Things I miss about my old City

Today I was reminded of that rare moment when you feel free, sophisticated and beautiful somewhere, in a foreign country, and then just with one cutting statement, your insecurities rise to the surface and you realise that you do not belong completely, and that people see you as different. You can choose to embrace this and work it and re-assert your confidence and power or, fall into the shame of your insecurity.

When you put down roots in a city, it is like beginning a love affair. It’s deep, raw and messy, it’s troublesome and fulfilling. You lose yourself in it. You become it. It compliments you. It blesses you with a lifetime of memories to savour. It envelopes you with familiarity. It awakens that giddy desire to love and be loved.

And if you decide to move on before you end your love affair, you will have to deal with a broken heart and a rebound new-city relationship.

You will need closure, or you will keep running back, yearning, wondering what could have been.

I haven’t had closure on my old city yet. And I’m feeling compelled not to reveal the name of this city quite yet. Here are my top memories:

1. Sunrises – I haven’t had a repetition in any other city, of that feeling of exhilaration and liberation of a new dawn, as if the entire place is celebrating this moment: the consistency of clear blue skies, the freshness of healthy morning air, the bird song, children’s voices and a sense of pure ecstasy to begin a new day.
2. Sunsets – when everyone’s energy drops a few levels, signalling the end of another special period of time, drawing your efforts to a close, resting you for your second breath which usually happens a few hours later after sundowner drinks
3. The way Jasmine perfumes the air at the start of spring and the summer nights that smell of the crispness of trees in blossom
4. Vast open spaces
5. Time – standing still, I think this has something to do with the lack of crowds and fresher air than you would expect in big cities
6. That moment on an early Sunday morning when the entire city sleeps in late, and you’re driving home from the night before, and everything is calm and the sun cocoons you and you feel as if this natural beauty belongs entirely to you
7. The kindness of strangers, which hints at the caring and protective nature, of the humanity at the core of this great nation
8. The unique pulsating heartbeat of this metropolis energy – constantly spontaneous and consuming. It flows like urban lifeblood to connect and em-passion you
9. The skyline vistas from the hilltops
10. The  raw, pure, dark, warm, electrifying, comforting, tangible and intangible memories of life, intensified

My Personal Movie Classics

What movies have struck a chord in you? These changed my perspective on life for the better:

1. Shawshank Redemption (1994) – the story of a man wrongly jailed, and how he copes with injustice and learns to survive – it’s now a stage performance as well. It gives you hope (despite all your personal dramas) to keep on. This was the first movie that made me realise that the world of justice is not as fair as we think.
2. The Joy Luck Club (1993) – poetically enchanting stories of 4 Chinese immigrant women in the US, and their struggle to instill their hard-learned values from the old country, into their newly rooted American daughters. I loved the way this movie unfolded, like a fairy tale from afar in the flashbacks to rural China. A foreigner’s journey of realising the significance of the strong connections to their past while accepting their lives in a new country through their children, is beautifully portrayed.
3. Hitch (2005) – a comedy starring Will Smith and Eva Mendes, about a dating consultant who helps men attract the loves of their lives, while struggling to attract his own love. Contemporary view on the world of dating and relationships and beautiful views of New York City.
4. Dirty Dancing (1987) – what can I say, I was a young girl in the 80’s and Patrick Swayze’s body in that movie still remains as a vision of sculptured perfection. Ok, I’ll admit, I am a bit embarrassed revealing this, but I did dance and sing along as a kid.
5. The Namesake (2006) – a lesser known movie, directed by Mira Nair, about an immigrant Indian couple to New York and how they cope culturally, with raising their two American children.
6.  Torn Apart (1989) – another lesser known coming-of-age movie, set in the late 1980’s about a young Arab girl living with her family in Israel and her blossoming but secretive friendship with the Jewish boy next door, until he leaves for the US only to return years later to a very different country and discovers the young woman while checking her passport for crossing the border in Palestine. A romance is re-kindled but the consequences are severe. This is a tear-jerker, and one of the first few movies that moved me as a young woman.
7. All the Bourne Films so far – the plots are pulsating, and Matt Damon is right on.
8. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) – Will Smith: for its lessons on perseverance, tenacity and keeping the faith in life.
9. St Elmo’s Fire (1985) – a coming-of-age movie about 7 friends, and how they grow up, the year after they leave college. It’s a throw back to the simplicity and easy-going, fun atmosphere of the 80’s, and a view on how young-adult relationships mature.
10. Prime (2005) – because it’s a feel good chick-flick. Comedy with Uma Thurman and Bryan Greenberg, about a 37-year-old divorcee (Thurman) who starts a year-long fling with a 23-year-old guy (Greenberg) that continues because of their fascination for each other’s perspectives on life at their respective ages. Things become messy, when Thurman discovers that the guy’s mother is actually her therapist.