The Metamorphosis - from hatred to love

Sitting in the foyer of isolation, crooning elegies over my lost autonomy, I spent my first few days in the new country. Shifting from Bahrain to Abu Dhabi was undoubtedly a cumbersome task (more precisely, an unwilling task). Having been used to lesser traffic, meeting people quite often, walking out on a weekend without planning for dinner, it seemed tougher to get adjusted to this new environment. To lead a life here, one needs immense patience, lots of money, loads of luck (to get a car park) and hell a lot of planning.

It has been more than a month since I landed here in this capital city but you have to believe me when I say that I haven’t made frequent visits out of the house. It was due to manifold reasons like car-lessness (I have not wrongly spelt carelessness. I wanted to tell that we spent nearly a month without a car), husband’s busy schedule, kids’ exams and other stuff that made me confine within the walls of the house. For the first time in our life, we have been living a life for ourselves – just ‘we’ all days through. That was indeed a torture to me. Unpacking cartons, buying groceries and other kitchen-related stuff kept me occupied for a while. I kept cursing about every single thing that I could see or hear about in this place. Cribbing over those unfound things, whimpering heavily over my dis-connection with the outside world, I somehow managed to pass through the frontier of distress and hatred and entered the precincts of acceptance. That was when the thought of going out for weekends arose. After a couple of hours of browsing, I identified the right places to visit. To begin with, I discovered places of interest for kids. We began moving out every Thursdays. With some money to spare, some luck in hand (for parking), instilling patience on my husband’s mind (for driving in the madding traffic of Abu Dhabi on a weekend) and with proper snacks to feed children when we get stuck in traffic, we thus began our journey out on weekends.

Everywhere I went, I looked around helplessly to locate a known face but in vain. It is not that we do not know anybody here in this place. I simply could not get the key to enter into their minds. Neither did I want anybody to consider me an object of disturbance. I developed my own saying, “Strangers can be better friends than acquaintances”. Thus I began the project of spotting new friends. With just one day to spare in a week, how successful can I be in making friends when the rest of the family’s concentration is purely vested on entertainment? So keeping that thought in the backyard of my mind, I managed to participate in the rest of the weekend activities.

For a change, this weekend we decided to go to the corniche instead of malls since the weather was pleasant and favourable. Abu Dhabi corniche was a lovely place to visit. The serene beauty of nature was unperturbed by the hustle and bustle of the people occupying it. It was a feast to see such a beauty properly organized and effectively used by the public. Corniche, park and beach were spread over kilometers in a single long stretch. This is an ideal place to relax after days of busy work schedule. Kids were left loose in the open area. I could see them stretch themselves to this ocean of paradise encompassing them into the beauty of nature and jumping in the new found joy. Since they were not properly equipped to jump into the water, they simply let their feet touch the gentle and kind waves that kissed the shore with grace. After a while they played with glee in the park and built castles in the sand. The happiness was found not only in kids’ face but also in ours. I too assisted them in building their castles. I began understanding that since there were lots of friends in Bahrain, we hardly spent time understanding our family’s tastes and interests. This is what the new life has made me understand. That moment I realised that in this city, we don’t have people to visit us home or call us or invite us or even to enquire about us. But still there can be seen traces of joy and happiness. It is not the people or place that gives us happiness. It is the settings of our mind that enable us to unveil the curtains of happiness hiding behind every single thing in life.

Everything in this world is in the eyes with which we project it. If we are able to lead a life without bias imbibing the innocence of kids, there is no missing or craving for anything around. With time, I have got used to this new surrounding. But I believe that I should not have taken 30 days to begin liking a place. We should be able to change gears based on the circumstance we step in. There is always a scope for enjoyment wherever we go.