RIFLE RANGE BOY

On the way to Granada, we made a half a day stop at Toledo. Walking through the slab-stones paved road, we tried to trace the journey of the horse carriages during the heydays of this town. Known best for its high-quality steel blades, its orders used to come from the mighty Roman Army itself. Living true to its image, Toledoans still make excellent high-performance knives. Legend has it that a clockmaker from Toledo built a clock tower to be presented to a Muslim ruler for his prototype to be used all over the Empire. Unfortunately, the leader was not impressed and hence the virtue of keeping to time never really picked in the Eastern part of the world. Toledo is tucked humbly in the middle of Southern Spain keeping close to itself all the secrets of all the Empires that once ruled this region. Carrying with it mostly Christian and Roman traditions, the Muslim regents also once made their stronghold here. The result of all these is the picturesque picture perfect photographic shot o...

The First Phone Call from Heaven Mitch Albom (2013) I picked up this book during a long wait at the airport. You fly low-cost, your time is also low-cost (cheap), and they expect you to come early and wait. After reading all his books thus far, it is only natural for me to lay my hand at once. His books deal mainly with important things in life like death, heaven and Godly matters. This time around, too, he dwells on 'life' after death and incorporates Alexander Graham Bell's invention, the telephone, as the means to receive a call from the heavenly world! Interestingly, we learn a few snippets here and there about Bell's journey to his invention, which is still being contested by the original discoverer. His invention almost did not make it to the forefront, thanks to the Brazilian King who worked with Bell and the hearing impaired, who insisted that his device be seen. Despite all the hurdles, it has stood the test of time. In fact, in its infancy, there were sug...

So the day finally came.... My iPhone 4 which had been patriotically serving me 24/7 over the past couple of years had given up on me. 3,2,1,...poof went the flicker and all the king's men and the king's horses could not put IP4 to tick again. This work horse served its purpose well through all the hard knocks and immersions (in sweaty conditions of the running environment, waterproof casing came in much later) that life had to offer. The passing of the patriot reminds me of the story of a national laureate's composition  'Matinya seorang Patriot', a critical assessment of the duel of the two greatest Malaccan warriors - Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat. We all know the duel, immortalised by P Ramlee's 1957 film. Usman Awang The bone of contention here is whether Jebat, the fallen, did the correct thing by avenging for his best friend against a corrupt and unreasonable monarch who had their own yes-men and plenty of cloud and power over the people. The eternal q...

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson 2011 (Biography) The world takes a leap forward not with soldier ants like us but by those who think outside the box. They have not no qualms about upsetting the status quo and upsetting peoples' feelings. They have a clear vision of what they want to do in life and they pursue their dream at all cost. After Jobs knew that he was not going to live long enough, he invited a writer, Walter Isaacson, to write his story, giving a one-to-one bare-it-all kind of  exposé. The end product also had input from the receiving end. It is a thick book, 700 odd pages, graphically narrating all the adventures, misadventures, confrontations, the highs, the lows and the poignant moments in the life of the man who found another use for our fingers, to swipe something off if we do not like it or had enough off. We all know about Steve Job being adopted and how his mother, an unmarried college student arranged to give Steve away for adoption to a college educated coup...

An old friend once (GVGL) -a precocious individual who enjoyed intellectual discourse and appreciates songs by Bob Dylan and Tracy Chapman- told me that I will soon be like a hermit on mountain - keeping all to myself and finding joy in recluse. My son thinks I am on the way there. With very few friends to go by, hardly receiving courtesy non-work related calls on my phone, indulging in a non team sport like running, working long hours alone and lately with the listening to myriads of podcast downloadable free from my iPhone, I will reach there in no time! Hey, but I am enjoying it! The iTunes has indeed opened a new can of worms that a omnivore like me find hard to resist. The more you indulge, like a bull in a china shop, you can go berserk! If never in this life time can you step foot in the lecture halls of Yale, Stanford or Oxford, the least you can do listen to podcasts of their distinguished lecturers. I am sure we all can go to these varsity as tourists as 'now ever...