RIFLE RANGE BOY

When I was young, Amma thought I was a disappointment. In her mind, she felt that children had to be loud, commanding and cocksure about everything - not, like her son, passive, agreeing to most everything and giving too much space for the benefit of the doubt. She would often quote that this neighbour's son is brilliant and speaks well, that the neighbour's kid is doing well in school, and that I should pick a cue or two from them to succeed in life. Actually, she was more colourful in expressing her disappointment. The truth of the matter is, in my opinion, most domineering mothers give rise to submissive children. It is not so much that it is genetically coded; it is a case of conditioned nurturing. Amma's mantra is that to succeed in life, one has to have confidence and the gift of the gab. Her tough childhood in post-WWII Malaya made her and her siblings acquire the enviable skills of street smartness and the ability to sell ice to Eskimos. Like the eyes, the mouth an...

Good evening. A warm welcome to everyone here. A special welcome to Raphael and Maggie. Selamat datang to the rest and Marc’s family and friends. I guess Marc’s family and friends are no longer Marc’s alone. They are ours, too. Accept our humble salutations.   In the Indian tradition, more often than not, they  want their firstborn to be a male. Back in the 90s, when Divya was born, friends would give unsolicited advice. “It’s ok. The next one will definitely be a boy.” - as if we asked for an opinion, as if they knew, as if we cared. Then Tania was born, and they again gave a sigh.  And again, as if we asked. Rinse and repeat. That is until Keshav and Danny rolled along. 30 years on, I can stand proud and say they have done well in their own right.  Many years ago, my friend was getting married. As the main event was over, he saw his father-in-law give a sigh of relief, caressing his chest. He was heard telling his friend, “Ahh, my big headache is over!” ...

Good evening everybody. In case you are wondering, we are gathered today to commemorate the matrimony of our daughter Tania and the new addition to the family, our son-in-law, Durgesh. This sounds like the flight attendant announcing over the speaker that we are seated on flight so-and-so to wherever after the extensive checking at the counter, immigration, departure hall, blah, blah. I am waiting for someone, just one day, to jump out yelling, "damn, I'm on the wrong flight!" Firstly I would like to extend a big welcome to the Ahirwar family from Jabalpur. Also to friends and relatives from near and far. Family members have no choice, there have to be present here today. Life used to be much easier those days. Tarzan saw Jane, and he said, 'I, Tarzan, you Jane!' And they started a family. Then the young men had to kidnap their brides. They had to ride on horseback and kidnap a girl they fancied in the cloak of the dark and ride with their bride into the night. An...

Silence is golden, they say. Sometimes all that you needed to do was to do nothing. Precious time can be used to ponder, meander and introspect. These things are necessary to take stock of our performances in our duties as parents, siblings, offspring, employers, employees, pet owners or just as a mere person. Libraries, parks, open spaces, temples of worship and wilderness once were freely available for this purpose. On the one hand, we say that resting is part of training and that still water runs deep or that only the empty makes the loudest noise. In the same breath, we also say that an idle mind is the devil's workshop, as if our brain must always be doing something at all times. Perhaps, it was a ploy by the people in power so as not to make his subjects a thinking lot. The modus operandi  is to keep their minds occupied only with their almighty bosses' rhetorics - no place for the lowly minions to start using the brains to start a revolut...

As if by the interference of the divine forces, in two seemingly unrelated events, coincidences happen. In the first, the name Giorgio Moroder was mentioned within a span of a day (after not having heard the name mentioned since the 90s). In the other, two podcasts featured on the same topic - speech difficulties and singing. The general understanding is that stammering and singing are apparently not compatible. Unlike 'The Who' who came up with their 1965 hit song "My Generation', where the lead singer tries to sing with a stutter, the general consensus is that stammerers cannot string the words before the next beat. Wrong. In a documented case, as can be heard in the podcast below, an Indianapolis local resident, Ellen Spencer, was admitted for a neurological condition and came out of the hospital with a slurred speech. Even though at one look, her speech may sound like a French-accented English but on greater scrutiny, she had problems pronouncing certain syll...

Image Credit: superhv.com Bruce Lee is famous not only for his martial art skill. He is also renowned for his ability to infuse traditional Confucius wisdom into contemporary modern living. One of his quotations goes as follows ‘A learned man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer’! Shakespeare too mentioned something to that effect. ‘A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool!’   We are always under the impression that wisdom can learn from the books and scriptures and that one can wise just by sitting down and burying himself in the company of books. I disagree. First, let us define ‘wisdom’. Wisdom can be described as the soundness of one’s action based on his application of experience, knowledge and good judgement. Somewhere along the way, there would also be empathy.   True, academic knowledge is necessary for one to gain wisdom. From the books, we can acquire a wealth of knowledge...

http://www.familytrek.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/DI-I-offend-you.jpg I saw a video clip recently on the social media. It took place within the confines of an underground train. A mother was seen nursing her infant in a sparsely occupied coach. She was admonished for exposing herself in public. The man who accused her of public indecency insisted that his liberty of not wanting to see a naked lady had been denied. Slowly, the fellow passengers joined to support the lactating mother, but the man stood his ground. He accused her of not bothering about how others would feel seeing a naked breast in plain view. The argument went on for some time till it was time for one of them to disembark. A few months ago, a Muslim man is a Hindu-majority village in India was lynched to death when the village holy man announced that a particular occupant was in possession of beef. A mob, primarily vegans who thought that by controlling their cravings for blood and meat would be able to reach e...

Young King Solomon Now it is that time of the year where a certain group of teenagers aged 17 will be mollycoddled with their favourite cooking and given lots of space in the house. They would be kings, ensuring peace and quiet in the house and metaphorically could get away with murder. Refrigerators would be packed with chocolate and packet drinks. And the queue of parents waiting at the school gate to pass the hot burger or brain soup is a sight to to behold. All these in the hope that the parents would not be blamed for their failures in examinations. As more and more Malaysian parents become rodents in the race for academic excellence, character building, extra-academic performance and development of the non-dominant side of the brain takes a back burner! But that is another story... I remember back in November 1994, in the wintery chilly winds of Edinburgh, I was walking aimlessly past the museum when I bumped into, of all person,  my euphoric varsity...