As cheerful as a bright flower :)

Tags

blogging, blogiary, farewell, moods, ramblings, reminiscence, Sunflower, viewpoint, work related

I feel like the rainbow
with its colourful arch of radiant layers.

I feel like the sunflower
with its ‘smiling’ bright yellow petals.

I feel so mellow
for my heart is overjoyed by words of well-wishers’.

I feel like a strawberry, with its bright red glowing skin;
a bit flushed with the happy rush of the blood;
for the compliments and humbling appreciation
showered on me by one and all around.

I feel like the epitome of calmness;
the calm on a luscious mountain top,
the beauty of the green shades with meandering roads below,
nature’s beautiful creatures and the sounds playing heavenly music,
running water exemplifying the purity of the path it takes.

I feel as fulfilled as a lama would
with the realization and acceptance of all.
Having done the good not for the self
but for the good of mankind, for all.

I feel as special as Niel Armstrong
who reached the moon and back
setting a record, making into the books of history.

I feel grateful like none other
for the love I am getting from everyone around.
I feel free as a bird soaring high in the sky.

======================================
P.S. Scribbled on April 4, 2012

Let the journey begin!

Tags

blogiary, maldives, maldives photos, Male', Perth, photo, ramblings, viewpoint, Weekly Photo Challenge

Destination is the main focus or target on any journey.
The journey, nonetheless, is a colourful experience.
May it be in terms of life goals, short-term objectives.
May it be to places far and near … the journey counts!

Starting the homeward journey from Perth to reach Maldives. I was snapping that plane becuase family friends were on that plane heading home to Maldives. My family and me were scheduled to be on the flight home one month after capturing that image.

Heading from Male' city to Hulhumale' (to the International Airport). The first lap of any journey out of home.

Journey nowhere. Just paddling to an aimless destination is a wonderful journey to get your mind out of stress from the every day grind. The ocean breeze, the ocean ripples, the sun's rays, the evening wind is just a superb mind journey.

Journey from point A to point B in Male' city is usually by motorbikes like the one above; I am sitting on the bike in front of him, this time as a passenger as my sister is on a practice round (her journey in short) in preparation for her license to officially ride. That man's journey I think heads home after finishing his football practice at one of the playgrounds on the Southern end of Male'

=====================================================
P.S.
My contribution to the Weekly Photo Challenge: Journey.
Enjoy the “on-the-move” in the air and on the ocean moments.

Beckoning arrangement!

Knowledge captured on pages and bound between the covers to be neatly arranged on the shelves. Shelves loaded with books of all colours and all sizes.

Rows and rows of shelves arranged neatly, with such beckoning bays!
Each bay carrying a vast amount of knowledge, whichever one you choose.

Books methodologically arranged in the logical order of knowledge, using a systematic classification system.

The one place I get lost, literally and practically.
A library is the one place that can give me the calmness I need.
I can hide in between any of the endless bays, or corners;
getting myself lost to this world,
being transported to the pages on the books.

=====================================================
P.S. This post is in response to the Weekly Photo Challenge: Arranged

Photos above from my lens:
1st and 2nd from George Washington University (Washington DC);
3rd photo from Library of Congress.

Scheming clever head!

Tags

blogiary, dismal, moods, ramblings, viewpoint

The one who does not seem to age;
the one who is obsessed with the ‘baby’;
the ‘baby’ of his making, he believes;
the ‘true’ baby he waters and raises;
more dearly than his flesh and blood.

Blinded by devotion, unable to believe;
to believe anyone else can do the same;
love the baby with a similar fervour;
unable to trust anyone else as its caretaker.

Intelligence beyond any other;
cunning cleverness unmatched to anyone else;
a weak exterior he showcases and epitomizes;
yet, strong-willed and unrelenting in things that he wants!

It’s his way, or the highway for everyone else.
I now believe! With him, it took me a while.
A while to see and hear with my own eyes and ears,
to truly believe what others say of him:
self-obsessed, manipulative, cunning, scheming, clever he is!

The deep respect I had for him;
the trust I had in him;
The pure virtues! Humane, I believed him to be!
But he is not!

A dark unforgiving loathing has settled deep in me.
so deep that I am unable to uproot it
no matter how much I nudge at it!

But then again, I wonder
have I really tried to get it off my chest?
or have I nurtured it, watered it only that way?
Have I not blown it out of proportion?

====================================
P.S. Scribbled on March 19, 2012
Every single meeting I loathe these days

How to empty a mind?

So many voices in my head;
tired and fatigued is the mind,
and yet, refusing to snooze at command.
The mind’s alarm keeps going on loud, unyielding

Need to empty my brain.
Empty it of words, thoughts, arguments and debates,
for and against the matter at hand.
Words and thoughts keep hurtling from this and that way,
just floating inside;
going crisscross, creating utter havoc.

Pig-headedness is what it was, what ensued;
bone-tired is what I feel, totally disappointed;
exhausted beyond words.
Representing so many people’s hopes and wishes,
only to be returned by petty rebukes.

Does not matter how immaterial their argument,
the louder the voice, the influential the person is,
and the more bull-headed someone is –
the argument sells … wtf!

Fighting and debating over mundane things,
just tires the mind to no end.
The floor gets heated, wasting time thus money
in the name of finding efficiency;
that would not mean a dime at their whim
the very next day!

grrrrrr to everyone!

===========================================
P.S.
And to make things worse, now my  DVD player is not cooperating with me.
Can’t even escape into fantasy land of bollywood. grrrrr again!

Dry eyes, fraught heart

A darkness within;
a hatred as wild as forest fire.
An emptiness within;
as empty as the space in a well.
A heaviness within;
as heavy as pressure of this enormous earth.
A loudness within;
as loud as a thunderous drum roll,
screaming for a stop to mockery, charade
A stillness within;
like the atmosphere without the air,
without the creatures, without the running water.
An anguish within;
agony at the unbelievable cruelty,
insanity, profanity around.
A sorrow within;
not knowing what’s wrong,
what should be done;
what can be done to put things right!
Peace of heart, peace of mind;
the only craving of the moment.

====================================
P.S. Scribbled on March 16, 2012

One was born!

Tags

birthday, blogging, blogiary, moods, mother, ramblings, reminiscence, Sibling

The early morning breeze and calm;
the one thing linked to the beginning;
six twenty on the clock the roosters called;
matched with a soft shrill crying.

Born alone, on this day;
three decades and some years in the past.
Breathed into this world on a Wednesday,
into the hands of ‘God’ and an aunt!

Cried the first cry in angst
no father to dote over the daughter;
the bundle put in delicate hands;
insecure hands of a mother, a teenager!

A story unfolds in silent whisper,
a tomboy mother having to change ways,
a doting dutiful sister of the mother,
a caring, duty bound mother of the mother
stayed together as always.

Add to that, slowly but surely:
add a father figure,
and half a dozen half siblings.
Add to that poorness beyond words.
Also add to that misery, unkindness,
and inhumane wanton vultures!

A chapter of helplessness is closed.

Now open another chapter on its bloom;
ambitions beyond reach;
goals higher than the stars
dreams as beautiful as the moonlight.

Add to that, blizzards, storms, tsunamis,
hurdles, and mountains high as the Everest.
Add to that oppression, brutality,
and unexplainable abuse.

All the while in silence, in humble agony;
in the hope of light at the end of the tunnel.
This way or that,
mountain after mountain, hurdle after hurdle,
scraping and falling; always to stand up again.

Open a new chapter! One of empowerment!
A chapter of unconditional strength,
an indifferent attitude; one of courage and rage.
No more being taken for granted,
no more being overly nice.

This is a story of a clot of blood
made of two human beings; one negligent!
A story of a child, a teenage girl, an adolescent!
A story of a young wife, a mother, a woman!
A story of a human being!
So many stories remain to be told!

======================================
P.S. The image above was from my lens from a holiday some years back.
The image below is from my “moodhu” time today

do you see the fish???? this was taken sitting on the rocks on the artificial beach in Maaley City. Click on the image and you will se a few of them ...

Aren’t we hypocrites?

Tags

blogiary, culture, dismal, Domestic worker, domestic workers in Maldives, foreign domestic maid, housemaid, Human Right, Human Rights and Liberties, hypicrites, intolerance, maldives, Maldives domestic workers, moods, ramblings, religion, viewpoint

Image taken from Dhivehi Observer

Today I welcome a new housemaid into our home.
She will live with us, eat with us, and be with us;
for the next year we are the family she gets.

I received her at the airport on behalf of the rest of the extended family.
She comes out of the arrival terminal, eyes looking here and there.
I hold a sheet with her name,
but knew very well that she cannot read the English letters.
I did not have a photo of her,
but had seen a black & white fuzzy image of her passport photo
over a month ago; the one she faxed over for the visa processes.

I waited and watched,
looking at all the faces to try to zero on the one I wanted.
Some come out and pause, looking around the faces;
some looks at the name cards first and then only at the faces.
It was fascinating standing there watching all the stories unfold.
Some of them got a handshake, some got a kiss on the cheek,
some just a silent acknowledgement,
and yet some were engulfed in cheerful hugs.
So many stories that thirty minutes can tell.

Back to my story.

She came out, paused … a confused look I can see,
and I knew in my gut it was her. I held the name card a bit out,
and also said her name out loud.
It was her. She was still a bit flushed.
A man, another foreigner, showed her the name card I held.
I guessed she must have asked him for help.
At that point, they parted ways as strangers.

I checked her passport for the name, to be sure.
and we headed homeward.
Me in my locally approved shirt top, jeans and headscarf.
She in her sari.
We embark the ferry heading to Male’ City.

The ferry was a bit full but with ample space if people just nudged.
Nobody moves an inch and I had to ask
“could you please give me some space!”
The same, I had to do for her.
Maldivians, most of them [most of us] are just so indifferent!

Back to my story…

I am sitting on the bench behind her, that’s the only space I got.
And I can see and sense her fidgeting, with nerves.
All around her there were no “saris“.
Most had themselves covered from head to toe
the rest had covered themselves from neck to at least mid-calf
In no time she adjusted her choli to cover her midriff.

And it hit me hard.
This will be the last time she wears her sari for the next whole year.
We ask them to come to help us out;
to look after our kids, our homes.
They come leaving everything behind -
their kids, their families, their way of life.

That’s not all!
we deprive them of their choice of dress;
we dictate everything and they humbly oblige.

They need the money;
What they make here as a domestic worker, as a maid
is ‘rich’ enough for them back home.
They earn and send it directly to family.

And what do we do?
- “You can’t wear sari in this house.”
We give them a half a dozen dresses that will cover them shoulder to foot
and at least a quarter of the arm.
- “You can’t praise your God, you can’t pray in the open. you can’t display your God.”
We at some point also go as far as mocking their idols, their Gods!
- We say to them, “no friends can visit you here.
No going out on your whim.”
We allow them only about 6 hours of outing time a week.
- We deprive them of their Diwali, Christmas, Raksha-Bandan, Holi,
and any other days and festivals special to their hearts.
“Do whatever you want with your time that you get once a week each Friday.”

But you see, when we go overseas,
when we go to another land, we demand!
We demand to be able to mark our special days.
We demand to have freedom in how we dress.
We demand to be respected for our faith.

What is this? Is this not hypocrisy?
Human rights, human values, human dignity –
are these concepts applicable only to a certain group or groups?

I can only be thankful that there is no serious abuse cases.
But that is not enough. Human dignity need to be assured.
Human freedom of their thought also need to be assured.

I treated one of our earlier maids on Christmas;
that was her faith; she, just a teenager of seventeen.
I sensed how alone and forlorn she must be,
to be away from her loved ones and her festive atmosphere back home,
no matter how poor they must be!
I was ostracized for my act. I was ridiculed… by my brood!

========================================
P.S. Scribbled 25 February 2012

If only I had wings

Tags

blogging, blogiary, fantasy, moods, poetic musings, ramblings

I will see the world
every corner, every creek.
I will see with my very own eyes
every culture that exists.
If only I had wings.

I will rise high into the clouds
I will swoop low onto the ponds and lakes,
orchards, and marshlands,
farms and the countryside.
I will fly from one country to the other.
If only I had wings.

I will fly every road every mountain,
every ocean, every pond, every lake,
every gorge, every cliff.
If only I had wings.

I will fly off to find a more tolerant place;
place filled with love and harmony
and understanding;
fly from here to there to find like-minded;
If only I had wings.

I will visit my friends far and about
I will fly back to places I love,
to people who could set me straight.
“If only I had wings
to fly and see you again”.

=================================
P.S. Scribbled on March 17, 2012

Tagged … I’m it, it seems!!!

TayabIqbal has tagged me and
now I am obliged to answer his 11 questions.
Aliza also has tagged me [AGAIN ]
with another 11 questions!!!

I have been tagged 3 times earlier
Tagged by thethoughtpallete,
also by Aliza
and also by Arjun.
And have had to answer
33 questions for the 3 taggers.

Today I leave behind the rest of the tag game,
and answer Tayab’s questions.
and Aliza’s questions.
For the previous tag questions you may refer to my
Tag – you’re it! your turn post.
The 11 bloggers I tagged are also on that post.

Too tired to give homework to more people.
This game calls for me to identify 11 bloggers to tag
and 11 questions to ask of them….

Now, to answer TayabIqbal’s 11 questions.

1. Criminals are victims of their circumstances – opinion?
   Aren’t we all? criminal or not we are all victims of our circumstances.
2. The Government of your country cares about you – Yes or No?
   Hell NO!
   No government does!!!
   
3. Your favourite food – as in, what would you want for your last meal?
   Pistachio fruit&nut ice cream, after an exotic green salad with
   cashew chicken & white basmati rice, and a fresh strawberry milkshake
4. Would you like to live in a fictional world? Such as Hogwarts, or the Mode world from Ugly Betty?
   Hogwarts would be awesome. YES I’d love that.
5. What’s your favourite colour?
   Orange. Pink. No … Orange … or is it Pink????!!!!
6. Do you have a favourite designer brand for clothing?
   No. do not give a hoot who makes my clothes as long as I do not have to do it Most often my sister is my tailor
7. Are Audi drivers generally b*stards?
   what’s Audi?!!!! duh!!!
8. Are you similar to any TV/Film characters? I’m told I am little like Ross from Friends
   I’m Betty from Ugly Bettey
9. If you could marry a celeb – who?
   Johnny Depp
   
10. The best compliment you have ever had, and best you have given?
    that’s tough. thinking… still thinking ….
    came back here after a day of thinking
    The best compliment I recieved is to be told that my organisation works like clock work. No wastig time.
    The best compliment I have given: that’s much harder isn’t it? I compliment often (I believe). But who knows which compliment is the best!!!
    What I say most often is “what will I ever do without you my dear – thanks for the wonderful work you do for me and for the organisation”
11. Is it better to experience the world as a single….or wait until you have somebody (ie, husband/wife) and go on those experiences together?
    Another tough one. I have never been single as such. But I’ve travelled single while being ‘not single’
    It sure would be nice to have someone like-minded on travels. But that’s hard to find. Life is a compromise

===================================================

My answers to the 11 questions asked by Aliza

1. Who is the one person who has changed you, and how!?
   My boss. I am more meaner now
   Learning only from the best
2. If you are given a chance to visit just one specific part of the world, what would you choose?
   Pakistan. specific enough?
   Make it Islamabad
   Or more specifically Murree Hill Station
   
3. Are you married? If yes, then do you miss your bachelor life ?
   Yes I am.
   I have nothing to miss
   [got married straight out of secondary school]
4. One subject you love/loved in high school?
   Maths
5. Everyone dreams or wishes to attain a particular future, a particular profession. Have you attained that in life?
   Getting there. Very close.
   InshaAllah
6. If you are given a chance to write your teenage self a letter, what advice will you give to yourself?
   Have a bit more confidence in yourself girl!
   You are totally worth it
7. Your favorite blogger on WP?
   No doubt Elyas [from kweschn.wordpress.com]
   
8. What are you thinking right now!?
   Will I ever get to read such great up-beat poems?!!!!??!!!
9. If you are given a chance to spend a day with a celebrity, who would you choose?
   easy question.
   Johnny Depp
   Let’s be creative. Depp is up there on Tayab’s questions too.
   Outside of movies … President Obama
   
10. Do you think love lasts forever?
    True love does
11. What do you think about me (Hehehehehehe)?
    Evil
    Very sweet Aysha.

To check out the 11 bloggers I tag, and the 11 questions I ask,
you just have to wait

I am feeling very very lazy
I might come back and add 11 questions and tag 11 bloggers later.

==============================================
P.S. Written and scheduled on 24 March 2012

I am coloured ;)

I am feeling blue as the blue sea
not really sure why I feel blue.

I am feeling green as the green Amazon
do not really want to admit to the ‘why’.
It’s really irrelevant, mundane and childish.
Yet I feel green.

I am feeling yellow as a sun flower.
Only at those moments
when I can get off the blue and green.

I am feeling red as the fire from the dragon.
red with anger, red with disbelief,
red with embarrassment!

I am feeling as grey as a rain cloud.
like a wet blanket unwelcome on a cold winter day.

I am feeling as pink as a new-born
for such irrational is my mind;
without focus, without direction.

My heart feels as black as charcoal
for it has filled with hatred,
anger suppressed!
feelings oppressed!
mind depressed!
and senses distressed!

==============================
P.S. Scribbled on March 17, 2012

“I am a woman too!”

O’ sister — daughter of my kin.
Lower your gaze and hush your voice.
Close your eyes and hear me!
I am a woman too!

I have my tempting curves,
Alluring kohl-lined eyes too.
And I can sing as fine as anyone of you.
My breasts and my hips
They tell the same stories too
Of what a true “Dhivi” woman can be.
Like many queens who ruled our men
I too rule them as effortlessly as you.
So, open your eyes and look at me!
I am a woman too!

In my belly I carried our mother.
Through my birth you were born too.
We are nothing but a woman’s cry
Droplets of blood spilled on white soft sand.
A spoonful of honey suckled before milk
Carefully written “Kalima of Shahaadath”
Fed to cleanse our pure souls,
Long before we had even sinned.

We are nothing but resonating echoes
Of “Azan” whispered into tiny ears
By your Father, my Uncle, your Brother, my Son.
We are vices turned into virtues
By the hands destined to wrong us.
Yes! We are nothing but only that.
We are everything that you now defy.
So, open your hearts and see me!
I am a woman too!

Where are you marching off to?
Leaving behind your children to cry,
Why are you jostling your way out?
Leaving your femininity to rot?

I see you covered in black!
While I am covered in skin!
I see you guarding your veil!
While I am waving my hair!
I hear your vicious tongues!
While I hush mine in despise!
And I hear your shrills drown into “Azan!”
While I only sit and bend my head to repent!
So, open your souls and know me!
I am a woman too!

My belly is filled with screams too
As loud as the ones you curse with.
For the morrows of our unborn breed
My mind thinks rational thoughts too.
But today?
Have you hushed their cries today?
Have you fed your own today?
Have you seen them, at all today?

Aren’t you the mother — who spoke for our whole nation?
Aren’t you the sister — who failed to build her own home?
Aren’t you the teacher — who denied our blessed chastity?

O’ Mother… Sister… Teacher!
I – this daughter of “Dhivi”, raise above you to say today,
“For the filth you have spit in our names,
I deny you and your womankind today!”

So block your ears and deny me!
I am a woman too!
One, you now, can never come to be!

========================================
P.S. The beautiful prose above is not mine. Not a single word
Not even the image.

I just had to reproduce it here.
The cry of the poem just did not let me pass it with a “Like”.
Those words are like the unsaid, unscreamed words from within;
from within my very being.
Thoughts churning in my mind.
These words are from silentfingers.
A superb writer

Oh silly silly boy

Tags

blogging, blogiary, maldives, maldives photos, moods, poetic musings, ramblings

Oh silly boy
i miss you like crazy
i stumbled upon the current journey
broken and shattered
to be cheered by none other
with such a jovial nature

Oh silly boy
i feel your agony
at least I think I do
wishing there was something I can do
to ease your misery
your burden

Oh silly boy
i felt young and carefree
i felt mature and clever
i had something to look forward to
something to make me smile
no more than that, it was!

Oh silly boy
I hope only the best for you
may your fight and struggle be worthy
may you find peace of mind
that beautiful mind that cries for all
may you be content in whatever you do

Oh silly boy
I do not know how to bring an end
an end to this friendship
I do not know how to say bye to a ‘window’
a window on this silly space
a space I call my punching bag

======================================
P.S. Written on 23 March 2012

The image above, from my lens, from an early morning walk.
From the surf point in Male’ City. The place is locally knows as
“raalhugandu saraha’dhu” = translated as wave area

Good morning world !!! :)

Tags

blogiary, jaunt, maldives photos, moods, photo, poetic musings, ramblings

Every morning of the weekday
I get a moment to walk an aimless walk.
Not both ways, but half of the way;
walking my son to the school block
just three blocks away.
Six fifty in the morning, says the clock;
comfortable coolness outside, with early sun’s ray;
less traffic, fewer bodies to create havoc.
Other parents like me, I meet and see.

The mind is free, the grind has not started for the day.
The fresh, stress-free mind admires all;
admires every little thing on the way.
The minaret of the mosque and its aesthetic globe,
glinting in the rising sun’s rays;
the early morning leaves and flowers on the road,
having bade farewell to their parent plant,
waiting to be swept off
by the foreign helping hands.

The parents and the child combo I see,
the kid a reflection of the elder walking alongside him or her
the resemblance so evident that I wonder
does my kid look like me to that extent?!
I do not know, but I don’t see too much of me in him
but others say he looks like me
Guess only others can see the looks.

One parent I see
a model she used to be
beauty, height, shape, and looks she has that I envy;
But I feel sad for her all the same.
her eyes looks so sad, her cheekbones does not smile
her forehead carries creases that screams.
Somehow I sense in her, a battered and abused wife.

One parent I see,
a housewife I am pretty sure.
Yet, the glamour of her dress that early in the morning
fit for a queen, nothing less.
not overly dressed! Yet elegant, neat, and posh.
A smile on her lips, a radiance on her face
mischief in her eyes, a confidence in her walk.

One parent I see,
a ‘druggie’ he looks to me
No basis, I have for my prejudice.
Nothing other than his looks, a bit untidy;
long untidy hair, a cigarette between his fingers.
Physical features not too attractive,
a pot belly, relatively short, a roughness on his face.
Yet! Yet, the kid that walks by him, he adores I can see;
lovingly he walks her to the class.
Small talk he makes all the way. The look of adoration for her
in his eyes blows my other perception haywire.
I can’t help wonder what his story is.

One parent I see,
the centre of attention she seems to seek.
Dressed, not elegant, yet made up.
Walks with a sprint and gait
all the way walking back home,
a hoard of other parents joining her,
creating a buzz in the air.

One parent I see,
a university student he is, I know.
nice chiseled look, kind eyes, smiling eyes.
a short beard, not glamorous but neatly dressed
always in a shirt and pants, not tucked in.
his kids (two wee ones) walks hand-in-hand
obediently with a mirroring smile just like his.
Such a beautiful image they make.

One parent I am,
dressed way too casually compared to the rest,
jeans and a top, not at all made up!

A loner i am, I know!
one who enjoys the surrounding without chit chatter,
it’s THE moment with myself.
For, the rest of the day I grind myself at work.
Barking orders, asking questions, seeking answers,
solving problems, making plans, following up on tasks,
in meetings, working tiresomely on paperwork;
no rest to the mind until the end of the day
closing it all and hitting my punching bag this space.

Punch it as much as my fingers and eyes could stand.
I fall in my sack for a short rest for my stiff self.
And this morning walk does wonders
replenishing the mind with energy all around me.

=====================================
P.S. The photo above is from an evening ride in Thinadhoo Island,
from a work vacation sometime back.

Take what comes

Don’t expect perfection, for U will NEVER
find it here. This is earth not heaven. So with
charity and cheer
TAKE WHAT COMES.
The good, the bad and don’t start
whimpering when you are disappointed with
a person or a thing.

Everyone is human. Do not be too critical
when someone fails. REMEMBER that U too
are fallible.

Keep your ideals in your heart and set your
standards high. But DON’T lose faith
when things go wrong.
Just let the storm blow by.

Do not ask too much of life or reach
beyond the range.
ACCEPT and LEARN to live content
with what you cannot change.

========================================
P.S.
These are not my words.
These are words that I have lived by.
I came across this poem somewhere around the early 1990s.
from a book of inspirational writings.
and I have held onto a copy of this particular one.
I reproduce it here today, for anyone else who might find it helpful.
I really am sorry that I do not know the author of these words.
If anyone of you can tell me, do share it with me.