RIFLE RANGE BOY

Unpaused (Anthology of 5 episodes, Hindi; 2020) Unpaused: Naya Safar (5 episodes; 2021) As the numbers of Omicron variant cases continue to rise, allegedly after a large congregation of unvaccinated pilgrims made it all the way to the Holy Land, now is an opportune time to reminisce the good old days when a virus from Wuhan labs jumped ship and affected humans. It is mind-boggling to fathom how much this pandemic had jolted the core of our existence. It goes without saying that the pandemic has affected everyone in so many ways. Economically, it affected all, predominantly those on the lower rung of the food chain. Interestingly, the ten of the richest globally has doubled their wealth at the end of the second wave. Inconspicuously, Covid infection started as a concern only for the affluent and frequent flyers as they picked the bug after globetrotting. The poor were not so concerned then. Soon, the tables turned. Living in a restricted living space and close proximity between family m...

  Putham Pudhu Kaalai (புத்தம் புதிய காலை, A brand new dawn, Tamil; 2020) The recent Covid pandemic and the uncertainties related to it made many to question the real meaning of life. Is all rat race really worth it? What are we actually chasing? What is the endpoint - is it that we would one day stop waking up but the whole world continuing despite our absence? The generation next is too embroiled in their own quagmire to give two hoots to your geriatric problems. Then what? Just wither away to the dark forces of Nature? Given the restrictions that COVID imposed on the film industry, five screenwriters came up with five different tales that used the Indian national 21-day lockdown as the backdrop of stories. Somehow the isolation helped the characters to reassess the life await of them, embrace the changes and make amends of their past. And not to miss the twist at the end of the last snippet titled 'Miracles'. Indeed miracles work in mysterious ways. In the first story ('...

Looks like the generation that enjoyed the “are we there yet?” clip from Shrek 2! are all grown up. Now that they are cooped up in lockdown, they complain that they are bored. They keep whining when the movement control order will end. This is the generation that could not be left to themselves to interact and create games among themselves. Their parents had to arrange party games to keep them occupied. Some caregivers kept their kids glued to the TV for babysitting or kept them busy nibbling on junk food and gulping soda. As if that the whole Universe was conspiring against them, in rolled the gaming devices and the world wide web network to quench the desire for instant gratification. Their wants, desires or any kind of squirms were met with a wave of fingers which almost looked like a sleight of hand. The opposing forces of Nature, it seems, are fighting back. They want to impress upon the millennials that not everything can be fixed by their soccer mums. It is what it is...

FOR GENERAL INFORMATION • Farish A. Noor is Associate Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. Muslim missionary movement Tablighi Jama'at encourages followers to move out of their comfort zones - literally. It also emphasises social welfare. Appealing to the latter and engaging followers positively will get them to self-regulate their movements, and help to contain the virus pandemic. By now alarm has been raised about the numbers of people who have been infected with the coronavirus after attending a large gathering of the Tablighi Jama'at religious movement at the Sri Petaling mosque complex in Malaysia. The gathering, held on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur from Feb 27 to March 1, reportedly involved about 16,000 people from several countries who are devotees of the Tablighi Jama'at movement. The Ministry of Health is tracing the contacts of about 90 Singaporeans who attended the gathering after five wer...

Swans in Venetian Canal  Credit @filterjm Probably for the first time since Man started giving salutations to the feared forces around him, he has been asked to stop all kinds of religious congregations in big groups. For aeons, Man believed that maladies take place because the Divine forces have been angered. In their simple understanding, the only avenue left for them to correct the tragedy is to appease the Divinity by glorifying it to high heavens; hoping that He would throw us His Grace. Hence, despite appeals by the authorities, practitioners of various faiths continue to put their trusts in the forces above, not in rational thinking and the sciences. They feel that people have been misled for far too long. The way the human race appears to be heading does not assure them of a happy ending. Too many have placed self-interest above salvation to expect altruism to prevail. There are groups of people who are hellbent in finding scapegoats. In their minds, many if not mos...