The date was 12th September, 2008. A small town but big ambitioned girl finally sees her dream coming true. Life teaches you a lot as the right time approaches, but nothing was going to prepare her for the dream she had chosen for herself. Being away from family is tough no doubt and she was ready to move out of her comfort zone for that. Its a give and take world- she'd given most of her time and effort and taken some in return. More than a year later, she sits in her room. The raindrops fall on her window sill. Its a little cold but this is normal by Scottish standards. The pessimist in her at the start of the journey is a full blown optimist now but recent happenings have made her a skeptic again.
Life is full of paradoxes. She's always known opposites are bound to exist. Where there is good, there is bad. Its as clear as that. As she writes within the confines of her £60/week room, she wonders how these differences came to exist in the first place. The first eye opening experience is a visit to the supermarket. The normal food stores back home start and end where the cat and dog food section are located in this so called 'developed' country. While people at home are more than lucky being able to buy eggs in the local market, the folks here crib about their eggs not being 'free range' or the 'right size'. One time in the communal kitchen, her Canadian flatmate asks her how could she be eating just any kind of cheese? The girl preferred mature cheddar cheese at all times and there was no compromising that. Sitting in her room later in the evening, our subject wonders how one could explain this to a child in the village who had never had the luxury of tasting processed cheese? Did it really matter to your stomach if you have been shoving mild or mature cheese down your throat?
Walking down the street a few months back, she came across 'bird proof' roofs. It led to a unconscious smirk on her face. She had once read in an article somewhere that when people have their basics covered and get a little extra, they start looking for new avenues to satisfy their insatiable hunger. The magazine gave celebrities like Tom Cruise and Madonna as an example. Their interest in Scientology and the Kabbalah movement were grown out of their restlessness to attain something new (since most of their desires were already met). Perhaps the roof ad was a reminder of that. Millions of people would be happy to have a plastic sheet over their heads to keep away the pouring rain, and here she had just been witness to a totally new aspect of house building.
These were just a few examples she could remember for now. But the biggest paradox in her life was yet to come. Today after finally completing her course, she wishes to go home. Yet she can't. No she did not suffer from a car accident, nor is she void of a bank balance. The rules are man made. Taking the course fee and the accommodation fee took, if she may say, a single day's transaction. When the time came for the quarterly instalments to be paid, she did so on time (otherwise the university officials were always there to scare you with their 'you will be disqualified from sitting for the final exams' reminders). More importantly, she did so because it was the rule and one has to abide by the terms and conditions. Now that the course has been completed, she sits her in the room not because she enjoys the western way of life and doesn't see the need to go home. She sits here because she is simply not allowed such liberty. Although the visa clearly states legal rights to live and work in the UK for another four months, she cannot risk it. Why? Because this is the real world. Where the monopoly of a powerful few dictates the lives of the helpless majority. Where do all the terms and conditions go when you switch places to be at the receiving end? The answer is they go down the drain.
Despite the complaints, she has a glimmer of hope. Maybe the small sacrifices now will lead to a brighter future tomorrow. Everyone has to make various degrees of adjustments in their lives. So what if they are not the same as hers? So what if she has to suppress her dissatisfaction for now? And so with this in mind she waits for the night to creep in, to sleep and wait for the next day to unfold.
For tomorrow Cyden will wake up to fight another battle.
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