Alone.

I am alone at my home now. My hubby has gone to office, his brother and my co-sis, together with their kid, has gone to pick him up. How wonderful it is to be alone for some moments. To think of many things... to dream. With only the sounds of sparrows to disturb you. Its started raining in Dubai. Slight rains here, where we leave. The tiles around our home is always wet, but not drowned in water. Sun plays hide and seek with rain and clouds. Its a bit cold now. How beautiful God has created this world. And here I sit, at the door of my home, and browse through the net. Reading mails, posts, sending them. No movements around me. A still, calm, quiet time. I think of my son in heaven, and I'm happy for him to be in such a great place. I think of my family back at home. I think of my college days, they were really great. Wish I could go back once again and do things I have done at that time. To shout at the top of my voice. To sit under the trees by the roads. To go to shops for a carefree walk. To watch movies with friends. To play the songs at the highest volumes. To dress up for fashion parade. To take a lot of snaps. To decide if the man and woman walking by are lovers, friends, couples or relatives. Etc, etc, and a thousand etcs. I want to be carefree. While exams were blessings of God, for the days after exams were the greatest blessings.

Back to school days. A lot of girls. Strict rules to be broken. New year parties were great then, as they were strictly forbidden in the Islamic school. We had nothing less for our mid-night party, there were gifts, cakes, soft drinks, chocolates, flowers, balloons and everything. Poking teachers too. But celebrations never lacked the spirits. One moment of celebrations, and the next moment it will be calm and quiet with every thing gone from the table when the teacher arrives. No lights. Pin drop silence. Not even a snore. Everyone under their warm blankets. The party get into action as soon as the teacher closes her door behind her.

So, there are so many reasons to smile at the loneliness. Smile at the trees. Smile at the sky. Smile at the birds. The little birdy on the roof of the next house is looking at me. Confused. Why is she laughing alone? There are a hundred reasons, birdy. A hundred thousand reasons. God has blessed me with a lot of beautiful things in my life. Funny siblings are one of them. I never cease to laugh when I'm with them.

Loneliness is one of the great things God has given me. Thankyou a lot for your Blessings, my God.

*Terms And Conditions Apply.

Heard that phrase many times, many places. On soaps that makes your skin softer within weeks, on beauty creams which promises to make you fair within 3 days, on coupons which says you are going to win a Limo or something, on contracts for reality shows with million rupee prize money, on applications for mobile/phone/internet/cable connections, while installing software, etc etc. But usually, nobody is bothered about it. Whatever be the terms and conditions, we need the product. But sometimes, our carelessness might rob of our money and time. You can get the proof from the Gulf News column, Reader's Issues Solved. So many people who have not gone through the '*terms and conditions apply' phrase, later write into newspapers to get their problems solved. But even then, sometimes they have no success and they feel cheated.

I too had an issue regarding this phrase. When I was at home in India, I applied for a IDEA mobile connection. When I got the connection, I searched their site to look for a internet connection, and found out a suitable scheme for it. Rs 9/- per day for unlimited time and data transfer. I was so excited about it, that I never bothered about reading their '*terms and conditions'. I called them, and they sent me the settings for the scheme, which I installed in my mobile phone. I had recharged my phone with Rs 20/-, and the phone was used for browsing only. I never called anyone with the IDEA sim card. After two days, they had deducted Rs 18/- from my phone, as per the scheme. On the third day I was not able to browse using the phone. Ok. May be because I have no enough credit. But on the fourth day, when I checked my credit it was Rs -7. I was not ale to connect to the network, but still they have deducted the money! Is that fair? Either we should be ale to connect to the network and browse the web, or they should not deduct the money. Well, the problem doesn't end here. I recharged my phone with rupees seven hundred something on the next day. I browsed the web for three hours that day and then it got disconnected. I tried to reconnect it again and again, but in vain. When I checked the balance credit money on my phone, it was Rs 1/-. Where have the rest of my seven hundred gone? I called the customer care and talked to them. At first, they replied they will look into it. No reply from them for two days. By the third day, with my balance credit -17, I called them again. They asked me to call another number. I called that number. They told me that if my balance goes below zero, my scheme of Rs 9/- per day will be automatically changed into another scheme, with 2 paisa or something per kilo byte. Why didn't they tell me this at first? Isn't this cheating? I don't know if this term or condition is written on their site because I never went into their site again, for I never wanted to see the word IDEA.

So next time you get into anything like this, please go through the terms and conditions of that product.

My Way.

When my path becomes clear,

And my destination gets defined,

I would put my past behind,

And happily, embrace the future.