RIFLE RANGE BOY

It is the year 2074. Yes, the world is still around, and so is the human race. It has been over a century since Malaysia received its mandate to self-rule. Technically, we should be in a utopia with so much sunlight throughout the year and a chirpy tropical climate devoid of depressing, chilling winters or debilitating natural calamities. A potpourri of food options is available 24/7 at our fingertips and delivered to our doorsteps with easy-access drone servers. We should be the happiest people in the world. In reality, however… https://borderlessjournal.com/2024/05/14/don-quixotes-paradise This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .

3 Body Problem (Miniseries; Season 1, 8 episodes ) Adapted from the Hugo Award-winning novel by Liu Cixin There is an episode in the original Twilight Zone series titled "Where is Everybody?" in which a person wanders around a township with no soul in sight. Enveloped in 'The Great Silence,' he runs around like a headless chicken, looking for any sign of life. That must surely be a veiled reference to Fermi's paradox. With so much wasted space around us and after so many years of searching, why can't we contact any lifeform elsewhere in this widespread Universe? With time, the possibility of the presence of more and more solar systems is being suggested. Surely, someone somewhere must have picked up our radio signals by now. What if they are advanced enough to pick up gestures of friendship. Or maybe they have already made visitations before if one believes the ideas mooted by Erich von Däniken about ancient aliens. Conversely, if a civilisation is indeed more...

Good evening. A warm welcome to everyone here. A special welcome to Raphael and Maggie. Selamat datang to the rest and Marc’s family and friends. I guess Marc’s family and friends are no longer Marc’s alone. They are ours, too. Accept our humble salutations.   In the Indian tradition, more often than not, they  want their firstborn to be a male. Back in the 90s, when Divya was born, friends would give unsolicited advice. “It’s ok. The next one will definitely be a boy.” - as if we asked for an opinion, as if they knew, as if we cared. Then Tania was born, and they again gave a sigh.  And again, as if we asked. Rinse and repeat. That is until Keshav and Danny rolled along. 30 years on, I can stand proud and say they have done well in their own right.  Many years ago, my friend was getting married. As the main event was over, he saw his father-in-law give a sigh of relief, caressing his chest. He was heard telling his friend, “Ahh, my big headache is over!” ...

Monalisa No Longer Smiles (2022) An Anthology of Writings from Across the World Editor: Mitali Chakravarty My father had an uncanny ability to read faces. No, he does not identify people's medical risks, personality traits or even the prediction of their future. He could tell a person's origin, caste and creed. He was proud of his achievement and held steadfast to the idea that caste division is a necessary tool for society to progress.   He would choose where he ate and sometimes refuse invitations to people's homes or even functions of people with questionable status in the caste hierarchy.   My mother tried to knock some sense into him that the whole world had moved on and things had changed. But he was having none of it. She even reminded him about Periyar EV Ramasamy's speech when he visited Malaya, to leave all the bad discriminatory habits they acquired in India and move forward. But no! He was unmoved and reasonably contended with his way of pigeon-holing people...

Black Mirror (2023; Season 6, E1-5) Created by: Charlie Brooker A mirror reflects the light wavelength that hits it. That is what it is meant to do. Logically a black mirror cannot exist. A mirror that absorbs light (appears black) will not be much of a mirror. The way I look at a black mirror is that it is like a two-way mirror. When the viewer views a conventional mirror, he sees a reflection of himself and his antics, plain and clear. In a black mirror, however, unbeknownst to him, his duties, actions, inactions, body language, facial twitches and grimaces are noted, not by himself, but by a third party. A two-way mirror is a misnomer, actually. It cannot be viewed both ways, as it is reflective on one side and transparent on the other. It gives the appearance of a mirror to those who see the reflection but allows people on the clear side to see through, as if at a window. Interestingly, even a conventional mirror is viewed with scorn by traditional societies. They were worried that...

Crimes of Future (2022) Director: David Cronenberg Despite all the good deeds attributed to Tipu Sultan in fighting the British and planting the seed of nationalism amongst the people of Bharat, the Muslim monarch is infamous for signature torture. He would slice off his enemies’ noses. There was a time in South India when many defeated Hindu soldiers with gaping nasal openings on their faces.   It is said the peddlers on market squares of old India were trying to insert prostheses to correct the victims’ nasal defects. Two visiting surgeons from the UK saw this during their visit to exotic India and decided to write it up in medical journals. That was the birth of rhinoplasty and the conception of cosmetic surgery.   Tipu Sultan Soon everybody found something wrong with their appearances; too fat, too plain, too Asian-looking, too unalluring, lines of ageing or even too short. Everything could be corrected if one were daring enough to go under the scalpel. The fear of surgery...

After Yang (2022) Written & Directio n:  Kogonada When we show our respect to elders and the departed, we are not offering to revere the physical body or the 'soul'. We are showing reverence for the memory of their lives. Besides reenacting the good times we had spent together, we give due recognition to the memories they imbibed through their time on Earth. At the end of the day, that is all we have or bring back, the data of events. It is assumed that we humans learn our lessons from situations. By showing our salutations, we hope some of these lessons will be transferred to us at a metaphysical level. Everybody's learnt experience is different, and we respect that. We are in no position to judge what was done or should have been done. This seems to be the message at the end of this sombre and sedate sci-fi drama. It is set sometime in the future when humanoids do domestic help and nannying. The cloning of humans has entered the mainstream. The job of providing domest...