Rain of Fire..

It was a calm and quiet January morning in 1966, a bizarre rain of fire showered down the village of Tinh Duan in northern Vietnam. The buzz of two fighter jets echoed through the plains as they soar along the clear skies. Smoke rolled across the air as people tried to open their eyes to the burning ceilings.

“Viet Cong! Viet Cong!” a lady ran out of her home and began screaming down the unpaved clay road. “My house is on fire!” she wailed.

“Somebody save us!”  another cried out as she stumbled out of her house. Her skin has peeled off from her arms it was a tainted pink almost resembling freshly peeled tomatoes. 

In less than five minutes, the silent village of hardly two hundred people roared into a crazy scenario of horror and chaos. The Viet Cong had suspected that the village was a makeshift base used by the Americans to conduct secret missions. Indeed, a number of soldiers and army jeeps would circle the area during routine surveillances but this time, the attacking of village was entirely inhabited by civilians.

The men of the village ran and shouted. They carried whatever and whoever they could manage. 

The hardwood and straw houses hardly gave a challenge to the unstoppable napalm. Minutes were all it took to decimate an entire structure. 

Le Vu Duan, a reserve soldier for the South Vietnamese was running from house to house, checking for survivors. He stopped by each door and screamed, “Ben trong nguoi. Keu la!” If you’re still trapped inside. Shout!

A woman shouts out loud as she ran out of her house and towards Le: “Save my son! He’s still inside!”

Cries for help could be heard out of the burning house she was pointing. Less than a hundred meters down the lane. Le pointed east and told the lady to run towards there, the nearest base for the South. 

He could see the figure of a boy crouched under a table through the window of the burning house. Pace-by-pace he got meters closer to the home, now almost entirely engulfed. Right when he was just less than twenty meters away, he heard the sound of the cracking under the heat. A chill went down his spine. 

“Cha! Cha!” he screamed to the boy, calling him to get out.

As the loudest crack echoed out of the house, its burning roof and walls folded inwards like a house of cards, in a just a blink of an eye the building was flat on the ground. The crying eerily ceased.

Le felt his knees give way as the devastation enveloped his body.

Turning around, the woman halted her steps. “Con trai!” My son! She screamed as she looked back to the speechless and weeping Le. 

“Thien Chua!” she fell on all fours as she wailed for God. Her arms around her chest as she sat helplessly in the middle of the path, dozens of people ran frantically towards the Allied base. There was no time to help the dead or dying.

It has only been ten minutes since the two planes had released their deadly rain of napalm. Most of the houses had crumbled to a pile of burning cinders. The ones that are still standing would collapse soon.

Le got up on his legs once more and walked towards the end of the path. The screaming softened as people disappear through the wheat field, heading towards east. As most of the people were out of earshot, the village dissonantly came to a silence, the only sounds remained were the crackling of the fires and collapsing buildings.

Tv..yo

Buying a television set is no longer an easy task as I've experienced it before. Television sets now come in a variety of sizes and have a more features than most people would have thought a decade ago. Recently, I went to a shop to purchase a television set as our old set just went off like "poof" due to the thunder. The moment I stepped into the shop I was like "wow". I was pretty much amazed with the variety of television sets.

Everyone wants a clear picture. For instance, even I want a clear picture when I'm watching movies or my favourite programs. Now, some programs are also broadcasted using a digital format called high definition television (HDTV), which provides a clearer picture. And guys, do you know that only some new televisions sets have HDTV tuners and are able to receive HDTV signals whereas older television sets are not able to receive these signals. Thanks to new technologies LCD and plasma, claim to provide the clearest picture possible. In addition to the great picture that LCD and plasma televisions provide, many people like the style of these flat screens televisions.

Televisions come in any size from extremely small and portable to huge and bulky. Large screens, which are awesome for watching action movies, appeal to a lot of people. With a bigger screen, picture quality is very important because if the quality is low, it’s going to be so obvious as the screen is big. Big screen, flat panel LCD or plasma televisions with HDTV are a great way to achieve a large, perfect picture that is the next best thing to going to the theater. People who are busy with work and stuff usually don't have the time to go to the theater to catch the latest movies, so what they do, they get big screen television sets which is the closest thing to do to get the feel of watching the movies in the cinema.

It has to start off somewhere...

"All successful men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work everyday towards their distant vision, that goal or purpose."

-Brian Tracy-

Do you have a dream that you are aiming to achieve? 

Every individual in this world has a dream(s) that they want to achieve. When you start dreaming, that is when you'll start striving for it. I have a dream too. My dream is to build a foundation for the disabled children. 

My late uncle (this pic was taken a month before he died) 

I always had this thing inside me to help people, especially the disabled because I pretty much grew up with my late uncle, who happen to be a disabled person. To be more precise, he wasn't really disabled but he was mentally challenged. He is my father's younger brother and he is the sixth among twelve children my grandparents gave birth to. YEAH, I know that's a lot. He was actually a pre-mature baby. He only started walking in the age of ten. He can do almost everything by himself but he is just not like us; he doesn't speak like us, think like us, and he doesn't understand anything about the world we live in. He has his little own realm where he was happy to the core till the day he passed away. My grandma and I were the only people who could understand his language. I think I've spent more time with him than I spent with my parents. He may be disabled but he has a very good memory power. He can remember the colour of my shirt which I would have worn a week ago. Sometimes, even my relatives would get shocked with his incredible memory power. He is the best uncle I've ever had and I wish I could just see him again, just once. 

From left, me, my brother, my cousin and uncle raja

His death made me realise a lots of things in life. This whole idea of building a foundation for the disabled was because of him. Do you know that feeling you have when your loved one passes away and you have done nothing for him/her? I had that feeling for months, in fact I still do have it. Its more like a guilty feeling that doesn't fade away fast. As far as I know, my dream of building this foundation is not going to be easy and it is going to be a very long process. In order to achieve this dream of mine, I started off with doing my little research on various charities. I signed up online to be a member in this charity home called "Kaakum Karangal", which is located in West Mambalam Chennai, South India. I discussed with my parents about this whole idea of mine and they said they were ready to help at any cost. So during Deepavali, with the help of my parents and brother I sent them an amount of money via post and since there was no celebration for us this year due to the death of my uncle, at least let them celebrate with joy.

Uncle Raja with his brother

This is where I started and I will keep working hard towards achieving my goal. I would do anything to help those who are in need. There are 650 million people who are disabled, including children and I want to make a difference in their lives. As what Mother Teresa said, "if you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one." 

Escaping from reality..!

Have you guys ever wondered why people read romance novels? Is it because of the sex that is described? Nope, it's not. As a reader, if you are reading the novel just for the "sex part", you might as well get a porn book to satisfy yourself, why romance novels?

I hate the face people give me when I say I read romance novels. I don't understand what is so wrong in reading a romance novel? You see guys, I don't know about others, but I read romance novels to escape myself from reality. Basically, I'm an escapist reader. I know that life is tough with full of ups ad downs in reality, and I'm ready to deal with it. It's nice to read books with survivors who go through many struggles and obstacles, but in the end they manage to overcome all of those problems because of they have love in their lives. It's also nice to read about people who make it through tough situations because they didn't give up on each other. It somehow gives you the hope when you go through situations like that. For example, some people read the horoscope column in the newspaper everyday without fail, why? It's because they believe in it. They are aware of the fact that it's not hundred percent true, but they just read it to satisfy themselves. The same thing applies to me when I read my romance novels. Another thing that I would like to share with you guys is that in a way, romance novels can teach how to become a better person. I sometimes relate myself to my romance novels. Unfortunately I was never the thin, slim, attractive whose size is zero and never puts on weight at all. I used to be very self-conscious and I get depressed over my weight a lot and I used to starve believing that I could lose weight. But obviously it didn't work out. That was when I started reading romance novels. So when I read novels and if the character of the heroine is similar to mine, I tend to put myself in her shoes. We all know that romance novels always have happy endings, so in a way by reading these novels it made me feel better. I was more confident with myself and my self-consciousness slowly started fading away. I began living a life for myself and I was least bothered about what people thought about me. 

So guys, what I would like to convey to you is that if you are a hardcore romance novel reader, keep reading. Do not stop. And to people who often get stressed up and needs a platform to escape yourself from reality sometimes, try reading romance novels. 

My obsession 

Now, if you can excuse me guys, I've got a novel to read :) Cheers! 

Why is it always about sex?

Hello there my dear readers..!

Today I would like to share with you guys about women magazines in my opinion..

In general, I dislike reading magazines, especially women magazines, like Cosmopolitan, Flare, Cleo and Curve. Magazines like these just pisses me off. I'm not saying that they are completely ridiculous, but it seems to work out that way more often than not. First of all, I find it a waste to buy such magazines, and just so you know, they are not cheap. I personally think that the Cosmopolitan magazine should be banned. They produce articles with titles like "How to Wow a Man in the Bedroom". I really don't know what this world has become. Instead of coming up with titles like "How to Lose 40 Pounds in a Month" they come up with articles like "Sex position of the day", "Sex tips from guys", and "Sex advice". It's basically a magazine that does nothing but survey men about what they want sexually and the rest is telling woman what women should be doing. Besides that, these magazines also stereotypes gender. Most of the content and images of the Cosmopolitan magazines usually involve sex and sexuality and its target is usually towards captivating younger women. This magazine basically portrays both men and women in specific ways, focusing both on their gender roles. Most women in Cosmopolitan are shown beautiful, skinny and sexually attractive while men are shown muscular, physically strong and extremely gorgeous. But usually they focus on women more than men. Why is it that women have to be always portrayed so skinny and slim?  Why women are always sexually objectified? Women are always objectified because of gender discrimination. This is where gender inequalities pops in. Gender inequalities takes place because in this present world today, males dominate the female. It has been always like that. It's time to make a change. Coming back to the magazine, I would like to say that these things should be amended. Cosmopolitan should start portraying plus-size women. They should come up with more productive and effective articles.

Our Video..

Video project! Done like a boss! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..!!

So we had to do a video project, its more like a short film. It's my very first video project. We were told to form a group of five and my members were Shalini, Darrveena, Lilian and Ming. It sounded easy at first, but then Oh NO, it was NOT easy at all..! We were asked to a few camera shots and angles we learned during one of our tutorial classes.

These are a few basic angles : -

               Birds eye view

               High angle shot

               Low angle shot

Getting back on track, we had to come up with a good storyline so we had a discussion with our members and we pretty much poured out our ideas. It was not easy to come up with a storyline that would satisfy all of us since each of us have our own ways of coming up with things, but we managed to come up with a good storyline in the end. All of us thought it was a great idea until the day came where a representative from each group has to talk about the gist of the storyline in the class. Unfortunately the feedback given by our classmates where not what we actually expected. It was pretty bad. They said that the climax was "predictable". But honestly, I appreciate their honesty if not we would have just continued with what we came up which would have eventually turned out bad. Because our main objective in this short film is to capture the attention of the audience. If the climax is predictable, then that element of suspense would be missing in the aura. 

So what we did, my group members and I immediately came up with a whole new storyline(not gonna say it), coz its gonna be a surprise. We were really excited to start shooting but unfortunately just a few days before our shooting, one of our group member's father passed away. We were really shocked to hear this news. It was very devastating to receive a news like this. Our excitement for the video was all gone coz we understood how if feels to lose a dad. Plus this video is suppose to full of comedy and we were wondering how is this friend of ours going to act it out in a situation like this. So we decided to postpone the shooting. 

Now, we are done with everything. (Sigh!!) So relieved! We did it like a boss. We experienced a lot of things during this video shooting. A lots of ups and downs, but in the end we managed to finish it. Now we know what team work is like (not easy at all). We even had to stay at campus till 12.30 a.m to edit our video coz editing is sinfully a very very very long process. My god! 

We did our best and I really hope everyone would find it entertaining..! 

They got what they wanted...

15 minutes of Fame..!

A very good morning to my dear readers..I'm back to update my blog... :) I know it's been quite a while since I've last updated as I was really busy with my assignments at college..I wish I could get back to my schooling days, gaaaaahh..Things were much easier back then.. Anyway, getting back on track, today I would like to give my review on the "Porn Bloggers" of Malaysia, Alvin and Vivian..After reading the article in the newspaper, I was like, my god, what on earth is up with these two..

THE "PORN BLOGGERS"

They posted explicit pictures of themselves on their blog which is a very stupid thing to do..I would say these two pudden-headed people just simply wanted 15-mins of fame, which they already achieved by doing so...and yeah, I may sound a lil old school-ish, but being open minded is one thing but we Asians give a high level of importance to the moral in our culture..As an individual, it is completely okay to post pictures like this, but not publicize it..It is NOT okay in our country..


Well I guess that's it for now guys..Please stay tune for my coming posts :) Have a good day ahead..

Oh Newspaper, why do I read you?.. :D

To be honest guys, I never liked reading newspapers. I still do read every now and then but I only read if the lead of the story is interesting. I got this reading habit from my dad and the only difference is that I don't read the whole newspaper while he does. My dad is the kinda person who needs to read the newspaper every single day, and till now he still reads the newspaper every day without fail. Anyway, the only column that I read everyday without fail is the Horoscope. It's like a everyday thing for me. I have to read it or else I can't move on with my day. The reason why I enjoy reading the Horoscope is because sometimes it brings meanings and it even shows unbelievable relation. But I know that sometimes the horoscope is not true because things don't go according to it always. As a media student, I'm well aware of the fact that it is not 100% true, but I still do read it. Why? It's simply because of the words and terms the writer uses. It attracts and boosts up the readers. So when the readers read it, they tend to believe it.

Theory again.. !

Hey there readers..! This post is gonna be about Social Learning Theory, one one my favourite theory because 1st, it was easy to understand, like duuuhh, and the other reason why I favour this theory is because I think that Albert Bandura's experiment is one of the most brilliant experiment.

Now Bandura said that people learn from one another via observation, imitation and modelling. He proved this statement by conducting an experiment, which is the Bobo doll experiment. 

This video posted above is an example of Social Learning Theory. The children in this video blindly follow, or better described as imitate their parents simply because they think its a "normal" behaviour. After all they are children, they tend to absorb and learn a lot of things from their parents, doesn't matter good or bad, they just follow. 

I guess to put it in simple words, this Social Learning Theory is all about observing, imitating and behaving things that they adopt from the media or real life. 

That's all for now my fellow readers, addios! :)  

Theories...!!

Nowadays, everyone is depending on the media...Agree? 

You guys might be wondering why am I bringing this thing up. Now you see, I can tell that almost every human being on this earth is depending on the media, from the literate to the illiterate, rich to poor, men to women, everyone depend on the media. 

For instance, the Tohuku tsunami and earthquake hit the eastern Japan so badly. Due to the effect of the natural disaster, the communication system in the whole of Japan was blocked and others were not able to know the exact effect. At that moment, people needed information and they had to depend on the media. This clearly explains why media plays such a vital role and how dependent are we on it.

Salut lecteurs, bonjour.. :)

Delicatessen...A french movie that I didn't get to watch. What a waste!!??!!  I totally regret not watching the movie. I wasn't able to watch it because I was not feeling well. I heard from my classmates that the movie was so much better than Baraka. Literally the whole class was talking about the movie. I felt even worse after hearing their comments on the movie.

So, I went seeking around info's about the movie but unfortunately I couldn't get it. I wanted to download the movie but I didn't really know how to because I'm not a movie person. Since I didn't get the opportunity to watch or even to download the movie, I went on youtube, my last resort.

I got to watch some scenes from the movie. Besides, with the briefing from my friends and the help of youtube, I managed to get the gist of the movie. In simple words the movie is about cross genres. The movie contains more than one genre.

From the scene above I can tell that this movie consists more than one genre. What I understood from this scene is that different people have different lifestyle, routines, mind-set, chores and so on. Besides, I can also tell that this movie has a wicked sense of humor.

This scenes posted above is so funny because it's weirdly tragic how she tries so hard to commit suicide and fails at it. I would say it's one of the best failed attempt of suicide! This scene is so hilarious! LOL

I hope I can stand a chance to watch this movie. By just watching the scenes, I already have a clear picture of what the movie is about. I can also tell that this movie has a wicked sense of humor.

Delicatesssssssssssen :)

My Review..!!

My review on the baby dumping cases in Malaysia

As we all know, giving birth to a newborn and welcoming him/her to this world of ours is the most divine thing that would can ever happen. But, for  moment, take a look back at the cases that has been recently flashing in our country..!! 

New born baby dumped at the toilet bowl

We call ourselves well educated and super civilized and that we belong to a developed nation. But I don't see any of these qualities when it comes to the awful lot of baby dumping cases. 

According to reliable sources, one baby is dumped every week. Why does this happen? Why do people dump their babies?? Is it because of the family background of the so called 'parents'?? Is it because of poverty?? Is it because of lack of sex education?? 

Mostly, teenagers always seem to be involved in situations like this. They usually give birth and just dump their baby in the rubbish bin. Obviously, those who dump babies do so out of desperation and are often scared young girls. 

In my opinion, situations and cases like these should be avoided. The government should come up with prevention methods, sex education and also responding to unwanted pregnancy. 

Tabooo-hooooooo..!!!

My all time favourite board game, Taboooooooooooo :)

Hey there readers!! I'm pretty sure you guys know what "Taboo" is, for those who don't know please kindly search at Google, it has all the answers. Now speaking of Taboo, earlier this week, my Media Appreciation lecturer came to the class with this board game in his hands. He then held it up and said 'we are going to play this game today'. I was pretty shocked. He always comes up with something new. He tells us things we don't know. So at that moment, I was just waiting for him to surprise us. He then wrote this term at the whiteboard "Thought Process". Then I knew where this was going.

Now, let me share with you guys my experience relating to the game. Back then, whenever we had family gathering, my cousins and I use to play this game. I actually hated this game so badly because it made me feel stupid that time. I always fail to describe the word which I pick, because I use to stammer a lot, so by the time I describe the word, I'll be out of time. Not even once I could play this game right. My cousins use to make fun of me all the time. I use to feel very jealous of them, because they always end up guessing right and also describing the word correctly.

So then, what I did, each day, after I came back from school, I stand in front of the mirror and imagine the person in the mirror is someone else. Then I would just pick any book, paper, or any reading material and I would begin reading. I would picture myself as if I'm on the stage giving a speech. As days passed, I slowly stopped stammering. I still do stammer when I get nervous, but not as bad as last time.

The reason why I wanted to stop stammering is simply because I wanted to prove my cousins that I can play this game. There were 2 things I realised when I stopped stammering, I could think faster and whatever message my brains interpreted I could get it out from mouth faster with the flow.

In a nutshell, I would like to say that this game was ONE of the reason why I could speak clearly today without stammering and it also improved my 'thought process'.

That's all for now..Have a great day ahead peepz!! CHEERS!!

Genre paves a way to infinite...

What does Genre mean to me?

Genre paves a way to infinite choices. It even plays a vital role in determining a person's desire. Sometimes when we meet new people, we tend to get so eager to find out what kind of person he/she is. Now this is where genre pops in. When you start talking to this new person whom you've just met, in the first few minutes itself you can already determine this person likes and dislikes. How? Thanks to "Genre"!

In my case, Genre has helped me to find and bring out the interest that I've had for reading books. My Genre in books is Romance. I started reading romance books when I was in middle school, Form 3. I use to hate reading books and when I started reading these romance books, I couldn't fathom myself. Each time I buy a book and read, I can't stop flipping the pages and I end up finishing the whole book in a day or two. I use to think, I can finish up reading a romance book which contains about 500 pages in a day or two, but I cannot read more than 5 pages of my school text book. This clearly shows how Genre plays a vital role in each and every individual. 

My collection of Romance books :)

I like reading romance books because it brings me to a whole different world. When I read, I tend to imagine and put myself in the picture. Reading romance books is the tool that I use to release my stress and it never fails to help me do it! :-)

BARAKA

Baraka, a must watch movie..

Last week, I watched this movie, Baraka..To be honest, I almost dozed off after the 10th minute of the movie..I actually started yawning..but then at that time, a question popped into my mind..I was thinking, why on earth are we watching this non-narrative movie..I thought about it again and again..then I told myself, my lecturer wouldn't have asked us to watch this video without a reason or purpose..So I tried to concentrate and stay focus on the movie as much as I could..

Varanasi (Kashi)

While watching, a scene caught a sling shot of my eye..that particular scene reminded me of my trip to Varanasi, now known as Kashi...Most people refer Varanasi as "the city of temples", "the holy city of India" or " the oldest living city on Earth"..

I was 12 years old that time when I visited a temple at Kashi..I can remember this trip very well because it was not a pleasant memory for me..I'm saying this because I witnessed the exact same scene that i watched in Baraka..bodies were burning beside the river and people were bathing in the same river and they were also performing their rituals as well..I felt very disgusted that time..I mean like who in their right mind would bathe in a river where bodies are being burnt? At that time I just couldn't digest what I saw..

Carrying a body to the water

Bank of the River Ganges

I would also like to share an additional info..About 2 weeks back, I watched a Tamil TV program..I can't remember the name of the program though..Anyways, through that program I learnt that there is this clan called 'Agora' at Varanasi...People from these clan are actually cannibals..Apparently, they eat the bodies which are burnt by the banks of River Ganges..They are also strong devotees of Lord Shiva..And yes, they still do exist till today..

Semiotics

SEMIOTICS

Dear readers, my second lecture was about Semiotics and I loved learning about this topic..The meaning of Semiotics and the contents of it was pretty easy to understand.. :-) 

Now, I would like to share what I learnt from that lecture based on Semiotics.. 

Semiotic of Virginia Slims

In my point of view the image signifies as the following:

•  promoting a women's cigarette brand
•  the background colour(pink) may represent femininity, it can also represent innocence, cleanliness and   sexual purity
•  the model's head is tilted downward while her eyes are looking up..this is a very childlike, immature pose
•  the model's short cropped hair may be seen as fashion 
•  those catchy words in the picture like "I make my own decision" could show that she has a strong will power

Basically Semiotics is about how you look at things in different ways..whether it's a TV program, magazine or even a book..different people will come up with different texts about the description of subject or their point of view of the subject..

Impact of Media

A week ago was my first lecture of Media Appreciation..The lecture was about the Overview of the Contemporary Media..I learned lots of things from that lecture..In this blog, I would like to share what I understood about the lecture.. :) In today's blog post, I would like to share the advantages and disadvantages of the impact of media.. A celebrity in a popular culture is a person who has a famous profile and commands a great degree of public attraction and influence in day-to-day media..Many career within the fields of sports and entertainmentare commonly associated with celebrity status..For instance, Paris Hilton..She is a spoiled American socialite who shops on three continents one day..but at the same time she appeared in the 2007 Guinness World Records as the world's "Most Overrated Celebrity"..

Paris Hilton

Osama Bin Laden..he is famous..everyone knows who he is and what he did..he was the founder of al-Qaeda, the organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States, along with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilians and military targets..The media knew where he was..they even interviewed him, but they did not inform the FBI or the INTERPOL..

Osama Bin Laden

I would like to conclude that there are pro's and con's in the field of media..The impact of media changes the world and the people in it..