British East India Company

The East India Company was established on 31 December 1600 by a Charter given by Queen Elizabeth to George Earl of Cumberland and 215 others, jointly conferring on it exclusive trading between the Cape of Good Hope and the straits of Magellan. It was empowered to make laws for running the company and its affairs. In 1661, the Port and Island of Bombay was ceded to King Charles II, as part of the dowry of the Infanta D. Catherina of Portugal. Charles, in turn, assigned them to the Company to be held of the Crown for thr annual rent of 10£. For long, Bombay remained the only part of India that was under British sovereignty. The company initially owned factories on the west coast, spreading to the east coast and much later to Bengal.

SALON

As a child dad used to take me and younger sister for hair cuts to a salon which he had been visiting since he migrated to Abu Dhabi. There these uncles used to treat us kids with utmost care and enthusiasm. They always enquire to me about school, how my piano lesson is progressing and the latest movie that I saw. My activity during these haircutting sessions is to listen to their conversations among themselves and the customer's. There is a TV in which malayalam channels especially news, munshi and mahabharata TV series is being played every time I visit there as if the TV is a person like them. My worldviews were formed at that age was listening to them. What always inspired me about them is how they treated others and how dad treated them with respect even though he is highly educated and financially in a better position. Sometimes during Ramadan they share their Iftar snacks with us kids and dad. I never felt there was a social, economic or religious segregation as majority of them were of Islamic faith who enjoyed watching Mahabharata and did active discussion about the episodes. During exams when I was not allowed to watch TV I catch up the Mahabharata episodes that I missed asking them. I saw the secular nature of Indian society there and the tolerance that I witnessed there, is absent in India as well as among the socially superior class that I was part of over there. Many speak about social and gender equality, but when an issue comes up what many of my dad's peers ie family friends used to talk turns out to be hollow words. In situations they are the most biased people that I know. The more highly educated and financially better,  people are the more skewed their worldview is and this is true even in India. Its as if education and financial independence which our family have been preaching us since childhood is actually degrading us as an individual rather than empowering us. Children are taught to be selfish rather than being selfless, prejudiced rather than being open-minded. We are taught to be competitive rather than being helping.

LOVE

The world is full of puzzles, love is a four letter puzzle most people wait their whole lives to put together. Love is like a multilane highway. In traffic your exit is coming up and you’re in the far lane. Love can be confusing to the point it hurts to even bother about it. The highway of love have many exits and you try to love everyone and everything that is around you no matter what. Love is an emotion or feeling. It involves commitment, sacrifice, desire, happiness and pain. A simple four letter word complicates things to an extreme because it has many levels. You love your family because they’re blood related, they’re like you. You love your friends because you can be wild and crazy, yet you have a shoulder to cry.

Love of friendship is the fact that you know you can make someone laugh and clown around with, yet still be serious. If you fall on it, it may leave a scar and some temporary pain. Love of that “special” someone is family and friendship combined. You kind of always have love of a family no matter how crazy, how close or even different you are. Though love isn’t clear to most people you go on trying to live and love to the best of your ability. You have to love in order to live life to its fullest.

Love and life are somewhat similar. I think love for that special someone is about finding the right person at the right time and place and also realising he or she could actually be good for you. It’s this love that makes you have butterflies in stomach. I do know love is harder to give if you don't love yourself.

Love of a family, from a family to me is there. But you’ll get over the pain of loss, it will eventually stop hurting. How can you love if you’re not happy with yourself and love yourself ?

It is those experiences that kills us makes us alive.

RAGE

I guess I was in 2nd grade back in 1994 in Abu Dhabi. My granddad passed away and dad went to his home at Kodungallur to do the last rites. Myself, mom and sister, we were in Abu Dhabi. One of my term exams was over and it was the parent teacher meeting. I had good grades and all was well. I have a friend, a girl my 1st friend in that school. So we met each other after the parent teacher meeting was over ; she is a chatterbox, happy and with her parents. Mom and me came along with them as we were studying in the same class. After the meeting we got inside their car and everyone was settled and I thought we'll be leaving soon as I was excited because my aunt will be reading a story from chechis fairy tales, by the way Beauty and the Beast is my favorite!!! Back to the topic of our discussion. My friend she was occupying the window seat to my right and mom to my left and I was in the centre. Suddenly as if thunderstruck, because I was expecting to leave soon, her mom began yelling at her and I looked to my right and her happy face turned all red and afraid. Her mom continued the barrage of angry threats and soon a fear took over me. Then her mom threatens her, that she will be locked up in a room and starved(pachavellam tharilla) and as soon as she heard this she began screaming out in total fear and tears rolling down her rosy cheeks. Then an overwhelming rage took over me and I folded my palm into a fist, you must have guessed it by now for what !!! You are right. Once I formed a fist my mom held my hand with a vice like grip that I never experienced before and soon all this anger, rage left me. I really felt sorry for her and when she looked at me, I faked a smile. When me and mom arrived at aunt's, both of us gave her a ta-ta with a smile. After reaching at aunts, mom was contemplating about calling her mom to ask aunty to go soft on the child because she was second and I think mom never made that call. That was the first time in my memory I felt rage or anger for anyone, because I felt what the other person had to go through was unfair.

HANSEL AND GRETTEL

The story is told that two children are abandoned by their parents and left to fend off the wicked witch. Well, there is some truth to the story. During the Great Famine in the 14th century, parents would abandon their children in the forest which in some extreme cases would lead to cannibalism.