I Got Married In...

...my dream.

According to my latest dream, I am married to a nice guy whom I’ve never met before. As opposed to me, he was aware of us getting married and I even doubt that he’d proposed to my Dad without my knowing.

I walked through the aisle, passing by the guests – a few number of family members – and climbed the stairs leading to the stage. I stood there, dumbstruck. Before all of this, I took a good look at what I was wearing: the most gorgeous wedding gown that fitted me perfectly well but also, I hated it because of the many laces dangling from its every side (Laces are not my thing!)

Something like this with laces all over

I wasn’t exactly sure of my to-be husband’s identity and when he came, he too, wore hideous clothes that weren’t wedding material at all: a purple jersey, jeans and to make it all the more worse, he had the guts to pull it off with a cap.

I couldn’t hide my astonishment, and so, couldn’t hear what my parents were talking about. My Dad then gave us the permission to head to our home. The most amazing and strangest thing happened then: While I was trying to remember if I ever met this guy before…he locked my hands in his, and when I felt the chemistry, I stared blankly at him but he gave me the coolest and loveliest smile (a grin, somewhat) ever.

There were some missing parts in the whole drama, though.
1) I did not have any clue about my own marriage.
2) My sister wasn’t there.
3) There weren’t any music on.
4) The guy knew me while I did not.
5) How come my parents never took my opinion in this?

And another endless list, but the fact that I dreamed of a wedding (my wedding, to be exact) tops them all.

Note: Contrary to popular belief, I wasn't thinking of getting married during the day.

Let Us Talk This Over

When a certain person comes over and claims that you have done this or that, you would either start to fight back or keep quiet and take full responsibility for something that you have never done or simply say sorry to cool the person's nerves. After all, you get to pick which attitude to take, although, you can't exactly handle the rage building up in the mad person yelling for no reason.

I was extremely shocked of a teacher, shouting at the top of her lungs on a student for a silly reason that she, alone, wasn't so sure of yet. After shutting the door behind her, the teacher stormed off, leaving a useless threat on the clueless student who had just

The student, who is a classmate of mine, was bewildered. The other teacher who was present at the time at class looked rather speechless and astonished. I couldn't help but wonder about his thoughts, if this is enough for him to assume that all Arabs are lacking the element of understanding and talking things out and perhaps my assumption was actually right.

I've noticed from my personal experience, how ignorant some of us can be when being in such situations. We sometimes talk nonsense when we are supposed to be listening to others point of view, in the first place.

Islam taught us to treat others the way we like to be treated or even better. So, an understanding should have been there between the two parties.

Listen to the other story then tell your own if we are all willing to grow in an educated society, and not to forget, to set a good example for the next generation based on good communication between one another.

May's Around The Corner

You know how every time you log on Blogger to find out who blogged and who didn’t? And on every noon, you find a new post by kitten? You wonder how bored this girl is to post regularly yet here she is to tell you the truth.

I’ve missed blogging, and on weekends, I steal few minutes that can reach up to hours in order to write up my thoughts and schedule their appearance on this particular blog. What’s a better idea to revive your blog than this one?

Anyways, tomorrow’s post might be the last one as these final days of April are all about getting ready for IGCSE exams which start on May 11th.

For now, listen to this heartbreaking song that was featured in My Sister’s Keeper (You can watch it on OSN Cinema 2 throughout this week).

♫ Something in your eyes, makes me wanna lose myself ♫

[Book Review] حسن والمانجو

A short story I have recently read called 'Hassan and Mango' in Arabic that was distributed by the Rikaz campaign (and written by Abdulkareem Alshatti). At first, the title sounded silly and uninteresting at all, but why not? Is the question we should ask ourselves before judging the book by its cover.

There was a young man who loved visiting his rich friend, Hassan both for his friendship and the delicious mango Hassan's Dad brought from all around the world.

The writer wrote various sayings (or rather conclusions), explaining his thoughts;

(1) If your father was working late at work then know that he's earning extra cash to assist your family.
(2) Wealth doesn't necessarily buy you Mangos but it gifts it to you.
(3) When you're rich, you become useless.
(4) You have to be smart to become rich with lots of properties and this needs serious work with a respective certificate.

His role model was Hassan's Dad, who enjoyed spending his day at work, discussing topics that weren't of the writer's interest and reading intriguing books with deep meanings. Hassan's Dad behaviour was curious as the writer never understood why a rich person would benefit from socializing with people when he already has the money he needs.

Both friends entered college, and still the dream of becoming rich someday, haunted the writer so he decided to work at a restaurant as a waitress. The other day, he was surprised that Hassan did the exact same thing. The writer earned for tips, but Hassan wasted his time in helping old people, talking with this or that without getting paid. This sounded ridiculous to the writer. Why would you take an extra-time at work for nothing?

When Hassan was asked the same thing, his reply was this: This is the joy in life, it's of being responsible of anything, no matter how small or big it is…to feel the starvation of poor people or injustice that others are suffering from. If you chose to live for yourself, then selfishness would surely kill you.

The two grew old, got married and had kids. The writer was still engrossed in ways of becoming richer by the day while Hassan majored in weird, useless things (according to the writer) such as volunteer work, lectures world wide about safety, etc.

Even though, the writer felt proud of his achievements and reminded himself of how far he got to and that there is absolutely no reason to feel jealous of Hassan anymore but…

One day, the writer visited Hassan and rare types of mangos were presented. The writer could not get it. How come no one sends HIM these types of mangos from all around the world? But that's where he found his answers…

Hassan is now an educated man, who gets called to present lectures world wide…
Hassan now has lots of charity institutes that add up in his good deeds…
Hassan now is surrounded with a great deal of people that loves him…
Hassan now gains a good number of money thanks to the charity events he hosted…

'Hassan is a human being while I am just a rich man with nothing to add up on this world. I am just a consumer on this earth'.

Finally, he noted down the last and most important conclusion;

(5) To be happy, being rich isn't enough, but you have to be part of the society.

Throughout the book, the writer kept describing his special cravings to delicious types of mangos and I found it silly. I didn't like the title of the book as it doesn't give it much, but then realized that this whole thing started with mangos. If the writer wasn't so interested in tasting Mango, he wouldn't be able to connect with his situation and appreciate what he has.

You realize through Hassan's behaviour that being rich isn't everything. In order to get everything else, you have to be a human first, by acting like it.

Rating: 6/10, considering how short it was.

Child Neglect

A recent TV show had a very interesting topic about Child Neglect. It was about a story of a neglected 4 years old girl who was found living in a dirty house full of mosquitoes, cockroaches and was not wearing anything but old diapers. Child service agency in America took a stand and sued the mother who denied the charges and said she only did what she could.

The girl was then adopted by two loving parents that worked hard to provide the healthy environment any child needs. Although, the young girl cannot talk, or comprehend things like a normal 9 years old. She acts as a 2 years old child due to the neglect she received through her rough childhood.

Medical studies show that a neglected child's brain is not as big as a normal one. The brain's size doesn’t shrink; it only stays put and cannot develop any further.

Abandoning a child will stop the process of development both physically and mentally. A physical connection should be there to the children at the early ages so that he could grow healthier. These means of communication includes hugging, eye contact, and simply talking.

A living proof of the girl we talked about earlier; Daniel who could not speak any words at all. But if she did, that would be her last time repeating it. 'It's like she can't reach the place where these words are stored in her brain' says her foster parents.

Also, Daniel had weird tics at first, like rocking herself, throwing fits 8 times a day and crying. Besides, once taken out of her old home, she had constant nightmares of her old house where she suddenly felt terrified of everything.

This is yet another true story of real life issues that the world suffers from. Education is the key role in solving all of this, I believe, and a keen understanding of parenting responsibilities as well.

When You Hit The Turning Point

August 09 was the turning point for me. It is when my ex-housemaid got caught sneaking the things she stole from our house and ended up in jail.

I was awaken up by the sudden tension burning in the house, but little did I know that this is where years of relaxation and being served ended and the path of troubles and chores began. My siblings and I used to count on our housemaid to do this or that for us. If there was something missing, the maid will surely know where it is or how to find it… Something goes wrong at home, and she'll fix it. That's how dependent we were on her.

After this dramatic act, my parents wholly agreed on not letting any maid set foot in the house because of what happened earlier, and to that, my siblings and I objected strongly. How the hell were we going to live? Did they want us to die out of starvation?
Though the answer was crystal clear and we were blindfolded on the mere fact of accepting it: We are going to relay on ourselves from now on.

Days of complaints began…I would do the work I was assigned to do with such disgust and tiredness. I even faked sickness all the time to avoid any chores that would ruin my day's agenda and make me ache all night.

My mother accepted this with a warm and patient heart, filled with regret for somewhat spoiling us for the past years. We were not trained to cook, wash the dishes, clean the house, do the laundry, etc… We were trained to simply wait for all of these to be set for us. I thought of this as a punishment at first…and was furious on the fact that my mom was putting the blame on us. It did not seem reasonable to me; why would she do such thing when we are her little dearest? WHY?

We worked full-time around the house, cleaning or washing, it did not matter as long as the house shined with perfection. While working, we complained, complained and complained endlessly till reality hit us: It is going to be like this for as long as we live. So we can run away this time but we cannot hide forever.

Soon (though I could not imagine we would) we adapted to the current situation. We agreed to work without being told to. To help with others' assignment as it means the same thing at the end; get the job done and that's that.

In these past eight months we learned the importance of responsibility, self-respect, co-operation and most importantly, self-discipline.

Note: If you are wondering if my ex-maid is still in jail, then yes, she still is in for a year and a half.

Whose Fault Is It?

As human beings, we tend to follow rather than lead. We think that the majority is always right when in fact, it might be mistaken sometimes. Our vast skill of observation then turns the scene upside down, making the forbidden become the desired and the centre of attention.

In a conversation with my sister, she was concerned about her friend’s new behavior but blamed it on the other friend in the picture, alas, the bad one. The subject intrigued my thoughts. Why is it the bad friend’s fault? Is it always supposed to be like this? As in blame others for certain individual mistakes?

If the influence is a huge one, then the influenced person should be the one to blame, right? Our minds control our actions even if not all of them. A person must draw a line between what’s right and wrong before getting himself in trouble.

When we were kids, we only did what the people surrounding us did, thinking it was the right thing to do or because it seemed cool that everyone is doing it so why not me? Although later on, our brain starts to be realistic and analyzes things through. While on the other hand, we are trapped in an endless battle within ourselves trying to differentiate between bad or good, right or wrong, useful or harmful…

With the media coverage on various aspects of our current life, we see a lot of parents putting the blame on TV, Internet or other means of media, when they could easily control and advice what their children watch or hear. That being said, the child then starts to build up on the foundation his parents provided, making him aware of the consequences.

Remember, we are the only ones in control of our thoughts and actions and hence, should take full responsibility when things take a U-turn.

[Article's Publishing Date: April 14, 2010 ~ Oman Observer]

A Fresh Start

Third term is finally over and today is supposedly a holiday, which is good since it gives me extra time to memorize my essay for the Essay Competition organized by SAI (Serve And Inspire group) and Times of Oman that is held at the Indian School, AlGhubra tomorrow morning. My age group’s topic is ‘Life is a challenge; meet it’ and so far, I am 85 % sure of my memory. Some prefer to write whatever hits them while they’re there and others, like me, prefer to cram everything.

On Wednesday, 7th, my team and I visited Apex Stuff to hand in our dummy pages for TheWeek's Cubscribe challenge. It was an eye-opening experience, really. So that's one thing off of my shoulders.

Also, my articles officially come out every other Wednesday on Oman Observer (The Weekend edition)… Deadlines creeps me out but with pushy people around and the hectic school days I go through, I would get used to it sooner or later since I asked for it, right?

I have been asking for random topics to write about in order to get my mind out of this whole thing in May (IGCSEs) so any suggestions from you, readers, would be appreciated. So far, I have written 2 articles for the upcoming weeks. See, the problem with me is that I always plot the points, highlight the main issues to be discussed in a certain topic, but when it comes to actually putting it down in words, my expectations just drops down, although that’s a bonus: you never know unless you try…or so they say.

:: A fun quiz that I found interesting; www.akinator.com You choose a character and the Genie asks questions to find out.. (could be a singer, actor, or whatever). The majority of my tries were accurate and others simply weren’t. So try it out!

I shall leave you all with my favourite performance on American Idol's latest episode; Katie singing Let it be by The Beatles.

"And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree..there will be an answer..let it be.." ♫

The Deathy Hallows

Release Date: 19 November 2010

Plot Summary: Voldemort's power is growing stronger. He now has control over the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione decide to finish Dumbledore's work and find the rest of the Horcruxes to defeat the Dark Lord. But little hope remains for them, so everything they do must go as planned.

---------------------------------------------------

The second part would be released on 15 July 2011.

[Spoilers!] I'm personally looking forward to the following:

- The Dursley's final goodbye.
- Bill and Fleur's wedding
- Malfoy's Minor battle.
- Breaking into Gringotts.
- The final battle at Hogwarts.
- The characters all grown up with their children at Hogwarts Express.
[I hope they delete some of the camping scenes, they'll be a waste of time].

Dividing the movie into two parts is seriously over-rated. Needless to say, we'll have to wait in order to watch the remaining part. Do'h.

First Published Story

...on Oman Observer.

(Yes, I had to hide my face)

You can read the whole story here.

Other than this, I realize the fact that I haven't updated this place in weeks, but as I'm busy with revision for IGCSE's and...life, the possibility of updating is zilch. Although, I could be spotted at Twitter sometimes.

It's April already..I should seriously make the most of it before it's too late and so do you.