Today has been one of those days when anger took over the best of me no matter how hard I tried to suppress it and it worked out just well at the end.

So the story was I had to get my Dubai visa extended for a month and I had to visit the visa processing agency. I had already made a visit late last week and they bluntly handed over a checklist to me and asked me to get all the missing documents even before checking through the list of documents I currently had despite of me asking them multiple times. So there was this 1 additional document I noticed was missing and today I visited them again hoping it wont take too long. Now they came back asking for an insurance coverage for the extra period although I already have an open valid insurance until I reach India. None of it made sense to them so I grit my teeth and went to the govt office to get additional insurance.

I was awestruck to say the least! First of all, there was a ladies only queue to take a token which was hardly anything compared to the men’s queue. Although I didnt want a special treatment, I was informed that women could not be a part of the general queue!! So I decided to use the privilege and get work done..

Once the token was given, they lead me to a room that read – Women’s Office. As I entered, it was nothing short of a 5 star hotel room with massive chandeliers that lit the high roofed room, hookahs at every corner, artistic arab jugs with flavored water and warm, soft leather couches with pretty colorful cushions on them For a second I thought I was in the wrong room..

After enjoying a hot cup of tea, I got done with the job pretty soon although I would have loved to get a royal treatment and spend the rest of the day there

Once I was back in the visa office, which is by the way in the departure terminal of the airpot, [talk about being so close to getting on the plane back home ] I submitted all the documents they had requested and the lady in charge started to speak as if she was doing me a favor by granting me an extension! Well, I wouldnt blame her entirely because since morning I had been seeing a lot of Indians who looked extremely desperate to get a visa. But to me, this moment.. this very moment was when I lost it. I asked her to call her manager and gave her a piece of my mind saying I would be more than happy to go back home to my loved ones and reminded her that she was not doing me a favor – it was her job.

There were people peeping out of the cabins to take a look at what was happening while my job got done under an hour and not a word more from them!

Just proved that the more desperate you get, the more advantage people take of you.

It has been raining heavy in Bangalore and just as I stood by the balcony enjoying the endless water droplets from the sky fall on the flowers in our garden, I started singing involuntarily. I was singing “These are a few of my favorite things” from the movie – Sound of Music! And boy oh boy – did it bring back memories in a flash!

If you were to ask me which is my favorite movie – its got to be unmistakably the musical of 1959 – The Sound of Music. The movie begins high in the misty Alps and is about a free spirited young Austrian woman, Maria (Julie Andrews – the main character in the movie).

Just to give you a perspective of how the song relates to the situation now – In the musical, the lyrics to the song are a reference to things Maria loves, such as ‘raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens’. These are the things she selects to fill her mind and are the things she loves.

Not only is this the movie I have watched the most, I vividly remember spending my entire early life in Libya imitating Maria and living in my own imaginative world.

Other than the daily chores of going to school and playing, I distinctly remember spending every waking minute of my childhood watching, singing and dancing to the tunes in the movie.. quite literally! I also used to fantasize that someday I was going to run up and down the slopes of the boundless green Alps. Maybe someday I shall..

Here are my favorite tracks from the movie… Enjoy!




So long, farewell!

Time and again I am reminded of how appreciation and giving credit to little things any person does can build to become an ocean of motivation and self-confidence in him/her. Not only does the person become proactive and enthusiastic to do things better, he/she also sets higher targets for themselves and surprise you.