RIFLE RANGE BOY

There I was, minding myself performing my daytime duties, when someone approached me. "Excuse me, where can I meet Mr Rajeev?"  I scratched my head thinking, "Rajeev, Rajeev…?"  "Sorry buddy, can't help you there. Don't know any Rajeev."  Then it hit me. Of course, Majid. Before Majid was Majid, in another life, he was known as Rajeev.  "Oh yes. I remember now. Ranjeev is on the 1st floor. He is now Majid." I told him.   Then I left the place thinking…  A name is for the convenience of others to pick us out of the 8 million people on Earth. If Majid is comfortable with his new name, so be it. We should respect it. It, in no way, changes who Rajeev or, for that matter, Majid is. In the imagery of Avicenna's flying man, he is who he is.  A new name does not exclude the follies of the previous past, just as Pakistan came to discover. Wanting to carve itself out of the perceived vagaries of its motherland, it realised it could not disenta...

Maverick School, Malaysia. I am amused by how some establishments have probably wrong choices of names. In my mind, their names have negative connotations. Or it was intended to be so. As they say in business, any publicity is good publicity. Anything that would stir the readers' curiosity or turns any head is good for business. Recently I came across two such instances. A private school called' Maverick' was set up in the Klang Valley. I always thought a maverick always has something up his sleeves. He has a scheme, a sleight of hand, that would benefit him. I perceive a maverick as someone like Artemus Gordon of 'The Wild Wild West' (1965), a secret service spy with tricks up his sleeves to protect the US President. Apparently, over the years, the term maverick had evolved from giving a negative connotation to something positive. People are no longer expected to be conforming and obedient but to think outside the box to be innovative. Correspondingly, students sho...