Dubai - ice cream

Everywhere you look now-a-days you're bound to come across something about Dubai. Someone from Dubai is always trying to buy a football club or major companies. Quite simply, Dubai has exploded onto the world scene with a lot of promise.

But, this whole thing seems to be too good to be true. Dubai is more like an ice-cream than anything to me. Right now its all savoury and appealing and tasty, but its bound to melt or be totally consumed one day.

Nearly every alternate day you hear about a new project...some 90-storey building or an underwater hotel. The expansion is simply phenomenal. I always wondered; where on earth does the money come from, and then I saw this article in the news paper that Dubai will soon be borrowing over 10b $ to cater to its growth. "Damn", was what came to mind, even though I haven't got a clue about economics, money lending and whatnot, that amount is a LOT, and it sure is going to be hard to repay loans.


And so, for just one moment, I considered; what if this whole thing didn't come off as the government was expecting. What if people didn't flock to the emirate and investors never got the buildings or facilities they demanded for on time. Quite simply, these people and investors would lose interest and also warn their peers against making an investment here, for their own good. Then, debts go unpaid, resources are wasted, jobs and salaries are going to be cut, and a plethora of other circumstances that my untrained mind cannot perceive.

This whole; people staying away from Dubai, seems like a minimal possibility, but I'd like to think otherwise. People that I know; at least in my locality back in India, are aware of the situation facing us expatriates here in Dubai. They know that things are hardly ever in our favour, and here the seeds of this "staying away" are sown. Many of our parents or their friends may have fallen victim to job cuts, or bias in salaries or promotions at work. They come to this country seeking the "better life" that they have only heard about, they come to find that their work is more than cut out for them. Preferences are given to nationals over expatriates who sometimes, I dare say, are more knowledgeable and capable at jobs than the nationals.

To save themselves the embarrassment and trouble of having to return to their country and re-establish their lives, these people opt to live here. Their main obstacle; money. Money is never easy to come by, but in a place like Dubai, once you come across money, there always are things like temptations, expenditures for livelihood and even scams, to pull the money out of your wallet. Perseverance and struggle is the only order of the day for these people.


So with all the obstacles faced by people here, it seems more than evident that there will be a time when Dubai will be devoid of middle/working class people, who are part of the core of any city. So with these people gone and only the people who rake in the money around, a day shall dawn when Dubai becomes stagnant. Hotels will be empty, the airport quiet, restaurants all fired up but with nothing grilling, only a jungle of concrete, steel, glass and paper. Like the ice-cream, Dubai has melted.

It's only hope, is to once again be the place that always was on the tip of peoples tongues and that offered salvation to those looking for a better life. Then these wildly amazing projects would most definately come off, the residents would be nothing short of happy to promote the Emirate. Good luck Dubai, lets hope you can maintain the refrigerant in your fridge, and that this situtaition remains hypothetical

Imagine

All of us are brilliant at imagining things, physics formulae, EVS answers, and the often comical situation, things like these are borne from figments of our imagination generally unknown to us, appearing only by request from a bored or desperate mind.

Just the other day I was playin FIFA world cup 06. A rather strange option allowed me to pit the English National team against another instance of itself. As the game began, I, for no apparent reason came into this particular frame of thought. My English team; wearing red was playing against freakish genetic clones of my players in a bid to save humanity from these clones. So i put the speakers on mute, and had a silent, running commentry delivered by my mind. In the end, without too much resistance from the amateur level of A.I, I won the game. I was overcome with satisfaction that I had been able to save England from a terrible fate. Strangely enough, I was quite proud of my achievement. Call me childish or immature, but me thinks that there is more to this.

Using purely my imagination, and of course my psp, I was actually able to satisfy myself, achieving a rather non-sensical and fantastical goal. And this was no first to me, or to anyone else. I'm sure that everyone would have gone through or still is in the "toy" phase. I myself had a mini-toy battallion. The little army men had surfboard-like bases. I'd fill up a little basin with water, grab my men and let the imagination go to work. I fought many wars throughout the course of the day, my men suffered no casualties, and it was fun! I recently found one of these army men, it was just another plastic figure, the endless hours of enjoyment forgotten, until I dreamed up this post.

So right now I'm wondering...What Happened? Why don't or why can't we look at things or imagine them to be any different from the way they are, any more? Just for the heck of it, I would like to pen blame onto the Indian Education system. Expelled frustrations aside, I'm also considering that it is maturity and a better understanding of reality and all that is concerned with the environment that changes our frame of thought. Quite immediately, another question comes up, if we are so knowledged about the physical intricacies of the world and evolution and what not, why would we even believe in creation; i.e.: Hop, skip, jump...here’s a human. Forgive the questioning of God's power, but this is something that really intrigued me. I just didn't get why our fantasies nowadays are so limited to materialistic items, lust, and as men...women.

Caught up in this busy world and the quest for self-alleviation makes us forget quite easily about our childhood, it's experiences and the ways in which we handled situations. It is rather hard to get in touch with this self, it lies cloaked in myriad shrouds of experiences, we seldom manage to connect with this ability to fantasize to such an extent, that fantasy nears reality.

Call me clichéd with my posts but I will once again relate to music, and quite obviously the song "Imagine", by John Lennon. This man somehow managed to imagine a fantastic world with only good to offer for it's inhabitants. In a time after many disastrous wars, strife and countless other obstacles, he imagined this perfect world and in this song provoked others to imagine with him.

So go ahead and look at something, even a clock, let your mind go for a little while and imagine.

Guns N' Roses - Its So Easy

If there ever a song that screamed primal rage its this song. A tight, rocking performance by one of the best bands of the yesteryears.

Profanities aside, this song is pretty good to douse some rage...Go ahead and vent.

What we've got here is failure to communicate!

The lines a ripoff from a movie called "Cool hand Luke" and a Gn'R song "Civil War", and me thinks that this line has got more relevance in our lives than any other cheesy lyric.

A heck of a lot of us have encountered this failure to, problem in communicating. Given our educational and mental status, it's rather evident that its no speech impediment. A lot of times it's the lack of attention that gets the better of us. Quite often, were just too caught up to pay attention to what some people are saying. Sometimes, the repercussions are mild, and of course there is the obvious consequence of a heated argument.

Not merely advisory, but mandatory is how I see the necessity of coming out and being able to speak one's mind is. A rather tragic incident occured in the vicinity of my house back in India, with regard to a total failure to communicate. A happy family...a man, his wife and their two daughters was thrown into chaos as the husband murdered his wife. The wife was quite an attractive and friendly woman loved by many. The husband was more sedate and quiet and rarely indulged in conversations with anyone. Quite normally, many people used to notice the attractive wife going past everyday, she remained unconcerned and oblivious of any problems. But the husband was overcome with suspicions, he doubted his wife's faithfulness to their marriage vows, and decided to take matters into his own hands. One evening as she returned from work, he killed her.

Details of the killing aside, this man's justification was suspicions of infidelity. The entire family was ruined, mother dead and father jailed, the daughters were left to tend for themselves. Tragic...yes...but most definately an avoidable cirumstance. If only the man had the precense of mind to converse with his wife, divulging his suspicions and seeking answers, a life could have been saved.

But of course, this isn't always such a serious issue. Besides not being able to get a point across, the failure to communicate also pertains to those who find it hard to come of out of their comfortable little shells of quietness. People never really get to know them, the most unfortunate bit being that some develop a rather prejudiced opinion against these people. Rather unfortunately, these people remain as they are; enclosed, and never get to jump into the fray of the wild, everyone for themselves life.

It is easier said than done, but I'll say it anyways, life would be much easier if we could just manage to express ourselves properly without being misunderstood.

Rolling Stones - Wild Horses acoustic

Thanks to UV fer telling me about this song. Covered by a bazillion artists, this is probably one of the best Stones songs. Good guitar work, complementing drum beats bass, piano and Mick Jagger's lovely vocals make for a most touching and beautiful song. Seems like nothings going to stop these aging rockers.

An evening through a verbal video camera

Yesterday, my friend called me out for a brief foray outside the confines of my house. He wished to purchase a Christmas present for another comrade, and said he could use the company and some assistance. Never being a man to give up a chance to leave home, I obliged.

Destination 1 - Karama Shopping complex

My friend had in mind this little glass memento, we spent about half an hour just trying to find an appropriate shop. Rather surprised and embarrassed to realise that we couldn't find a piece at A.C. Milan, we left the area.

Destination 2 - Bur Juman Centre

Burjuman seemed like a more appropriate place to continue our quest for the elusive crystal ball. A certain Ms. Distraction seemed to be in the vicinity as she veered us off our path and down the stairs of the Zara showroom. And there, like two possessed women(sexist remark not intended), we tried on a heap of clothes. Of course with the scarcity of greens in the money desert, we made no purchase.

Destination 3 - Centrepoint; 20 meters away

At centrepoint, our quest for the grail came to a close. Lifestyle bore the fruit of our long search, it came in the form of a little crystal bowl, that looked cracked yet wasn't. 39 Dirhams later, we were out of the store present in hand.



But in a sheer crafty moment of thought, I decided that I wouldn't lend my 'services' regardless of how minimal for free. My fee; would have to be in the form of a Subway sandwich. Another thirty minutes passed, my friends wallet; a lot lighter, mine...I never brought it along, remained at home.

Destination 5 - Home, where else?

Stomach and my friend satisfied we left for home. The journey was short and 15 minutes was all it took to make it back home. Prior to parting, I mentioned that a greeting to my friend's comrade should be passed to him on my behalf. Innocently, and rather instinctively, we both gazed at the bag, which we presumed was nestled in my friend's right hand. As luck would have it, it wasn't. Screaming was in order, and so we did. 15 minutes cut short to 10 was all the time it took to walk back to the mall in search of the disappearing present. By now it would be quite obvious to one that the present would have displaced itself further away from where we might have left it, and surely it did. The present was lost.

To the apparently unfortunate matter at hand, my friend remarked "Aaah, what the heck, it was my parent's money." Not wishing to comment more on his lacked of concern, I smiled and we walked back home. 3 hours of lost studies after I had set out, I got back to the most pleasant threatening stare my Mom had given me in quite a while, and I settled myself down before my table, and switched the camera off.

Christmas dinner pics

Amandy!!!

And back by popular demand, Ali Yar Khan with Rajiv and half of Amandy

Group pic

Anish solo; rediscovered man

Experimental pic of self

Random pic

Juhi, Romit and evil Anish

Ali, adukit and Amandy

Ali and Amandy

Ali and Rajiv

Amandy and Juhi

Anish and Bharath