RIFLE RANGE BOY

A jocular Tamil proverb sarcastically portrays a man who denies losing his balance and falling flat on his face on the ground. He would show the people around him a clean moustache devoid of sand. The man hoped the others would believe he was a macho man who never fell. (குப்புற விழுந்தாலும் மீசையில் மண் ஒட்டவில்லை  - the said proverb.) This proverb has been playing in my mind over the past few days during the recently paused India-Pakistan War.  It started with a band of terrorists crossing over from Pakistan, killing 26 tourists just because they were not Muslims and retreating back into Pakistan. Pakistan vehemently denied being part of the killing or even harbouring any terrorists at all in their country. This heart-wrenching moment, especially the one involving a 6-day married honeymooning couple and a father shot in front of his wife and young son, stirred India to take retaliatory actions. Both sides flaunted their military toys, and the war games were flagged off. The...

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...

The Zone of Interest (2023) Director: Jonathan Glazer Even though this is about something that happened more than 80 years ago, put in a similar situation, I foresee we humans do the exact thing that we did during World War 2 Nazi rule of Germany. We justify our actions and inaction through the dog-whistle call of the majority without taking a step back and asking ourselves, "Am I doing the right thing?" Even during peacetime in Malaysia, a section of people is trying to steamroll their agenda to the rest of the country. Any sane person of reasonable intellectual capacity would understand this is not how democracy works. The majority chooses, and the rest would follow suit. Changes are made via constructive discourses at the appropriate forums. This renegade group is trying to change all these. The might of high decibels in the confines of an echo chamber cannot be underestimated. Like Grobbels, who thought that the propaganda machines of the State could steer the thinking of...

© Borderless Journal When I was growing up, the radio was the musical score constantly playing in the background. Blaring between Tamil movie songs and radio dramas were news of the hour and current issue discussions. The things that got imprinted on my impressionable mind as I was transforming from a teenager to a young adult were about violence, wars and bombings. I remember about the war in Vietnam as it was close to home. For every peace talk and the end of war announcement, there would pop up another bombing and a barrage of casualties. My simple mind wondered when the war would end, but it never did. It went on for so long that they had a Tamil film in 1970 named Vietnam Veedu (House of Vietnam), referring to a household forever in family feuds and turmoil.... https://borderlessjournal.com/2024/03/14/the-elusive-utopia/

Shakuni, Master of the Game (2019) Author: Ashutosh Nadkar That is the essence behind the Mahābhārata. It is not supposed to give a 2-dimensional view of things. It should make us realise that good and evil are a spectrum. One man's good deed can be to another's detriment. One man's version of the truth is another's untruth. I suppose, in the same way, Shakuni, the archetypical villain of the epic saga, could have his version of what actually transpired in his lifetime. He would have his version of what happened between the two noble families, the Pandavas and the Kauravas. This book goes on to tell exactly that; Shakuni's actions, reactions and justifications of all the things that he allegedly connived in eventually leading up to one of the bloodiest wars in history amongst brothers, cousins and uncles. Shakuni gives the lowdowns and dirty secrets of the family his beloved sister was married to. He claimed he was not handicapped as per common misconception. He was...

300 (2007) Director, Screenplay: Zack Snyder (Based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller) I was drawn to this movie after listening to Empire Podcast, hosted by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. It is a riveting podcast that takes its nerdy listeners on a long journey through history. What started with the East India Company and the British Empire in India, they have covered the Ottoman Empire, the history of slavery, the Russian Empire, and now they are discussing the Persian Empire. They were discussing the Battle of Marathon and The Battle at Thermopylae, and the film '300' emerged. King Darius I's Army was defeated at Marathon in 490 BCE. Then, the messenger ran 26 miles to bring the news to Athenians. He died doing that, but that was the birth of the marathon run. In 480 BCE, King Xerxes I sent an entourage to the Spartan King Leonidas demanding 'earth and water' as a token of submission to the Persian King. Of course, Leonidas, in his most Spartan way, retali...

It is said that ancient Indians had certain ethics in war. Fighting can only be done between dawn and dusk. So, a pre-dawn surprise attack is technically wrong in their book. Their code of conduct also dictates that a warrior of a certain stature could only engage in combat with someone of the enemy of a similar calibre. That is a foot soldier duels with another foot soldier, a warrior on the elephant battalion with another one on an elephant and so on. The commander does not watch the battle on the sidelines but gets his hands dirty by being in the thick of things. By convention, come dusk, both warring factions would lay down their arms and continue in natural light the following sunrise. The Kurukshetra War (circa 3000 BCE, dates debated) is said to have ended all the codes of war. When cousins and uncles go for each other's carotids, niceties are expectedly put aside. As the cyclical nature of time was pushing to Kaliyuga, anarchy is what one just expects. With battles sometime...

Civilisation does not assure civility! So, what is it that makes someone great? Is he the one who has conquered all his animalistic desires and knows that his real needs are beyond the realm of physicality and materialism? This man seeks knowledge and is satisfied when the lock of the meaning of life and the hidden secret of the Universe is unlocked. Such a man is fiction. Nietsche described him as Ubermensch; Hindus referred to him as Rama or Krishna, as the revised 2.0 version of a complex man. Another version of understanding how life works is to look at Hinduism's representation of the Universe - Trimurthi, the Trinity - Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and their consorts. Brahma, the creator, has to work in tandem with his consort, Saraswathi. Saraswathi is the Goddess of education and creativity. The take-home message is that one must have enough knowledge and creativity to create anything. Once the creation is done, life does not just go on unabashed. It has to be preserved and preserv...