let me tell you a personal story that
has profoundly impacted my life in the
summer of 97 when I was about four or
five years old there was a family
gathering at our apartment and I’m halia
I don’t really remember much of that
gathering however I do remember what
happened shortly after I was in the
bedroom with my grandfather as I stood
up at him look and looking at him
because gray hair was beautiful
and I could see him smiling at me and I
can remember that that was a beautiful
moment for me I also remember the
beautiful green rug that was diagonally
positioned in the direction of the holy
city of Mecca because he was about to
get ready for his prayer that was around
midnight and mom had come to me and she
said it’s time to sleep but I was
defiant I was know I want to stay with
my grandfather I refused to to go and
she picked me up and my grandfather was
like Haman tomorrow we will go and get
some chocolate Goods together from the
grocery store that was enough to get me
to that room but I stood in front of the
door my hands crossed and I was I was
like I want to go back to my grandfather
later my grandmother my maternal
grandmother started screaming Muhammad
Muhammad which was my grandfather’s name
screaming my father athletic as he was
jumped out of bed rushed to see where
the screams were coming from and what
the reason was I followed and I felt
like I was the fastest kid in the world
what had happened next was I walked in a
room expecting to see something I would
see normally instead I walked in a room
where I found my grandfather laying on
the floor peaceful and solace he was
gone now to think that that was enough
trauma for a child fast forward a few
years later it was Ramadan the second
day of Ramadan as I remember it I was
about seven or eight in 2001
my mother comes up to me and she’s like
Muhammad as she always does it’s time to
sleep I was like mom I’m gonna eat Sahu
yeah the the meal before you know you
prepare yourself for fasting apparently
I took up server and fasting when I was
seven or eight years old was walking
with a heated plate of food and you know
smiling that I was staying up as I
reached the doorway of my grandmother’s
room I could see her coming towards me
pale and blue blue faced and she told me
Muhammad
call your father and at the time it was
perfect timing because my dad was just
about to leave the house to get me
school supplies for my project and so he
ran up and that was when it happened he
went into the room my grandmother was
always plagued by diabetes and asthma
and in that moment she had an acute
asthma attack so my father held her
tightly picked up the nebulizer put the
mask on her face it’s okay mama I’m here
don’t panic don’t panic I was there
witnessing my grandmother as she saw her
soul bitterly but surely like to heaven
now when we’re hit by tragedy we all
heal at our own pace and each tragedy is
different from one person to the next
there’s not one formula for us to face
with tragedy because the way I dealt
with it at the time this was me when I
was about five years old and the way I
dealt with it at the time was asking
questions and looking at the world
through the the concept of fear I was
afraid of things I was afraid of weather
change I had developed phobias of little
things you could see here I’m smiling
but in reality I was I was afraid and it
came at a time when I in the fourth
grade when the bullying started I was
the youngest boy in my class you could
imagine how these thoughts were
percolating in my mind about death and
then people were making fun of me
because I was shorter than them and
smaller I don’t blame them I was an easy
target but today I’m I ended up being
taller than most of them my way towards
dealing
with this was to ask questions baba why
is the sky blue why is why isn’t
everything green I tried to make sense
of things you can imagine in a world
where societies so close-knit where your
grandparents mean the world to you
because they’re always there and you
think that they’re never gonna go away
but in reality one day they do at the
time teachers thought I wasn’t good
enough when it came to writing and
reading and some of them wanted to even
retain me told told my parents that I
was behind but the strong support system
at home kept me going forward until one
day in the 8th grade in my English class
I I was given an assignment to write
about anything and I wrote we are all
one I handed in the paper to my teacher
and she picked it up and as she read she
whispered we are all one throughout
about two minutes later tears started to
trickle down her face and she looked at
me and told me Hemant this is beautiful
eventually it ended up in the first
school publication as the first page
right over here throughout the years my
creativity was unleashed and I didn’t
know it was getting only shhhhht I was
writing and I was creating scenarios and
stories and I always had this passion to
be a filmmaker or to make a difference
with my story till I reached about the
12th grade when I became student council
president and I unleashed my ability to
speak to people and made promises of a
swimming pool which never happened until
two years later but then I went to
university and I took in my fourth year
I took a Senior Seminar class called
love and death I think that was the
moment that was a defining moment that
changed my life in terms of taking my
creativity to all other level
I had written a piece about how love is
so connected to death and how death is
so connected to what
we love and that what we love is so
precious to us because we understand
that one day it will no longer be
eventually I made a film a short film
called the final chapter and here’s a
clip of it where ever we walk
it is there all we need to do is realize
it is there for us to see it like a book
on a shelf waiting to be seen in a
library as I continued to wonder
I often wandered off to search for
deaths definition one of the definitions
I came across was the damage of all
pleasure death will come for even the
most beautiful smiles and turned them
into morbid realities with tormented
weeping and broken hearts that lost her
happiness the lust for the past that for
film Wan desired University Middle East
man festival best aspiring filmmaker
2015 with the help of the
cinematographer sawed a pinhead Lobby
now why I’m showing you this is because
I want to show you that my pain or the
the pain of tragedy can be embraced and
can unleash a beautiful side of things I
read somewhere that adversity introduces
man to himself
I was certainly introduced to myself at
a very young age and I was forced into
maturity but there was something good
that came out of it I was able to
express myself through writing I was
able to express myself through visuals
and it allowed me to connect to people
at a different level a way where I
understood what it meant to be sensitive
what it meant to be empathetic what it
meant to have that feeling of what it
what it feels to be to feel alone this
developed into me writing
starting my own blog in Marathi writer
calm what I want to end with is a person
who has truly inspired me throughout my
years the late check sired missile
Thawne out in Haiyan now how he has
inspired me is the fact that we lived in
a world our country was a place of
adversity where people suffered and it
took one man to believe that through our
trials and tribulations through this the
harshness of the desert through the
harshness of life
beauty can come with patience and the
perseverance and wit to continue for me
I had to learn the hard way I had to
learn that through the the words that
affected me from the bullying through
the imagination and the remembering of
my grandparents leaving with all this
creative thoughts this these thoughts
that percolated in my mind of what if
I’m next or what if mom and dad or my
sister and brother are next so my
message to you all to the youth of the
UAE and to the youth of the entire world
and to everyone listening to this is
allow yourselves to fall allow tragedies
to plague you because life is not an
easy ride life is meant to be difficult
but it is how we through our own
experiences make the most of it and it
is my message to you – to find that
ability and that greatness within you to
make your story beautiful thank you
[Applause]
has profoundly impacted my life in the
summer of 97 when I was about four or
five years old there was a family
gathering at our apartment and I’m halia
I don’t really remember much of that
gathering however I do remember what
happened shortly after I was in the
bedroom with my grandfather as I stood
up at him look and looking at him
because gray hair was beautiful
and I could see him smiling at me and I
can remember that that was a beautiful
moment for me I also remember the
beautiful green rug that was diagonally
positioned in the direction of the holy
city of Mecca because he was about to
get ready for his prayer that was around
midnight and mom had come to me and she
said it’s time to sleep but I was
defiant I was know I want to stay with
my grandfather I refused to to go and
she picked me up and my grandfather was
like Haman tomorrow we will go and get
some chocolate Goods together from the
grocery store that was enough to get me
to that room but I stood in front of the
door my hands crossed and I was I was
like I want to go back to my grandfather
later my grandmother my maternal
grandmother started screaming Muhammad
Muhammad which was my grandfather’s name
screaming my father athletic as he was
jumped out of bed rushed to see where
the screams were coming from and what
the reason was I followed and I felt
like I was the fastest kid in the world
what had happened next was I walked in a
room expecting to see something I would
see normally instead I walked in a room
where I found my grandfather laying on
the floor peaceful and solace he was
gone now to think that that was enough
trauma for a child fast forward a few
years later it was Ramadan the second
day of Ramadan as I remember it I was
about seven or eight in 2001
my mother comes up to me and she’s like
Muhammad as she always does it’s time to
sleep I was like mom I’m gonna eat Sahu
yeah the the meal before you know you
prepare yourself for fasting apparently
I took up server and fasting when I was
seven or eight years old was walking
with a heated plate of food and you know
smiling that I was staying up as I
reached the doorway of my grandmother’s
room I could see her coming towards me
pale and blue blue faced and she told me
Muhammad
call your father and at the time it was
perfect timing because my dad was just
about to leave the house to get me
school supplies for my project and so he
ran up and that was when it happened he
went into the room my grandmother was
always plagued by diabetes and asthma
and in that moment she had an acute
asthma attack so my father held her
tightly picked up the nebulizer put the
mask on her face it’s okay mama I’m here
don’t panic don’t panic I was there
witnessing my grandmother as she saw her
soul bitterly but surely like to heaven
now when we’re hit by tragedy we all
heal at our own pace and each tragedy is
different from one person to the next
there’s not one formula for us to face
with tragedy because the way I dealt
with it at the time this was me when I
was about five years old and the way I
dealt with it at the time was asking
questions and looking at the world
through the the concept of fear I was
afraid of things I was afraid of weather
change I had developed phobias of little
things you could see here I’m smiling
but in reality I was I was afraid and it
came at a time when I in the fourth
grade when the bullying started I was
the youngest boy in my class you could
imagine how these thoughts were
percolating in my mind about death and
then people were making fun of me
because I was shorter than them and
smaller I don’t blame them I was an easy
target but today I’m I ended up being
taller than most of them my way towards
dealing
with this was to ask questions baba why
is the sky blue why is why isn’t
everything green I tried to make sense
of things you can imagine in a world
where societies so close-knit where your
grandparents mean the world to you
because they’re always there and you
think that they’re never gonna go away
but in reality one day they do at the
time teachers thought I wasn’t good
enough when it came to writing and
reading and some of them wanted to even
retain me told told my parents that I
was behind but the strong support system
at home kept me going forward until one
day in the 8th grade in my English class
I I was given an assignment to write
about anything and I wrote we are all
one I handed in the paper to my teacher
and she picked it up and as she read she
whispered we are all one throughout
about two minutes later tears started to
trickle down her face and she looked at
me and told me Hemant this is beautiful
eventually it ended up in the first
school publication as the first page
right over here throughout the years my
creativity was unleashed and I didn’t
know it was getting only shhhhht I was
writing and I was creating scenarios and
stories and I always had this passion to
be a filmmaker or to make a difference
with my story till I reached about the
12th grade when I became student council
president and I unleashed my ability to
speak to people and made promises of a
swimming pool which never happened until
two years later but then I went to
university and I took in my fourth year
I took a Senior Seminar class called
love and death I think that was the
moment that was a defining moment that
changed my life in terms of taking my
creativity to all other level
I had written a piece about how love is
so connected to death and how death is
so connected to what
we love and that what we love is so
precious to us because we understand
that one day it will no longer be
eventually I made a film a short film
called the final chapter and here’s a
clip of it where ever we walk
it is there all we need to do is realize
it is there for us to see it like a book
on a shelf waiting to be seen in a
library as I continued to wonder
I often wandered off to search for
deaths definition one of the definitions
I came across was the damage of all
pleasure death will come for even the
most beautiful smiles and turned them
into morbid realities with tormented
weeping and broken hearts that lost her
happiness the lust for the past that for
film Wan desired University Middle East
man festival best aspiring filmmaker
2015 with the help of the
cinematographer sawed a pinhead Lobby
now why I’m showing you this is because
I want to show you that my pain or the
the pain of tragedy can be embraced and
can unleash a beautiful side of things I
read somewhere that adversity introduces
man to himself
I was certainly introduced to myself at
a very young age and I was forced into
maturity but there was something good
that came out of it I was able to
express myself through writing I was
able to express myself through visuals
and it allowed me to connect to people
at a different level a way where I
understood what it meant to be sensitive
what it meant to be empathetic what it
meant to have that feeling of what it
what it feels to be to feel alone this
developed into me writing
starting my own blog in Marathi writer
calm what I want to end with is a person
who has truly inspired me throughout my
years the late check sired missile
Thawne out in Haiyan now how he has
inspired me is the fact that we lived in
a world our country was a place of
adversity where people suffered and it
took one man to believe that through our
trials and tribulations through this the
harshness of the desert through the
harshness of life
beauty can come with patience and the
perseverance and wit to continue for me
I had to learn the hard way I had to
learn that through the the words that
affected me from the bullying through
the imagination and the remembering of
my grandparents leaving with all this
creative thoughts this these thoughts
that percolated in my mind of what if
I’m next or what if mom and dad or my
sister and brother are next so my
message to you all to the youth of the
UAE and to the youth of the entire world
and to everyone listening to this is
allow yourselves to fall allow tragedies
to plague you because life is not an
easy ride life is meant to be difficult
but it is how we through our own
experiences make the most of it and it
is my message to you – to find that
ability and that greatness within you to
make your story beautiful thank you
[Applause]
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