Thursday, June 12, 2008

I'll Be In Amman... Again

Last time I left Amman, almost two years back, I said I won't be coming any soon again. I left friends and family knowing I won't see them for a while. Driven mad because of the bad treatment I received at the airport, the offensive speech I heard, I don't even want to remember that day. But it kept haunting me during my visit. I wrote it minute by minute in my diary. Even though it was hard for me and it wasn't just my problem but a problem almost every single Iraqi went through, I decided not to post about it and not to make a international issue. Many bloggers had a say in that matter and my story is just one trifle one compared to the stories when Iraqis were asked to go back home, or had to spend the night in the airport.

I'm going to Amman for my sister's graduation and to meet friends I've missed for so long. I don't know when I'll be back but sooner or later I'll have to :D
I'm taking my papers with me to work on and some molds I have engrave for my ceramic.

That's all for now

Labels: , ,

Monday, June 02, 2008

Faces of Happiness

My mentor accompanied me to visit Sharjah Museum of Arts. Face of Asia was exhibited here in UAE and I was very happy to see such great art work. He saw it three years back in UK and payed 80 pounds. It is a photography exhibition about Asia. here's a description:
"Face of Asia concentrates on Steven McCurry’s extensive work from Asia, including image from India, Afghanistan, as well as recent work from Cambodia and Tibet. The exhibition will show 100 of his photographs, including his extensive text covering the story of the " Afghan Girl " as a young refugee and the women found seventeen years later."

I loved the photo very much. Looking at the face of the young Afghani girl and looking at her after 17 years was very awkward. She seemed very silent and disturbed with being a model, I thought. Her face after 17 years was wrinkled as if she was very old. It looked cleaner though. She is trying to tell something. Starring at her for minutes and looking at her, eye to eye, and still I get nothing but pain.

After a while I got used to her stare and was able to move my eye to other parts of the photo. Her shawl was torn from many sides, her face wasn't clean, yet she seemed strong to me as lioness, prepared to attack to defend herself or her cubs.

I liked many other photos but it's hard to fine one online other than The Afghani Girl and the Fishermen (which you can find it in the first link.

These simple faces, simple people, and simple lives seem happy to me more than any face of billionaires I've ever seen. They've been through a lot and own so very little, yet they had it all.

.............................

I'm very happy these days, but watching the news made me feel a bit guilty of that. Because of the pain and sadness in Iraq and other places on earth, under the sky. People are being deprived from living their lives by being deprived of the simplest basic needs.
I came across this page and wanted to share these happiness quotes with you. Let's spread happiness people by at least making use of other's experience. As for some lazy people, here are some quotes I liked but you really need to check the rest if you're in pursuit of happiness.


Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it. ~Fyodor Dostoevsky

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. ~Mark Twain

Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open. ~John Barrymore

Most of us believe in trying to make other people happy only if they can be happy in ways which we approve. ~Robert S. Lynd

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost. ~H. Jackson Browne


The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet. ~James Openheim

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want. ~Margaret Young

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling. ~Margaret Lee Runbeck

Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it. ~Jacques Prévert

Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad. ~Norm Papernick

For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness. ~Author Unknown

The best way for a person to have happy thoughts is to count his blessings and not his cash. ~Author Unknown

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. ~Albert Camus


And with Sophocles's quote I'll leave you, wishing that Happiness may find its way to your hearts. oh and could someone remind people that Nizar Qabbani was wrong when he said:
"When a man has lost all sadness, he's a memory of a man"
or was it
"Man without sadness is a memory of a man"

When a man has lost all happiness, he's not alive. Call him a breathing corpse. ~Sophocles

That's all for now : )

Labels: , ,