Decide and chug along...

Revelations (Korean, 2025)

Director: Yeon Sang-ho

Although the ratings for this one were not very encouraging, the storyline made its viewers think.

No one knows the right course of action or what is contained in their recipe for good deeds. We merely drag our unfortunate selves along, clinging to straws, persuading ourselves that our actions are virtuous. No one can say whether our actions will lead to the best outcome in the grand scheme.

The movie explores what goes through the minds of three individuals who are somehow involved in the killing of a young girl and the kidnapping of another. There is a possible paedophile out on parole, wearing an ankle monitor. He seems to be following a young girl who enters a church. The paedophile follows into the church. The pastor notices him as a newcomer to the church and tries to woo him to join the congregation.

The pastor has a lot on his plate. He hopes to be promoted to a larger church, and he is troubled by his wife's infidelity.

One day, he forgot to pick up his son from school. Both he and his wife assume that their son has been kidnapped. The pastor suspects it must be the peculiar man with an ankle monitor. He hunts him down, believing he has killed him. Shortly thereafter, the wife informs them that a friend has collected their son.

The paedophile is also being followed by a police officer whose sister died after being kidnapped by him. Although she was released later, she took her own life due to social media shaming and PTSD.

The latter is assigned to investigate the paedophile after he went missing, having been assaulted by the pastor. Then it gets interesting…

So we end up with three people who want to do things beyond the bounds of decency but somehow find justifications for their actions.

The pastor wants to make sure that the paedophile is killed off before the police find him. The paedophile might say that the pastor tried to kill him. An arrest would destroy everything he had built for himself, work-wise and in his family life. He seriously sees signs from God that tell him he is on the right track. When he sees the clouds, an apparition resembling Mother Mary, and Jesus tells him to carry on, so he thinks, What else could he ask for?

The police officer thinks she failed the first time when her sister died. So, hunting down and killing the sadistic weirdo is justified. The question of her being a police officer does come into the equation. She sees images of her crying sister asking to seek revenge.

The criminal does not think he is doing anything wrong. All the voices in his head tell him so. His learned experience from his abusive childhood taught him so, too.

In the end, all three people have justifications to do all the things they want to do. While all these are happening, this church-going mother has lost her daughter. The pastor has to sit down with her to pray for the safe return of her child, who may have been abducted by the same criminal.

There is no secret formula for us to follow in this voyage of life. Every time the wind blows, we just hoist the sail, catch the wind and make intelligent guesses about where to navigate the boat. No self-proclaimed expert navigator can help you on this one.

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Felix, the philosophical cat!

Just the other day, a visitor to my home made a remark. She observed that my cat, Felix, was staring into the horizon while sitting by the glass window. Felix seemed unfazed by the activities within the house, instead focusing his gaze on the neighbour's gate. In front of the neighbour's compound stood a few stray cats, returning his stare. It resembled a kind of staring competition.

https://borderlessjournal.com/2025/04/14/felix-the-philosophical-cat/

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Who amongst us is disposable?

Boat(Tamil; 2024)
Director: Chimbudeven

This film drew little attention as a movie. Although the build-up initially seemed promising, it could have been more exciting.

It is said to be based on Ernest Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea', his Nobel Prize and Pulitzer-winning novel, and 'Ten Angry Men', a play written by Reginald Rose, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning movie. 

The storyline follows 'The Old Man and the Sea' because much of it occurs within the confines of a boat. Just as in 'Twelve Angry Men', the occupants of the boat (ten of them) have to make the dreaded decision of who two of them should be sacrificed so that the boat does not capsize.

Set in 1943 to coincide with the time Japanese fighter plans bombed areas around Madras, it tells a political story about India, its independence, British colonial rule, divisions among fellow Indians and many more. 

As they see planes flying over the Madras skies and upon hearing rumours of imminent Japanese bombing, Kumaran, a fisherman who owns the boat, dashes to the sea with his grandmother. Seven others followed them and got on to the boat - a Brahmin man with his daughter, a writer from the Kerala border who actually is a Muslim and probably a communist and a Jinnah sympathiser, a pregnant Telegu lady with her son, a Tamil librarian who is actually an INA operative and Rajasthani moneylender. 

Along the way, they pick up a soldier from a destroyed British patrol boat. 

As they hover away from the coast to escape police, they discover that the boat is overloaded and has a leak. The boatman, Kumaran, an expert here, calls the shots. He suggests that two people have to be offloaded to make it back safely. Who amongst the ten should be thrown off the boat?

The real essence of the film starts after this. The British soldier, with a gun, is cocksure that he cannot be the one to be offloaded. He has to carry the white man's burden to civilise the natives. They have a secret voting. Unanimously, Kumaran and his grandmother, being lower on the caste system, being of the marginal caste, should be disposed of. It is immaterial that they are the experts on getting them to shore. 

The discussion goes on to Brahminical supremacy, the North-South divide, Partition, Gandhism and Bose's INA and even the subdivision of Brahmins between Iyers and Iyengars. Much philosophy is also discussed about allowing all life forms to live. Interspersed in the background through a rickety radio are the philosophical songs belted out by the maestro of the yesteryears, Thiagarajah Bhaghvatar. His song questions human values and things about freedom. Symbolically, the British can be seen instigating the rest to fight against each other. Outside danger lurks in the form of a shark circling the boat.

I found this movie quite entertaining despite giving the feel more of a play instead of a feature film.

A playful photograph is inserted into this film.
Shown photographed with Subash Chandra Bose (front)
are L-R: Rajan (Sivaji in 1946 Andha Naal; Senupathy (Kamalhasan
in Indian 1 & 2 ,1996 & 2024); Muthaya (MS Bhaskar in this movie)
All three of INA conspired with the Japanese to bomb Madras.

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Everyone loses in a war!

Once a war starts, nobody can control its trajectory. The promise of a swift surgical strike with minimal casualties is anything but a fallacy.

We have more than enough examples to tell us this wisdom in our present times, but we just refuse to listen. The Kuwait War and Iraq Wars were just propaganda wars attacking something non-existent. It also proved that there is no such thing as precision bombing with zero casualties. It is no use telling us it is just collateral damage. 

The Vietnam War showed how elections can be lost. When the body count piles up, and the disadvantaged fraction of society bears all the sorrows of seeing their sons returning in body bags while the elite dodges their way from drafting, the public knows they have been taken for a ride. It happens because, like a broken dam, war has a mind of its own that cannot be reined at will.

An episode in the Mahabharata tells us a thing or two about wars. All the war ethics were closely followed until about day 12 of the Kurukshetra War. With the battle heating up, casualties piling, and almost reaching a standstill, the Kaurava side decided to play dirty. Maybe the Pandavas, too. Krishna and Arjuna (of the Pandava clan) were steered away to fight with another faction. At the same time, Arjuna's son, 16-year-old Abhimanyu, was lured into a complex military calyx devised by master strategist Drona. As skilled as Abhimanyu was, he had learned about the military formation. He knew how to get in, but he was not taught how to escape from it. When Abhimanyu was caught in the maze, he was trapped and was unceremoniously killed from the back.

On learning of Abhimanyu's death, Arjuna took revenge the following day.

Legend had it that Jayadratha, who masterminded Abhimanyu's assault, had a special boon. His father, Vriddhakshtra, had learnt about Jayadratha's fall at war by beheading from his birth charts, had done severe penance and subsequently received a boon from Brahma. Whoever drops the son's head on Earth would have his head explode into a thousand pieces. With his unparalleled expertise with his bow and arrow, Arjuna shot Jayadratha's head to land right on the mediating Vriddhakshatra's lap. A shocked father instinctively moved his thigh, causing Jayadratha's head to fall on the floor. Vriddhakshtra's head broke into a thousand pieces as he wished/cursed. Be careful what you wish for; it is one lesson learned from this fiasco. 

Another lesson from this turn of events happened long before this episode when the Pandavas were exiled for losing a game of dice. Jayadratha had acted ungentlemanly with Arjuna's wife, Draupadi. Instead of severely punishing him for his misdeeds, Arjuna and his brothers let him off with a slap on the wrist. If not nipped in the bud, a minor wrongdoing would morph into quite a monster difficult to curtail. Hence, lesson number two is to nip evil in the bud. Do not let it branch out and grow deep roots. 

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The escape clause?

Fair dues warning: This is a spiritual post. Please leave if you are easily offended. 

Krishna demolishing Kansa

I heard a talk from a Hindu scholar recently. He was narrating the story of Krishna and the troubling times he was born into. Rather, the Protector of the Universe, Vishnu, manifested himself as Krishna to maintain law and order. Too many influential people were abusing their positions to create chaos, which needed to be curbed.

Krishna's immediate duty was to defeat Kansa, his uncle, a demonic King. Trouble started when Kansa married off his sister, Devaki, to Vasudeva. Deep inside, Kansa intended to usurp Vasudeva's land. At the wedding, a prophecy was heard that Devaki's eighth child would be the reason for Kansa's defeat. Kansa imprisoned the couple, and Devaki's seven children were all killed at birth. Why all the other births, too, not just the eighth? Somebody alerted Kansa that the seven siblings could rally behind the eighth to attack him.

When the eighth child was finally born on an auspicious star on a wet rainy night, the hypnotic illusion of Vishnu came into full force. With sleeping guards and extremely lax security, a child was born, taken out of prison, transported across River Ganga, swapped with another baby, a baby girl, born at the same time, and returned to Devaki's cell. The baby girl cried only when it arrived at its destination, alerting the guards. The palace was alerted, but by the time Kansa laid his hands on the baby, he knew he had been duped. Was the prophecy wrong? The eighth born turned out to be a girl! Kansa tried to smash the baby on the wall. Surprise, surprise. The baby girl turned out to be Goddess Kaali, who announced that Kansa’s assassin was safe on the other side of the river and that his days were numbered.

Kansa spent the rest of his days thinking of Krishna, turning every corner and looking for his assailant. Long story short, Kansa sent so many adversaries to finish off young Krishna, but in vain. When Kansa was finally killed, it is said he attained moksha (released from the curse of rebirth) because Krishna was always on his mind, thinking of Krishna day and night.

Ravana

The same thing is said to have happened to Ravana. After kidnapping Sita, keeping her captive, and wooing her, he was shocked when Hanuman arrived in his supposedly safe cocoon. Hanuman created a ruckus by burning Lanka. It was a warning to Ravana that the end was nay. Rama was coming sooner than he thought. Just like Kansa, Ravana went into alert mode. 

Despite being the sorcerer and the erudite person he was, the fear of Rama and the accompanying Vanara army sank in. Ravana shuddered. What carnage could the rest do if one representative could do such damage? Every minute that followed, he was compelled to think of Rama and only Rama. Again, Ravana was defeated but also attained moksha because Rama was always at the tip of his tongue and immersed deep in his thoughts. 

My feeble mind does not comprehend all these. These great tyrants, despite all their evil deeds, the pain and suffering they inflicted upon others, and the trail of destruction left behind, escaped the dreaded curse of reincarnation because they went on thinking and chanting the Lord's name. It is a rather lazy way of cutting the queue, surpassing all others who went the problematic way of collecting brownie points and spiralling through birth after birth to attain salvation. In my mind, katas (sermons) like these are the crossroads where itihasa (history), tattva (philosophy) and sciences morph into myths. The scriptures tell about Rama and Krishna's dates of birth indirectly through constellation positions, permitting accurate dating of certain events. This information can be fed through astronomical apps to verify the presence of such a constellation. Astronomical calculations had verified it to be correct. Their births probably happened. That is science. But I am not so sure about others. My blinkers are still on, and I may not be ready to receive the essence of the nectar of the Lord's divine wisdom. But I persevere...

(P.S. I had been under the impression that the law of karma works like Newton's Third Law of Motion. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. You reap what you sow. Perhaps this escape route to erase one's sins is reactionary to what the Catholic Church was preaching at that time in India. A sincere confession under the name of the Lord cleans the slate. Fearing losing their congregation to the order side where something else is offered to the Law of Karma, the stakeholders may have relented. Instead of uttering ‘Hail Mary’ thrice and absolving your sins, they offered the chanting of ‘Hari Krishna Hari Rama’ indefinitely.)

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Because the clairvoyant said so?

Zulfarhan Osman

A news report piqued my interest recently. The parents of a murdered college student prostrated in prayer right after the verdict was announced by the court of appeal that six accused would be hanged. Later, they told reporters they were showing their appreciation to the Almighty as justice was done. 

These types of news often leave me more perplexed than I already am. An overseeing Almighty who was cognisant of all the things going on with their loved one but procrastinated would typically get a cold shoulder. If He were a mere mortal, He would get a notice of professional negligence for napping on the job. His nemesis, the horned and tailed one, through His proxies in robes, would have a field day trying to act smart and reenact all the fraction of seconds when danger could have been averted. But deep inside, these Satan's representatives on Earth thrive on maladies like these. 

On one hand, we are products of the Original Sin, imperfect in every way and prone to being tempted to wrongdoings. However, we are still expected to bear the effects of our misdeeds. 

We are expected to forgive and forget like He forgives us every time we commit a sin. And we claim that the justice He metes is just. Yet we investigate, leave nothing unturned, exhume, and do a forensic investigation to the last foxhole to pin down the perpetrator and hurl the whole might of the law against him. We gain joy in seeing the accused squirm and hide in shame. We call this justice prevailed. 

On the other hand, we have an abundance of examples of the victims' families forgiving their aggressors. I covered this in another post. (See here.)

(P.S. For the curious, the abovementioned case happened in a military college in Kuala Lumpur. In 2017, six students, then 21, accused a 17-year-old junior of stealing a laptop computer. A seer had earlier identified the 17-year-old as the thief. The six students, together with 12 other friends, try to beat and torture the young boy to confess. They burnt his body and privates with hot iron. The perpetrators concealed him from the hostel warden, and delaying medical attention, the 17-year-old succumbed to his injuries two weeks later. The six accused were found guilty and sentenced to 18 years of jail. The accomplices were jailed for three years. The six were given sentences to hang at the Court of Appeal.)

(P.P.S. Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rope', based on an actual event, comes to mind. How two students of Chicago University in 1924 thought it was cool to snap the neck of a 14-year-old boy!)

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Time to ponder!

Kahlil Gibran's Little Book of Secrets, 2019
Kahlil Gibran, Neil Douglas-Klotz (Editor)

(first published 1932)

That is it. There is no secret. Like every seed we sprout, each extracting our own energies, in different shapes, forms and sizes, build our leaves and flowers, but have to face the sun to get our nourishments. We may take different routes like that, but lest we forget, all roads lead to Rome.

Secrets? There are none. The answers are all within us. The problem is that the more answers we seek, the more questions pop up.

Khalil Gibran, a Lebanese Christian from the Eastern Christian Church, landed in the USA after spending a fair amount of formative years in Lebanon. Exposed to either side of the hemisphere, his outlook on life is quite profound. Here is an example of his thoughts and invitation to think.

A clergyman who preaches the dangers of sin and the need to follow the spiritual path meets a dying man during his travels. He was about to help him but was warned by the man about saving him. For he was Satan. Nursing him back to health would mean saving Satan. On the other hand, what work is there for the preacher if Satan stops his evil? The preacher would be out of a job. What evangelism is there any more? There is no Satan to spew his venom. In a way, both depend on each other to prosper. Without sin, there is no need for salvation. Without the poor, there is no one for the rich to flaunt. Without the slave staying dumb, the master cannot continue squeezing the noose on the poor.

Another point to ponder...

"Maybe a funeral among human beings is a wedding feast among the angels." Whilst man mourns the loss of one of his kind, the angels have a new member. Akin to the birth, the ushers smile when the entree (baby) cries. At death, the exiting member is happily relieved of his worldly pain, but the mourners wail in pain, unable to bear the separation.

N.B.

Kahlil Gibran (Arabic: جبران خليل جبران ) was a Lebanese-American artist, poet, and writer.
Born in the town of Bsharri in modern-day Lebanon (then part of Ottoman Mount Lebanon), as a young man, he emigrated with his family to the United States, where he studied art and began his literary career. In the Arab world, Gibran is regarded as a literary and political rebel. His romantic style was at the heart of a renaissance in modern Arabic literature, especially prose poetry, breaking away from the classical school. In Lebanon, he is still celebrated as a literary hero.
He is chiefly known in the English-speaking world for his 1923 book The Prophet, an early example of inspirational fiction, including a series of philosophical essays written in poetic English prose. The book sold well despite a cool critical reception, gaining popularity in the 1930s and again, especially in the 1960s counterculture.
Gibran is the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu.

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