Imagine going through your high school note books looking at your childish mistakes, the red ink on margins, the caution and adulation by teachers.
Imagine knowing everyone by name in your neighbourhood.
Imagine been in a class room with faces that you can immortalise. The kid of unity that is ritualised in to friendship.
Imagine the fun times with your friends from childhood.
Ain't it beautiful recounting these memories, they said
But I can't imagine it,
I could not relate to it, but I agreed with it, but never bought it!
But we all know it's disturbing state of existence if were to confuse real stories with fiction.
I was in foreign land, far away from my place of birth, dusty lanes of the island replaced by stones.
It was dizzily overwhelming that it took few years to realise stoned lanes are bumpy as ones on the islands.
My family moved to Male for education and better life.
I am taught to be grateful to parents but I am aching to say that this isn't a life.
Each day I have to navigate through strangers
Act like,dress like and talk like these strangers.
Then only I realised how precious it feels to belong. You don't have to struggle for acceptance.
When I came here I barely spoke their tongue, I stayed mute so they can't hear me, jokes about my thick southern accent.
Imagine when your are ashamed to talk.
It's not only our tongue that were heavy, our souls got burdened. We had to suffocate that inner carefree kid who loved fly kites, climb trees, the kind you would be wise not leave alone with screwdriver.
He has no place here which spoke in jargon of pop culture. He be alienated. He had to be disconnected from childhood to be recognised.
Imagine you had to erase your memory. Those who had heart breaks can testify memories can be menacingly merciless.
To belong here you have to befriend a stranger.
You friends keep changing with class, age. Friendship become series of affair.
Friendship becomes something shallow, hallow.
Like empty shell, her glory is something of past. No longer admired but it's mellow.
We live in matchbox apartments, with neighbour who don't know our name.
Imagine how lonely it would feel .
You ask why we amuse our self with narcotic and nicotine
?Why we failed be proper father to our children ?
Your economic system enslaved our fathers. When we didnt have father figure look up to ,you expect us to figure it out!
When agony from scars of childhood is fresh we need to escape, numbness is easy way out!
Haven't we lost enough to realise Male' thing isn't working!
Haven't you witnessed enough destruction?
Today we can't wait and vet our friends. Your chose your friends on proximity! He live four blocks away, I am gonna be his friend.
And you are stuck with them.
You feel some stuff your friends do ain't right, you would hide it so well they would believe you are genuine.
Unconsciously it's starts redefine you. No longer wrong is wrong. If you friends do something wrong you are gonna look at it from different perspective.
You choke off every bit of innocence from the child who was taught lie was as greatest sin.
Mischief becomes art form. You start appreciating well constructed deceptions In it finding glory and gratification.
How can something evil be part of our survival??
We live in a society where difference between good and evil is increasingly blur.How we islander are to contribute this society all it teaches is deception, ones championed are evil.
We need to understand Male' thing isn't working
