Before I came over to Dubai, I tried to contact the Soka association here. I found their website and noticed that they seem to be holding quite a few events every now and then but when i sent an email to them, there was no reply at all....
So, I thought maybe they have shut down the association here for what..
Anyway, sometime back, while I was skyping with my mum, I suddenly felt the urge to try to connect with them again.. this time, somehow, I was guided and found a blog belonging to someone who works in UAE and she mentioned that she has connected with SGI Gulf.. so I emailed her and asked her to connect me..
I found out then tat here in Dubai, Soka is not a religious organization but a humanity and peace organization with an office in Knowledge Village. And because it is not religious, for people to be related, they cannot be newly "recruited" members but have to originally be members of the soka association anywhere else in the world... and so we have to go to our own association and get them to give us a letter to prove tat we are members of the association before someone will link up with us and contact us...
Anyway, with some help, I finally managed to link up with the director here, Mr Rakesh and the international group in charge, Momoyo...
As it is not a religious organization, we do not have daimokukais or zarankai.. but I was told we have meetings now and then and also organize events every now and then...
I was invited to attend my very first SGI Gulf event in Dubai and it is a poetry symposium where famous poets in the region are invited to read their poems. As it was a term break, I wondered if I should go as I dunno how Ace would react (as i for sure have to bring him as it was taking place on a weekday morning).. but I tot he might benefit from the exposure and I love arty farty things like tat.. I wun say that I am very poetic or very artisitc but I find that exposure to experiences like tat always seems to feed my soul and make me feel much better at soul level:) Even if I do not understand what they are reading or saying... just being exposed to the beauty and movement of art and poetry just stirrs my heart and makes me happy:)
The event is called The Poetic Heart... That is us when we arrived.Max drove us there and when we drove past, I was unsure if tat was the convention hall as I saw all these indian people standing around... It was an interesting exprience for me because I found out that most of the soka members in SGI Gulf are actually from India:) And as usual when you go to Soka events, the people are usually happy and smiley and so embracing.. walking down the walkway to the event hall where the symposium was held with two lines of mostly indian SGI members saying good morning and smiling at me felt very good... Strangely, I almost felt "at home"... and that is the best phrase I can think of to describe this feeling:)
Ace is a little xian though as he is unsure wat to expect and how he can entertain himself... luckily he brought in his bag, snacks, games and even a story book to read when he is bored.
Ace was pretty much quiet for the first hour as he was reading. But after an hour, he started to fidget non stop in his seat. And then after another 30 min, he started to ask me again and again when can he eat something as he was feeling hungry...
Then Ace started to play by himself quietly with his lego set...
And finally, after two hours, the event ended:)
Thankfully, they actually and buffet outside and so instead of our original plan to go Mc D, we decided to eat at the buffet...
Ace was so excited when he saw the soft drinks and cakes tat he went for second and third rounds:)
After he finished, he got bored and started playing with water bottles and flowers...
Anyway, I had a dilemma because I wanted to go home by myself so as not to trouble others. But I only had a $10 note in my wallet. The other note I had is a 500 dirham note. I remembered tat Max said cannot use big note to take taxi.. cos they will eat your money one.. cos they say got no change...As Knowledge village is not within walking distance to a metro station, my only option is hitch a ride or ride a cab...
In the end, I thicken my skin and asked if Momoyo and hubby can give me a ride to the metro station. Thankfully, they were very obliging:)
On the way home, Ace kept playing with these chrysanthemum flowers he got from the event. I told him he has to throw them away later and not bring them home... because these flowers signify funerals and death in the chinese culture.. so it is not good luck to bring them home...He immediately said that he wanted to throw them away because he doesnt want me or daddy to die.. wahahaahah:)
By the time we got home, I was totally shagged out!
Anyway, in case you are interested in what happens in a poetry symposium, here are are two video clips.. one of my fav poem amongst all that I heard... and the other one is a nice song called My Angel performed by musician, Jason Carter:)
"Bakhbookh" is an arabic phrase similar to the "abracadabra" phrase we usually use for the english language when we want to conjure magic...
Dr. Shihab Ghanem, a multiple award winner for his research on poetry and his work in translating poetry, beautifully expounds the wonder of a child in this poem called "Bakhbookh" written about an incident that happened when this grandfather was playing with his 2 year old granddaughter..
With a flair for simple words and an acute observation of everyday life, Dr Shihab recounts the wonder and joy his granddaughter has for a disappearing coin trick he did to entertain her.
It's my favourite poem amongst all read in the symposium because it is sweet, lovely, funny and touching all at the same time:) Too bad Ace is not an auditory person.. if not I would think he would like this poem too:)
Jason Carter could not have summed it up better at The Poetic Heart poetry symposium organized by SGI Gulf. Children do have the capacity to be happy in all sorts of conditions;) And here is a lovely piece he composed and performed titled, “Good Morning My Angel”. I learnt from him that spanish music and culture has it roots in the arabian culture because spanish people were formerly from arabian lands!
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