Life is too short...

Life is too short. Break the rules. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.

Those words (from the Bollywood movie Guzaarish) form the most beautiful definition of life that I have ever come across. Being completely against self-help books and programmes, I was always a firm believer in the fact that one should live life in his or her own customized way. Everyone should make their own mistakes and decisions and live through each exclusive experience instead of living vicariously through authors who claim to increase their confidence or give them a more satisfying love life. I guess I still do believe in this strongly but something has changed. Although no one can hand you a book of guidelines to live your life, there can always be those who can inspire you to write your own.

Recently, having started volunteering at a school for kids with special needs, I have been blessed with the gift of inspiration from so many lovely little muses who have taught me how to live life king size. We have so much to be grateful for in our lives. Many of us have the choice to make our own decisions - whether it be to choose what we want for dinner or who we want to spend our lives with, and the choice to feel and express - whether it be by singing with joy, throwing things in anger or crying in pain. What we don't understand is what these little things in life are worth. Ask those who have been given no choice but to live in a wheelchair all their life, those who never have anything but bread and water to feed their hungry stomachs and those who try as they may can never utter those 3 simple words 'I love you' to anyone. It is them who have a right to be angry, a right to complain. But yet, it is always them who are content and them who find happiness in everything around. Whether it be the scrunching of a little nose when they get a math problem wrong or the warm handshake early in the morning, every action and expression has an innate optimism that no matter how bad yesterday was, today will be a good day.

Spend some time with these kids and you will realize that there is so much to live for, so many giggles and chuckles out there waiting to infect you with laughter. Life is really short, and no matter how much you do or don't have, it is upto you to make the most of it. So, don't sit around waiting for life to get better, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you laugh.

The big red 'L'

I had always been on the judging end when I saw new drivers drive on the roads. Their obsession with indicators, their inability to maintain a good speed, their fear of entering roundabouts, all of it was always such an inconvenience for everyone else on the road. Now, when I am learning how to drive in a vehicle with a huge red 'L' on the glass, I realize how difficult it actually is for them.

Driving may come as a natural for many people but I certainly am not one of them. I have to constantly try harder and harder to be just an average driver. It is turning out to be one of the hardest things I have had to learn till date. Being an over-expensive process here in Dubai, learning driving is more like a full-time non-paying job than a fun yay-I-am-finally-learning-how-to-drive experience. You may be a decent driver when it actually comes to that but having an instructor or an examiner sitting next to you and closely watching and scrutinizing your every move proves to be so nerve racking that you can't even manage to keep your car straight! Every indicator you forget to switch off, every wrong swerve of your hand on the steering wheel, every time you don't look over your shoulder before changing lanes just brings with it a lot of dread and nervousness. Whenever a driver honks at you or overtakes you on the road, all the while shaking his head in pity from side to side, anger builds up in you and you end up jamming the accelerator which in turn switches on a flow of yells and screams from your instructor. Truly, every action has an equal (or in my case, amplified) and opposite reaction.

The waiting room at the learning centre is an even worse story! Having class at 9:30 am, I get the privilege of spending atleast a few minutes everyday amongst nervous-wrecks going in for their road tests. The room is filled with anxiety. Few people sitting in a group and cracking jokes to try and lighten up the mood only to be received by high-pitched nervous laughter, few people concentrating on reading their handbooks one last time in the hope that they may finally discover that hidden secret which would help them pass their road test, few discussing what mistakes are commonly made and ofcourse the other few who are busy nosing around and finding out which attempt at the road test it is for the others waiting around. Even if you don't have a test to give, the nervousness eventually gets to you and even a routine driving class becomes a huge nerve-racking experience. I remember being ecstatic when I had gotten myself registered for driving classes, happy that I was finally going to be able to drive a car soon. Little did I know that there's probably more of a chance of me finding a hidden treasure than that of me getting a driving licence in this country.

Still I try and still I hope. But one thing is for sure, whether I walk out of this experience with or without a Dubai driving licence in my hand, I will walk out with a new found understanding and respect for learning drivers!

A congregation of angels.

There's a whole lot of chitter-chatter and a whole lot of smiles. Beaming faces and happiness galore. The joy of a new day and the pleasure of friends' company. The national anthem and the morning prayer is followed by the school song full of motivation and praise, accompanied with loads of clapping and synchronised dance. A few angels upfront deliver an important message to which listens everyone else in awe. Then comes the best part of the morning - the 'Good Morning drill'. Handshakes and wishes flowing about the room as if on the wings of sparrows hopping from chair to chair. Doesn't matter if they fought yesterday or had never seen each other before, still they bestow upon each other a toothy grin. The birthday song and the weekly dance routine comes up next. The most amazing dancers one has ever seen. The intoxication of the morning filling up inside of everyone and the drunken revelry. The upliftment of spirits and the excitement of a new day. The lit up eyes, full of hope, shining bright, waiting to touch with their magic wands, a mortal's life.

Thus ends the morning assembly at a school for kids with special needs and thus begins a new day of learning and frolic and life if you may...

Change

Yesterday I met up with a few of my school mates after a long long period of 5 years. Not my closest friends in school and all people who I had lost touch with after school had ended.

My diffidence made me a little apprehensive about it at first but eventually I let myself get talked into it. Being a last minute plan, I ended up reaching there an hour late and without any mental preparation. You must be thinking, I am just meeting up with friends, what kind of mental preparation would I need for that, right? Well this was different. These were people who knew me when I was the fat geeky kid who studied all the time and did not know how to dress or carry herself and had absolutely no self-confidence. I was nervous! I did not know how I was going to face those people and the memories that seeing them would bring back to me.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed myself. It was so very interesting to see how everyone had grown as people. Everyone had branched out into various streams ranging from business to film-making. There were so many interesting stories being shared, some about school times and some post-school.

I stayed on the sidelines and watched and listened. I was intrigued by everyones opinions and thoughts. I spoke to people I had never spoken to in school. I listened to conversations about how the UAE is the first in the Middle East to manufacture airplane parts, how sad it is that our beloved school campus is now lying unused and uncared for after the school shifted to a new campus, and most interesting of all, about Indian politics. I was stunned when I found out that 2 of the people present there actually wanted to go into Indian politics and do their share for the country. They spoke about religion and the fire that burns in people because of it and of power and what it can do. They spoke about the Bhagavad Gita and the Quran. About the great Lalu and the amazing Mayawati. Being so deep into the conversation I was ignorant to all else. On my way home I thought over it all again. I realized that I had just spent close to an hour talking about Indian politics with those same kids whose last memories in my mind were those of standing in assembly lines dressed in the coloured house t-shirts and white shorts/skirts and of running away at the sight of Mr.James or Mrs.Brendish. So much time had passed and so much had changed. It made me think...How much had these 5 years changed me?

Lost...

Having just finished my undergrad, I was so freaked out at the prospect of not having a definite plan of action for life. Being the tightly wound person that I am, I always have a plan for even the small, trivial matters in every day life and there I was (still am!)-at one of the biggest and most important junctions of my life where a lot of decisions, regarding both my personal and professional life, were to be taken-and I did not even have the slightest clue of what was to be done. Infact I spent all my time worrying about the 'plan' and eventually was left with no time to actually sit and make a plan or atleast start weighing my options!

Finally, as usual, my parents came to my rescue. They told me to take some time off and visit my friends in India and my sister in Toronto, Canada. I couldn't have asked for anything better. I packed my bags and set out for my vacation. It was my first trip in the past 5 years that had no agenda and which allowed me to surrender to my whims and fancies. I met all my old friends, saw and fell in love with a beautiful new city (Bangalore), did loads of shopping, spent hours chatting, got drenched in the rain, and for once, stopped worrying!

After my brief and fun trip to India, I came home for a couple of days and before I knew it, I was on a plane to Toronto to visit my best friend, and in so many ways my inspiration, my elder sister. Usually when I go to a new city, I have travel plans set up in advance and I know exactly where I want to go and what I want to see, but this time it was all very different. This time I set myself free.

I woke up each morning and just stepped out and started walking (usually taking the less windy direction, but you get the point right?) with my Tim Hortons iced cappucino in one hand and my beloved black canon digital camera in the other. I spent some cherished quality time with my sister after so very long, I met a lot of new people, I danced and I wandered. I walked around the city with my earphones in place and iPod in hand and discovered areas of the city where even my sister had never been in the one year that she had been living there. I found places where I could just sit and watch people go about their lives, places where I could spend hours dog-watching (yes, i love dogs!) and places where the spirit of the architect inside me awoke and I spent hours gaping in awe at some of the most beautiful buildings I had ever seen. I just never wanted to stop walking. Eventually when I did, my legs hurt in places which I didn't even know existed, but that still didn't keep me from doing the exact same thing the very next day.

As I am writing this during my layover in London on my way back from Toronto to Dubai, I know that although I will always be the same, old, uptight person that I have always been, this trip has taught me to let go and take a breath once in a while. I may not always have the liberty to go with the flow and take chances in life but whenever I do, I know I will make full use of them.

Sometimes all we need is to take some time off and get lost. It leads us to discover paths we never knew existed and even though we may take the safest, most-used path to move forward in life, atleast we won't regret that we never gave ourselves that chance.