RIFLE RANGE BOY

The Vaccine War (Hindi, 2023) Written, Directed by Vivek Agnihotri This is a sort of victory lap, a valedictorian dance to celebrate their success, a pat on the back for a job well done. It is also a proud moment to have stayed resilient when no one had any confidence that India would survive the COVID-19 pandemic. It gives them the bragging rights to flaunt their success story in thumping the virus that took the world by storm. They persevered when the rest of the world shook their heads, disapproving and sneering at their moves. When everyone, including their own people, mocked their actions and shamed them via media and toolkits, they stood their ground.   Even though India had an excellent track record in the pharmaceutical industry, its experience in making vaccines was in its infancy at best. With the pressures of impending doom and possible annihilation of mankind, Big Pharma had all to lose by not selling its vaccines to the most populous country on the planet.   Maybe...

It was a necessary trip, not a pleasure cruise. It needed to be done.  Just as the restrictions that kept us within our borders were eased, I made a dash for it. I thought everyone would be excited to fly free as a bird all over again - the passengers would be thrilled to meet with their loved ones overseas, and the flight crew with the licence to serve in the airspace, ecstatic to scale the skies. How wrong I was!  The powers that be probably decided to take an excellent last squeeze on travellers one more time, one for the road, before the scare of Covid dwindled away. Out of the blue (not mentioned in any pre-travel requisites), recipients of Sinovac vaccines needed to provide a negative report of their nasal swab for virus detection (PCR-Ag). New directives, it seems. When travellers expressed their dissatisfaction, the staff reassured them that they just happened to have a state-of-the-art laboratory at the airport, by the way, and results could be obtained within two hou...

Nostradamus, a French physician who lived in the mid 16th century, was actively involved in treating plague victims when he was summoned back home when his wife and two sons were also down with the plague. His creditability as a doctor was shaken when they died of their affliction.  Nostradamus never completed his medical studies as he was penalised for having embroiled in making herbal potions (apothecary); a trade deemed unprofessional. After the death of his family, he delved deep into astrology and study of the occult. In 1555, he published an almanac which is said to predict events 2000 years into the future. So as not to create problems with the Roman Catholic Church, as it would be viewed as heresy, he allegedly wrote his prophecies in cryptic quatrains using a combination of various languages. He gained a following amongst the royalty as he foresaw many future events. Even in modern times, his enthusiasts claim that he had successfully predicted the emergence of a leader li...

https://borderlessjournal.com/2020/03/28/not-our-crowning-glory/ Not our crowning glory   borderlesssg1 By Farouk Gulsara Is it funny that every time Man thinks that he has it all figured out, Nature (or fate if you like to call it) just jolts him back to reality? Like Will E Coyote and his spanking new latest invention from ACME Corporation, it just falls flat and blows right on his face again and again, and Roadrunner always goes scot-free, scooting off yet again, screeching “beep..beeep!” The latest viral scare of COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) just opens up our vulnerability. All the so-called foolproof systems that we had installed are just scribblings on the sand – they cannot withstand the test of time. And they are so porous. We thought we had all the arsenal that could not only not annihilate our enemies but ourselves in the process too. All these are useless in combating our electron-microscopic size enemy. We are literally crippled by an unse...