Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Navan revival

It's good to be having the Navan peeps under one roof again, this time we're doing G.P together. The fact that all 5 of us are Muslims made everyday tasks much easier back then. I remember at times during the long journey from Navan to Dublin on Fridays we used to argue a lot when the discussions led us to our cultural dissimilarities, you know when you're stuck in the bad Friday evening traffic and got nothing to do. One time Z from Mauritius commented on the Santa Claus people put in front of their house approaching Christmas time, "Hey look what's that Santa doing on that giant banana?" and it was obviously not a banana, why would Santa want to sit on a banana? (FYI it was a crescent moon). So Y replied, "Don't bother him, he's from Mauritius, it's always tropical there." And another time A from Kuwait said, "Do you think I speak like other Arabs speak? U know that many of us can't pronounce P and say B. I'll try not to do that." And Y from UAE would give a huge yer-rite face. And later it's Y's turn to break the silence by talking about this and that seriously and suddenly ruined everything by ending it with "Boor you," instead of, you know what it is. It was mutually funny experiences albeit the many discrepancies we have.

Nonetheless, at most of the times we talked about the world, the Muslim world in particular. It amazes me how much I used to be judgemental about people without even having any efforts to know the facts before-hand. I learnt my lesson not to believe any hear-says anymore, and go for the details myself instead. It opens my eyes about the reality of the Muslim countries nowadays; of how much damage has been done and how little have we amend. Most importantly, how much would you do to look after your own kind? At the end of the day, it's Islam that links us together, at times when we need to snick out for prayer when the tutorial was about to start and we need someone to cover our backs, or at times when we're unsure about the food or the prayers time. And when I thanked my friends for everything; from the free car-rides to the free dinner treats, my heart flourished with gratitudes when they said, "No it's fine, it's our responsibilities to look after our Sisters.."