When madness is accepted as norm!

Shutter Island (2010)
Director: Martin Scorsese

Back when India was a newly independent nation, its Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, was officiating the opening of a psychiatric hospital in New Delhi. As part of his visit, he did a walkabout. All its inmates were excited to have a PM visiting them. All of them were standing smiling, waiting for Nehru to speak with them, except one. He was sitting in a corner, looking away, staring into space. Nehru approached him. 

"Hello, how are you?" told Nehru. "I am the Prime Minister of India. How do you find this hospital?" The man slowly turned around, lifted his head to look at the Premier, and replied, "Yeah, that is what I thought when I first arrived, too. Don't worry, they will give you medicine, and you will be alright!"

That is how it is. There is a thin line between reality and insanity, which is detachment from reality. It is all about perspective. Imagine telling the world that someone is watching you all the time, and you will be labelled as having paranoid schizophrenia in the 1980s. Now, it is legitimate to have closed-circuit TV all over the place to monitor citizens for the public's safety. Remember when the Soviet Union and the USA had such high numbers of schizophrenics. The peculiar thing about their condition is that a Soviet schizophrenic will be labelled normal in the US and vice versa. 

We are well aware of the concept of gaslighting and Munchausen Syndrome by proxy. Popularised by Ingrid Bergman's 1944 film 'Gaslight', a husband tinkers with the home fittings and events around the wife to convince her that she is turning mad. Munchausen Syndrome, by proxy, is another favourite theme of Hollywood. Here, the parent or the caregiver, usually with advanced medical knowledge, will wilfully keep their subject either by exaggerating symptoms or by poisoning their ward themselves to give themselves (the caregivers) a sense of importance. 

It seems that it is easy to suggest mental illness. If one does not conform to the perceived acceptable mode of conduct, he is deemed a deviant. He is ignorant if he does not subscribe to one way of thinking. If a specific ritual is not followed, he is unstable. A label would be put upon him by the rest. 

There will come a time, as is already happening now, when bizarre behaviours that used to be frowned upon are considered normal. Many of these acts go under the cloak of self-expression and privacy setting. One is not supposed to bat an eyelid when a hirsute, phenotypically male person with a full moustache and beard decides to don a body-hugging dress and put on a 6-inch stiletto, strutting his posterior to an unamused crowd.

This film is an interesting one where the viewers are left to guess what is real and which are imagined. What is right and what is wrong? Between good and evil. Two US Marshalls are sent to investigate the missing case of an inmate of a hospital for the criminally insane. As the Marshalls get deep into their case, they realise that many things do not match.

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

The invention that saved a million ships

The Lighthouse (2019)

When we were young, we were fascinated with the lighthouse. Any sketch of nature would include seas, boats, seagulls, clouds and flashing beacons. As Penang, our hometown is a port city, we had the pleasure of seeing many in our lifetimes. 

Many stories have been written on the heroic deeds of many a keeper or 'wickies' as they were referred to put their lives at stake to provide a continuous beacon of light to the safety of travelling vessels. The job is an unrewarding one with boredom being the most significant and dangerous occupational hazard to beat. Being located far from civilisation and at precarious locations, access to these places may be easily compromised by inclement weather. Hence, the keepers may sometimes be stranded for months altogether. Solitude was thought to be the single most typical reason for the prevalence of madness in the profession. Another possible aetiology of insanity could be mercury poisoning. In the older models of Fresnel Lens that were used in lighthouses, the lens and light were floated on mercury. The job of regularly cleaning the mercury of impurities exposed the 'wickies' to mercury poisoning. One of the symptoms of mercury poisoning can be the onset of mental derangement. 

Fresnel Lens - the invention
that saved a million ships.

Neurological symptoms used to be seen in hat makers. The felt used in their work contained mercury. Thus, came the saying, 'mad as a hatter'.

In this day and age, with the advancements in GPS and navigational technologies, are lighthouses still relevant? These days, they are automated and are there just as a backup just in case all the modern tools crash, fail or run out of power supply.

Edgar Allan Poe's last book that he had hardly started before his death in 1849 was unofficially named 'The Light House'. It was a collection of log entries of a newly appointed lighthouse keeper, and the theme was loneliness. 

©FG
Busan, South Korea.

This 2019 film was written with that idea in mind. A rookie is employed to be in a lighthouse under the supervision of a grumpy elderly keeper. The dynamics of their relationship, their unrelenting efforts to keep the beacon of light alive while maintaining their sanity in that cold, damp and hostile environment forms the basis of this psychological drama. Like 1963 'Birds', viewers will never look at a seagull in the same way again. Those scary birds can peck your eyeballs out!

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

We are all deranged in our own ways.

Raj and The End Of Tragedy
Instant Cafe Theatre Company Presentation

In conjunction with their 25th anniversary, this was their offering. A modern drama with 5 actors, it narrates essentially the restless hearts of the two main characters of the show, Raj and Uncle Lingam, who are paired to travel to America. The story tells us of their background, their journey there and the people whom they meet along the way.
It is not a conventional drama with change of sets and costumes but rather a modern one with minimal improvisation of props. Story is told by a narrator who is also part of ensemble of actors through a set of dances and facial expressions. It went on for 1h45m without intermission.
Jo Kukathas and her crew of 4 other talented actors gave quite an intense performance which brought the audience over to the dark side of human life.
To my understanding, it showcases that everyone of us have some unfulfilled madness within us. Some decide to externalise it much to chagrin of people around them, sending them off to be institutionalised. Collection of people of same mindedness perhaps is not the best option as they may fall deeper into quicksand. Others decide to combat their problem by running away from it all but maintain their sanity. In the end, we are all mad in our own ways.
It starts with the character Uncle Lingam, quite a character, a man of the world, a bigoted Ceylonese Malaysian who is looking for a companion to go back to America to re-live his good times. Leaving with no choice, he is left with the company of Raj to be his aide.
The story later tell about the mental state of Raj who is a frequent inmate of Tg Rambutan Mental Asylum. The actors reenact the scenario in the asylum. They also tell of the sad tale of an old Chinese man who was discarded by his family to rot in the asylum after the family had snitched his secret recipe of making chicken biscuit.
Raj grew up mentally deranged after being neglected by his parents who actually got him a wee bit too fast, before the matrimonial night, at a time when they were more interested in having fun. Raj, a TV addict as he grew up with the company of TV in place of his parents, yearn to be amongst the heroes that he had seen all his life on the telly - Rawhide, Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas et al.
En route to America, the saga of two Malay civil servant couple is revealed. The first couple, quite mismatched, live to pacify the society in their daily life. The husband has actually plans to come out of the closet and live his life to the fullest in New York. The wife, a sexually deprived one, fantasises sexual fantasies with random men.
The wife of the second couple is made to live the life that she does not want. Forced to live the high life, she is actually feels quite at home in her quite simple quiet country home in her kampong.

In transit at Dubai, Raj realizes that there are people worse off than him but they soldier on. Pakistani workers who were worked to pulp with no regards to humanity brinking on human trafficking. The sad tale of workers' exploitation, sufferings, the will to survive whilst losers commit suicide is told in a masterly manner.
Raj and Uncle Lingam finally reach the land of their dreams, New York, New York.
Here the storyteller brings us to the life of an Ethopian cab driver of the predicaments that he went through his life, of growing up under the patronage of the mythical St George who slayed the dragon, in a black land even though St George never went anyway beyond the Gaellic lands. Life was easy back home with the tutelage of the clergymen, playing table tennis with no balls! Misery came in the form of civil war which drew him to Big Apple. But he maintained his sanity. 

For Raj... his lifelong ambition proved to be his tragedy. The land that he clamoured so much proved not quite he had expected. Even before the ecstasy of reaching the land that he fantasised so much sinked in, a stray bullet from a shootout proved to be his coup de grace.
I do not claim to be a connoisseur of arts to be able to pass judgement on the quality of a production. In my limited experience in appreciating the finer things in life, I find this presentation quite absorbing. In spite being told in a different mode of story telling, the flow is crystal clear in our minds like the many films that I had watched where the story goes from present time to flashbacks with ease without confusing its viewers. The talented Jo did a fantastic job of being to gasp the attention of the audience for a good 1h45m with her gripping but sometimes witty dialogue.

The cast of Raj and the End of Tragedy: (from left) Ghafir Akbar, Jo Kukathas, Suhaili Micheline, Anne James, and Doppo Narita (seated on floor).

Mud in the face, big disgrace...

Welcome to New York (French-English; 2014)


I cannot fathom why the doyen, Gérard Depardieu, the name who is synonymous with modern contemporary French cinema would stoop so low as to appear in a meaningless movie like this one.
It is no secret that it is a thinly veiled saga of the defamed ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. There are too many similarities between the two to deny.
If one were to think that the film was made to highlight how he was framed, or show another version of how it have happened or how the whole fracas affected his career or his nomination of Presidency, you are in for a surprise.
It depicts none of those.
As you are aware, this high flying big gun with a soft spot for the fairer sex was to go for Presidency of France. The fact that the the accusation of rape by a chamber-maid in a New York so near before the win event screamed to high heavens of conspiracy theories. However, the film depicted none of the above. In short it was a pure meaningless graphic display of warped deviant show of lust and its varieties. The actual story only picked up towards the second half of show, that too in a wishy-washy malaise fashion.
It paints DSK as a remorseless sloppy oversized man way past his prime who thinks that everything can be bought with money. Everybody else is a persona non grata, the only important thing to him seem to be luring females and fulfilling his lust.
Jacqueline Bisset plays the role of his wife, Monique, whose is fed-up with his antics. She is more worried of how that snafu would jeopardise her advancement in her career as she is all too familiar with his skirt chasing habit.
The film is extremely draggy detailing all irrelevant detail including a full monty strip search of Depardieu in prison. After living in exile in Russia after tax problems in his native country France, perhaps he does not care much about French cinema and it is pay back time!
The French cinema has 'self censored' itself by not screening it in its theatres. The producers may have a hard time defending against the many legal suits that the Strauss-Kahn family is soon to file.

On the way there?

Finally met up with a university mate after 20 years. 30 years ago we were in the same boat as our kids, trying to set sail in the ocean of knowledge and curve a name for themselves in society. Time sure flies fast and we sat there reminiscing the good old days. 

I had the pleasure and honour to bump into him when I was wandering about in the streets of Edinburgh and subsequently attended his convocation as he graduated from the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh.

As I went on rambling on the small things that happened during our stay there, he was caught unaware. I remember it like it happened yesterday but unfortunately my friend had absolutely no recollection of such things happening in his life! 

Then, I started wondering! Was that a good thing that I could remember all those things and he could not? Perhaps, it shows that I am appreciative small little things in life. Does that mean I am a sensitive being, in keeping with my horoscope symbol, The Crab? Or little things excites little minds?

If that is confusing, wait and see what I read. 

The brain is constantly wired and pruned periodically to shake off old memories so that it can function better. Old obscure insignificant thoughts are put deep in cold storage to be retrieved under special circumstances only. Our brain is made to forget to enable new thoughts. Traumatic and stressful events are suppressed. Recent studies suggest that a person can finds it difficult to forget old thoughts are at high risk of developing depression and the risks associated with it. Am I going slightly mad?