Maheen Syed

"We are in such a hurry to grow up and then we long for our lost childhood." Paulo Coelho Do you realize that the only time in our life when we like to get old is when we are kids. If you are less than 10 years of age, you are so excited about aging that you think in fractions. "How old are you?" "I am four and a half!" You are never thirty -six and a half. You are four and a half, going on five! That's the key. You get into your teens. Now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number or even a few ahead. "How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13 but you're gonna be 16 and then the greatest day of your life.... You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. YOU BECOME 21. YESSS! And then you turn 30. Ooohhh what happened there? Makes you sound like spoiled milk. There is no fun now. What's wrong? What has changed? You BECOME 21. You TURN 30. You are PUSHING 40. Put on the brak...

Often the rain drops fall so gently on the roof that you aren't able to tell it's raining if you don't draw the curtains of your bedroom. Sometimes the rain is so heavy and excessive that it drives people to evacuate their houses and they are forced to stay in temporary shelters. Yesterday I got caught in heavy rain, an unpredictable outburst and a turmoil which was hard to handle while walking alone along a street. It seemed as if somebody was standing over my head and pouring buckets of water on me. For a moment, I got terrified after hearing the sky roaring and the dark grey clouds hanging over me. I really felt the absence of my parents and really wished they were there like they have always been in every storm of life. I didn't realize the fact that parents are like umbrellas in life. They can only stop you from getting wet in the rain but can't stop the rain. Fortunately, I had my umbrella but it was in my car which was parked a mile away. While I was runnin...

Ever since I was a child, I am the one to get attached. While other children in pre school could easily recover once their parents left, I couldn't. My tears, once set in motion, don't stop easily. I become attached to everything around me. From the time I was in grade 1, I needed a best friend. As I grew older, being separated from my best friend shattered me. She belonged to Bangladesh and went back to her country after spending four years with me and making my childhood beautiful and memorable.  I can't let go of anything. People, places, events, photographs and moments become  objects of strong attachment. If things don't work out the way I want or imagined they should, I am devastated and disappointment for me is not an ordinary emotion. It is catastrophic. Once let down, I never fully recover. I can never forget and the break never mends. Like a glass vase that you place on the edge of a table, once broken, the pieces never quite fix again. However, the problem is...