It started with a fizz...

A sign of women empowerment?

Gin and Tonic - a lady's drink?

Gin shops, unlike taverns, had 

feminine interior with pink walls,

mirrors and lacey curtains.

It started with COVID-19 and the movement control order. Even though the notification notices from my WhatsApp had been disabled for the next year, curiosity took the better of me. I was curious where those 100 over messages came from. Was I so likeable that people found that extra time to keep my acquaintance?

First, there was a debate on whether hydroxychloroquine was effective against coronavirus infections. The messages went a full circle, finally ending up with two sides vehemently defending or denying its usefulness. Both back up their stands with statistics and accuse the other of sabotage. One party said there is no rational explanation to use an antibiotic to fight a virus; a vaccine is needed. The other quoted success story with recovery numbers; to use what is freely available. The question of vested financial gains kept cropping up.

Yet another group suggested that perhaps nothing would be lost by prophylactically consuming hydroxychloroquine, not in its synthetic form but rather in its equivalent of the real McCoy. Quinine, its precursor, derived initially from a bark tree, is freely available as tonic water (~80mg/litre). So, what a way to combine work and pleasure than to sip gin and tonic?

Gin Lane, where mothers forgot
breastfeeding their infants during
the Gin Craze.

Gin as a drink made itself to the tropics because of British efforts to civilise the natives. After defeating Tipu Sultan in India, the British found many of their soldiers were down with malaria. As prophylaxis against the disease, they introduced quinine combined with gin as a refreshing evening drink. The ever-admiring natives also followed suit and gin-tonic. To date, it remains a favourite drink amongst Western-educated elitists in most urban pubs even though Anopheles, the plasmodium carrying mosquito, has long migrated to the countryside.

Even earlier, in the 18th century, gin was promoted as a Protestant drink by William of Orange to offset the import of French brandy and wines to the UK. More importantly, the Crown wanted to impoverish the Local Distillers' Guild. Local breweries and drinking houses were encouraged. Women were empowered and drawn into the industry as distillers and shopowners. It led to a Gin Craze with a nation of extreme drunkenness, abandonment of economic duties and neglect of social responsibilities. Taxes were introduced repeatedly to discourage over-indulgence, invoking ire among the people and finally, a riot. The people's interest in gin waned as the price of grain became more expensive, distillation was costly and earning power was low.

So be wary when someone says, "there is nothing a stiff drink cannot fix!" The first one could be the beginning of the many problems that need to be fixed later. 

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The Phoenix has arisen?

Claw of the Red Dragon (2019)

The society, via consensus of the majority, as prompted by the powerful, coined laws to ensure the smooth running of nations. It worked fine as long as the ruled remained stupid, and the rulers had the upper hand. But, once the one being ruled rose to the occasion, the playing field is level no more. The goal post is shifted, and new rules are brought in. So say the newcomers. The old dogs will talk about ethics, philosophy or something unrelated to the matter in hand.

In the 1980s, when China was a struggling economy and would work for peanuts, the mighty USAF thought it would be cheaper to outsource their work to China. The US now alleges that China had utilised the task to learn and spy on the US. Their development of 5G technology would make espionage as well as cyberwar easier, making it a fraction of their expenditure on military intelligence. 

The US says too much information held by the Communist is terrible for the free world. They assert that only the West can preserve democracy, liberty, freedom, and the pursuit of Happiness. The Communist would stifle human rights and freedom of speech. The Chinese cry foul. In their defence, they say that Huawei and all the mega projects initiated by China Incorporated are just business ventures, not megalomaniac schemes to conquer the world.

In the old Imperial World, such a checkmate would call for war. In the modern world, however, such an exercise would be a perfect recipe for Armageddon. Hence, the long arm of the law has been employed. 

The CFO of Huawei, the biggest telecommunication company in the world, was arrested in Canada in 2019 for fraud and having business deals with 'rogue nations' like Iran. More recently, in an unrelated case, a Texan lawyer had put up a class-action suit against China for causing COVID-19. Similarly, The International Council of Jurists (ICJ) and All India Bar Association (AIBA) have filed a complaint in the United Nations Human Rights Council seeking unspecified amount as reparations from China over the global spread of coronavirus.

This 1-hour Canadian made-for-TV drama is based on the arrest of Huawei's CFO, Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver. It is told from the viewpoint of a young couple. A journalist in Vancouver Post who makes it a life ambition to cover the arrest has to deal with her boyfriend who is working in Canada's branch of Huawei. The boyfriend tries to use the girlfriend's position to paint an excellent public image of his employer. 

The production is financed by Steve Bannon, Trump's former chief political strategist.

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Does anybody love anyone anyway?

Sillu Karupatti (சில்லுக்கருப்பட்டி, Tamil; 2019)

Netflix

Picking a movie from a list of Netflix is like opening a box of chocolates. "You never know what you gonna get!..." I was pleasantly surprised by my choice. Sometimes it is the movie unheard of with an equally unfamiliar cast may be the one with the most exciting storyline. 

This movie is an anthology of four unrelated stories with love being the common theme. Its four stories try to show that the emotion that releases butterflies in the tummy, the special feeling called love, at different age groups. Love needs are different at various times of one's life, and it carries a different meaning at other periods of their lifetimes.

The first story revolves around teens and love blossoms in the most unromantic place of all, the city dumpster. A slum-boy who scavenges the trash comes across some greeting cards, memorabilia and a photograph of a young girl. Curious how the girl would be in real life, he follows the garbage trump to get a peek at the owner. In summary, it is puppy love. Looking at the apparent disparity in social class and education levels of both, the viewers can guess the relationship would go nowhere.

The next one is the love of the contemporary kind, involving all modalities considered modern. There is the current Chennai landscape complete with spanking new highways and clean Hyundai cars, Ole call cab service, modern private medical centres and social media. Here a young man in his early 30s, who is all excited in anticipation of tying the nuptial knots with his gal that he found on an online matrimonial page, is diagnosed with testicular cancer. His beau bolts and he has to deal with the ailment on his own. Love is found again in strange places; this time in the form of a fellow occupant of a shared cab. Love blossoms by being an anchor weathering the storm.


The third story is about love in the twilight years. The traditional way of Indian life would dictate that those senior years of experience is the opportune time to prepare for the ethereal world. Not so in the modern world, it seems. Loneliness and fairly robust health necessitate romantic liaisons, especially when the offsprings are nowhere around to be seen. 

A scary piece of device. It eavesdrops.
Like the nosy neighbour auntie, Alexa.

The final clip is about love in contemporary times. After years of marriage, the spark that drew the couple together is somewhat missing. Husband and wife just carry on life doing their society-sanctioned duties without giving second thoughts to the amorous need of the other. Life, as each knew it, was the repetitive action of working at home or office, caring for the needs of kids and being trapped in the quagmire of the cycle of repetition. Remedy comes through the cupid work of a modern AI device.

Love, as they say, makes the world to stay relevant. At the spring of adolescence, with the raging of hormones, the youths think with their impulse. Nature needs them to be amorous. Progeny has to happen. The young cannot be wasting time in critical thinking and analysing. Continuity of the species is of paramount importance.

It used to be a time when society, which used to be patriarchal, dictated how the female species were left with no choice but conform to assume their role in society. With female empowerment came reduced fertility and threat of extinction. Nature fought back. Love had to bloom somehow, and it does.

It is love that holds a family and a society together. Left to their own devices, Man can be self-centred with their 'selfish gene' taking charge. The weak and the old would be left to rot. Hence, love manifest as compassion to care for the ones left behind in the race of time. Even the participants at the twilight stage of their years need someone to ride into the sunset...

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Just earning a living, you know...

Bait (2019)

I heard a joke many years ago. A venture capitalist was out on vacation in a remote place in Mexico, and he was fascinated at a lagoon with he saw. He saw a sombrero-donning gentleman dozing off on a fishing rod with a half-burnt cigar half-dangling off his lips. 
"Senõr," he said. "You fish here often?"
The Senõr obviously irritated being disturbed from his short siesta replied, "Si, senõr!"
"What if I change this place into a top marina with yachts that would bring in lots of money?"
"So?" he replied nonchalantly.
"So that you and your family can be rich. They would get good clothes, good education, a good life... And you can go for holidays in the Caribbeans."
"Why should I go on holidays in the Caribbeans?" the local was annoyed at the unsolicited advice.
The venture capitalist was not finished with his business pitch.
"So you enjoy the sun, laze around, go fishing and chomp on your Cuban..."
"But Senõr, I am already doing that!"

This British movie is intriguing as it was made with a vintage hand-held camera to produce a distinctive grainy film where audio was added on later, coming out with a disjointed but an expressive offering and extreme close-ups.

Seeing the famous philosopher Diogenes the 

Cynic basking under the autumn sun, Alexander 
asks him for whatever he could offer. He said,
"Stand aside to stop blocking the sun." 

A Cornish fishing village is losing its traditional appeal to the New World Order. Outsiders are swamping in to sell the attraction to the outside world. They are not there to contribute directly to the local economy but to take back their earnings to the big towns. The locals feel that their more straightforward way of life is impinged upon. Their age-old craft is lost. The newcomers are there not to spur the local industry but to set up Airbnb to showcase the town like museum artefacts.  Even the established local businesses also cater to the newcomers and their demands. The old lustre is all gone. New rules and regulations make the locals feel like they are foreigners in the land of the forefathers. The emigrè with their noses in the air and posh lifestyle is no match for the locals.

Two brothers who inherited a lodge and a fishing trawler as a family heirloom from their father had to give it all up because of economic reasons. The lodge had to be sold off to be converted into an Airbnb by out-of-towners who laze their time there during summer and rent it out during the off-season. The trawler had to be converted to a ferry to bring tourist around for a fee. One of the brothers still struggles with the family profession, hardly making ends meet fishing.

The newcomers, on the other hand, feel they are instrumental in bringing prosperity to their plebeian way of living. And they also just want to earn a living. Don't we all?

There is no panacea for these difficulties people go through. Nobody owns exclusivity to anything on this planet. We not only have to share this world with fellow human beings and other creatures.

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The Apollonian-Dionysian balance

Rush (2013)


Friederich Nietzsche identified enduring dichotomies within and amongst us that make our world tick. These two attitudes, both named after Greek Gods, have clashing features. Apollo, son of Zeus, stands for order, logic and reason while Dionysius, the God of Wine, represents chaos, madness and drunkenness. Nietzsche thinks we need both. It emerges from nature itself and can be applied in our day-to-day activities, from art, psychology, ethics to politics.

Apollonian way of doing things can be visualised how a scientist functions with his obsession with precision, discipline and punctuality. The Dionysian effect can be seen in music and art form, which may appear chaotic and not following the rules but nevertheless is music as it is, pleasant to the ears and emotive.

Nietzche saw the fusion of frenzied energy of the Dionysian to be applied constructively inside an Apollonian framework as ideal.

This biopic depiction of the professional rivalry between two F1 racing legends, Niki Lauda and James Hunt brings us to a time when F1 racing meant booze, girls and drug. Even though the movie depicts them as mortal enemies, in real life, they were close friends and had kept in touch for a long time.

James Hunt is the impulsive hard-drinking, the hard-partying late-night bad boy of F1. Lauda, on the other hand, is a fastidious, calculative and disciplined racer who prepares his every move meticulously and goes to bed early.

A memorable quote in the film goes like this. 'Drivers are revered not because of what they do, driving around in circles but because of their brush with death. The closer they are with death, the more people find them fascinating.' I suppose the same applies to other professions that deal with or hold people's life at the clutch of their hands. This would include people in the medical fraternity or in the mafia business.

This opposing features in the drivers form a compelling narrative for a cliffhanging adrenaline-fueled, rubber-burning suspense at the F1 track set in the early to mid-70s. The excellent direction by Ron Howard makes the experience more enjoyable.

Life would be boring if everyone conforms to a universal set of rules and practises fair play all the way. The Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy remains a useful way to view art, psychology, society and every other aspect of life.

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This is not a drill

© Juan Rumimpunu

People, mainly the theistic type, are in a dilemma now. They are currently undergoing a test of faith. On the one hand, they feel they should not have been subjected through such a trial. Whoever had heard of Man-created laws preventing believers from performing their daily mandatory salutations of the Divine Forces? Furthermore, at this time of calamity, if they cannot turn for Divine help, where else can they turn to?

But wait...

Why did the Divine Forces 'send' such a test to us? Does he not love us so much? After all the cajoling over the generations, and the importance that humankind had accorded to the celestial forces these times, why are we continuously put to the test? Is it some kind of Divine Mirth for the amusement of the Maker and a testbed to gauge our devotion? Why do they feel that this time around, when the fear of COVID-19, the first place to be emptied are the places of worship? How can they be hotbeds for infection?

Are they justified is asking, "My Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?" Has God ditched his followers stricken with COVID-19 by shutting down religious centres with no prayer meetings? Social distancing seems to be the only panacea for all this ill. Perhaps He is telling us that blind faith does not work. Above all intelligence and cognitive power would make us stronger as a race.

Perhaps the answer would be, "I am here just for your solace. I cannot possibly change the trajectory of the Universe just because of your cajoling of me in prayers. Imagine the catastrophe that could cause to the others. I have other requests too, you know!"

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'Cadaver particle' that turns people to corpse.

Semmelweis on Google Doodle

This post is dedicated to my mentor, VM, who exposed me to the field of history of medicine. As part of my training, he made it a point to drill me on the historical aspects of specific treatments. The exciting thing about these small vignettes regarding history is that they make good conversation pieces.

These days, seeing people around in frantic in hand-washing exercise, reminded me of one of the first historical icons that VM introduced. Something as simple hand washing is often undervalued, and the first person who promoted this was never really feted. In fact, as like other many historical figures, he, Ignaz Semmelweis, died a sad man.

The Vienna General Hospital of the mid-19th century had two obstetric wings; one manned by midwives and the other was run by doctors. This was during the pre-antibiotic era when puerperal fever was a common occurrence and death due to sepsis was nothing unusual. In fact, more mothers died in the doctor's wing, much to the embarrassment of its head, Prof Semmelweis. Mothers begged not to be admitted to the doctors' side and would instead deliver in the streets, claiming they had delivered en route the hospital. The surprising thing was the infection rate of those delivered by the streets was low.

Bizarre theories started flying about these maternal deaths. Many of the patients were of low morals, single mothers and prostitutes, hence personal hygiene was suggested. They even postulated poisoning by milk as yellowish exudates mimicking milk were found in their uteri during postmortem. Naturally, it was just pus.

The eureka moment came when his colleague died of sepsis after a cut on his finger during postmortem examination. Semmelweis found a connection between the autopsy done by the doctors and the patients that delivered. He concluded that there was a 'cadaveric' particle that transmitted to the parturient mothers via the doctors' hands. He suggested washing hands with a chlorinated lime solution to remove the 'putrid smell' of cadavers. His method reduced sepsis and maternal mortality tremendously.

Semmelweis tried to spread his technique all over Europe, much to the resistance of the old guards who were quite comfortable with their old ways. Just around that time, there was political turmoil in Hungary. Career insecurity was an issue. 

Cheers to Semmelweis
(with VM)

It is said that Semmelweis would have had a more significant impact if he had communicated his findings more effectively and avoid antagonising the medical establishment.

Eventually, his behaviour took a turn. He started drinking heavily, living openly with a prostitute and became progressively violent. He was institutionalised. A few days after that, he was restrained and hit by the institute paramedics. He died unceremoniously due to infections sustained from the assault; the same infections he was trying to avoid. He could also have suffered from tertiary syphilis or Alzheimer's disease. 

Only almost twenty years later was his theory proven true by Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur's Germ Theory.

People's actions over the ages never really change. They are quick to resist any new suggestion that would alter their routine. It has come to be referred to as Semmelweis reflex, a metaphor of human behaviour, where fresh ideas ridiculed and rejected by contemporaries. 

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