Back from an awesome trip from HK with Naqiyah. Have been thinking about significance of life and events more and more deeply of late. And its leading me to inexplicable events and happenings which feels like fate is playing games teasing me with clues while lining up events to its own end.


Consider this:

Nathan road has suddenly got meaning for me. We stayed at Eaton Hotel, Nathan road in HK. Nathan being one of the key shopping / tourist roads in HK. On last day Naqiyah was playing with the Map.. she surprised me by showing me Kowloon express station, and then saying Eaton, Nathan road while pointing to our hotel address. Means she remembers Nathan road distinctly as well. For me this road has now tons of memories of time spent with Naqiyah, shopping or staying, or just traversing through HK. Our first impressions of the City togather.

Later in the flight I had pickedup quite a few books for me and Naqiyah to read togather. So had no intention of watching TV. I even offered the airhostess to take my headset when she seemed to be unable to help a passenger in front seat with his, and he was complaining. So I was quite clear that I didn't want to watch anything at all. However by 3AM and after completing quite a few chapters of our first novel togather I put Naqiyah to sleep inspite of her protests. She was hooked to the story :). Once she was asleep, I put on the TV and watched Joneses and then a 'Wimpy kid movie' - wimpy kid novel being just seen by me in book store for first time that evening . Joneses was interesting concept movie but cast and depth was missing, and Wimpy kid movie was pure drivel. Still some time to go, i was itching for some good cinema when came accross Madona's documentry on Malawi. I had often come accross some titbits of headlines about Madona's adoption contraversy in Africa, and thought of it kinda like a media circus around a new celebrity adoption Fad from hollywood (wat with Angelina and Brad showing the way). However something prompted me to see the movie. And I was moved!!! Madona's just produced the movie and has deliberately taken back seat in the narrative. It was irritating that subtitles were missing in africaan language the kids and locals were speaking. However the documentary was gripping and i was deeply deeply moved. Not by the tragedy ~ tragedy is everywhere, proverty is everywhere... the interesting part was to get thinking to address the issues. To forget our apathy, and irritation and sense of hopelessness at general despair that human existance sometimes seems to be, and to look at root causes and try to analyse possibility of change. To look at active components behind the drama and search intelligently, scientifically for the solutions. Philosophy, culture, anthropology, consumption, politics and human ability .. all are intervened to direct us to our fate. After seeing disasters unfold over generations, of epic propotions, to see misery propogated on children, seemingly out of their own volition, it obvious that 'i am because we are' the african culture and philosophy is on display although on its more terrifying corollary of 'i am not because we are not'. For the children in africa, for the generation who got aids because they never had a chance to know what it was, and how to protect against it, for the world because we may be in similar cycle of consumption, erosion, destruction as malawi is in microcosm. 'I am not because we are not' ~ i do not conserve because we do not conserve. I will perish , because we are programmed for destruction. I will as we will. Seems to me the documentary holds up a mirror to me, as much as it talks about specific issues in Malawi. What am I because of what we are?. What paths, practises, events are setting me up to be in a chain of self serving delusion, which I am not aware of. What am I because we all are?... Also Desmond Tutu's pearl of african wisdom ' My humanity is bound up in yours.. because we can only be human's togather', Madona's narrative (in my own words) resilence is not unique, it is a life quality, natural. We all have it within us. Needed are tools too excels... All hit home one after another. Like arrows, deep into my conciousness.. altering my thinking. Changing my life path. Guiding my future train of thoughts, action, being and becoming consequences of my future fate. Now get this ~ I obviously paid close attention to the titles.. Cast and the creators..people who had contributed to bring this experiance to me. The first name that flashed on the screen ~ Nathan Rissman ~ an un-likeliest of directors to say the least... he's husband of Madonna's Nanny! Thats why he got the job!!! My point is its Nathan right, same like Nathan road.. the same Nathan the word which was not in my conciousness has now 2 very distinct important places.. same time frame..





And then, I decide to google synchronicity, and turn up a paper on deliberations on coincidence and intution .. written by who else but a Ms. Nathan Hannah a philosophy fellow, who was very keen on proving that one Mr. Bedke about self defeating premise over cosmic coincidence and intution are wrong!







One more Nathan? Is it just me or is Nathan pervasively common name all around and I just happened not to notice before now?????











2. I always tell Naqiyah that stories are important. Hell, I've blogged about that too. I make up stories and they are tools for me to teach her stuff, to excite her, challenge her, stimulate her, connect with her and hey entertain her too! So guess what happens when I pickup our first Novel to read togather - titled ' Where the Mountain meets the Moon' by Grace Lin...?

We sit in the plane and start reading.. starts off with a description of brown dull hazy village, below a fruitless mountain, next to a dark cold river, a place which fortune has abandoned and seems to be full of despair. All is brown, the villagers toil through the day, until the night in muddy waters to grow sparce amounts of rice barely enough to fill their bellies meal a day. Mud from the water which needs to be flooded in rice field seeps into the land, the houses, the faces, the ground, the clothes.. All seem brown, dull and sad. Amongst this sad,sombre existance is a girl Minli. She's bright, eyes are like dark shining black pools filled with excitement and questions, cheeks are pink flushed with toil, but face is alive.

Why amongst all the villagers, only this girl is happy, excited, alive? Because her Ba (father) everynight at dinner time tells her Stories!.... her mom at times scoffs at this, saying they are impractical, make believe fantasies which will lead her astray, at others is happy to see the genuine smile on the child's face.. but at all times her father, with his stories, poor, hardworking, toiling peasent though he is ~ is epitome of patience, understanding. Nd at all times he tells his wife ~ stories may not do her good, but certainly dont' cost anything , and don't harm her.. so why not let me tell them!

This is the first novel I pickedup which Naqiyah got hooked too.. I did not read or know the content, just the fact that its story of a girl who goes in search of Old Man on the Moon, with a Dragon. Hence there is no way for me to have known it will underline my core belief in stories to Naqiyah in such an abject fashion... Coincidence? Synchronicity? or am I searching for meaning in ordinary events?????


3. Tinkerbell.... I've never read tinkerbell story.. Never been particularly facinated with her, nor really knew what she was all about. But when I made up 3 characters out of the blue for Naqiyah's stories .. they were - Naqiyah, Nanina (elf) and Tinkerbell... Now guess what out of all the princesses and fairies in Disney's considerable collection.. it seems Tinkerbell is the one one with most character.. We recently saw Tinkerbell's movie, and now one more is on the way, soon to be released. We sat in Disney train to go to Disneyland and when we had multitude of possiblities ~ Snowwhite/Jasmine/Sleeping beauties et al, Mickey and gang, Lion kings and myraid disney characters.. Guess which statue was in the train right next to the sofa where we sat... Tinkerbell! This is important because this train was the entry into disney world. Before we stepped into this train, we were just going there, but tinkerbell was not on our mind at all!...

Nd Naqiyah wanted a tatoo at ocean park.. only one disney or even any other recognisable character that was there amongst many dragons, ghastly gangster designs, and many many other creatures in 3 books full of tatoos was Tinkerbell! And the tatoo was awesome... red and black... still is.. looks great on her arm.. will stay for atleast a week the tatoo guy said said.

But these can be by design things.. yes I selected tinkerbell tatoo for her, yes i bought a very nice tinkerbell locket for her.. but what was not by design is that tinkerbell is that now that i've given it a thought, the only fairy with lasting legacy IMO. Has charm and character, is angsty and naughty sometimes fun, sometimes sad, with very human passions and frailities. Not like pretty perfect disney fairies. What I mean is, I did not know this! Naqiyah liked snowwhite, jasmine, or even ariel.. I used Tinkerbell for the stories without a clue as to what exactly Tinkerbell was..So for me its just a lucky lucky coincidence that somehow tinkerbell seems to be the right character for her to match with, grow with and love!

More coincidences have passed.. and many more to follow. I still doubt if any or all of them mean anything beyond just happentences. Trying to find meaning in them will lead me astray from living naturally. So I shan't.. But listing them makes me feel that maybe there are connections which are a bit beyond my reach to fathom, but are beckoning me to ruminate on them.

Meanwhile i push on, like an elephant in the perfume shop, crushing vials of precious fluids without a clue at their nature or importance maybe.. marching to his own drummer.. unaware.. unable to be aware