zaidd'or

As I am sitting on my bed here in London on a Sunday night. Expecting it to snow on a summer night from how cold it is outside. I realized that I needed to share an experience that I went through a few weeks ago that I still couldn’t get out of my mind. 

After graduating from Milan I wanted to figure out what my next step in life had to be. I had to decide whether staying in Milan is the best viable option for me or is it moving back to the US or The Middle East, or even London, or Paris. So I took a few swift decisions. I booked a flight to Jordan to go see my family, I thought in the meanwhile I would go check out my opportunities in Dubai, and finally I enrolled for a summer course at Central Saint Martins in London. 

Now the story begins when I boarded my flight from Dubai to Amman, I was heading to Amman to celebrate Eid with my family – celebrating the end of Ramadan. I had just boarded my flight and I sat on the window seat I asked for. It being a 3-3 airplane (6 seats on each aisle with 3 seats on each side). I realized the seat int he middle in between me and the man sitting on the isle seat was empty. When everyone had boarded the airplane, the flight attendant walked in an old lady, and sat her in that empty seat. We maneuvered to accommodate the old lady I assisted her in buckle her seatbelt as she settled in I went back to watching my movie, but I realized she had asked the man next to her to dial a number for her, over my earphones she I could hear her speaking to her soon and informing him to take good care of his wife, which she repeated 3 times. In those moments, the sun had set and people automatically pulled out their food to break their fast. Zoning back into my movie, I then saw man jump from behind and had a lady a sandwich and then a bottle of water. At that point I said to myself hell to the movie I need to get in and know what was going around me. I packed my iPad took my headphones off and decided to zone in onto the conversation that was going between her and the guy sitting on the aisle seat. I soon realized that the man behind me had asked her if she was fasting and she said “yes” so he automatically cut half of his sandwich and gave it to her, which she kindly denied, he also asked her if she wanted to have some water and that she gently accepted. Then as the conversation went on she informed him that she had just come to Dubai a few days ago and had lot consciousness due to her blood pressure. But due to her fall she had busted her lip, lost a tooth, and scratched her face. She had also informed him that she lives in New York and she was here to visit two of her children that lived in Dubai, and how they were busy with their own lives, and how she has no one else specially after her other son got shot due to some gang violence a few years back. And from how sad she was and her deep morning she had a stroke that affected her brain, and she can no longer see properly anymore. Registering all that I didn’t know what to do, here I was eavesdropping on someone else’s conversation, at the same time I couldn’t help but feel with the woman.

Throughout the flight people kept asking her left and right if she needed anything or any assistance. As soon as the flight landed they had made way for her and she was taken right away. I may never meet those people on the flight again but there was something that happened there that was somehow magical. No one cared about her past, or even who she was, everyone was there to help even if it was taking out of their own food and giving it to her after a long day of fasting. I sat there and wondered how our society was. Was that all for the sake of Ramadan, and then after that we turn into sharks? But I realized that no it has become an automatic instinct that we have because we were raised upon such morals. But its one of those instincts that you somehow brush away, because sadly in our modern society its either eat or be eaten.

I would love to think that the great majority still hold to such morals and ethics. I felt a great need to share this incident which took place around 2 weeks ago because I still can’t get it out of my mind or over it.