Direct line above?

The First Phone Call from Heaven
Mitch Albom (2013)

I picked up this book during a long wait at the airport. You fly low-cost, your time is also low-cost (cheap), and they expect you to come early and wait. After reading all his books thus far, it is only natural for me to lay my hand at once. His books deal mainly with important things in life like death, heaven and Godly matters.

This time around, too, he dwells on 'life' after death and incorporates Alexander Graham Bell's invention, the telephone, as the means to receive a call from the heavenly world!

Interestingly, we learn a few snippets here and there about Bell's journey to his invention, which is still being contested by the original discoverer. His invention almost did not make it to the forefront, thanks to the Brazilian King who worked with Bell and the hearing impaired, who insisted that his device be seen.

Despite all the hurdles, it has stood the test of time. In fact, in its infancy, there were suggestions that it could be used to communicate with the departed on the other side of the world.

Bell must have never dreamt, even in his wildest dreams, of the hassles that modern man would face with his invention. For one thing, his wife was hearing impaired, and his device was not mobile.

8 occupants of a small town, Coldwater, Michigan, started receiving calls from the dearly departed ones from heaven, sending the whole town into a tailspin. A usually quiet town becomes abuzz with activities. Out-of-towners started moving in to witness this phenomenon. TV crew move in to capture this news as if they are genuinely interested in helping. Only deep inside, there are there for personal glory and to stir a hornet's nest when there is no trouble. Real estate prices go north. Sales of the particular brand of Samsung model of phone soar. Revenue to the local council boom, business at the local deli skyrockets! Even the congregation at the local church overflows, and the church helpers are stretched thin.

Of course, the naysayers were out in droves to prove the hoax. The excitement proved too much to handle. In short, with the heavenly calls, all hell breaks loose in this usually quiet town.

Not all recipients of the calls are happy. One contractor receives a call from a disgruntled employee who blames his death to his uncaring employer.

In the midst of this, Sullivan Harding, a former Air Force pilot, walks out of prison after serving time for crashing his plane allegedly for misguided orders from communication towers. The recordings, however, went missing, and his toxicology showed impermissible alcohol levels. His wife and the said technician who gave orders were involved in a tragic accident, sending Sullivan and his son's life into a mess.

As the kerfuffle reaches its zenith and Sullivan's young son starts carrying a mobile phone to receive a call from his dead mother, Sulivan decides to put a lid on giving false hope. He uses his connections working in the town newspaper company to get to the bottom of the problem.

With modern technologies, talk is cheap, and we tend to take it for granted. It is only when communication becomes impossible that we really appreciate and long for the little times we indulge in that tete-a-tete or that sweet nothing.

At the end of the day, in the story, there was a plausible explanation for all the calls (almost)- I do not want to be the party pooper!

1year = 410days?

Heard on WYNC Radiolab the other day on something revolutionary.

Somebody researched on the inside of exoskeleton of the coral. Understandably,  the inside of the coral had about 365 grooves depicting the days in the year and the change in the tides. Some smart professor decided to go one step further and looked into prehistoric corals. To his astonishment, he consistently found 400 to 410 grooves in them. The great minds started wondering...
Is it possible that the year was longer in the prehistoric days when the Earth was in its 'infancy'? It turned out that there is a plausible explanation to this end.
The Earth, just after the Big Bang was devoid of a moon. In its place when just meteorites, hence the mass that was rotating the sun was following a different orbit (longer). When the meteorites coalesce to form the Moon, the gravitational force of the Moon slowed Earth, hence shortening the number of days in a year!
The things that you learn.... limitless!

Who needs an army?

Jai Ho (2014, Hindi)

I thought the overused formula of one man's fight against a corrupt country is so yesterday, so 1990s and only works for South Indian movies involving new faces. Obviously, I am wrong. A Bollywood veteran thinks it will work and eavesdropping on the response of the contented praises from the viewers after the show, I guess it is going to be another cracker for Salman Khan!

Half of the crew of Ham Saath Saath Hain (1999) teamed up for this movie. (+Salman Khan, there are Tabu and Mohnish Bahl)
It is actually a remake of a 2006 Telugu film (Stalin) which had its idea from Hollywood's 'Pay it Forward' of 2000.
The unbelievable saga of a unceremoniously dismissed army officer go around righting wrongs of a corrupt society and in the process endangering his helpless family members is nothing new. Every time, we watch such a movie, the public tend to think a new dawn will come where society would be courteous and politicians would be honest. Dream on. At least that 2 hours in the cool ambiance of cinema would give you a temporary respite from the daily insanity of life.
I thought  the first part of the movie appeared disjointed as the dialogue, background music which a tad too loud and the acting was not in synchronicity. In spite of the believable well choreographed fighting scenes and the road chase scenes, we are not drawn into the movie.
There was a light moment in the cinema where the whole audience were in stitches. An actor was seen talking on  his i-Phone, held obviously upside down and the shot was repeated!
In short, it was a feel good movie hoping to earn some brownie points for the image of Salman Khan as a do-gooder who is seen kind to the handicapped and the underprivileged. 2/5

Matinya seorang patriot! (IP4)*

So the day finally came.... My iPhone 4 which had been patriotically serving me 24/7 over the past couple of years had given up on me. 3,2,1,...poof went the flicker and all the king's men and the king's horses could not put IP4 to tick again. This work horse served its purpose well through all the hard knocks and immersions (in sweaty conditions of the running environment, waterproof casing came in much later) that life had to offer.
The passing of the patriot reminds me of the story of a national laureate's composition  'Matinya seorang Patriot', a critical assessment of the duel of the two greatest Malaccan warriors - Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat. We all know the duel, immortalised by P Ramlee's 1957 film.

Usman Awang

The bone of contention here is whether Jebat, the fallen, did the correct thing by avenging for his best friend against a corrupt and unreasonable monarch who had their own yes-men and plenty of cloud and power over the people.
The eternal question is whether Jebat showed disrespect to the hierarchy or acted in good faith to right the wrong and for natural justice for the general public the Malacca Sultanate. Fighting against the revered establishment is alien culture but then there is only so much a person take lying down. Soon or later, after taking much beating, the single strand of hay is going to crack the camel's back.

3,2,1...off to ICU!

The last few days have been relatively peaceful. The rudimentary contraption that I now hold, called mobile phone serves its purpose quite well. It is mobile, it is always on the go.

Life is peaceful as the urge to gaze at the screen if there was anything new in the cyberspace or social media did not arise as it is not a very smartphone. It is from the pre-3G dinosaur era.

My life is more serene without the frequent buzzing or vibrations as if a rattlesnake was curling around the inside of my pants.

My friends, however, were under the impression that I had somehow recoiled into my own cocoon becoming an antisocial as all the Whatsapp messages directed to me had gone unanswered.
I, however, miss indulging in my own magical world filled with podcasts from NPR and the like.

Is it a boon or bane? Just like many things (and people) in our lives, we have to learn with it or around it. Priorities in life should be of paramount importance!

My usually smart mobile phone is now in critical condition in ICU. The monitors are still bleeping, indicating remnants of life still clinging on. How long? Can it be resuscitated, or is it going to be a flatliner (a.k.a. asystole) and be transferred to the mortuary? Time will tell...

Eternal peace? Dream on...

Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Producer and Director: Stanley Kubrik

Normally I do not fancy watching combat movies- people (on the enemy line) dying aimlessly but the Americans rarely do, and when they do, it would be a great deal which would beg for revenge! But this one is different! 

It is an anti-war movie that looks at the Vietnam War from a satirical view. It highlights the contradiction of man, the duality of man, just like the main character who wears a 'PEACE' sign on his uniform and the word 'Born to Kill' on his helmet. 

Another trigger happy soldier bears the words 'I am become death' on his helmet, apparently a quote from Bhagavadgita.
The soldiers could not understand why they were fighting for the same people who hate their guts and presence there. The Americans go on a shooting spree targeting farmers, women and children from atop a flying helicopter with no qualms.

The film shows the initial training of soldiers under extreme conditions with the constant harassment of the drillmaster, driving a private insane. He took his own life but not before gunning his master!
The fight scenes were quite intense, brutal, and life-like.

We can all talk all day all night about living in peace and harmony till all the cows come home and go grazing again but it ain't gonna happen!

Dark but humorous look into our childhood

When I was a kid

Childhood stories by Boey

We all had our observations about our parents' idiosyncrasies and things we hated doing but we still did them because... we were kids. We all had our moment when we hated our parents and were ashamed of them. And the jealous moments when other people's parents were so cool. Not to forget those sibling rivalry. Now you have this book that spills out all those suppressed thoughts, written by a Malaysian animator stationed in US. It is a scarily honest light read that reminds us Malaysians of the nostalgic and troubled times of childhood. The best thing about the book is that it is more of a comic book rather a text rich prose. It narrates different scenarios in the life of the author (Cheeming Boey) and usually ends in one or two pages with outcomes that would curve a smile, every time! The stories are not overtly 'rolling-on-the-floor' type funny but cute nevertheless. Sure, we all have all gone through what he had gone through and relate very much to the same things. Growing up in Johor Bahru in the 90s, travelling to Singapore for studies and growing in a household of parents who go all out for the education, even it means getting up at 4am to cross the Causeway to Singapore is not alien to all us. We all can relate to that in different locations and different families.