RIFLE RANGE BOY

Kattradhu Thamizh (கற்றது தமிழ், Learnt Tamil; 2007) To remind ourselves, a line from Dead Poets Society... John Keating (played by Robin Williams):   We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, 'O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?' Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be? The society tells you, especially if you are from the developing world, it needs to progress. ...

You are made to believe that the way to do it is divine. That, the effort that you put in your work is like serving God. That, you are performing the Almighty's job on Earth. You do not have to display your piety for others to see. All you have to do is to serve, everything else will take care of itself. You follow suit.  Then you realise that life cannot be all work. The people that you thought you have been sacrificing all your life for suddenly turn their back against you. They start hurling accusations of this and that. That you had been shortchanging them; that that is your job - your only job is to serve them. You, on the other hand, thought they would be eternally grateful to you for you had sacrificed everything for them in the course of your vocation. You thought yours was a calling. It, apparently, was not. It was just another job. You are just another spoke in the machinery of society that moves it forward. The tale that the people before you told were just t...

I grew up in an environment where it was ingrained in us that a man can be a man only if he is productive. He has been sent to Earth on a mission and that purpose is to do his age-appropriate duties. Amma used to remind us to keep a keen eye on the task at hand and not to be swayed by idle banter and purposeless chats. Her favourite Tamil proverb drove home her point - 'A talking dog is no use for hunting'! Appa, being the non-verbal one, asserted his teaching through his actions. In his 42 years' career, he never once called in sick, barring the times our family were stuck in floods when we were stuck in a relative's house when we visited them on a Sunday and the time he was admitted for diabetes. So, these thoughts came to my mind as I was passing through Singapore airport. If one had been to Singapore, he would not fail to notice the high numbers of members of the geriatric population still engaged in economic activities namely the service industry. In a food co...