The Lady in The Babushka

       The year was 1963. Armin Henry, a detective from Holland who has lived in the U.S for many years was assigned to find the Babushka Lady, the mysterious lady that appeared during the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The Babushka Lady, as he heard from rumours, was a lady that was standing between Elm and Main streets, taking photographs before and during the tragic incident. What was interesting about this lady is that, when the shooting happened, she was still there taking photographs when everyone else around her was taking cover. After the shooting, she crossed Elm street and joined the crowd that was going up the grass knoll, in search of a gunman. "Babushka Lady" was a nickname given to her, because of the headscarf she was wearing, much of which was mostly worn by elderly Russian women.

      "She could be a hand in the assassination. She could even be one of the secret agents working together with the suspects behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Who.. who is she? The Babushka Lady. So mysterious." Armin thought to himself, in his little gloomy office. Suddenly, the telephone rang, knocking him out of his daydream bubble. A voice of a woman can be heard in the call.

"Hello? Yes. Correct. You're speaking to Detective Armin Henry."

"Armin Henry. I might be your greatest possession." 

Armin was shocked and confused.

"Uh, hey. I have no time for any prank calls. Please do not call again. THANK YOU."

"Who is talking about prank calls, Mr. Henry?" 

Armin, catching his breath replied, "May I know who am I actually speaking to?"

"For now, you shall only know me as 'Leidi'. If you are keen to know my identity, meet me at the one and only cafe in your area. 3 p.m sharp." 

"You mean La Charlotta's?"

"Correct. I'll be waiting there, expecting you to show up at 3.pm. Don't disappoint me."

The phone call ended. Armin checks the clock, it was 12 p.m. Three hours before his appointment with the mysterious Leidi. He called up his client, the man who assigned him for his investigation, Mr. Bennington, to ask about Leidi.

"I'm sorry Mr. Henry. I have no clue to this Leidi you're talking about. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to attend an important meeting right now." 

        Armin flips through his files, reading about the John F. Kennedy's assassination and the Babushka Lady. There, he finds a few pieces of newspaper cuttings about tragic murders, and there in the pictures he finds something strange. In every picture, there was this lady looking at the scene. If it was a murder in a restaurant, she will be there, standing outside looking. If it was in a bank, she'd be around there, looking. And the same goes for the rest of the cases. To put it simply, it just wasn't normal enough to say that the same lady would always appear in tragic murders. "This might be related to John F. Kennedy's case.. But wait. It was just a gunshot, no splatted bodies, no tragic beheading.. But this is very strange. Didn't anyone notice her presence? Who is she? " As he did his research regarding the case, he realized it was already 2.30 p.m. He should be getting ready, or at least be on his way to his meeting with Leidi.

       Briskly, he put on his best clothings and went on his way to La Charlotta's. As he enters the cafe, he sees a reserved sign on one of the tables, that read "Leidi". The table was unoccupied, hence he waited outside the restaurant for a few minutes. About 10 minutes later, a lady walked by his direction, gazing upon him and entering the restaurant. There she sat down where it was reserved for "Leidi". She wasn't an elderly woman after all. In fact, she was quite young and attractive. Maybe 28 or 29 years old.  "Oh. So it wasn't a prank after all." Armin walks in the restaurant and towards the lady. "Leidi?" With a smile, she says "Yes. But now you shall know me as Aleidia Morrison. Please, have a seat Mr. Henry." "So, why did you call me here?" Armin asked. "Actually, I wanted to discuss about Kennedy's murder. As you can see, I was there. I was there taking photographs. I was there, wearing a babushka. I was there, being the mysterious lady everyone and the media have been describing, The Babushka Lady." Armin was shocked to hear such words coming from a lady he met for the first time. "And your proofs are?"

"Will these photographs do your investigations any good?" Aleidia showed Armin the photographs she had taken during the incident.

"What?! This can't be. You are.. the Babushka Lady?!"

"Quiet, you silly young man. You do realize this restaurant isn't empty."

"I'm sorry, but I am shocked and couldn't believe what is happening to me right now. Am I really talking to the Babushka Lady? Wait, since you are the one, can you tell me who you are and what's your intentions during the incident? And, why are you so direct to me, telling all of your details to a detective like me?"

"Mr.Henry. I'll be frank with you again, I'm actually working with a secret organization in Russia. You see, my job is to help the gunmen carry out their assassinations, and sometimes, I assassinate victims myself. Because I look so innocent, nobody would have imagined what I have up in my sleeves, and -"

"You just told  me something I shouldn't have known. You are innocent but you have bad intentions. How can I trust you? Because of your deceiving looks, you could also be planning an evil plot to kill me, for all I know."

"That's why you should not cut me off, Mr.Henry. Let me finish talking. You see, as much as I have done bad deeds, I come to learn the meaning of.. good. I realized, what I'm doing is wrong, and I can't bare to keep up all of these sins. I want to repent. I want to live like a normal human being. I want to feel what is it like to become a lady, to find true love, to build a family, and to die happily.-"

Armin cuts her off again.

"Okay, okay. Enough with all of this fairy tale, Miss Babushka Lady. I know how women can fake a lot of lies to men. Don't ever think I'll fall for it. I am -"

"Mr.Henry, could you please shut your mouth and stop cutting me off? Believe me, you won't like it if I'm pissed. Allow me to FINISH. Do you want to know why I'm seeing you? Of course you do. I want to help you in your investigation. I am what everyone is looking for. I am an important element to solving Kennedy's murder. I know everything behind the murder, Mr.Henry. I want my organization to be put down, I am tired of working like a slave! Mistreated. Pressured. If the head of that damned organization gets caught, that would put an end to my misery. Right now, I can't get out. If I do, they will kill me. Literally kill me. So please. I'm begging you. Please help me."

"Wow, you sure talk a lot, Miss Aleidia. Now, don't get me wrong. I wasn't sarcastic. I am quite moved with your story. Now, then. How do I get access to your organization? I don't even know where it is. Do they have a some kind of port here?" 

"Yes. They do. It is not very obvious as it is located in the very quiet part of the city. Opposite the bar, Johnny's and Clarke's, lies a little building that is masked as a supermarket. In the supermarket, there is a small door that's locked and can only be accessed by the supermarket's 'upper people'. Usually the people working there has affiliations with the organization. That's why they don't simply employ people. There's a question that they'll ask after training, and each answer is like a code. Different codes lead to different decisions. For example, if they ask, "What is the serial number of the product X?" If your answer is simply, 'I don't know.' or a random number, they will not hire you. But if you answer '10209XPMZ', immediately they will know that you are affiliated with the organization. If you answer '1909TXMI", they will immediately know that you were sent there by their superior affiliations."

"I'm bad in memorizing numbers. Is that how I can get access to your organization? But pretending to be some kind of unemployed guy looking to work in a supermarket? So you're going to give me your serial number right?"

"Correct, Mr.Henry. I have everything prepared. All you have to do is go to there, and 'get a job'. So, what do you say?"

"Fine by me. I'll do it."

     Armin was fully convinced with Aleidia. The next day, Aleidia took him to see the place she was talking about. It was a very ordinary-looking place. The only unusual thing about the place is that there were one or two luxury cars parked outside in the parking lot. Aleidia asked Armin to stay in the bar and only come in to the shop 15 minutes after she did. Aleidia then walked away from him and entered the supermarket. He peeked from afar, seeing Aleidia conversing with the man working at the counter. As she walked, he saw her walking into the restricted room, locking the door once again. He waited for 15 minutes. Before he went out of the club, he made a phone call to call the police, in case anything bad happens. "In case anything bad happens, I want some polices to be there. But don't wait directly outside the supermarket. Somewhere hidden, preferably." After the call ended, he began walking to the supermarket. Some parts of him is telling him that he is making the biggest mistake of his life. Some parts are telling him otherwise. His heart beats faster than usual and he felt the blood rushing through his body. He has to keep his cool, he can't be seen afraid or nervous. It will blow his cover. He walks in and sees the chubby hairy guy at the counter.

Informally, the guy asks him, "Yeah, what'd ya want?" 

With a bright smile on Armin's face, he says "Yeah. I.. I need a job. Err, I've been unemployed for the past six months." 

"Yeah sure. First I'd like to know somethin' about ya. Also, I'd like to know what'd ya made of." 

"Yeah, sure. So uhh, what do I have to do?"

The chubby man and Armin gets to know each other and he learned that the man's name is Sanchez. Sanchez teaches Armin the bits and pieces of how things work. Towards the end of the lesson, he asks him a question. 

"What is the serial number for the product X?"

"1177VXZ"

Sanchez was surprised to know of his answer. He grins, and says "My..my. You're affiliated with Sir Vitaly? What a surprise. To show respect of your presence, I want you to come with me, Mr. Armin Henry."

"Damn, did I take the right move? What should I do next? Didn't Aleidia told me that she has EVERYTHING under control?" He speaks in his mind, and gets lost with his thoughts. Sanchez then pat his back, knocking him out of his thoughts. "Yeah? Sorry. Was thinking about what Mr. Vitaly said to me this morning. Anyway, shall we go?" Both walked to the restricted door, and Sanchez unlocked it with an old worn-out key. Both walked in the room and down the stairs. There, Armin found himself walking in the dark. where he suddenly feels a cold metal touching his head and stops. 

       As the lights go on, he discovers that he has been duped. Four gunmen were surrounding him with two of them aiming a revolver directly touching his head, just waiting to pull the trigger. He stood there, frozen. To his most biggest and unexpected surprise, Aleidia showed up, with another woman and three men, having an evil grin up on her face. "Well, well. The young, handsome and smart detective, Armin Henry Frederik. Surprised? I bet you are." Angry, Armin shouted, "You IDIOT! What is all this? I knew it all along! You're a liar!" "One more bad thing about me I hear coming out from you, Armin. Well, say bye-bye to this sweet world of yours." The woman standing next to Aleidia speaks, "Armin Henry Frederik. I know who you are. That's why I planned your fate here. Your good reputation shall bring you to your bad death, Armin. You are one the best detectives in the country. You also have a lot of private information relating to the government. If you share your knowledge, you'll be set free. If not, your soul will. Oh wait. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Veronica Fox Vladimir, the real Babushka Lady. Aleidia was just a mere play I've planned. She's good in what she does, but I'm quite surprised she could actually trick a smart person like you." Hearing those intimidating words, Armin stood there quiet. Silently, thinking of an escape plan. Suddenly, a few gunshots were released, penetrating and killing the four gunmen surrounding Armin. Aleidia, Veronica and the three men took cover. Armin quickly ran up the stairs, and to his amazement, Mr. Bennington was there. "Mr. Bennington! Thank God you saved me." "Yeah, save the thanking later." Bennington ran down the stairs followed by Armin, pointing their guns to the the the five individuals. Slowly, the individuals pull out their guns and aims at the two. The ladies shot Armin and Bennington, leaving them unconscious. All of them ran out, fleeing from being discovered. 

        Later, the two men regains conscious and found themselves lying on the hospital bed, side by side. Opposite them, they find a policeman sitting. The policeman investigates them regarding their meeting with the Babushka Lady. However later on, as the police investigates the case further, they could not find anyone with the name of Aleidia Morrison nor Veronica Fox. They could not find any evidences of the Babushka Lady, no photos, nothing. It was as if the people came back after the shooting to quickly clear all evidences. According to the police, the whole place was burned down and left no evidences. They could not even find any official letters regarding the supermarket's business, their registration with the authorities nor any official receipts. The case of the mysterious Babushka Lady remains unsolved, even after years. Until now, it remains a mystery. Several people have stepped forward as the Babushka Lady, but none were the truth. The case of the Babushka Lady, remains a case unsolved for Armin Henry Frederik, and also to us all.

NOTE: This is just a fiction, based on the real incident about the Babushka Lady and JFK's murder.

Pokemon, getting to life by hologram technology

         We all dream, we all fantasize. That's a part of how our mind works. Dreams and fantasies can turn into reality. Do you have a crazy idea that you would want the public to know? Something that can make a big change to the world? Something that turn you into an instant multi-millionaire? I'm sure most of us do. As for me, I dream to develop a game technology whereby we use holograms to play it. This mainly applies for games such as Pokemon. For people who have no clue of what Pokemon is, please watch this video:

                                          Those weird-looking 'animals' fighting are called 'Pokemon'.

Perhaps to some of us, they're quite hideous and dumb-looking, but imagine if you were to be able to control exotic monsters to fight against another player, wouldn't it be something extraordinary? As you can see, these creatures come out from a ball, known as a Pokeball, hence these Pokeballs will be developed into being a special hologram-generator, which will project our chosen Pokemon to appear in the real world. 

How it shall be made known to the public

First of all, Pokemon has been around for 16 years and have had a large fanbase since its release. At one point of time, it was a major world phenomenon. If this idea were to become a reality, Pokemon fans will rejoice. For the ones who had known nothing of Pokemon, it will spark their curiosity to explore and learn of this new invention. Hence, this invention has the potential to reach a bigger target audience. Television, game magazines, and even promoting through other games can help increase publicity of this invention. 

Realistically, is this REALLY possible?

Holograms have been developed for quite some time. Yes, they can't be touched. Oh wait, did I mention that recently some Japanese scientists created TOUCHABLE holograms? What could be next? This crazy idea MIGHT come to REALITY.

                                     
                               I hope I'm still alive  by the time they create a full-functional interactive hologram. 

The World in a Box

     The television is one of the most powerful tool for public influence. In the 1960's, the television was considered to be the most prominent source of news to the American public, possibly the most strongest tool for influence of public opinion itself. Until today, the television remains to be a powerful influencing tool. But, did it influence for the sake of good, or bad? Was the outcome rather positive or negative? Let's see some of the examples of what we can find in the world today.

Muslims

        Muslims, are of course Islam. Islam means 'peace'. So basically, Islam means the religion of peace. But why does the media portray Muslims as terrorists? Was it because of the 9/11 incident that was so exaggerated by the media, brought this false perception into light? Of course, even before the 9/11 incident, people already regard Muslims as 'violent'. But ever since 9/11, the false perception grew massively. Mind you, Islam does not teach its followers to be terrorists. Why do the Western media always portray false facts about Muslims? Why don't they portray something positive? 

This is an example by CNN (watch the video):

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/23/world/europe/uk-honor-murder-zara/index.html

Indonesians' Perception Toward Malaysians

      Indonesia and Malaysia have always had conflicts between another ever since Sukarno's era, or even way back. But recently, these conflicts turned into a serious problem. Regarding of the alleged rape of an Indonesian woman by some polices in Penang, a lot of Indonesian rioters shows frustration. "They burned the Malaysia flag and urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to deport the ambassador, failing which they called for his resignation." - themalaysianinsider.com 

At one point of time, the heat was so hot for Indonesia and Malaysia, and it even got worse when their media exaggerated a lot of of things about the conflict of these both countries. Let's see a snippet of one of their TV station's report on the incident:

                                         

       According to one of Bendera's supporters, "Malaysia has betrayed Indonesia and its sovereignty and integrity of the nation." When all of these things are happening in their country, do we see Malaysians rioting outside the Indonesian embassy burning their flags? I've had experiences of having Indonesian maids, and asked them on why do Indonesians have such strong hatred towards Malaysians? Some of them replied, because the media has always talked about how Malaysians and Malaysia are bad. Some of them are clueless. Some of them even said, "I've never knew that Malaysians can be so friendly, despite what we did to their country's image in our country." 

       In a nutshell, the television, although credibility remains questionable by some people day by day, is still a powerful influence; at least in setting agendas. The media cannot tell you how to think, but can surely tell you what to think about. The television has the power to even change a country's image within split seconds. To put it simply, the television has more power than what we can expect. 

Magazine Ads VS Newspaper Ads

            

         Magazines are one of the longest surviving forms of media since its birth in the 1731 with The Gentleman's Magazine, which were regarded as the first general-interest magazine. Compared to the newspaper, more and more newspapers are closing its printing press and are moving to online. Although magazines and newspapers both share the common characteristic; print media, there is but one difference that set magazines and newspapers in different places. Concentration. Magazine readers are mostly concentrated to what they read, compared to newspapers. Because of this, advertisers are more drawn to advertise on magazines rather than newspapers. 

           When we read the newspaper, do we pay attention to those advertisements located at the right edge of the page? Or the one located at the bottom of the page? Usually, no. But when we read magazines, we tend to pay attention to the advertisements. But why? Why do magazine advertisements garner more attention than those in newspapers? Well, to be honest, magazine advertisements are more of image-enhancements rather than please-buy-this. Image-enhancing is known to attract readers and cause less annoyance, rather than screaming "PLEASE BUY THIS PRODUCT! IT IS VERY GOOD, CUSTOMER'S SATISFACTION IS GUARANTEED!" 

          Credibility of ads in magazines and newspapers, who will win the trust? For most cases, it's the magazines. When we observe our local newspaper ads, don't we notice a lot of suspicious advertisements in the advertising section? All of those 'slimming' programmes, 'whitening' creams, 'husband-wife' products, etc? Are all of these things even effective? Not to mention, a few years back there was a huge controversy of this highly advertised facial product that caused a lot of its customers to develop a some kind of face-skin infection. Sorry, but no names shall be mentioned here, but if you were paying attention to the news, you'd quite recall of what happened.

             Last but not least, magazine ads lasts longer than newspapers. Yesterday's newspaper will be disposed the next day, or will never be read again and will be collected with more old newspapers to sell. "OLD NEWSPAPER! PAPER LAMA!" If you're a Malaysian, you will be familiar with these phrases. Those phrases are pre-recorded and played by old newspaper collectors that roams around housing areas in search of old newspapers to be sold. But have you ever heard of "OLD MAGAZINE! MAGAZINE LAMA!"? Of course, not.

E.M Forster's predictions; 103 years back.

     

       103 years ago, E.M Forster wrote a short story called 'The Machine Stops'. The main characters are Vashti and her son Kuno. Vashti symbolizes most of the people today, whose life is dependent on the Machine. Kuno, on the other hand, symbolizes the ones who are not technology literate. This story is about how people heavily depend on the Machine, and at one point, the Machine becomes a deity, the ruler of all mankind. Although it is a science-fiction, it is truly amazing how something written 103 years ago can relate so much on the world we live in today. The Machine symbolizes technology. In his story, people eventually regard the Machine as some sort of God. Like today, people are so dependent on gadgets, and especially the use of internet. Without gadgets they can't 'live', without internet, they can't 'breathe'.


         What amazes me the most about this novel is that, the story pretty much predicts almost everything of what's going to happen in the future. Not only that, it is written decades before the internet was actually even invented. It is amazing how Forster's creativity actually turns fiction into reality. When he wrote this story back in his Era, probably the readers back then will just think that it is another science-fiction that doesn't make any sense. But then, it is completely a different scenario now. Read and be amazed.


          

The World-captivating Sea-green Eyes: The Afghan Girl

    Once upon a 20th century, the world was moved by a picture of a girl. It was not any ordinary girl, though. She was known as the Afghan Girl. A girl who resided in a refugee camp who has her heart filled with devastation and anger. Her picture was photographed to be on the front cover of a June 1985 National Geographic magazine. Little did the photographer know, that 'normal' picture he had taken grabbed an overwhelming global attention. 

Why did such picture grabbed so much attention?

Let's consider a few things,

• Her eyes are so haunting, it is as if she is piercing through your soul.

• A lot of people know so little about Afghanistan, or how their people look like, except the fact that they are always claimed as 'terrorists' by the media in certain countries.

• Her eyes tell her story; A pain suffered by a naive 12 year old who is still in need for parents' love, but that was taken away by some human's cruelty.

• Because she is Middle Eastern, it is unusual to have bright emerald green eyes.

Despite so many suggestions, the final answer remains subjective.

Personally, I think it all lies in the artistic value. This picture raised so many thoughts. Some people feel that it is very artistic, it's just good art. Some people feel that the picture is worth so much attention because of how  her eyes captivate people. To sum it all up, it's simply because her picture moves thoughts.

For 18 years, people have been looking for her, but to no avail. Finally, in 2002, a National Geographic team successfully located her in a remote place, where she lived in poverty. For 18 years, her picture is known to the world, famous. However nobody knew her name. She had fame in anonymity. If her name was known 18 years ago, she might have lived a better life than now. 

This is a video showing on how The Afghan girl, now known as Sharbat Gula, was found. 

Happy Till The End

       

         Syera is a happy-go-lucky girl who has a big heart for her friends. Her friends, despite being very different from one another, tolerate each other and shares the same love for Syera. One day, Syera finds out that she is diagnosed with a very rare type of heart-disease. Knowing that she might not live for long, she decided to do something special with her friends, to cherish their moments together while it lasts. While enjoying her time with her friends, she remembers something from her past, and unexpectedly, fate has written something that she would never have imagined of.

Angles we are going to use:

- Close-ups

- Scenery shots

- Wide-shots

- etc

* We will also change the colour tone of the scenes according to the situation. E.g; flashbacks, dreams

       This story is basically a cross-genre between drama and comedy, that emphasizes on friendship-love. With our little or no experience in movie-producing, please forgive us if our video did not turn out according to your expectations.