Home. Where is home? We have an address and yet when someone asks us where we are from, they expect us to tell our 'home country, state and city'. When my kids were younger, we had a hard time telling them that though they were born in Dubai, are being brought up in Dubai, they are from India! How do you explain to a 5-year old why where he lives will never be his permanent home, or country?
And yet, when on an airport at a foreign country, with PA being made in a foreign language, we instinctively followed the women wearing the abaya...
When the UAE Ministry of Education made it mandatory for the schools to play the National Anthem in the mornings before the classes begin, there was some criticism from the expatriates. Reason was simple- our kids are anyway confused about their true identities, this will confuse them even further, and what purpose will it serve anyway (since we all will go back eventually...)?
And yet, surprisingly, the kids have picked up the National Anthem faster than expected. Even my KG going child who does not understand Arabic words, can hum the whole music!
They might not know the Indian National Anthem as yet but do realise that though ultimately they will have to move from here, this place is the dearest to them. The respect for the National Anthem comes from the sense of belonging here, however brief that association might be!
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These observations are my point of view of the life, as I see it. This blog does not intend to hurt, rationalise, judge, ridicule, or in any way offend anyone at all...it is only a way of sharing my own observations...so, please take it in the right spirit....thanks.