Issa

  • No Stumble

    ·

    Living on fear is advanced death. Thriving on doubts is rottening raw. Relishing fright is decaying alive. Murmuring dread is cursing life. What scares you? What makes your heart leap as kangaroos? What dims your wit and denies light? Facing the music? Dancing out of tune? Laughing alone? A mocking crowd? Long old age? Young death? Hurting words?Depressing news? Spoiling success? Haunting…

    Read More

  • Mary and Max.

    ·

    Here’s a film that lingers. Gripped by Max and Mary’s musical score, claymation, voicing (esp. Mary’s) and fresh dialog, (and monologue), I stayed wide awake ’til early morn. Of course a story’s charm mainly lies on the queer characters it has, who were introduced in a mode most oddly adorable: exchanging letters. How would you imagine a…

    Read More

  • IBN Battuta Mall

    ·

    Three shopping malls were our targets: Battuta Mall, Emirates Mall, and Dubai Mall. I’ve been to Emirates and Dubai Mall, so only Batutta Mall intrigued me. The name alone would leave you wondering. What is it?  Or more appropriate to say, who is he? After googling, I came to know he’s a wide traveler, imagine…

    Read More

  • Yawnful Morn

    ·

    Hey, gear up! Oh, what a sluggard,what a pain! Get up, rise up, the sun’s hot and burning, Come on, gaze up, breathe in,and breathe out, Let some fresh air come in and blow thy lungs. It’s but another day, you’d wished never made.. It’s just but another day that’ll slip away, ‘Seize the day!’…

    Read More

  • On Sub-Moms

    ·

    Surrogate mothers, or baby makers, are of interest to me. Uncomfortable questions keep bothering me about them. I first heard of this concept through a simple Sunday school story where Abraham slept with his wife’s Egyptian maidservant, Hagar. She bore him a child called Ishmael (the so-called father of the Muslim religion). Then I read…

    Read More

  • Enviable Visa

    ·

    A mentor from Beirut was coming to give a crash training in Dubai and I was tasked to book her in a hotel and secure her entry to UAE. She’s a Spanish national so I knew she’d be granted visa upon arrival at Dubai Airport (free of charge). I inquired at UAE’s Spanish Embassy and they…

    Read More

  • Rebirth

    ·

    Issa is overwhelmed. It’s something I never expected (this soon) to wake up to. I was even mad at you, Neil, for being too incomprehensible. So this is the mystery behind the short replies. I’m reborn. So much thanks. I am Issa. My friends back in primary, high school and college might call me differently,…

    Read More

  • Engkanto (A Bad Dream)

    ·

    Slumbering like a baby in a tiny room, I awoke as my aunt shook my left shoulder. I didn’t hear myself scream, but the neighboring rooms might have panicked, and laughed as I shouted too loud. Perhaps they were wondrin’..what happened to me. It was a quick, all mixed-up dream, but I was able to…

    Read More

  • Saved by the Ash

    ·

    While tons of stranded Britons must be cursing Eyjafjallajoekull Volcano’s eruption, I was saved by it from reprimands due to late action. Though the volcano erupted last week, April 14, to be exact, the ash left airspace unfit for travel. And how did it save me? I was supposed to book a German doctor’s flight…

    Read More