History rhymes?

https://www.dailynews.com/2023/08/28/fentanyl-addiction-fuels-u
nderground-shoplifting-economy-in-las-macarthur-park/

If one lives long enough, one will realise that history has an unmistakable tendency to repeat itself. Occasionally, the roles are reversed, with the initial victims now taking on the role of the aggressor. At times, history also rhymes, featuring different players in somewhat altered contexts.

The latest thing that caught my eye is how the USA is raising such a hue and cry over the fentanyl problem that has hit the country. They are creating quite a scene on the international stage, squarely blaming the issue on China. The raw material, allegedly synthesised in China, has found its way into America through agents in Mexico and Canada. Recently, India was also called upon to assist, as it serves as a stopover for the merchandise, or perhaps some of its components are manufactured in India, the capital of pharmaceuticals.

The amusing thing is that it is primarily the USA that is so severely affected by the recreational use of fentanyl. Other Western countries are not as impacted. Interestingly, the potency of fentanyl has increased substantially over the years, leading to even accidental deaths of American paramedics attending to overdosed patients through mere inhalation or skin contact. The US (the West) is crying foul.

Interestingly, over two hundred years ago, such a fiasco dealt a significant blow to one of the two wealthiest nations in the world, China, which took over a hundred years to recover from the consequences.

The Western imperial powers believed they were providing a valuable service by introducing cannabis to China. The East India Company (EIC) viewed the business in which the Portuguese were engaged as notably profitable. The British were willing to spend excessive amounts on Chinese silk, porcelain (which they affectionately referred to as "china"), and tea. As a result, Britain was losing a considerable amount of silver to China, depleting the national coffers.

https://images.app.goo.gl/4LBwmSgZZa4yB9vZ7

Opium was widely available in India, and by the end of the 18th century, the country was under the control of the EIC. It began cultivating opium on an industrial scale. Many farmers were coerced, lacking choices or under compulsion, to grow this highly prized commodity destined for China. Numerous local traders and middlemen benefited from this arrangement. Even the Mughals became involved by cultivating opium in the fields they owned.

 

In China, the limited access imposed on foreigners confined their business dealings to Guangzhou (Canton), Xiamen (Amoy), and Zhoushan. From these ports, smuggled opium was transported to the mainland. Over time, this transformed the once-mighty Middle Kingdom into a land of addicts. At its peak, there were between 10 and 12 million addicts in China.

It culminated in two opium wars, treaties, territorial losses for China, legislation regulating the opium trade, the rights of foreigners to engage in trade, and the permission for Christian missionaries to traverse China. Subsequently, the Qing Dynasty fell. It took nearly a century, marked by numerous coups, upheavals, and shifts in political systems, for normalcy to be restored. That is how long it took for a generation to recover and for the nation to reclaim its dignity.

 

So, the last time a country fell into the clutches of addiction, what did the rest of the world do, and what did the opportunists within the country do? They reaped the benefits that arose from other people's miseries. Nobody truly helped; they simply asked, "What's it for me?"

British faux pas. Pinning poppy flowers at the Hong Kong handover ceremony
in 1997. Reminding the former owners of the real reason why they lost
 Hong Kong in the first place. Or is it their way of giving the middle finger?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

To the naysayers

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 any attempt at equity and even equality. Four-legged creatures elected to replace their two-legged oppressors will eventually begin standing erect on their hind legs. 

To be fair, India has improved by leaps and bounds since Independence. It has even overtaken its former colonial master as the 5th biggest economy by GDP after being left as the 13th poorest country on the planet when the British left their land. With regards to foreign aid, many quarters deny the usual foreign aid that first-world countries offer to a despotic basket-case government. Monies that trickle into India are investments from which investors hope to draw returns. Some are charity contributions by well-wishers with personal intent, e.g. evangelism and political donations.

With the 'Clean India' campaign in full steam, open defecation is a thing of the past. With many states having 100% access to toilets, open defecation is a thing of the past. 

Paradoxically, the country with the biggest economy must face the same problem. With its chiselled pavements and famous postcode 90120 that it sells to the world, even Los Angeles also has to deal with homelessness, drug addiction and cleaning up the sidewalks littered with human excrement. 

Karma often plays its game most cruelly. The colonisers who robbed their colonies blind now have to be content seeing their descendants being fed by the descendants of their subjects. The innumerable hungry, homeless and impoverished British regularly frequent Sikh soup kitchens for a square meal. 

Our experience from the 1960s space explorations has shown us there are many trickle-down benefits. Besides the numerous improvements in medicine and engineering, it also improves the life of the man on the street. Teflon was discovered. The knowledge to produce heat-resistant garments with adequate cooling technology becomes a game-changer in the day-to-day duties of firemen. Luggage bags with roller wheels have their origin in the space programme. At a time when the younger generation shows scant interest in STEM subjects, these types of ventures will surely rekindle their dwindling keenness. The Industrial Revolution and the subsequent leaps in civilisation did not happen because of economists and linguists but by scientists. Remember the economic opportunities that these ventures that offshoot from space travels. Money spent is not wasted but merely changes hands. Charity and social work can still go on. 

The West cannot handle the paradigm shift in the world order. For more than two centuries, people of the Judeo-Christian traditions held the chalice of power. This century is when the power transfer happens from the West to the East.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Sins of my Father?

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 relationship with her beau. It was not too long later that her inscription was found. She was told it was a miracle they found hers quite so soon. (sure!) In her previous life, she and her partner were illicit lovers who had masterminded her then-husband’s murder and eloped to live apparently not-so-happily ever after. Hence, they have to endure punishment in this birth to repay back payments!

Batman these day are no more the comedic

slapstick kind of the 60's TV series. These days,

Batman movies are dark and deeply philosophical.

In a single stroke, that could be the answer to all the incomprehensible life dilemmas - why bad things happen to good people and vice versa, why children get cancer and babies get congenital syphilis! How is anyone going to repute something intangible as that? The buck stops there. There is no point in arguing further on something that cannot be disproved (or proved).

Over time I have realised that I cannot be responsible for all the wrongdoings of those dear to me. I cannot be held accountable if my adult child decides to rob a bank or misbehaves with the opposite gender. Likewise, do I have to pay for the karmic sins of my father?

Increasingly people are leading separate lives. They do not work or behave for the well-being of the collective. This is the century of self, where self-interest supersedes everything else. It is I that solely matter. Hence, no one will take in another fatherly or teacherly advice. “Just leave me alone. Just do your part in my life and get off my back. Like Frankie said, it did it my way; I want to live while I am alive. It’s my life!"

The question of the sins of Bruce Wayne's father comes to the fore in this bleak Batman offering. The Riddler, moving with the times, is now siding with the Occupy Wall Street movement and is going Batman's jugular. Thomas Wayne had made some unfulfilled promises. And Bruce has to pay for his father's sins.

Robert Pattison gives a stellar performance as the reclusive, brooding superhero who is finding answers for things that happened in his life, much like a handsome Dracula trapped in his blood-sucking ways.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Payback time?

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 paying back due payments to Universe - to bear the pain to realise the pains inflicted in previous lives. But the explanation does not hold water!

If everyone were born with a blank slate, not knowing of our past follies, how can we make amends in our current life? Sadly, we are clueless about what we did and how many demerit points we have.

If the Maker sincerely wants to make an Ubermensch out of us via newer improved prototypes, it must surely be an extremely non-cost-effective way to improve species. It is a non-tangible system, and all intellectual discourses and debates hit a brick wall here. All arguments stop here. It is like the battleship paradox. If the war is pre-destined, the Admiral not sending battleships will start a fight even if it is destined. When the Admiral sends the battleships, is it not pre-determined by God but decided by Man?

This film is supposedly set in the 19th century along the Silk Road. It tells the tale of a band of horseback robbers who make a living by travelling convoys of traders and wedding processions. Jalan, during one of these endeavours, meets Ushna. They fall deeply in love. The union breaks up Jalan's camaraderie with his mates. A showdown ensues. Jalan and Ushna part ways from the rest of the gang. Yeti, a spiritual master, is employed by the gang's victims.

Long story short, Ushna, a mystic person, dies, losing her powers, whilst Jalan consumes an elixir of immortality. Five generations later, in present-day Japan, Jalan is now Dr Jalan Otsal, a doctor who performs euthanasia. Ushna had undergone five rebirths and got connected with Jalan. Yeti is also on their trail. He hunts them down. He is akin to Yama or Grimm Reaper, who just does his job. His parting line is, 'true love lies in sacrifice'!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

A minute's pleasure, a burden to Mother Nature?

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 destroys. All these strengthening of species for what; a breed of super dogs?

You should ponder the next time you see a neglected puppy by the roadside. Should you go out and save the poor soul from the elements or let it go through the process of Nature that it was supposed to go through? 

One minute's pleasure, a burden to Mother Nature? Where does karma come into the picture?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

All the small things!

#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 have impacted somebody's life somehow. There must be someone somewhere who benefitted from our efforts.

This is one such movie. Oliver Twist (yes, his father was a bibliophile) is a retired man who is quite happy doing all the handiwork around his home, caring for his aged father, and occasionally chatting with his childhood buddy Surya. Oliver's elder son, Anthony, a first one-hit scriptwriter, has hit writers' block. As his producers breathed down his neck for the script as multiple deadlines came and went, he came back for inspiration. Every time Anthony sees his father, he feels frustrated. He asks himself why his father is such a bumbling old man and a constant embarrassment. He fancies his girlfriend's father, an erudite person with a PhD who had just written his autobiography. 

Anthony gets desperate as another deadline approaches, and he has no script to submit. Oliver has a great story of his past to tell Anthony but fears that it is not glamorous enough.

Life in Oliver goes through ups and downs. Finally, the seeming good-for-nothing father-figure in the family actually has performed such a tremendous life-altering deed that saved somebody's life. That somebody is none other than his girlfriend's father. If not for Oliver, the PhD holder would not have such great heights.

We should continue doing our small deeds. Somehow, these insignificant gestures would snowball into something big and potentially earth-shattering.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Some things are beyond our control!

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 to the copywriters who came up with a relatively fresh story quite diverse from the usual fare churned from the Indian Tinseltown.

It sees a loafing village boy sent off to prove his worth in town. Saravanan is actually an intelligent chap but does not see the purpose in studying so hard. He is a voracious reader, though. In Chennai, after moving around doing various jobs, he works in a beverage stall making fruit juices. Reality hits him when his girlfriend leaves him at the prospect of marrying a civil servant. He realises that nobody gives a damn to the poor man. So when the opportunity comes to him of a key to a safe with a large stash of jewellery, he grabs it with both hands. Using his book knowledge and his interaction with a police informant who frequents his shop, he plunges head on to perform a perfect crime. But then, his accomplice, his roommate, is an anxious fellow. And Saravanan's father dies suddenly, needing him to return home.

Slowly he realises that his life path parallels that of his landlady from whom he steals the jewellery. And it does not look good. The similarities and co-incidences are too uncanny to be put aside. So Saravanan has to somehow break the spell, the curse or the karma that may befall his family because of his family.

A fresh storyline that overshadows the unimpressive acting by the leading actors. 4/5 though.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Boon or Bane?

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 opportunity to right the wrong.

On the other hand, there are those who swear, like they had been on the other side and heard it from the horse's mouth, that life on Earth is indeed painful. With so much physical and emotional pain associated with daily living from the cradle to the grave, death is a relief. Therefore, the continuation of life mark non-completion of misdeeds (sins) of previous births. Shorter life-spans mean less chance to make a goof of oneself, hence, the placing of prominent figures who experienced premature deaths in the annals of human history. The 'Club of 27' is one such example. P Ramlee, Elvis Presley, Sudirman and James Dean are others who left while they were at their prime, eliminating any negative perceptions of their feats on Earth.

So what is your answer, boon or bane?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Correct the uncorrectable?

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 wooden dolls of decreasing
size placed one inside another

Together, they try to find an escape hatch from this cycle and correct their life for the better. 

That must be the allegory of life, that is if you believe in rebirths and in the existence of souls. That Inner Self, the Consciousness, the extension of the Universe or Agent Intellect is seeking to improve itself through births. It is for the 'realised' Soul to correct shortcomings and to 'elevate' himself to a higher realm. Maybe, just maybe, life would then be a better place. 

But then, we are simplifying things. We assume in the duality of things. Are good and bad are just one of the same spectrum? Sometimes it is kind to be unkind. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. No pain, no gain.

So we are back to the same question. Why are we here and what are we supposed to do?

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Unsettled business?

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 equivalent.

Like Appa, Tango was also quite selective of his acquaintances. Known for his ferociousness, he was feared amongst the feline population and even the stray dog community. In many instances, he had defeated and had bought home carcasses of his kill on his occasional escapes from his home during the mating seasons. He was not particularly cordial to visitors of the humankind either.

Again, all that changed when it came to Appa. Hundreds of metres away, hearing the whirring of his motorcycle engine, Tango would spring to life. Wagging his tail, ear sprouting high, barking in playful, excited tone and jumping around, he was quite open with his display of pleasure. On Appa's part, he was never short of treats and dog food for Tango. Together, they would sit together contemplating and staring into nothing.

Now that both of them are no longer present on Earth, they would probably continue their ponderings in the ethereal world. 

Perhaps, all living things have a soul. Maybe, people and other beings connect at a primal level. The interactions of the souls in the cycle of births and rebirths make us all meet each other in different realms. We may have to finish unsettled businesses of our previous lives. Unfortunately, we cannot seem to remember. If karma is to punish us for our past shortcomings, is it unfair to punish us for something we do not know? How are we to amend the mistakes that are unknown?

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.