People

     

In life we meet people from all walks of life. Some are meant to stay in your life forever, whereas the others, they are just visitors who don’t make much of a difference in our lives. Some people remembered for their kindness, generosity and wild sense of humour that even the mere thought of their names brings a smile to our face. 

When we think about our acquaintances, there are those who taught us important lessons in life that forever, we are grateful to them. Such people include family members, teachers and close friends.

I guess as we go along our journey of life, we meet people who betray us, humiliate us and make our lives miserable too. Should we forget about them and hold to the memories of those sweet loved ones who have helped us from day one? No! 

We should remember them too, because, no matter how difficult it is for us to recall such fragments of memories stored in the dark corners of our hearts, they are not less valuable than what we have learned from the people who love us. It is because of them that we are stronger today. In some cases, it is mainly because of them that we succeed in life. 

But we realise the importance of such people later in life. I wonder whether it’s easy to forgive and forget. As for me, I do forgive, but I always remember the lesson that I’ve learned so that I would never fall prey for such a person’s malicious traps. 

As I have mentioned before, we meet people from all walks of life and once we learn a lesson from an enemy, we keep an eye out for such people. But how do we spot those tricky enemies who pretend to be our friends? I bet this would be a very complicated task.

Some people like to brag about their wealth and the bounties of pleasure they enjoy in everyday life. They especially like to make commoners feel even more underprivileged by showing off their fancy shoes, new dresses that they buy every month and the number of classes their children attend. 

No, jealousy is not the issue here. When someone continuously brags about the silver spoons that were placed in their mouth from the very beginning, and from time to time point out how unfortunate others are, I mean literally telling them with a cheery smile on their face, that can be a bit hard to forgive and forget. 

Being mean and hurting someone’s feelings intentionally by asking a person how many books have their child read and when the answer in book 1, looking at that person with a disgusted and shocked look on their face when they know quite clearly that his or her child had language delay and cannot read as well as theirs is unforgivable. Not only that, standing there when the other party feels uncomfortable and refuse to make eye contact, saying out loud, still reading book 1 is beyond being mean! 

Perhaps the privileged do enjoy pointing out to others, that their house, which by the way was built by saving all the hard earned money they have earned and saved, would fall over their heads in matter of seconds is simply cruel. And to add injury to the wound, saying that you have to deal with that construction worker who does a lousy job for years to come as you have no other way, where as I got rid of him! Oops! Lucky me! Now what do you make of such a character! 

 Such people pretend to be your friend, acting all sweet and nice in front of everyone and saying hurtful things when no one is around. Do they feel superior by ridiculing someone’s financial status?  Perhaps they enjoy the fact that they are treated differently by all the levels of an organization just because they come from a different class and would like to remind the lower class about their place.

One could think of many examples on how such people ridicule the unfortunate group of people, but what is important here is, what should we do? Kiss their ass and remind them how blessed they are, accept favourism and breaking of rules just to favour them as something normal and how it is suppose to be and keep one’s mouth shut? Well, some people are not that timid! They talk about their rights too! But that’s when they get blamed! Sadly, yes! They get blamed and everyone would take the blessed angel’s side. 

In the end, they go around stressing it’s the lowers classes fault or perhaps, they have a problem, that’s why they say certain inappropriate things. Of course, when someone reply or response came out after tolerating much hurtful behaviour and trying patiently to ignore it and in the end, out of frustration, blurting out something becomes that persons fault. Though this heartless person has insulted to the level, that forgiveness is even inconsiderable, it is the other parties fault. Always.

So how do we get along with such FRIENDS, (if it is a must) stay away from them as much as you can. Communicate when the need is vital and plug your ears around them so that you don’t have to listen to a word that they utter to ridicule you! I know, it’s very easy to just type away but to practice this in real life would be tough. 

And it’s always better to be with those caring and loving people in your life who doesn't make you uncomfortable or make you feel like you belong in the gutter! Some people are so kind and generous and they fit in quite well, where ever they go, no matter from where they come. Perhaps they don’t like to brag or for them, money and their privileges are not everything in the world. May be they know that it’s not the most important thing in life. 

In the end, I guess we all find it in our hearts to forgive everyone, no matter how cruel they were, after sometime! Forgiveness is the key to happiness, but sometimes, it can be difficult. However, it’s worth it. Perhaps they do have a place in our life too. May be that’s how we are assessed how tolerant and patient we are. So I would say, forgive but always remember the lesson you learnt. 

  Each person we meet teaches us something and if you are smart, stay away from the so called pretend friends and hold on to those gems who makes you smile even when you've had the most rotten day of your life. They are the true friends that you should never let go.

A Memorable Day

With president Mohamed Nasheed (29th August 2013)

It was a just another morning, I woke up, got my daughter ready for her tuition class and went to work as usual. I was actually feeling a bit blue as there were some issues bothering me. I had class form eight to ten, as usual that day and went to fetch my daughter and nine fifty.

As usual, my friend Niam gave me a lift home. On the way, we stopped to buy drinks for my daughter and Ainy (my friend’s daughter) and I bought some eggs. Once we reached my house, Maly and I got out of the car, as usual and Maly ran towards our house before I could hold her hand. I was worried and turned around to catch her but was shocked, surprised and all of a sudden very happy because President Nasheed was shaking hands with my daughter. I think she ran straight into his arms.

I have wanted to take a photo with him for a long time and I was planning to attend the opening ceremony of a Jagaha near my house, just to take a photo with him. I couldn’t believe my luck, I was standing in front of my president, just like that. I was so happy that I was grinning from ear to ear as I shook hands with Mr Mohamed Nasheed. As I shook his hands, I told him that I wanted to take a photo with him and he said, “of course”.

So we stood together and I realized that I was still holding the polythene bag full of eggs! I wanted to get rid of the plastic bag and told the photographer, “ Wait, I want to get rid of this bag!”

And that’s when the president said, “No, no, no need to get rid of the bag, then only people would know that we buy eggs for breakfast!”

This of course made everyone laugh and that’s the exact moment when the picture was taken. So no wonder, I’m smiling like a maniac in the picture. Well, it was not just the joke that made me smile, it was most importantly because I finally met my president and was taking a photo with him. Oh and I did manage to hide the bag of eggs after all.

If you are wondering how I felt or what was going through my mind...well I had butterflies in my tummy, I felt light headed, giddy and on top of the moon all at once. I was so elated that I could burst! Seriously, I cannot fully express how happy I was at that particular moment and when I finally went inside my house, I felt as though I was floating in the air. Of course, the first thing I did when I came into my room was to update my status in Facebook, because I wanted everyone to know that I finally met my president. Meeting Mohamed Nasheed was a dream come true, well at least for me.

I have always admired him and supported him. I first met him when I was teenager, he was campaigning to become a Majlis Member and he visited our house. Back then I couldn’t vote of course, but when I eventually turned 21, on the first presidential elections, I did vote for him.

From my brief encounter with the president, I learnt that he is a very charismatic person, who is very much down to earth. He is also very kind and friendly too. I didn’t feel as if I’ve was talking to one the ex-presidents of Maldives. I strongly believe that if it was someone else, I would have hesitated to ask to take a photo with that person, even if I wanted to. He doesn’t make us feel uncomfortable with his superior presence. He is very simple and I’m sure we all click with, just like that.

So my usual day turned out to be one of the best days of my life, just because I met Anni and took this memorable photo with him. I'll cherish this special moment for the rest of my life and brag about this incident even if no one listens!