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!