I love Japan for its exotic sakura — springtime cherry blossoms. After calculating the budget, and checking the workflow, this year too, I had to abandon the trip to Japan during sakura — for the nth time. The next natural step was to look up sakura pictures online and envy the people who would be waking up to those breathtaking sights. It was heartbreaking to see the tsunami and a series of quakes ravage some of the most popular sakura destinations in the country.

My envy soon transformed to empathy. Like most good things that take a while to come, this year's Japanese tragedy opened a bright new chapter to me.

I am keen on maximising my leisure time to find a better meaning to my life trapped in an uber busy lifestyle. In this attempt, I found a magical route to escape the mundane by painting and writing poems. Black branches, loaded with white flowers and red cherries, soon came alive on my new canvas. To add drama to the visual, a poem on an eventful spring was jotted down. I found peace among the cherry tree branches; the poem transported me to an unbelievable landscape, without toxins or expensive airfare.

My sakura made me smile. I decided to gift it to the people of Japan, who would be missing it more this year. In response to my mail to the Japanese embassy, I got an invite for tea with the ambassador himself. The embassy's cultural attaché called to say that Tatsuo Watanabe, Japanese ambassador to the UAE, would like to meet me in person and collect the work on a suitable day.

I have met premiers of various countries as part of my job. But this was different. I was overjoyed at meeting the ambassador by invitation, in the capacity of an artist and poet — and not a journalist, which I have been for 11 years. I drove to Abu Dhabi on a Thursday morning to hand over the work.

Hope blooms

Watanabe expressed immense joy at receiving the compositions, and said that they represented hope, especially during such a difficult time for his country.

Piqued by my interest in Japan's national flower, Watanabe was keen to know my thoughts on my country's national flower — the lotus. In India, the lotus is symbolic of wisdom. He was happy to observe that Buddha is found seated on a lotus flower. Buddha, though born in India, has more followers in Japan. Historians say that Buddha's teachings healed the Second World War-ravaged Japan and enabled it to find peace as well as set it on a path to economic growth.

Beyond its extraordinary springtime of cherry blossoms, Japan is symbolic of everything unbelievably successful and hugely peaceful. Its relatively small area does not matter. Being expatriates in the UAE, we could not but admire the fact that UAE is also a clear example of how dreams could transform a small patch of land. I felt hugely humbled as the ambassador thanked me for taking time out to come all the way from another emirate to share my thoughts and gift him something as precious as sakura.

While taking leave, I could see Buddha smiling, from behind the black branches loaded with white flowers and red cherries. Sakura had arrived, even before I started my car to get back to Dubai and meet deadlines at work.