That which flows
By Khaqan Sikander

If you could remember the very moment of your birth, the turbulent flight, the bumpy landing, followed by the first sight, sound and smell, you might come close to relating to what I am feeling the minute we touch ground in Beirut. Like a butterfly crawling out of its cosy cocoon, struggling to fly with its newly grown wings, still shrivelled, heavy and wet, I am stepping out of mine.' Is life after all a drill? We are born into this world, grow up, get an education, get a job, try marriage, kids and die? That's it? Really? Did you ever wonder about such things? Did you ever aspire for more without knowing what that more precisely was? I didn't. Not until fate conspired with a naive choice to land me in a notorious Palestinian refugee camp in the heart of Beirut anyway. Things took an explosive turn when Lebanon erupted into a full-scale war with Israel trapping me in its deadly jaws. I escaped in what I thought was the end. Only that I was wrong. Neither was it the end, nor did that camp ever escape me. What followed was an unexpected yet incredible journey that took me around the world. Latin America, Europe and Africa came one after the other, each with life-altering lessons, lessons that transformed the boy that I was into the man I am, lessons that became milestones in this universal journey into adulthood, lessons that are woven deep into the fabric of this story, this story of how I tried changing the world, this story of how instead, the world changed me.