Put on your seatbelts, it may be a bumpy ride!

Travelling through the journey of life, devoid of manual to navigate, we all depend on seasoned seamen who had the opportunity to scale the high seas and returned unscathed for guidance...
I met a friend's mother over dinner . She had recently lost her husband of 53 years and 5 successful children to complement the years of wedded bliss.
She was telling how everyone angle of their home has a bit of memory of their union attached to it, the furniture, the mementos from his various place of work and visit. The plethora of flashbacks still keeps on flooding her mind even after a year after his departure. What can you say, he is the only man she knew almost her entire life! (even before marriage)
They had their good times and trying times as all good marriages would. Her advice is to sail the rough seas with practising 'give-and-take' attitude and not being self centred. It went on to topics of present day marriages and its inability to stand the test of times. From where she stood, the flimsiest of reason seem to justify as an excuse to wreck the divine institution.
I suppose what we see today is just an evolution of society. From a society which lived with no rules and regulations and no one taking responsibility of theife weak, man drafted guidelines for his fellow men to follow, using the fear of God in it. It worked well for some time. From the beginning of time, man has been restless. Restless to explore new frontiers, ever willing to think against the grain of the majority and as he becomes more philosophical, critical, demanding logic and physical proof, he will continue rocking the boat even if the sea is not choppy....

But it is not just a number?

It first started with the greeting of "hello Uncle" and your reply to "Sorry, I don't remember being related to your mother!".

Then it became, "You just don't understand!"
And finally, you know that it has hit the next phase when one who has turned 31 years start condemning the generation younger than them as "these young people just don't get it!"!
During my last outing, there was this 31-year-old guy, born in the prosperous years after the 80s, shown obviously by his bulging abdominal girth, went on a rampage telling the crowd how he cannot fathom what the youngsters are thinking these days! And it was about their fixation with their fingers doing the talking rather than talking in somebody's face. And how alienated these aliens are out of touch with reality!
This is funny because when I see this 31-year-old, I look at him as coming from a planet. Looks like I am turning into a dinosaur.

Welcome to 2013 as I enter the Senior Veteran category, and I complete half a century of life on earth.

Curtain finale!

With the year-end malaise and festive mood, not to mention the sinful over-indulgence and the mounting of unnecessary calories and pound, the desire in partaking in the Newton 25km Challenge started waning as the days got nearer. With many casualties as well as other pressing commitments in the rest of the members of the running gang, I became the lone, lonely lifeless representative. The thought of scaling the slow gruelling ascends of Puncak Bukit Jalil just send shivers down the spine. It ain't no bed of roses and no pleasure cruise!
The wild west adage kept ringing in my ears, "a man got to do what a man got to do!" "For what?" asked my horned red-eyed inner demon friend. "For the glory of motherland or bragging rights as you smoast on the social media?".
The tussle continued with my haloed friend retorting, "For health, to ensure smooth laminar flow of blood in your vessels, for strengthening the inner fighting spirit of the soul, to stimulate the immune system to make sure that rogue mutated cells can be nipped in the bud before it becomes a mash of dangerous parasite!"
So, like a kind soul, fighting the inner demons, I did what I was to do, to run for health, for life, for that momentary surge of feel-good feeling!
It would also be a proper send-off to 2012 and my Junior Veteran status. I would be officially initiated as a Senior Veteran in 2013. Hello... I am too young to be 50.
Came 30th December 2012....
My last outing in this route was in 2010 when I completed it in 2h53m. Last year, family commitments overruled this run. Hoping to finish it with a bang a wee bit faster.
The race started promptly at 5.30am at Bandar Kinrara recreation park with 3800 runners in 12km and 25km categories. The long and straight trail started. Somehow, when we are running the inclining road, it did not seem impossible to conquer. Probably all that Sunday morning gruelling at Bukit Aman were paying off. Every successful climb was rewarded by a decline for us to catch a breather before embracing another. The temperature must have around 28 degrees based on my skills living in a tropical country! The air was still with only the movements of the runners making any kind of air turbulence.
We (me and my haloed friend) - the horned guy had to drag along, no choice- met the Newton Challenge and conquered it, to my heart's content. What a way to bid farewell to the fourth decade of my existence. I managed to slice 10 mins off my previous Newton run. My Garmin 610 shows that I completed it 2h43m. The distance, however, apparently is only 24km. With all the torturous hills, the effort is definitely more than you will need for a flat 25 or even 30km! Yeehah.....

Now to continue with my worldly duties...

She- Bruce Lee

Chocolate (Thai, 2008)
Why Chocolate? I am still wondering after completing the film. The only thing remotely linked to chocolate is that the protagonist loves M&M and in one of fight scene there were stacked boxes labelled 'Chocolate' on it.
Generally, I do not fancy violent shows but this is an exception. Kudos to the believably natural stunts in place unseen before on films - in a pork market with cleaver swinging thugs and the climax fight scene off a roof and parapet. At the end of the movie, we are shown that many stuntmen and even the actress (Yanin "Jeeja" Vismitananda, a 3rd dan taekwando exponent) get injured on numerous occasions. The story is nothing to shout about but the martial arts are out of this world. It is a combination of Bruce Lee's acrobatic moves, Jacky Chan's practical fighting using things that come along the way like doors and muay thai type of kiss-ass movements!
Zin angers the Thai underworld warlord (no. 8) when she leaves him for Masashi, a Yakuza gangster. After things gets too heated up, Masashi returns to Japan.
Zin, now discovers to be pregnant, leads a quiet life away from the city lights as waitress. The child is born, Zen, later found to be autistic. Playing with herself all the time, she develops extraordinary reflexes. Staying next to a muay thai academy and watching kungfu movies all the time on TV, she self taught herself martial arts. Meanwhile, an orphan boy, Moon, is adopted as her brother and they grow up together.
When Zin  has to undergo chemotherapy for cancer, Moon and Zen do street performances using her reflexes to earn money for mother's treatment.
One day, they found a little diary with list of people who owe Zin money - Zin was collecting for the underworld earlier. Together, they (the siblings) go hunting for the debtors who gave a lot resistance before paying after a good beating. This is where all the action is displayed in the movie.
No. 8 gets involved and a big showdown happens. Masashi comes to know about his daughter, he returns and a finale ensues. After much fighting, Zin succumbs to her wounds, Father and daughter are reunited.
Looks like the Thais have accepted the third gender as norm. Many of the gangster's henchmen (err, henchpersons) are actually transvestites! They are not made to look comical and degrading as in Malaysian or even Indian films but are actually mean dudes (err, people) who shoot for real!
Thumbs up for great display of believably real fighting scenes, not the dish-dish MGR vs. Nambiar kind of fights!

You talking to me?*

Taxi Driver (1976)
After watching Satyajit Ray's 1962 Abhijan about a cynical taxi driver, the only natural thing to is watch another cynical taxi driver. This time in the form of Martin Scorsese's depiction of a mentally disturbed Yellow Cab driver in New York.
If Ray's protagonist was trying to find the answer to life and morality, Scorsese's character, Travis Bickle (a young Robert De Niro) takes his own moral judgement on the wrongdoers.
A honourably discharged ex-Marine Travis, takes the job of night cab driver to make some money and as he is as awake as an owl at a time when most sane people are sleeping. He cannot stand the filth and vice that goes on in the streets and wishes that something could be done to clean it up.
We can see that he is having some kind of post traumatic stress disorder as he narrates his life in his journal.
He is infatuated with a Presidential candidate campaigner, Betsy (a young Cybill Shepherd). He finally plucks some courage to ask her out on a date after some hesitation. The later outings became uncomfortable and Betsy just stays away.
In the meantime, Travis bumps into a teenage prostitute, Iris (a young Jodie Foster), who is roughed out by her pimp but he just moves on with his work. Every now and then Travis bumps into Iris as she carries on with her work.

*This is a classic scene of a monologue

by Travis talking to himself at the mirror

whilst posing menacingly with his gun.

The rejection by Betsy proved to be a turning point in his life. He starts exercising, buys himself some guns and starts practising in the shooting range. On day, whilst shopping at his usual grocer, he witnesses a robbery. With his new found skill, he guns down the robber. The owner of the grocery is grateful and plants the gun on the thief!
Travis finally meets up with Iris and discovers her side of the story. She seems quite happy and grateful to her pimp for what he is doing. Somehow, now Travis feels that he needs to help her. He arranges for his savings to be sent to Iris, arms himself with guns (to the teeth!) and leaves his room to attempt to assassinate the Presidential candidate! - Don't ask me why? Probably, he felt that the candidate was not promising much to clean the filth off the city!.
After his attempt was foiled by the Secret Service, he goes on a shooting rampage at Iris' pimp and her bodyguard. Travis is seriously injured in the process but as the events turned out, as churned by the media, Travis is hailed as hero for saving a teenage prostitute.
After a protracted hospital stay, Travis is discharged from hospital to read a letter of appreciation from Iris' parents. Iris had continued her studies.
Travis goes back to his usual night cab job. Guess who takes his ride? Betsy. After some pleasantries on the turn of events in his life, they smile. He leaves her at her destination, sees at rear mirror, Betsy going up her apartment and the film abruptly ends!
In both films about taxi drivers (Satyajit's 1962 Abhijan and this one), you ask yourself what they are going to do next as the storyline is not so predictable. But then, with Hollywood, with the advantage of technical resources and the fetish for gore, Taxi Driver leaves a disturbing after taste with the gun, violence and blood splatter.
Whoever who said, "Guns don't people, people do!" must be wrong. With some many seemingly normal people scaling our streets and our lives daily, the damage done at the height of unabated emotion is definitely less fatal with a wooden stick or our bare hands than with a gun. The film is another in the long list of movies which show the damaging effect of war to soldiers and how difficult it is for them to assimilate into society after undergoing a rather psyche scarring, electro-potential overdrive effect of war!

A bombshell film of 60s

Lolita (1962)
Director: Stanley Kubrick

Another controversial movie made in the early 60s involving incestuous pubescent love. It is an adaptation of a Russian story. Still, due to the sensitivities of the general public of that era, the screenplay had to be altered significantly, and many scenes were just suggestive dialogues left to the imagination of the viewer.

Humbert Humbert (James Mason) is a European 40 something divorced professor who has some time before starting his stint in the university. He rents a room from a promiscuous widow (Charlotte, Shelly Winters) just because he fancies the precocious teenage daughter (Lolita, Sue Leon). He gets along well with them while writing his book and joining in the family outings. The landlady forthrightly expresses her feelings to our professor while the daughter is sent off to a summer camp.

They marry. An argument breaks out when Charlotte reads his diary. Here, he had written his desires for his stepdaughter and had addressed his wife as a cow and other derogatory terms). Frustrated, she runs out in the rain to be hit by a car, fatally wounding her.

Humbert picks Lolita from the summer camp. Without telling her about her mother's demise, he takes an extended tour to the supposed hospital with suspicious characters (whom he thinks are the cops) following them. They have an incestuous relationship, and finally, he spills the beans about Charlotte's accident.

They move into the university town. He teaches in a university, and she studies in the school nearby. He becomes an over-protective parent and monitors her every move. She, on the other hand, plays truant. When the truth is known, and when Humbert realises that the neighbours are talking about their unusual father-daughter relationship, he takes Lolita on a road trip (for educational purposes).

Along the way, he encounters some suspicious characters. Lolita fell seriously ill and had to be hospitalised. As she gets better, she absconds from the ward and is never found.

Precocious imp

3 years later, Humbert receives a letter from Lolita. She is now married to some guy, pregnant and was broke. Humbert takes a drive there to discover that all the while, he had been taken for a ride as well. The suspicious guy who was following them was her boyfriend (Peter Sellers, like a chameleon in many disguises). After running from the hospital with him, she followed him to Hollywood as he was a play-writer. The role that she was promised turned out to be for 'arty' films. And she left. She was 6 months pregnant and was to start life new in Alaska. Humbert leaves the scene...

The artist value of the film is commendable. Mason, the seasoned player, sets the mood for a broody insecure intellect. We feel pity for Shelley Winter gives a good account of a lady who tries to show her bourgeoisie and how she is laughed at subtly. Peter Sellers must have got the role for Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther series after his excellence disguises here. Overall a good film if you are not judgemental of the moral aspects of how the story progresses.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Taxi driver's moral dilemma

Abhijan (The Expedition, Bengali;1962)
Director, Script: Satyajit Ray
Yet another gem from master film maker.
Narsingh (Soumitra Chatterjee) is a disgruntled hard drinking taxi driver whose wife has left him. He is quite proud of his ancestral heritage, coming from a string of horse riding warriors. Unlike his ancestor who found pride in galloping on their horses, this Rajput has to make do with his 26 horse-powered 1930 Chrysler which he uses as his taxi with his loyal companion, Rama.
One day, after driving dangerously, Narsingh is dismissed by his boss.
Disappointed, he and his assistant head back home.
En route, he is stopped by a rich man Sukhanram and his maid (as he is initially told) Gulabi (Waheeda Rahman) who are stranded by their dismantled bullock cart. After helping him to get home, the rich man proposes to Narisigh to start a taxi service from his town Shyamnagar to Panchmati.
While checking out the new town before agreeing, he bumps into his childhood friend, Joseph Das. Even though they had grown together, they had gone separate ways. Joseph and his family, because of their low caste, had migrated from his home town.

Narsingh and Joseph

Chrysler 1930s

Joseph and his family had professed Christianity, probably to escape harassment. He is now working as a driver with the district officer whilst his sister, Neeli, is an English teacher in the local school. Narsingh blends well with the family in spite of difference in caste strata. Neeli also teaches Narsingh English.
Narsingh starts plying the taxi route. Sukhanram, a shadowy character with many vices up his sleeves, tries to tempt Narsingh to transport opium for him.
Meanwhile, Gulabi who is actually part of Sukhanram's human trafficking merchandise develops a soft spot for our bearded brooding hero. Narsingh, on the other hand, likes Neeli who in turns is secretly in love with a handicapped teacher. Neeli and beau's relationship is scorned upon by the town folks and her mother because of his handicap. The couple decide to elope and the irony is that Narsingh has to help to transport them to the ferry terminus in the cloak of the night!
The hero tries to deal with the morality dilemma that goes through him - his wife whom have left him, the rich man with his unlawful activities, the apparently religious cross flashing Neeli doing something wrongful like her relationship and elope with her lover, the lack of respect that he gets in spite of his warrior ancestry and how he feels wrong to make the bundle of money laid in front of him as it is illegal.

Gulabi (Waheeda Rahman)

He starts a relationship with Gulabi. Gulabi, on her side, has her own sob story. Losing her mother at birth and growing up as a miserable outcast with her grandmother, she did try to take her own life. As she is about to complete her endeavour, she realised that she was not ready to part with too many good things that were to happen, e.g. Dusheera (Vijayathasimi) celebration and her girlfriend's wedding!
After much deliberation, Narsingh decides to go over to the dark side!
During his first shipment (in his taxi), Joseph stops him to warn that Sukhanram's house would be raided by the authorities. Upon seeing the merchandise in his cab, Joseph realizes that his friend too had join the gang. After a heated self soul searching, Narsingh decides not to go to the path of destruction.
He returns the hot item to his boss, rescues Gulabi from being sent off as a comfort woman and returns to his home town to start life anew! End.
After seeing Waheeda Rahman in so many motherly roles in so many Hindi films, it is refreshing to see that this Chennai born lady as a knock out beauty with her mesmerizing expressive big eyes and a heroine. She does not have say much, the eyes talk!