RIFLE RANGE BOY

More than enough people are quick to sneer at India after Vikram's successful soft landing at the Southern Pole of the Moon. On one end, people were quick to say that the whole exercise was a hoax. It is an illusion. Then, others blurted that a country that cannot provide toilets to its citizens and whose population mostly live below the poverty line should not be sending rockets to the Moon (and playing with nuclear bombs). One even threatened to stop monetary 'aid' to India, conveniently forgetting any discussion on repatriation monies after years of looting from India.  Firstly, everyone knows there is no way for everybody to prosper in sync before society moves up one notch higher. Things happen in tandem. There will be people who will have to do catching up, and there will be those who will lose out in the race for prosperity anyway. The only people who believe that the world needs equity are communists. Again and again, it has been proven that human greed surpasses an...

The Batman (2022) Director: Matt Reeves Long ago, easily more than 30 years ago, when we were a newly married couple, I had the privilege of living a few doors away from a retired postmaster. Looking at us, just married and waiting to embrace life with all its vigour, he felt compelled to dispense his dose of unsolicited wisdom to us, to me especially, like to son he never had. I remember him telling me that I should evaluate everything I did in life very carefully as its repercussions may reverberate not only during my lifetime but that of my wife, children and my next birth! In other words, my deeds spiralled to catch on to my linkages. I kept it stored in my biological memory bank for future reference. Some years later, I heard of someone who had her past life analysed by a holy man in Tamil Nadu. She approached someone in this town which is reputed to have storage of palm-leaf inscriptions (olai) of all humans, Indians or otherwise. She wanted to know the reason for her stormy rela...

Valley of Flowers (2006) Director: Pan Nalin In my books, the way to put someone on the right track when he has gone wayward is to make him realise his errors so that he can rectify them. A person aware of his mistakes will realise the implications of his actions and will not be a repeat offender.  In theory, this is how it works, I think. One will not touch fire after touching, and burning will be having his fingers burnt before. The brain will be re-wired to be reminded (re-mind) of the pains, the blister, the scorching and the inconveniences of the healing process afterwards.  Somehow I have issues extrapolating this analogy to karma. If the purpose of birth and re-birth is to create a 2.0 version of the species to improve oneself to reach the level of Eternal Bliss, not everyone is blessed with this realisation, however.  Whenever we are caught in a dilemma and feel frustrated, we are told, akin to pacifying a crying child, that we are just reaping what we sow. We are...

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...

#Home (Malayalam, 2021) Director: Rojin Thomas We look at other people's lives and go agape. We think our lives are nothing to shout about compared to others, but we soldier on with our otherwise unglamorous life. We tell ourselves that it is our God-given duty or dharma to do the things we do as our responsibility, our raison d'etre. What is more, when we are old and unproductive. This world is no place for ageing dogs. As they say, when you age, even your shadow does not respect you. Your life experiences and life lesson are considered passé. They are deemed too worthless to put to use to fight the challenging current times. In essence, we are looked upon as a mere goods train being pulled by the engine, dragged to its destinations. The seniors go on accepting their situation as fait accompli. Yeah, our lives sucked, but it is what it is. Of course, we were once young. We also had dreams and ideas of what was right and what was not.  Unbeknownst to us,  our actions must hav...

Jiivi (Intelligence, Tamil; 2021) Amazon Prime. The more we look around, the more we see a particular pattern of how people's life pens out. With a few variations here and there, we can figure how one's life will turn out. So we think. It looks pretty much like how some Bollywood /Kollywood films work. If one were to scrutinise generic mainstream Indian films that have came out all these years, we would see a particular pattern. Someone would have come up with a specific formula that gave lucrative returns. Suddenly all new releases will have that particular storyline with a few variations here and there, but we can kind of predict how it will end. So, after living on Earth for quite a while and witnessing things around us pass on by, we think we have got the neck of how things work out. We believe we can predict how everything works. Lest we forget that many unseen forces derail our predictions big time. This film can be classified as a thriller but of a different kind. Kudos ...

Credit: newmandala.org Dr Mahathir Mohamad (b 10.7.1925) A second chance to right the wrong? It is my Prime Minister's birthday, and I have a dilemma. Just last year, he became the oldest man in the world to be elected as a country's leader at 93. One year on and he is still going on strong like an Energiser Bunny.  The million dollars is not when his run is going to halt, but instead if indeed longevity is a blessing. On the one hand, on auspicious occasions, we wish each other hoping for a long life. We cling on to our dear lives averting dangers and seeking medical advice at the first sneeze. We plan things as if we would live forever. Some would say that being born as a human is our reward for our past karmic deeds. Hence, a long life must be a bonus. They are others who would vouch that life on Earth is a testing ground. A long life span means that they are more options to collect brownie points. If one only lives for the afterlife,  then there is ample opportuni...

Russian Doll (Mini-Series S1; 2018) For life on Earth to continue, there needs to be a balance between the forces of Apollo and Dionysus. There needs to be an equilibrium between chaos and order.  In the format of ' Groundhog Day ', the main character, Nadia, is caught in a loop where she dies and relives again and again on her 36th birthday. Nadia is a confused woman with no firm footing in life. She has a job, a software engineer, but she is also a foul-mouthed, hard-drinking, drug-sniffing lady who holds some unresolved issues from her childhood. It is always about childhood and traumatic upbringing. Caught in this quagmire of births and re-births, she tries to find the reasons for her trappings. During one of her deaths, she discovers another person, Alan, who is also ensnared in a similar loop. Alan, unlike Nadia, is a stickler for order. He is an insecure man who is trying to propose to his two-timing girlfriend. Matryoshka Nesting Dolls set of woode...

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...

Paatha Kaanikai (Humble Offering, Tamil; 1962) This YouTube snippet (see below) has been making its round amongst the Tamil speaking and Tamil song loving WhatsApp groups in Malaysia, after the recently concluded 14th General Elections. Netizens, after mumbling their grunt of discontent under their breaths all this while, suddenly have a breath of fresh air. With their newfound cyber freedom, they let their hair down; ridiculing the doyens who held the realm for more than half a century and making tongue-in-cheek one-liners at their expense. After suffering in silence the antics of tyrannic leaders and sycophants, people have come out in droves to voice their discontent. This song is a constant reminder that even the thickest of the hide of a mighty elephant would feel the pain of a whip. Mortal Man cannot be so haughty to think that he is unsinkable.   This song, like the many, which were penned by Tamil movie song composers of the 1950s through to...