While we wait...

Wiki: Markandeya, a boy born of worship of Shiva,
was given the boon of profound wisdom but a short life.
Markandeya, himself a devout Shiva devotee, could not
be taken at the time of his supposed death.
He was in deep prayer in front of Shivalinga.
Yama's noose trapped the Shivalinga, incurring Siva's wrath.
A war ensued. Yama was defeated. People reached
immortality and were acting with impunity without the fear
of death. Yama was reinstated but, Markandeya was
bestowed to stay forever young.

This is what my father must be feeling right now. Completing his eighth decade of existence on Earth, he would be soon entering his ninth. By now, he must have got used to seeing his friends falling down like flies, one after another. Until about a few years ago, my contemporaries and I were only used to seeing pictures of relatives donning the obituary columns. Pretty soon, like him, we would start seeing more familiar faces of friends, buddies and soul mates. That, my friend, is the double-edged phenomenon called 'Time'. It grows us, nurtures to face the challenges of the time to a future which will lead to our senescence, senility, infirmity and subsequent demise. That is, if we are destined or fortunate enough to experience the whole red carpet laid for appreciation.

Just the other day, one of my close friends was called back by his Maker.  Even though he had been quite regular with his medical check-ups, came out with flying colours in the mandatory tests and tried to maintain a healthy lifestyle, Grimm Reaper apparently had other plans.

So at the wake, the main topic of discussion was the sudden nature of some deaths and the absence of farewell. The merits and demerits of having a forewarning before the curtain call. The unfortunate thing about forewarning is that the preceding event could be a painful one for both the sufferer and family alike. Sudden death could be swift but traumatic at the moment. In time, after closure, we remember him only as happy, regal and healthy. That is the memory of him that would stay with us.

Allegory of creation?

mother! (2017)

I went in with both my eyes wide shut, not knowing what to expect. At first, I thought it was going to be a scary movie with all the close camera shots and sudden jerky movements which are often seen in this genre. Then, I thought maybe it was going to be like 'Rosemary's Child' - a happy couple meeting intruders with evil on their minds. Only as I delved further in, did I realise that there were more than met the eyes. It could be a biblical reference to God, Mother Nature, the creation of Adam and Eve, the struggle between Kane and Abel and the seemingly annoying character of people at large.
In the typical fashion of an eerie flick, it started with a newly married couple staying in a secluded house out in the middle of nowhere. Then came trouble in the form of a visitor. And later his wife joined in, to disturb the serenity. Then came their sons who fought over the father's wealth. We are told that the father is stricken with terminal cancer. A brawl ensued, and one of the sons is fatally wounded.  At that juncture, I knew something was not right. There were no police at the scene, and the lady of the house was seen faithfully cleaning the crime scene of blood splatter like it was just the most natural thing to do.  I had watched too many police procedural dramas to know that one is not supposed to tamper with a crime scene. No 911 calls and no stroboscopic lights arrived at the home.
It continued getting bizarre. The man of the house was a self-centred man whose only life ambition was to finish his writing and to immerse himself in attention given by fans, journalists and critiques. He tended to draw inspiration from emotional turmoils but at the same time wanted peace for creativity. Then there was a forbidden priceless glass crystal which is supposed to be out of touch, which, of course, the visitors failed to respect.
The lady gets pregnant, but by the time delivery ensues, the home had become a chaotic war zone. The well-wishers went overboard with their praises for him. They had no qualms about showing their displeasure of the lady and even mutilated their baby!
The story symbolically goes to show a narcissistic God who is on a creation spree without giving two-hoots to what his creations are doing to Mother Nature. Mother Nature, despite all the insults that the creations hurl at Her, goes on to repair and nurture. God is only interested in self-glorification. His creations are so blinded by the Creator that they forget that Mother Nature is the one who is really protecting them.

Human's unabated bashing of Mother Nature will only destroy Her. As depicted at the end of the movie, human need not worry. Well, the Creator will just re-create everything one more time and the whole cycle of Adam, Eve, Kane, Abel and so on will only repeat, again and again...

This story may just resonate differently with different people. You can look at it as the Creator who goes on creativity spree only to marvel at his own composition without worrying about their outcome or future. Mother Nature bends over backwards to maintain peace, tranquillity and status quo. The creations, on the other hand, are hellbent on destroying everything. But in an alternate universe, the creation, preservation and destruction are all part of a single spectrum that propels time forward and maintains equilibrium.

Only for young ones!

Drifting Clouds (Finnish; 1998)
Written and Directed: Aki Kaurismaki

This modern world is only for the young, the well-heeled and the spendthrift. It is not interested in the older population who are less productive and tend to be miserly in their spending habits. The world revolves around generating economies, increasing debts and squeezing everyone out of their hard-earned money with the promise of giving them that elusive thing called happiness. Sure, there are avenues for one to make a living. It is hampered, however, by enslaving people to the bondage of their jobs. There is no leisure and no time to savour the fruit of their labour. At the same, people have to fulfil their biological purpose of existence and to bear the baggage that it brings, sweat, blood, tears, death and much more.

Big corporate firms are only interested in the big players with big capitals. Little people with only determination and tenacity as their collateral do not excite them. At the end of the day, it is only human relationships that save the day when the state fails.

This minimalist film is a melancholic one with its own quirky moments. It tells the story of a couple aged around the late thirties/early forties who had both lost their job. The economy is slow, and retrenchment is the order of the day. With a background sadness of losing their toddler (we are not told when and how), they battle unemployment, disappointment with securing jobs, humiliation and helplessness as they are denied finances and are told off to be old.

Even though the movie was made in the late 90s, the film has a retro mood setting with its jazzy and 60s rock-and-roll musical score. The cold Scandinavian climate set the perfect mood for the melancholia that hung throughout the film.

I was told most of Kaurismaki's takes are single takes, and the actors had to give their one and only best shot at the camera. The acting appears robotic at times, but apparently, that is the director's signature which augments his own sense of humour.

Credit: https://www.facebook.com/cinephilia.my/

And more rare ones #4

Dreams: coded messages or gobbledygook of unfulfilled mind?

Queen of Dreams

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (2004)

For centuries people have always associated dreams with our connection to the alternative realm. The unknown space that is beyond human comprehension that is said to be the link between our world and the inexorable dimension of divinity. For aeons, people have been under the impression that Gods speak to their subjects through this mode which they perceive as His way of communication. They were hellbent on to believing this that one almost severed his son's head and the other went on a world-saving venture impending doomsday by building an ark to converse all animals on Earth, much to the amusement of his neighbours and friends.

People like Freud, putting God out of the equation, went on to suggest that these nocturnal visualisations were mere expressions of the mind which were suppressed, repressed or forgotten of the Conscious. It could also be therapeutic if one could critically analyse the cry of the hidden mind.  

Unlike our ancestors, we are now living in an era where human beings are constantly bombarded with stimuli from all angles. Never before in our civilisation have we been overloaded visually, aurally and intellectually. Now, our mind is the sum of our senses and dreams are related to our exposure. Can we still say that our dreams are expressions of something so out of this world, something so divine? Is it not just a defragmentation, decluttering and pruning in a process of housekeeping of the files in our grey matter? Or perhaps an act of self-gratification of an exercise of near impossibility in our protocol and etiquette conscious society?

The story narrates from the perspective of a daughter of a clairvoyant who struggles with her God-given talent of psychic powers through dreams. The mother tries to juggle between trying to make sense of her ability, setting rules of her power, tries to live her worldly duties and, at the same time, attempt to fulfil the reason for her perceived purpose on Earth. 

The daughter has her own issues with her DJ husband, a strained marriage and the challenge of living as a coloured in the head-spinning times surrounding the 9/11 tragedy. A good read.

Yet more rare ones #3

The liberty to voice

Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan

Author: Caroline Fourest (2007)

For Mature Readers Only.

For the longest time, Tariq Ramadan has been hailed as a moderate Muslim. He has been looked upon as the person who would be the go-between to help to salvage the good name of the religion. His paternal grandfather established the notorious Islamic Brotherhood, but that did not prevent him from having his voice heard in the international arena. He asserts that he cannot be blamed for the sins of his grandfather and the baggage that he carries with the family name. Nevertheless, he is proud of his heritage. Tariq, probably named after the first Muslim conqueror in Europe when he invaded Spain, also shares his name with the pillar of Europe, the Rock of Gibraltar, called Rock of Tariq in the Islamic world.

His wife is Isabelle, an ex-Catholic, now plays the picture-perfect image of an ideal Muslim wife. His brother, Hani, a non-practising physician, gave up his medical practice to go in the line of dawah (spreading the message, but they do not call it proselytising). Unlike his younger brother Tariq, he lacks the suaveness and charisma. He is said to be too brash in his sermons at his family-run Geneva Islamic Centre that had landed him in hot soup with the Swiss authorities.

I think that is where the controversy starts. Tarif and Hani, according to the author, are actually two sides of the same coin. Tariq, despite his seemingly modern outlook of the practice of the religion and benign look, is said to have the same ideology of the fire-brand Islam as propagated by his grandfather Hassan Al Banna, Al Banna's henchmen Said Qutb and Hani Ramadan. Hani is supposed to spread the word from the inside whilst Tariq spreads his malicious sugar-coated 'doublespeak' message to the ummah in the rest of the civilised world. He says different things to a different crowd; to the non-believers, he emphasises that the Islamic laws should be contextualised to time and people, to the believers, he would adamantly assert that there is a need for the modern Man to go back to the golden age of Islamic Empire. To the kaffir, he would say that Islam is compatible to secularism and modern democracy; amongst his own crowd, he would insist that Muslims are different from the rest and they need to exert their superiority over their newfound state that gave them homage. Lest they forget that the host state 'rescued' them from their native countries, but they would be quick to counter their claim by saying that the West were the ones to fanned the fire in the first place. In so many strong the author accuses Tariq Ramadan to be a Salafi fundamentalist, not a reformist.

Author: Caroline Fourest

Tariq's association with many of the world's notorious jihadists including Ayman Al Zawahiri, the Al Queda No. 2 man, put Tariq into the list of the unwelcomed travellers in many countries including France and the USA. He is accused of being the subversive instigator of Muslims the world over. He encourages youths not to be passive citizens but instead, demand their rights. He wants them not to conform to the majority rule which is unIslamic. Ibn Taymiyyah, the controversial 13th-century Islamic thinker with his dogmatic teachings, is his role model. Tariq seems to condone the terrorism manned by fringe Islamists' group but fail to address the injustices carried out in the name of religion in Islamic nations. He is quick, however, to accuse of a Hamas-Zionist conspiracy or cry Islamophobia when the Muslims are in the wrong.


Tarik Ramadan denies part of his religious activities include proselytising but agrees that his wish is to have Europe, a Dar-al-Harb where Muslims are the minority, to a Dar-al-shahada or House of Witness/Message. In traditional Islamic sense, countries are either Darul-al-Islam (House of God) where Muslims are the leaders or Darul-al-Harb (House of war where Muslims are persecuted). So, in his words, he plans to bring the message of the gospel to the masses and make them believers?

This book was written in 2007 by a French journalist who was in the minority who opposed Tariq's interfaith work. Somehow, being the virtuoso of rhetorical and semantic undermining, he managed to stay in the limelight over the years. It should be interesting to see how he is going to dodge the new accusations of sexual misconduct that sprung in the social media recently and has made it to the French courts.