow band member, Melvin, overhearing the tune calls upon his cousin Chuck to hear the 'fresh' tune that he was looking for his next song! Moving to and fro between times in their DeLorean speeding at 88mph with the help of a flux capacitor and 1.2gigawatts of power, Doc reali...