Creative juices

Omar Abedin, head of marketing, Unipex Diaries
and author of Erikk the Giant

Luckily for me, my job as a marketing executive allows me to balance both sides of my brain. Marketing is a profession that allows you to not only show your mental toughness and capability as a professional, but also allows you to be in touch with your creative side.

My nomadic life

Travelling and moving has always been a major part of my life. After my wife and I were married in 1995, we moved to Dubai for a few years, then moved to Jeddah, and then to Montreal and Toronto in Canada.

Finally, we came full circle and returned to the UAE about a year ago. Relocation is a way of life for us, and we are lucky enough to consider ourselves children of the world.

I really enjoy that my work sometimes requires me to travel to different places. It's a lot more difficult to move these days, because it means changing the kids' schools, their friends, neighbours and relationships and that is actually a bigger concern than physically packing and unpacking the house.

In fact the only way we convinced our kids to move from Canada to the UAE was telling them that I would be working in an ice-cream factory – and the freezer would always be stocked with yummy treats.

Returning to the UAE after a period of six years, I find the change remarkable. The cost of living has increased tremendously and the development is incredible.
My time in Canada has left a big impression on me and I think it is a great country with wonderful ideals. That is why we think of ourselves as Canadians of Pakistani origin, rather than Pakistanis with a Canadian passport.

My Writing

It was after we had children that I came up with a character to amuse them. To make them brush their teeth and to put them to sleep, I started telling them a story each night, which grew with every narration. One night, my daughter flippantly suggested, "Baba, why don't you write this story as a book?" Suddenly I began to see things in a whole new light and the rest, as they say, will hopefully be history. Plots for a five-book series were laid down in the next half-hour.

It seemed a daunting proposition but I told myself
I had to start. So one night, after I put the kids to bed, Erikk the Giant, a figment of my imagination, was reborn as the hero of my book. An initial writer's block for around three months was frustrating, and I banged away at the keys producing little work. Somehow, somewhere along the line, it all started coming naturally to me. It was almost as though the words tumbled out of me with urgency, and I would write compulsively through the night, staying up until the wee hours
of the morning. Before I knew it, my book was complete.
I realised I needed feedback on my work, and the next step was getting hold of a good editor.

Luckily, I knew someone who had connections in publishing and he found an editor who went through my work and gave me an excellent appraisal with some constructive criticism. After the book had been edited, I was ready to get it published.

This ended up being the toughest part of my endeavour and I spent nearly a year looking for a publisher. After a long search, I finally found a publishing company by the name of Trafford Publishing based in Canada.

The idea was to publish the book according to demand,
while listing on sites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

My book

The age-old principles of good versus evil have been highlighted in my book and a magical tale about elves and giants and dragons unfolds as you read on.

The book revolves around the 'Stones of Power'. These three stones mean absolute power for anyone who possesses them. Erikk and his friends fight the good fight in a fantasy that deals with the mythology of the 'end of the world', because whoever gets the stones can annihilate their world.

I have drawn inspiration from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and also from another author, Christopher Paolini, who recently wrote a series that struck a chord with me.

Although this genre of books has certainly influenced me, I can safely say that my book offers something unique to the reader. It is a gripping tale with original ideas combined with Islamic references, a melange that I believe many will find interesting.

I have also set up the book's official website www.erikkthegiant.com that dovetails with the launch of the book.

My family

I could never have come this far without the unflinching support of my wife. She encouraged me and told me to go for it and despite my night-time writing, she stood behind me, solid as a rock. The one thing that keeps me going apart from my faith in God is my tight-knit family. My wife and I are very different people: I'm an eternal optimist while she is the practical one.

My parents also hold a special place in my heart, and it was in order to be closer to them geographically that we relocated to the UAE.

My work

Every person's aptitude is defined by a leaning to one of the two sides of their brain: the right or the left. The left side caters to logic, rational thought and numbers, while the right side deals with creativity and imagination. I love my profession and that is why I have been in this career for a span of 17 years.

My time with multinational companies like Philips, Reckitt Benckiser, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis and finally my current position as head of marketing at Unipex Dairies (a part of the Iffco Group in the UAE) has given me a wealth of experience that has been wonderful.

My blogging

My personal blog came about after 9/11. Living in Canada, I had to travel frequently to the US, and being a Muslim, I faced a lot of questions about Islam. I felt I had to reach out to people and tell them that Islam is a religion of peace.

So to express myself, my blog www.mdcanada.blogspot.com was born. The blog became a medium to express myself on any issue that I was passionate about. It also became a way to communicate with my friends and family abroad. A lot of people are curious about life in the Middle East and the blog has now become a means of portraying what life is really like here.

Moreover, I tend to question accepted facts with logic and reasoning in my ramblings. Perhaps this is why I'm known as 'the conspiracy guy' among friends, although I have no intention of stirring up controversies.

My hobbies

I have always loved to read and I grew up on a healthy supply of books. I spent a lot of my childhood in Qatar where there was not much to do except read and it was only a matter
of time before I developed a special relationship with books.

It would not be an exaggeration if I said that I ended up reading everything in the British Council library that I frequented.

I still read as much as I can and if I had to pick a favourite book it would be The Lord of the Rings. I also indulge in hobbies like playing pool, squash and table tennis, apart from reading and writing. I have a zest for life and I am the kind of person who does not take on a lot of stress.

I take each day as it comes and I firmly believe that the right attitude to life can bring about great success for after all, success is but a mindset.

–As told to Mehmudah Rehman, a Dubai-based freelance writer