Again ... wish more people had showed up.

The actual walk began at 1730 hrs... and after that, there was a huge area dedicated to bouncy castles, trampolines, face painting, food and games. It was a good event, just wish more people knew about it and more people had come. I'd gone alone for this one ... guess the timings weren't suitable for any of my friends to come...and some don't like to walk...so... it was just me...


Autism is literally an epidemic, barring the fact it doesn't spread from contact, and can you imagine... till date no one knows what causes autism. The odds are becoming worse; it used to be 1 in 10,000 a long time ago...now it's about 1 in 150 globally, and UK odds are 1 in a 100. Which means the chances of YOUR child being autistic is higher than it's ever been. Sad but true fact: people don't give a shit until it happens to them. I'll be honest, I'd never even heard of the word 'autism' before my bro was diagnosed with it. I'd like to think though, that I was as understanding as possible to anyone different, even before I was thrown into this world.

Anyhoo ... this marks the end of the Autism Awareness Month ...

I had a BIG problem with the Qanat Al Qasba's Autism Week: They spelt 'autism' wrong.


GUYS... IT'S SPELT AUTISM... get your facts right before hosting an AUTISM WEEK... what "AUTISIM" is, I don't know...




Thankfully, the t-shirts for the walk had the right spelling... but all these puzzle pieces hanging all over the Qasba were featured with the wrong spelling.

Proof-reading ANYONE???

Today was the 'Walk 4 Autism' at Qanat Al Qasba in Sharjah. Since the beginning of this month, I was trying to look for information for an autism walkathon. Anyway, quite coincidentally, I was listening to 104.8 last Wednesday and I heard an RJ plug the walk. I was pretty surprised since I'd seen no information about such an event in the newspapers or online blogs. I checked the QAQ website that did give information about the walk though, so I decided to go for it (LIKE DUH!).


I turned up at the walk site ie QAQ with Kazz, completely buzzed and excited about it. I'd made a signboard and printed out autism ribbons for the two of us to wear. Having already been to last year's breast cancer walk with Jo at Bur Juman, I expected a similar crowd. I was sorely disappointed. Whereas the BC walk featured possibly over thousands of people packed like sardines, the Autism walk possibly had only a 100-odd participants.


Did you know that this year alone, more children will be diagnosed with autism than AIDS, cancer AND diabetes combined??? And there's only a 100-odd strong turnout? SHAME ON YOU PEOPLE IN THE U.A.E., SHAME.


I do blame the marketing also, as I saw absolutely no evidence of this event taking place in Dubai, and if I wasn't listening to the radio that night, I don't think I would've even known about it.

Anyway, I did have fun at the walk... I'd made a sign which I held up high throughout the event, which said "I love my brother with autism"... it was the only sign at the walk, which is why I think it did get a bit of attention.

Good day, good walk, and for a good cause. All in a day's work :)

EDIT: MUST mention Dubai Drums... you guys ROCKED!!!

I don't understand something and I do admit it's a bit of an odd thing to be obsessing about ANYWAY... but... here goes...

...why is it, that in Hindi TV serials, a girl will wear salwar kameezes before she gets married (usually in the beginning of the serial) and only sarees after she gets married (usually within 9.5 episodes :P), and then will constantly wear said sarees unless she and hubby dearest go on a vacation without the in-laws, which is only when she permits herself to wear salwars again???

Is there some unwritten rule, that you're supposed to wear salwar kameezes before marriage and sarees after?

I heard (from my mother), that in some serial (which btw I do admit to catching if it's on coz it's just SO FUNNY; I feel like it's from another century or something), one old guy who's supposed to be the patriarch of the family, did say something like: "Doesn't she know that it's the tradition of this family that a girl only wears sarees after she gets married???"

At that point, I gave in to my cruder instincts to mentally say "WTF" when I heard about it. Ah well...

How K-Jo of me to say that... but what can I say? Guilty as charged!!!

Anyway, here's the link to where I first saw the upcoming post, i.e. in Nick's blog, and this is where you can find the original post! I'm not going to say anything about it ... would just like people to read this as I feel it makes an impact on its own. Oh, and please leave your prejudices at the door; if you can't, then don't read.

My son is gay. I knew that he was gay when I realized that he had too many good things about him to be just one person; I think that he was two years old. His interests were varied, as were his abilities. Not only was he more able to get along with both genders better than most adults, but, as he grew up, he was able to converse on a multitude of subjects and participate in a multitude of activities. Do NOT insert snide remark here. He suffered because of who he was. I didn’t know it; he was that caring to protect me.

If you are not on good terms with your gay or lesbian child, you and your child will miss out…YOU more than your child. You will not be let in to his or her world and you will not be entrusted with their love. You will not be revered, respected or cared about if you do not know what a gift your child is. The fact that he or she is gay takes away nothing from the priceless life you brought into the world. It is another facet of who your child is and another piece of the magnificent puzzle that is life.

As my father said to my son when my son told him that he was gay, “Grandson, that means as much to me as the color of your eyes.” My father was an incredible man, just like my son.

Homosexuality is not a choice; it is part of a human’s makeup. Do you really believe that anyone wakes up one day and says to himself or to herself, “I think that, from now on, I will conduct myself in a completely different and largely unacceptable manner. I will make myself become attracted to someone of my same sex and I will prefer things that are confusing to all who love me. I will fight the urges of my physiology, sexuality and chemistry and do the exact opposite. I want to be someone who is often beat up, harassed and usually dismissed as being less than a human being. I want to be ridiculed and unloved by my parents and disciplined, sometimes unmercifully, for being other than what they had in mind when they created me.” Think about that for a few seconds. What in the Universe would be the gain of such actions?

If you have been unsupportive of your child because he or she is gay, you have just plain been unsupportive of your child. If you have had angry thoughts or have chastised or punished your child because of their homosexuality, you have acted against the very essence of life. Your child may very well go on and thrive anyway. However, it will never be because of anything positive that you did on their behalf. It will be in spite of all you have done to bring down the very being to whom you gave life. My son and his partner, Sam, had their committment ceremony over a year ago. As the most important icing on the wedding cake, they are now legally married. Sam is so amazing! I could not have asked for a better son-in-law!

Every child teaches his or her parents many things. They teach us what a true love really is, how much of a child we always will be and they teach us that the world is a wonderful place. They bring hope to the world while they bring validation to our existence. They are the children of the Universe…the future…the reason to face another day. Depriving your child of your love, trust, affection and esteem will cause you to wither and die an unfulfilled human; unloved by the very creature who was meant to love you unconditionally. Your days will echo with the laughter that might have been and you will look forward to the night because it brings sleep…and, with sleep, escape from the light.

If you are concerned about what sexual acts take place behind the door of privacy, are you so certain that the acts you perform behind those doors…or even elsewhere…are those which you believe are someone else’s business? If you show scorn to your homosexual child, or worse, you have done a crime against nature. Are you certain that it is wrong for two people to make love…ANY two people…more wrong than two people bringing fear and pain to each other? Have YOU ever been cherished?

I hope that I live long enough to see that marriage between same-gender people is accepted in our culture. There are so many people who accept hate between people and murder between people. The old hippie saying of “Make Love, Not War” is more blistering a comment on these times than I would ever have imagined. If you want to lose your connection to the Earth and to your time here, all you have to do is forsake your child.

Do not get me wrong; there is nothing for YOU to forgive. However, there is much for your child to forgive…if you ever get the chance and if you ever see the light. And this is the most important of all of my…tales from a broad.

Warning: Long rambling post ahead!!!

I'm reminiscing a bit. I do realize this might be an obsession with older people, who say, "In MY time, things were different!" Sadly enough, I feel so much of a generation gap nowadays with people merely 4-5 years younger to me, that I'm the one saying the same thing.

What brought this on? I know a few kids who just graduated from the same high school I did, and as the ever-useful Facebook hastens to inform us what everyone we know are doing, I noticed the prom photographs online and I decided to take a look, remembering my own.

I merely state a fact when I say that apart from occasional meetings with my father's colleague's sons, I knew no boys growing up, certainly no friends whom I would actively call or meet or anything. It wasn't as though my family had said "DON'T talk to boys"; I mean, if they did, I wouldn't be allowed to hang out with those colleague's sons whenever our families would take outings together. It was just that being in an all-girls morning shift in school, I never found the need or the strange desire that many of my batchmates shared to know guys and then name-drop; as though knowing Mr XYZ put you on the top of the social food chain.

Anyway, I think I was about 15 when I first had a friend who was a guy. And only because I was involved in school activities that brought some chosen few girls and guys together. Anyway, by the time I gave my 12th Board exams and the school prom was coming up, I knew ... erm ... 3 guys maybe.

Hehe... anyway... ALL my friends were going to the prom. I wanted to go too. It seemed like an experience for me. I was a bit nervous, wot? Never having been in such a huge mixed crowd before. I don't know how my parents agreed, but they did and I went. I distinctly remember most people being smartly dressed (I wore an outrageous red TENT - which I still have stowed away in my cupboard for me to look at and shudder - and if anyone finds pics of me in it...please burn them hun...be doing me a favour!), guys wearing formal shirts looking dapper, girls wearing party outfits etc. I do remember maybe one or TWO at most girls who'd gone all out and bought designer gowns for the event (and I mean AED 1000 type gowns...remember this was 2004).

Now in 2009 ... not ONE person in those photographs was wearing anything other than a GOWN ... and 80% of them tube gowns and MOST of them looked like they were 23. Quite a few arrived in limos (seriously people??? LIMOS???) drinking what I can ONLY hope was soda and not champagne, and many of them clinging to each other like there was no tomorrow. I feel - personally ie, so you don't have to agree with me - that explaining clinging and skin-show is far easier when you're like 22, 23, whatever, than explaining why you're literally slathered over someone else (of the opposite gender) showing your boobs to the camera when you're 16 and 17. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I'd be embarrassed to say, "Oh yes, that's me at 16 and oh yes, that was...ummm...my 5th boyfriend?" I'm not condemning it, I just don't understand it and I don't know how people are okay with putting up those pictures on the internet; to me, there's a line between being close/hugging your boyfriend or girlfriend in an online photograph and actually looking indecent in it. I mean, there were people in my batch as well who may have gone through 3-4 guys by the time they were 16 or 17, but I think they were smarter to keep it under wraps rather than embarrass themselves later, when they would've broken up with the person they were with. And most of these people in my batch, the most they did with those 3-4 guys was hand-holding and some chaste kissing. No, really. (Not all mind you, some I think were just horny buggers)

At 22, 23...I feel, you're an adult, you can make - hopefully - mature decisions, and if you think it's alright to have such photos online, sure...go ahead. Not when you're 16 and 17 for goodness sake. You're still a kid!!! Trust me, 50% of these people would probably cringe 5 years down the line.

I feel old. And I feel there isn't 4-5 years between me and these fresh school graduates, there's 20.

Sorry about the long gap from the first part and the second, but judging from the lack of replies, no one cares!!! So I'm gonna wrap up the UK series in this post itself ... and move on to other topics I really want to blog about!!!

So, on the 17th, we visited the Tower of London. It's a pretty cool place and I do recommend you take the Yeoman guided tour if you go there. The area that houses the jewels was a bit of an anti-climax where the Koh-i-Noor was concerned. When I saw it, I was just thinking, "THIS is what the fuss is all about?"