Here We Start – Issue #40

Dear Sail readers,

As we are publishing our 40^th issue, many of you are preparing for Ramadan, be it spiritually, physically, or even in terms of reorganizing your home groceries to ensure everything is in place when needed. Also, let’s not forget the legendary Vimto wipeout from the market by some mysterious mass purchases that only happen in Ramdan, which mostly likely will repeat again this year. In spirit of all this, and on behalf of Sail team, we wish you a blessed holy month, filled with spiritual self-fulfillment, family reunions, and many delicious meals.

During the last month, we hosted a private writing workshop for our writers team. The workshop was given to the team by Ahmed Al Arshi, an Emirati scriptwriter and a novelist. AlArshi shared with us a lot of reminders of why writing is very important in our lives as humans, how essential is reading to writers, the main structures of writing, different writing styles, and many dos & don’t dos in writing. We were very grateful for the insights offered by AlArshi.

What I really enjoyed was observing the spark re-ignite in some of the members, getting reminded by the passion that drove them in the first time to start writing and getting published. I encourage all of you to try writing articles about topics that interest you, if you felt that you enjoyed the process and would like to join the team, send us your work, we’ll evaluate it to confirm if it fits with our magazine’s theme, and you never know, you might be our next new member!

Speaking of new members, please welcome to the team our newest addition: Alwid Lootah through her column: Lost in Reverie. Alwid is a 17-year-old writer in the making who always follows what her heart desires. She is an optimist that finds beauty amongst the little things and her dream is to publish a book that would make a difference in this world. Her column “Lost in Reverie” is mainly a reflection of her thoughts, experiences and daydreams.

And now, Issue #40 – July 2013 in brief:

• Food For Thought – Documenting the Relationship of Khaleejis in London: Shaima Al Tamimi sheds light on a recent educational initiative that she took up on oral history and documenting the relationship of Khaleejis in London.
• Hidden Promises – Will Power: Alia AlHazami believes everyone has a dream, and everyone strives to achieve. So she presents ways that she believes are necessary to reach your dreams.
• Lost in Reverie – The Beauty Hidden by Fear: Alwid Lootah shares with us how her snorkeling experience taught her to look at life from a different angle, and reveal the beauty fear hides.
• Mental Pondering – Curiosity: Killed the Cat? Or Made the Universe Go Round?: Budoor AlYousuf discusses curiosity and how it has always been a motivational factor to discovering the world we live in and understanding the people we live with, however where does curiosity originate from? And is it dangerous?
• Notes of the Night – You Know Me; I’m Honest: Mustafa Abbas stresses on the importance of honesty, and how in most cases it might not come wholly, or it might but with a price.
• Of Ships and Kings – Terminal 3: Omar Al Owais explains how not accepting foreign cultures and other religions is not part of our culture.
• Rebel with A Reason – Art, My Salvation: Dubai Abulhoul expresses the importance of art in one’s life.
• The Mind’s Eye – Entitlement: Moadh Bukhash analyses the rapid economic growth, and how some of the youth started believing they are entitled to all the opportunities rather than privileged.
• Tifosi – Sports is an Avenue Waiting to be Explored in Our Country: Khalifa AlHajeri elaborates on society’s role in incorporating sports as a part of our children’s life and the obstacles coming in the way.
• Words, Observations, and Ramblings – Feeling Fat? Then it’s Time to Trim it!: Reem Abdallah sheds light on trimming the fatty elements in our daily lives that tend to bring us down making us feel heavy and unable to move forward.

Enjoy our reads, and don’t forget to check out our illustrations by our creative team: Anood AlMulla, Dana AlAttar, & Maryam Zainal.

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Warm regards,
Iman Ben Chaibah
Editor in Chief