Book Review 1 - The Arrival

The Arrival is a graphic novel. An interesting one. This story is about a man who sets off for a new country , where he has to build a new life for himself and his family. Of course this man's journey is not always smooth and has met with many difficulties. There was a problem in communication. The man does not know how to speak and write in the language that was used in the new country so he had to communicate with the people using pictures.


Another problem that was faced was trying to adapt to the new enviroment. This story took place in a "fairytale" land, whereby ships in the story were able to float in air and pets looked like strange creatures. You can see examples on the picture on the right. Some of these things looked different from the country he came from. Such as how the food looked like in the new country. With the difficulty in trying to communicate with the people there and the much difference between the two countries, adaptation was made difficult.

The man also had to find a job to support himself. Like in the real world, job opportunities are hard to come by. The man went to several places but to no avail. He finally found a job which required him to put up posters. As he could not understand what was being writen on the poster, he put up every peice upside down. this made his employer angry and fired him. The next job he found was the job of a delivery man. Half way in his work, he met a horrifying creature. He dropped down the basket of food and ran for his life. At last he got a stable job at a factory .

In the new country, the man had gotten help from quite a lot of people. All these people had something in common. All of them had an unhappy past. The man got help from a women who once worked as a slave in small factory. She was one of the many girls that were forced to work as slaves. She was supposed to make sure that the fire does not go out. So she had to use a shovel and continue adding coal to the fire. When the woman can take it no longer, she took the shovel and secretly forced the door open and then hopped on to a train moving nearby. That is how she got to the new country and escaped hardship.

The story is also about family. At times, the man would take out the picture of his family and looked at it with sorrow in his eyes. This shows that the man misses his family very much.

There was a fairytale ending in this story.The man's wife and child reunited with him in the new country. There was a sense of happiness when they were united together. All of the three were smiling and hugged each other.

From this story, I learnt that the lives of immigrants are tough although the purpose of immigrating to another country is to be able to lead a better life. There are many obstacles in an immigrant's life and he has to be strong to overcome them. I also learnt the importance of family. Family manbers are the ones who are there when you need help. They are the ones who would stand by you and support you all the way no matter what situation you are in. So treasure their prescence!

Overall, I think that this book is worth 'reading' and is thought provoking. It strongly shows the struggles of an immigrant and importance of family. So do yourself a favour. Go and read this book!

Character Analysis- Village By The Sea

The last few post of my blog are all about the story book The Village By The Sea. I written a book review on the book and shared with you my experiences when acting out Chapter 10 of the book. Now let me do a character analysis of some of the characters.

Hari

1. he is the protagonist of the story


2. he is the only son of the family


3. he has to assume the duty of taking care of his parents and his siblings.


4. he leads a hard life as he has to make decisions which adults have to make

Lila

1. she is the eldest daughter of the family and is the elder sister of Hari


2. given up school to help maintain the house

Bela and Kamal

1. they are the younger sisters of Hari and Lila


2. they are dtill schooling


3. both of them help Lila in managing the house.
   

Mother

1. She is the mother of Lila, Hari, Bela and Kamal


2. She fell ill with anaemia and is getting weaker by the day.


3. She is unable to take care of her children, protect them from their drunkard father nor work

Father

1. he is the father of Lila, Hari, Bela and Kamal


2. irresponsible father


3. drunkard


4. wastrel


5. wastes money on toddy


6. turned over a new leaf in the end

Pinto

1. the pet dog of Hari's family


2. faithful to the family especially Lila as she spent the most time with him

Bijiu

1. richest man in the village that Hri and his family live in


2. owns the first diesel powered boat in the village


3. proud and arrogant


4. looks down on the other villagers

Ramu

1. he is the friend of Hari


2. knew that many factories are going to be built in the village and believes that he will be able to get a job there.

Jagu

1. he is the owner of the Sri Krishna Eating House


2. gave Hari a job when he is in Bombay


3. lives in a slum

Mr Panwallah

1. He is a watch mender


2. popular with his neighbours


3. taught Hari how to mend watches

de'Sivas family

1. rich and generous family from Bombay


2. comes to Thul during the holidays


3. owns a bungalow in Thul


4. brought Hari's mother to the hospital and paid for the medical fees.

watchman of the factory

1. hostile towards the villagers


2. looks down on the villagers

Sayyid Ali

1. supported the point that factories should not be built in Thul


2. spent his time drawing birds

Adarkar

1. member of the Maharashtra State Legislative assembly


2. led the villagers to Bombay to protest against the building of factories in Thul

Hira bai

1. she is an old women who is interested in herbs and cures


2. loves toddy


3. sent the medicine man to Hari's mother.

Jagu's wife

1. cares very much about her family


2. her family is not very rich so she was unhappy when her husband brought Hari home to her house to stay for a day as this adds on to her family's burden

Policeman

1. guarded Hari when he slept in the park

Khanekar brothers

1. drunkards


2. sons of Hira bai


3. wastrels

And there you have it, the character analysis of The Village By The Sea

Drama Sensation

Ever read a book and acted it out? Sure that some of you out there must have done so before. Well that was what my class did. We acted out chapter 10 of The Village By The Sea. Chapter 10 tells us about the struggles that Hari went through in Bombay and the benefactors that helped him along the way.( If you still do not know what I am talking about, you should refer to my earlier post "The Village By The Sea" to get a brief introduction of the story.

The story starts with Mr Panwallah the (owner of a watch repair shop) informing Hari about the arriving monsoon. Mr Panwallah then brings Hari to a festival and buys Hari a coconut and some other snacks.This made Hari feel like a young boy again, a feeling that he has not have for a while.Hari has been leading a very hard life so far. He has to take the role as the father of the family and make decisions that adults have to. Hard for a boy thirteen years old.This scene takes place in Bombay.

The next part of the story takes place in the village where Hari was from, Thul. The fisherman (my role) there were getting ready to set out to sea.They were very eager to get back to sea as they have not done so because of the unsuitable weather. The food in their houses and other neccessities were running out. They were then disrupted by a rich villager by the name of Biju. He is an arrogant man and looks down on the rest of the villagers. Biju also owned the first diesel-powered boat in the village.

The next scene is about Hari falling ill after working long hours in the hot and humid restaurant. Jagu, the owner of the restaurant then brought him home. Jagu lived in a slum area with his wife and children. Jagu later got into a quarrel with his wife as she was unhappy that her husband brought another person home to be taken care of. Their family was already very poor and Hari would only increase their burden.

Last scene, Biju saved some fishermen while some others drowned.Hari's family was also wondering about Hari. When will he come home? This was just one of the questions that they asked themselves, quietly.

I find that this activity is really something that allows us to understand the book well. This method of studying the book allows us to be the characters and react like them, think like them and have the feelings that they have. Learning has also become more interesting, instead of the normal way in which thhe teacher speaks and students sit on the chair, at the same spot, listening. Lastly, we would like to thank our teachers for the encouragement.

The Village by The Sea

What is the first thing that you will think of when you hear this words"The Village By The Sea"? A village by the sea ? No. The Village By The Sea is actually a title of a book. A quite interesting book, a book that I read for Literature. Here is what the story is talking about:

This story takes place in Thul, a village in India. It is about a dysfunctional family's ups and downs in life. This story is also about industrialisation in the village. Why is this family dysfunctional? This is because the mother of the family is sick and is getting weaker and weaker by the day. In this case, she was bedridden. the father of the family was a drunkard and only wastes money on toddy. He spends most his time sleeping at home. Thus the children are prematurely saddled with the responsibilities of running the house.

The only son has to take up the role as the father and earn money for the family. The eldest daughter has to do the chores for the family. The family also consist of two other daughters. They are Bela and Kamal. The duo would help Lila with some chores like gathering the ingredients needed for meals and they are still schooling.

As jobs in the village are not able to provide Hari with the much needed money to run the family, he has to find a job somewhere else. So he went to Bombay, which was a city where people made fortunes. He went there mostly for the job opportunities there. At Bombay, he worked at a restaurant and learnt how to mend watches. He accumulated some wealth before coming back to reunite with his family in the village.

With Hari gone, Lila had to take care of the family alone and thus had to bear a greater responsibility. With the help of a rich family from Bombay ,Lila was able to send her mother to a nearby hospital to receive treatment.

This story has a fairytale end as things changed for the better. Hari brought home money for the family. Mother recovered from her illness and father change his habit of drinking toddy.This story is really worth reading as there are many cultural things that you can learn from it.

There is also industrialisation happening in the village as a whole city of village is going to be built there. A sleepy fishing village is going to change into a busy and bustling factory area. The villagers there are not happy of course as the arrival of the factories also meant the arrival of polution. The factories are going to produce harmful gases and dispose waste into the sea. This in turn disturbs the villagers traditional way of living. The villagers did try to prtest but it failed. Thus most of them had to change their way of life.

One of things that I learnt includes adaptating to our enviroment. Changes always happen. Running away from them does not help at all. This only allows us to hide from the problem for a short while. The problem will resurface again. So we must learn to adapt. While adapting we are actually learning new things. This is because for every thing change that happens there is always a cause. In order to adapt, we must know what are the factors that contribute to the change and adapt according to the factor.

Who Took My Cheese?

Books are essential or you can call them basic necessities for Literature. While some hate them ,some just love them.To some books can mean knowledge or stories. On the other hand, some see them as lengthy or for nerds. Well I must say that I lie in the middle. When I happen to meet a good book, I will fall in love with it. But when I meet a bad one, I just put them down. This is the time when books are a dread to me.

How about our parents?? They also go through the same process as us. Well to answer this question, I interviewed my mother . According to my mother, during her time, technology was not so advanced and people do not have as many types of activities to do while relaxing. So she read. One of the books that inspired her was "Who Moved My Cheese?".

This book is about two mice and two small human beings, as small as the mice. All of them lived in a maze and had to eat cheese to survive. It was like cheese was the only thing that they were able to eat. All of the characters had to navigate around the maze to various cheese stations to find them. However most of the cheese stations were empty.All of them finally found cheese at Cheese Station C. They started eating the cheese. As days went by, the cheese began to get smaller and smaller. The mice noticed this change and started navigating through the maze to find new cheese. After many failures, the duo came to Cheese Station N . Cheese was abundant there. They were delighted.

However , the humans did not notice the change. And panicked when they found that there was no cheese at the station. They were angry and believed that someone moved their cheese. But the cheese was not taken away but eaten by them. They did not do anything but waited and waited for that someone to put the cheese back . Days went by and they were getting weaker. Nothing happened.

One of the humans wondered what the mice were doing . Were they in the maze finding cheese? Or did they waited like them. Then one of the humans suggested that they go back to the maze and find cheese. The other however disagreed. He was afraid of getting lost in that dark dark maze. But the one who came up with the suggestion continued with his journey in the maze. He did get lost many times but never gave up. And finally he got what he was craving for ,CHEESE! The two mice were also there. The other human was still stuck at the same place, deprived of cheese.

This story is based on the theme change and adaptation. It tells people that changes are always happening around us and that we need to adapt to them in order to succeed. We also must persevere in whatever we do and learn from our mistakes. These are what my mother learnt from the story. And that was also why this book inspired her.

what happens in buses

Do you know how to read signs? If your answer is yes, are you 100% sure? It was like any ordinary Tuesday, when I have Chinese Orchestra training which ended at 6pm. The conductor, however only let us go at 6.30pm. He did not feel like stopping as the competition was coming nearer and nearer. When it ended , I would usually complain silently in my head about the work load while walking towards the bus stop. At the same time, I will guess what time I will sleep .11pm? 12midnight?

That day when the bus arrived and the door opened, a pungent smell of curry and other smell of dishes greeted me. Looking around the bus to find the source of the smell, I spotted a man eating from his styrofoam box which was wide open. He was sitting like a gangster eating 'proudly'.

Did he even notice the striking sign that says no eating??NO! Was he afraid of the fine?NO! Does he feel out of place when doing so? NO!This is one of the worst ettiquete I have seen on a bus.

Next problem, or shall I call it bad ettiquete. When the bus is crowded, people tend to be on a constant lookout for seats. That is the typical SINGAPOREAN STYLE. Nothing wrong that I can find out from. One day, when I was on a crowded bus , the person that was sitting on the seat in front of where I was standing was getting off. Yeahs ! I was going to have a seat!! Just as I was about to 'celebrate', this man squeezed his way past me to occupy the seat. I was furious. SO angry that I felt like puling him off the seat and throwing him out of the bus.( oops too violent ).

What has happened to you commuters? Why such unruly behavior? I do not understand someone please enlighten me........

Legalise Organ Trading??

If you have been following the papers recently, you would have known that there has been a heated debate over whether legalising the organ trade would benefit Singapore. This all started when retail magnate Tung Wee Sung was jailed for attempting to buy an organ from an Indonesian man.



I personally do not think that Singapore should legalise organ trading as organ trading will only favour the rich. Of course you will want to earn a lot of money when selling your organ.(all because of human's greed) What about the poor. Do they just suffer and die? If that is the case, I must say that the government has nurtured a bunch of cold-blooded citizens. Also, legalising organ trade might not necessarily meet the demand for organs.

Well the government has came up with some solutions or new measures. The government shall lift the age limit on cadaveric (deceased people) donors , so that there will be more organs available. Of course these organs are good and healthy ones. Recipients are able to swop their donors to be able to find a better match. This allows a lower risk of having implications. There will also be increased penalties for organ trading. The donors will also now receive post-operation care.

The debate became heated over the issue of allowing living kidney donors to receive compensation. Most people are afraid that possible abuses would arise. One example would be that people would sell their organs for profit and this may become a back door for organ trading. Dr Lim Wee Kiat ( Sembawang GRC ) also raised concerns about the payment factor. It is hard to determine a reasonable price.

As you can see, there are many problems to this simple question . I must say that the government has been very effective in discussing this matter. They are able to come up with many solutions to this problem very quickly. Good Job!!!