Soritng through one;s old clothes can be a daunting experience.
Soritng through one;s old clothes can be a daunting experience.

Wardrobe cleaning is a job best not done alone



After much nagging from Mum, I have finally been driven to clear out my bursting wardrobe. I'd never noticed until she pointed it out that I only wear the clothes right at the front. The layers and layers of dresses at the back have not been touched since they were first put there. Now, it was time to sort them out into four categories: "wearable", "not wearable but keepable", "giftable" and "throwable".

I tried to use the Tom Sawyer approach to lure a friend, Jess, into helping me. In Mark Twain's classic, the young Tom is forced by his aunt to paint a fence. Cheerfully telling his friends that he has received the honour of painting a fence and how much fun he is having, he manages to have them pay him in apples, sweets and marbles to have a go at painting a section. After hours of careful planning, I had not anticipated Jess refusing my tempting "Guess what I'm doing this Friday. Clearing out my wardrobe!" proclamation, all wrapped up quite nicely with a meaningful look. Jess, with her inability to discern subtlety from sarcasm, laughed and said: "You have fun with that." I decided to be a bit more straightforward and wondered if she wouldn't like to give me a hand. Apparently, no, she wouldn't, but she'd keep me company and watch. So much for the fence-painting theory.

Once I had pulled everything out and laid it on the carpet (dumped, Jess remarked languidly, sprawled out contentedly on a bean bag), I picked up the shirt nearest to me and scrutinised it warily; it was baby pink and said "Barbie". All the tags were still attached. A face with a bleached blonde poker-straight mane was giving me a dazzling smile. Kicking Jess, who was miserably failing in her weak attempt to contain giggles, I dropped it carefully into the "giftable" pile.

I had gone through - and it takes a great deal of courage for me to admit this - a Barbie phase once in my life. It was when I was four. With a collection of dolls, ranging from a swimsuit-clad Barbie to a singing princess Barbie to bicycling Barbie, my every whim had been looked after by innumerable relatives. If only that held true today. About three-quarters of all the clothes I possessed, dumped there on the carpet, were presents from over-enthusiastic members of the family who like to envisage how adorable I would look in pleated skirts and shirts festooned with bows and ribbons.

Then there are the old school shirts bedecked with friends' signatures and comments of "I'll miss you. Huggies!" In the corner was the yellow dress that Gran had picked up from Egypt, with sparkly camels, pyramids and a Tutankhamen made of sequins adorning it. The kimono from Global Village, which had been such a success at International Day at school, now lay sad and unworn. Jess's idea that all these would make excellent wall decorations seemed like the perfect solution, so I suspended them from hangers on the curtain rods. Not my fault I get a faceful of silky kimono every time I walk past the balcony on a windy day.

Now that my younger cousins have discovered Manchester United, I can save on buying birthday gifts by simply sending them my old Manchester United Soccer Schools kit complete with water bottle, posters and hat. Dumping each of the clothing piles into separate recycled cartons, I had the distinctly uncomfortable feeling that the carton labelled "Giftable" was by far the fullest. That was when Mum decided to present herself, peek into a carton and exclaim: "What's in there?" I can visualise her only too clearly shaking her head and saying: "But you can't give that away, you've never worn this!" Since I was sure that nothing would induce me to wear those clothes, at least not in the near future, I did want to gift them. Inspiration struck. "I'm just doing my bit for the community," I said. "These are for charity."

Lavanya Malhotra is a 14-year-old student in Dubai.

The Bio

Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”

Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”

Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”

Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”

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Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Dubai Bling season three

Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed 

Rating: 1/5

Our legal columnist

Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

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10 tips for entry-level job seekers
  • Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
  • Keep track of the job trends in your sector through the news. Apply for job alerts at your dream organisations and the types of jobs you want – LinkedIn uses AI to share similar relevant jobs based on your selections.
  • Double check that you’ve highlighted relevant skills on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
  • For most entry-level jobs, your resume will first be filtered by an applicant tracking system for keywords. Look closely at the description of the job you are applying for and mirror the language as much as possible (while being honest and accurate about your skills and experience).
  • Keep your CV professional and in a simple format – make sure you tailor your cover letter and application to the company and role.
  • Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
  • Don’t be afraid to reach outside your immediate friends and family to other acquaintances and let them know you are looking for new opportunities.
  • Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
  • Prepare for online interviews using mock interview tools. Even before landing interviews, it can be useful to start practising.
  • Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.

Arda Atalay, head of Mena private sector at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Rudy Bier, managing partner of Kinetic Business Solutions and Ben Kinerman Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz

Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press

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Director: Matty Brown

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Rating: 2.5/5

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Director: Kangana Ranaut

Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry 

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Picture of Joumblatt and Hariri breaking bread sets Twitter alight

Mr Joumblatt’s pessimism regarding the Lebanese political situation didn’t stop him from enjoying a cheerful dinner on Tuesday with several politicians including Mr Hariri.

Caretaker Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury tweeted a picture of the group sitting around a table at a discrete fish restaurant in Beirut’s upscale Sodeco area.

Mr Joumblatt told The National that the fish served at Kelly’s Fish lounge had been very good.

“They really enjoyed their time”, remembers the restaurant owner. “Mr Hariri was taking selfies with everybody”.

Mr Hariri and Mr Joumblatt often have dinner together to discuss recent political developments.

Mr Joumblatt was a close ally of Mr Hariri’s assassinated father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri. The pair were leading figures in the political grouping against the 15-year Syrian occupation of Lebanon that ended after mass protests in 2005 in the wake of Rafik Hariri’s murder. After the younger Hariri took over his father’s mantle in 2004, the relationship with Mr Joumblatt endured.

However, the pair have not always been so close. In the run-up to the election last year, Messrs Hariri and Joumblatt went months without speaking over an argument regarding the new proportional electoral law to be used for the first time. Mr Joumblatt worried that a proportional system, which Mr Hariri backed, would see the influence of his small sect diminished.

With so much of Lebanese politics agreed in late-night meetings behind closed doors, the media and pundits put significant weight on how regularly, where and with who senior politicians meet.

In the picture, alongside Messrs Khoury and Hariri were Mr Joumbatt and his wife Nora, PSP politician Wael Abou Faour and Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon Nazih el Nagari.

The picture of the dinner led to a flurry of excitement on Twitter that it signified an imminent government formation. “God willing, white smoke will rise soon and Walid Beik [a nickname for Walid Joumblatt] will accept to give up the minister of industry”, one user replied to the tweet. “Blessings to you…We would like you to form a cabinet”, wrote another.  

The next few days will be crucial in determining whether these wishes come true.