RIFLE RANGE BOY

Netrikann (Third Eye, Tamil; 2021) By placing thilak/pottu/kumkum on one's forehead, one is constantly reminded that they should look beyond the mirage of Maya and seek to look inwardly beyond physicality. The sensory eyes are outward-oriented, whilst the third eye sees the nature of oneself and his existence. It helps to distinguish what is right and what is wrong. As the legend goes, the sensory eyes are influenced by lust, ego, and the twirl of our past births (kama and karma). Logical precision can easily be distorted whilst perfect clarity arises only when the inner vision, called the third eye, opens up.  Some say that the third eye corresponds to the pineal gland, which histologically looks like embryonic lateral eyes. As early as the ancient Egyptian era, the pineal gland gained its unique status as the bridge between the physical and ethereal worlds. The sketch of the Eye of Horus corresponds to the anatomical placement of the pineal gland in the brain. The pineal gland is...

Dedicated to PC who wanted to know my barber's philosophy... During our many hair-cutting sessions, I used to engage in deeply engaging banters about philosophy and religion, specifically religions of the Indian sub-continent. The barber shop is a simple establishment, in keeping with his simple philosophies of life, has seen much changes since the 80s when it was first set up. Starting life with a strict religious upbringing in his childhood and early adulthood, certain life changing events indeed changed his outlook on life, belief in God and attitude towards the self-professed upholders of the organised religion. In other words, there is the Maker (Nature, Cosmos, whatever) and there is him. That is all. A dash across two dates. The darkness before your existence and after, no previous lives and no after-life. Above us only sky and no cycles of re-birth and no book of Judgement too. During one of our colloquy, he brought up the notion of the origin of Lord Muruga, the deity...