Abi:original - If you aren't original, what are you?

There are probably a few people in the world who haven’t heard of Mother Teresa. She treated the sick and destitute in India but managed to touch countless lives around the world. I am not someone who believed in wearing religious medals. I was taking my first holiday without parents or siblings and my mother insisted I wear a silver medal which had an image of Mother Mary on it. I wore the medal, grudgingly. We were a class of 25 women who travelled with two teachers to visit a few Indian cities and practise photography. Our first stop was Calcutta. We had heard of the mouth watering sweets that the city is known for and a few of us headed out to the local sweet shop. It wasn’t long before the residents noticed us. As we relished our desserts and made our way back to the hotel, a few miscreants started hurling stones in our direction. I was shocked when a large stone came straight at me. Perhaps it was luck or divine intervention that I was saved from a serious wound because the stone...

Watched a remarkable movie on the weekend. The kind that lingers with you long after the final credits have rolled. It didn't even have any special effects or mind blowing action sequences. But it did hit home. Children of heaven is the story of two young Iranian children who's world revolves around the simple persuits of life. Nine-year-old Ali and his younger sister Zahra realise that their parents are struggling to survive. Their simple world is devoid of cell phones, Ipods and even coloured television. In his attempt to help his mother with the groceries, Ali manages to misplace Zahra's shoes, her only pair to wear to school. Ali tries in vain to find the missing shoes but is left with the only option of offering his own sneakers to his sister. Though the shoes are too big for Zahra, she too has no other choice but to wear them. The siblings don't just share the shoes every day, they also share the anxiety of each other as Zahra rushes to get home in time to offer h...