Samarkand

When we left Dubai, I wanted to buy a parting gift for myself; something uniquely Middle Eastern. So I picked up this book: the english translation (the original is in french) of Amin Maalouf's historical novel 'Samarkand'. And wow, what a great book it turned out to be!

Maalouf has taken the historical facts from 12th century Persia & used beautiful imaginative threads of fiction to connect them. Omar Khayyam, the celebrated 12th century Persian poet, philosopher & mathematician is the main character of this tale. The story traces the birth of Khayyam's famous book of persian poetry called Rubaiyat which earned him praise from many intellectuals & wrath of many religious zealots. As the legend goes, Khayyam was being tried by a qadi (a religious judge) for his supposedly 'un-islamic' verses; but instead finds a friend and sympathiser in the qadi who explains to Khayyam that the world is not yet ready for his philosophy & urges him to write down his private thoughts in a small notebook. This was the beginnning of the Rubaiyat. The book follows the manuscript of the Rubaiyat all the way to 19th century Persia through the revolution & the resultant democracy.

Here's a quatrain from Khayyam's Rubaiyat that I liked :)

"I sent my Soul through the Invisible,
Some letter of that After-life to spell:
And by and by my Soul returned to me,
And answered "I Myself am Heaven and Hell"

Colourful Clarke Quay

We're staying at Clarke Quay at the moment & its a really colourful part of the city. Literally.

Arrived

Last week we finally packed our stuff from Dubai and arrived in Singapore this Monday. We're living out of our suitcase at the moment & its not easy finding an apartment in Singapore. All we've managed to do so far is make a checklist of 'must-haves' for our home (proximity to a MRT station, proximity to work & a decent size are at the top check-boxes for now).

In the meanwhile, I've managed to collect a lot of fengshui charms for the apartment (which we haven't yet found). Singapore's China Town is full of them! The picture on the left is the biggest fengshui charm of the city; its called the "Fountain of Wealth".

The 'Fountain of Wealth' is surrounded by five high-rises representing the five fingers of a hand, and the Fountain itself symbolises the ring in the palm of the hand. The water flowing into the ring is a symbol of fengshui good luck. Dont want to get superstitious here, but if you see the recent boom in this city/ country the charm seems to be working :)

The New Star

I went to India over the weekend to see my nephew and he is such a cutie!! He has everyone wrapped around his little finger...one look at his crying face and who could say no to him? :)

Ice Cafe in Dubai

It was 43 degrees celcius in Dubai today afternoon when we went to the ice cafe; where the temperature was negative 6 degrees :)...Here are a few pictures of the cafe:
As the name suggests, the tables, the seats, even those cute things hanging from the ceiling - all are made completely of ice.

Then they've made the Dubai skyline out of ice on one of the walls :-)

Thats my drink served in an ice glass at the ice bar.

Relocating to Singapore

We are re-locating to Singapore in August & its going to be a big change! Are we excited at the prospect of living in a new city? Of course we are.

But I’ve spent hours thinking about all the things I’m going to miss about Dubai. I’m going to miss my friends, my apartment, my colleagues, the winters, the shawarmas, the house-help, hommour, DIFC, Shk Zayed Road, sheesha cafes, sheesh-taouk, the half-days in Ramadan, the creek, the weekends in Fujairah, and the general buzz of boom in Dubai...Sigh!

But to answer Nelly Furtado’s question, good things come to an end so that better things could begin! :)

The Black Swan

Nassim Taleb is a probabilist & a hedge-fund manager. I started reading his book out of academic interest in financial markets, but a few pages into the book, I realised that The Black Swan is as pertinent to markets as to life in general.

In the old world, people believed that all swans are white. Then the Australian continent was discovered & people were shocked to find black swans. That is the point of this book.

The universe is unpredictable, and the improbable events are the ones that shape the world. Human mind is programmed to find patterns in events; based on what we believe is empirical evidence. Hence we concentrate on the center of the bell-curve, when in fact we should be looking at the extremes.

The idea is told quite fascinatingly by Taleb, through many stories & anecdotes. The book at no point gets into mathematics, but dwells in the concepts. He extends his Black Swan Theory into interesting alleys of thought: career advice, explanation of wars (or the lack of it), philosophy, why people who don't read newspapers are better off... I didn't quite agree with all the ideas but enjoyed reading them all the same. A very stimulating read.

Just wondering...

...that, if broccoli & spinach were advertised as much and as well as pizzas & chocolates, would they taste as good to us?

The Glass Ceiling

We had this discussion at work the other day: In this day & age, do women still have a disadvantage in their workplace, on account of their gender?

Personally, I have never in my career of 5 years felt discriminated against by my bosses or my colleagues; because I'm a woman.

Yet, there are more subtle disadvantages that I think a woman faces in the course of her career; the biggest of them being the social expectations of getting married & having babies. I know many good female students from my b-school who opted out of careers in order to raise families. The ones who are still in careers & are married, clearly have a preference for 'less stressful' jobs so that they could be home in time to enjoy a quality married life. It certainly is a matter of personal choice & priorities; but is it not also a matter of social conditioning which forces women to see 'home-making' as their role?

The thing about the glass ceilings is that, its easy to miss it even if you're directly under it.

The Lion King

We watched the musical The Lion King at London's Lyceum Theatre. I have been a fan of the animated movie but have been curious to see how it would be presented on stage.

I was so impressed with the production quality of this play: the costumes, the sets, the tools used; are so imaginative and creative! It was quite breath-taking how the scene where Simba loses his dad in a jungle stampede was depicted on stage. Or how the costumes of Scarface & Mufasa made them look evil or majestic respectively. Or how the set of the hyena strong-hold, the graveyard, gave the stage an eerie creepy feel.

I loved it all!

The Royal Family

In London, there are only two kinds of tabloid celebrities: Kate Moss & the Royals. Absolutely everyone in & around London loves to talk about the royal family. Diana still makes it to the front page of tabloids! I found it amusing how souvenir shops in London sell these royal family postcards; do they really have such a big fan following? :)The other day at the Harrods, our cabbie was quick to point out how there are so many flags outside the store but not the English flag. Apparently Muhammed Al Fayed decided to take the flag off after his son Dodi's death for which he publicly blamed the Queen. Like a true Londoner, our cabbie thought it was a story worth telling :)

Cambridge

Yesterday, we took a day trip to Cambridge. The weather was awful; but the place was beautiful beyond words! Cambridge is a college-town with 31 colleges...the most breathtaking is the Kings College & its cathedral: The 'Trinity College' is the most coveted and richest college in Cambridge. Prince Charles studied here in the 1970s. As the legend goes, he wanted to have as normal a student life as possible; so there was only one body guard around him who shadowed him around through out his college life. In the end the body guard decided to take exams as well and it so happened that he fared better than the Prince himself :) The best part about Cambridge were the quaint bridges across the River Cam. We went punting along the river and I havent felt so relaxed & peaceful in a long time.

Holiday Part II

On Friday evening, we said our goodbyes to our friends in NYC and left for London. This is my first time in London & I absolutely love the old-ness (if there is a word like that) of this city. Every corner of the city seems to have its own character. Will write more about the fun times we are having in London!!

MoMA

We visited today NYC's Museum of Modern Art. One of the walls on the second floor of the museum is covered with some very witty graffiti-style drawings that in a 'tongue-in-cheek' way talk about how crazy our world has become. I particularly loved these... :)

How true

From a wall of the FDR Memorial in DC....'More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars'...

Huh???

I would've liked to see this exhibition in DC, just because I'm curious what it could be about...this promo picture is so bizzare!! Unfortunately I wouldnt be around for the actual exhibit.

Wall Street

The other day we were walking down Wall Street and apart from a couple of banker-types, the street was filled with a multitude of tourists clicking away at the NYSE building. Isn't it incredible that a single ordinary looking street (and it really is such a narrow ordinary street)with nothing but office spaces & banks should become such a huge tourist attraction and a symbol of American prosperity?

Holiday!!!

H & I decided that we needed a break and took this vacation without much planning. The best part about our vacation this time is that its not about seeing places, but meeting up with dear old friends whom we haven't seen in ages. We landed in NYC two days ago and are at the moment enjoying the view from Meghna's 21st storey apartment facing the Hudson and downtown Manhattan :)
It's the perfect break we had been hoping for!

No more sausages

I was in Frankfurt on work for a good part of last week. My hosts there invited me for authentic Frankfurt dinners & I continue to be amazed by the amount & variety of meat the Germans eat in their daily meal.
The two things I refused to try however were 'blood sausages' and 'liver sausages' (as a matter of principle, I dont like to eat anything with the word 'blood' in it!). I'm a meat-lover, but I've never seen so much meat in one meal anywhere but in Germany!

My visit happened to coincide with a huge 'meat fair' that was being held in Frankfurt; so there were meat adverts & commercials everywhere in the city. In the end, I think it was this advert that finally has put me off sausages for a long time to come....

Little Angel

This little angel is my brand new nephew! I'm so excited, I can't wait to see him when I go to Mumbai next month. My brother & sister-in-law are so proud of him already.
Becoming an aunt, of course comes with the huge responsibility of spoiling the nephew and making sure he gets to do all the cool things his parents won't let him do. So I hope I do my job well! :)

The Yacoubian Building

Last year, when I visited Cairo, I remember thinking how similar it was to my home-city of Bombay. It is a city of contradictions: where the very rich and the very poor live down the same street; where the once-elegant colonial structures blend into the general landscape of indifference; where people come to terms with the lack of fairness in the world & yet dream of good lives for themselves. My impressions of Cairo were confirmed when last week I read Alaa Al Aswany’s controversial ‘The Yacoubian Building’.

I loved the book. Not only is Al Aswany great at story-telling, he is also fearless. He gets his characters to open the closet doors wide, so that the skeletons come tumbling down: political corruption, homosexuality, militant nationalism, sexual repression, exploitation & other such taboo issues. The stories & characters are a slice out of modern Cairo & yet, they could have been in any big third world city. It provides a great insight into why the youth of these cities either leave the cities for the glossier lives in western cities or get misguided into believing that the only solution to their circumstances lies in extremist nationalism. Cynical, but thought provoking & overall, an excellent read. Highly recommended.

Five things you don’t know about me

We were moving apartments last week & I was away from blogging while my internet connection was lost in a big mess of wires waiting to be re-connected. In the meanwhile, Kaya tagged me to write about ‘Five things you don’t know about me!’

So here goes:
1. My favourite way of spending a weekend usually involves one of the following: books, movies, art, friends, nice dinner, and interesting conversations.
2. I am a dud when it comes to electronics, cars & technology. I depend on H completely when having to make decisions involving any of these.
3. I love traveling & taking holidays (who doesn’t!); but I also get home-sick quite quickly.
4. My most horrible habits include biting my nails & checking my blackberry too often.
5. I can be so well-organised & hard-working at work, but I’m a slob at home (I hate doing dishes or ironing clothes!)

Time to tag the next five: they are Clickable, Optimistic Guard, Moi, Mr.J, Happy Reader

Kids with cameras

I didn’t think I would want to watch a documentary film. Especially not one called ‘Born in the Brothels’; because I imagined it would be drenched in pathos & misery. So it was very grudgingly that I borrowed the DVD from a friend who recommended the film. And now I am glad I did.

Ross Kauffmann & Zana Briski are two photographers who wanted to photograph the women in the red-light district of Calcutta in India & decided that the best way to capture the reality of their lives was to go and live there. While they were there, Zana befriended the children of the sex-workers & started teaching them photography. The documentary is based on the lives of eight of these kids who discovered photography & hope around the same time, thanks to Zana. The great part about it is that although the kids are born in brothels, the documentary does not focus on the misery in their lives, but rather on the sparks in their eyes. These kids are adorable! Sure, there are moments in the documentary that gave me goose-bumps (the scene where a little boy shrugs & says he was flying kites on the terrace because his mom was ‘at work’ in their room; or when a girl talks about drunken men coming to her house). But mostly, the documentary is about the kids being kids inspite of their surroundings. When they visit the clinic for a HIV test, they worry more about how much the needle would hurt; and never about the result. When they speak of their fathers, they speak with love inspite of who they are. When they were asked to sign the photographs for their first exhibition, they couldnt because their hands were shaking with excitement & nervousness. When they finally leave the brothel for school, they have tears in their eyes because they’re leaving *home*.

The documentary was made in 2004. The kids have grown up since then, and it is so great to read this update on their lives!

A Banker Joke :)

A banker was driving his big BMW down the highway, singing to himself, "I love my BMW, I love my BMW." Suddenly, he smashed into a tree. He miraculously survived, but his car was totaled. "My BMW! My BMW!" he sobbed.

A good samaritan drove by and cried out, "Sir, sir, you're bleeding! And my God, your left arm is gone!"

The banker, horrified, screamed "My Rolex! My Rolex!"

The Restaurant Tag

Lotus tagged me with the ‘5 Favourite Places to eat in my City’ & being such a foodie, I’ve been wondering how I could make a shortlist of only 5 places. So I’m going go about this one cuisine at a time:

1) I was introduced to good Lebanese cuisine only when I moved to Dubai about 3 years ago. The shawarma is the single biggest gift Arabs have given to the world (Nah, its not oil, if you thought it was, then you haven’t eaten good shawarmas yet). And the best place for a good shawarma is not in a fancy Leb restaurant, but at road-side stalls. Personally I think the chicken shawarmas at Al Malla in Satwa are the best; but if I’m in the mood for more classy dining I like Nafoorah in Emirates Towers.

2) Another cuisine I tried in Dubai for the first time was Pakistani cuisine. Most people think Indian & Pakistani cuisines are the same. Not quite. Sure, they both have spices & curries; but if you’ve tried the Friday buffet at Barbeque Delights opposite Lamcy, you’ll know how the two cuisines are yummy in different ways!

3) With the huge number of Brits, one can’t escape an English restaurant in Dubai. English breakfasts are the best thing to start a weekend with & I guess nobody does that better than More Café (Murooj) or Coco’s (Shk Zayed Road). And fish-n-chips are best had at Double Decker!!

4) For Oriental food, the best restaurants are Noodle House, or the teriyaki grill at Tokyo@the Towers (Emirates Towers) – an entertaining chef chops & cooks in front of you; but mind you, he gets uncomfortable if you ask him which part of Japan he belongs to, because he is actually a Philipino :) . Sushi is not in my favourite list, but I quite liked the sushi in Sumo Bento at the 1st interchange.

5) Desserts are not a cuisine by themselves, but there are so many places I like just for their desserts! The sizzling brownie at Nandos & the carrot cake at Limetree are pure yumminess!

Finally, as per the rules of the tag, I need to tag five people from five cities; and the lucky (!!) people are: Meghna (New York), Lalunadiosa (Ithaca), Kaya (Abu Dhabi), Ayesha (Mumbai), Suramya (Bangalore).

Flight of the Falcons

Dubai is famous for many things. Public Art is not one of them. In 2004, Dubai made a start however, when artists were invited for the Arabian Horse & the Camel Caravan series. The painted animals were placed at traffic junctions, outside malls, hotels, parks. This year, the trilogy was completed by the national bird: the falcon. There are colourful painted falcons in every corner of Dubai. Here are some of the prettier ones:

Heist men in Dubai

Everyone in Dubai is talking about the sensational jewellery store armed robbery on Sunday, because things like that never happen in Dubai. Armed robbers in two cars, rammed into the glass walls of the elite Wafi mall, and stole jewellery worth US$ 13 million at gun point from Graff Jewellers. All in less than 2 minutes. Stolen cars, masked robbers, machine guns, missing jewels, it was just like the movies. Except that it happened right here in Dubai!!

Audio Books

I had always imagined that it would be much easier to listen to a book being read, rather than read it yourself. I’ve wanted to listen to an audio book for a long time now. Just for the experience of it. Last week I finally got down to it: I downloaded Leo Tolstoy’s Childhood from Librivox onto my iPod & started the book with a lot of eagerness. But after the third chapter or so I just couldn’t keep up. I’m not sure whether it was the book & its style, or the reader & his tone; but the audio book simply couldn’t keep me hooked on.

I love books. So I wondered why I shouldn’t love listening to a book vs. reading it. I recall a scene from Ray Bradbury’s Farhenheit 451 where a character (I think it was the professor) says that the advantage of books over other mass media was that you can read something in a book, mull over it at your own pace & ask the book to shut up till you’re ready to go to the next line.

Maybe that’s what it is. Or maybe it’s just me.

Sunday Morning Quiz

Does the word 'bi-monthly' mean 'twice a month' or 'once in two months'?

(Now try to answer that without looking up the dictionary!)

Beauty & Age

Dove Pro-Age launched this ad campaign targeted at women in their 40s and beyond, by signing up a bunch of grand-moms to bare it all for the camera. American television banned the adverts (too much skin), but they're up on the website. Some people thought the campaign was in bad taste, some thought it was beautiful; well it did create the stir it was meant to create.

While on the subject of beauty - Its become so fashionable for beauty product or diamond commercials these days to use terms like 'potential within' or 'inner beauty' while sending the simple message to consumers 'use our products to look pretty'. They say they're trying to re-create the image of female beauty here; but arent they just trying to veil it with some pseudo-feminist expressions? I find it very amusing, sometimes annoying. What woman would depend on a face cream to reach her 'potential within'?

Right to nuclear energy...

...championed by a tactless leader!

Monsieur Ibrahim

I had heard a lot about this movie; and when I finally watched it last evening, it so lived upto my expectations!

Monsieur Ibrahim is a fictionalized account of a true story, set in the poor neighbourhood of Paris of the 1960s. A 16-year-old almost-orphaned Jewish boy Moses (Momo) strikes a friendship with Ibrahim, an old Turkish-Muslim immigrant who runs a grocery store opposite Momo's apartment. Ibrahim introduces Momo to faith, happiness & love on their journey together, and the story is about both - Ibrahim as well as Momo - finding peace & purpose. One of the most tender moments of the movie is when Ibrahim shares his interpretation of Sufism with Momo.

Omar Sharif is outstanding in his comeback movie; he looks & lives the character of Ibrahim. I did not fully understand the part involving Momo's brother Paulie (whether he really exists), and I'm not sure whether that part of the story was intended to be ambiguous. But overall, I thought it was a great sensitive movie.

Rhyme Challenge

Apparently 'Silver' and 'Orange' are the two most difficult words to rhyme with in the English language. I've made many attempts in my head to rhyme with these words; and here is my best attempt so far:

Jack wore gold;
Jill wore silver.
They went up a hill;
and then they just fell 'ver.

(Come on - it works if you say the last line really fast!).
Any suggestions for 'Orange'?

Service Center to the World

I had read a lot about the flourishing outsourcing industry in India; but the other day I heard someone from the industry describe this whole new BPO world within the Indian cities & it was an eye-opener.

Large western companies outsource their servicing requirements to India, but do not necessarily want their clients to know that their calls are being answered by Indians. Not only are the tele-executives trained to speak with western accents; they’re trained in western culture & key telephone phrases from the west. They’re also encouraged to adopt western ‘call center names’ when speaking to clients, rather than their regular Indian names. But here is what was disturbing: hate-calls from customers are not uncommon at all. There will ever so often be this freak American who will call up & scream about the bloody terrorist race taking over his job!

These are after all 18 to 20-year-old university students answering the calls & I cant help but wonder how they feel at the end of the day. Do they still feel connected to their country & culture?

Best ice-crem ever:

Haagen-Dazs' Tiramisu flavour

The Desert Louvre

Abu Dhabi will soon be home to art from the Louvre in Paris. Apparently the French are furious about the 500-million-Euro-deal; they thought France was “selling its soul” (that cheap?).

On the other hand, I wonder whether the nude, erotic or christian art will be taken well by the muslim conservatives. The Louvre (Paris) has an entire section on Islamic Art; but apart from that doesn’t about every piece seem like it will cause a stir in Abu Dhabi?

Pretty cool

Another piece from the Gulf Art Fair which I thought was pretty cool:

Boom Town

This is the typical skyline of Dubai. Construction has been Dubai's most booming industry ever since freehold properties were allowed in 2002 & any time you look at the horizon you're more likely to see a tower crane than not.
As a result, there is a string of ambitious projects coming up & apart from being funny party conversations, these projects have started a race for the most out-there-ideas-ever: the tallest tower, the inverted tower, the dancing tower, the revolving tower, the arab-man-like tower; you have it all. Also add to that dinosaurs imported from Universal studio, seven wonders of the world re-created, underwater hotels, ski domes & luxury islands on reclaimed land. This is going to be one freakish city! :)

Just another thought

There are plenty, who believe that God exists.

Why then so few, who act on that belief?

World Cup Cricket

For a billion Indian cricket fans, the World Cup is a time of extreme emotional stress; hoping against all stats & analysis; that Dravid & the boys finally see the law of averages working to their advantage and win when it matters the most!

Did anyone read about the man who wanted to sell his kidney to fund a trip to the Carribean? He thought watching the World Cup live was more important than having a kidney!

Click here to watch the crazy Nike commercial on the cricket mania in India :)

Veil

This is one debate which is always in the news in the Muslim countries: Should the veil be banned for being suppressive to women; or should the veil be allowed as a statement of religious freedom & secularism?

Personally, I wish women wouldn’t have to veil themselves, but I think every society comes with its box of ‘social taboos’. Many Indian women for example, wouldn’t be as comfortable wearing a pair of shorts as European women; because it would be considered too 'western' in their social circles. But these women might well be as little (or as much) subversive as the European women. Maybe the veil and feminism are two separate issues that could easily get confused. Or maybe these seemingly cosmetic shackles are closely linked to the bigger issues?

Gulf Art Fair

It was absolutely delightful to watch the exhibits at the Gulf Art Fair on Thursday. There were so many great artists & galleries and I wanted to get home so many of the pieces; if of course they weren't so unaffordable :)

Here are the two artists I really loved:

Hiroshi Senju is a celebrated Japanese artist. His 'waterfall' series, on exhibition at the art fair, has revived the ancient Japanese technique of painting on handmade rice paper. He makes his own paint from natural materials, the gallery informed me. This picture here is great, but you really have to see the original piece to know how different his treatment is.

Sohan Qadri is an Indian artist, now living in Europe, who paints his visions of deep meditation. A practising Buddhist yogi, his 'Dot' series is beautiful - 'I am a Dot on the tip of the Creator's pen', he says.

Some oxymorons

Mature man
Easy-to-use computers
Political science
Airline food
Business ethics

Future

This week I read Kleptomania, a book of great short stories across many genres. Its a gem of a collection; but couple of stories that got my attention were the sci-fi futuristic ones. They had some brilliant concepts & premises; told from the future but making a statement on today.

'Sharing Air' is an account narrated by a girl somewhere in the future where human beings depend on custom-made air-cylinders & the concept of sharing air with other human beings is alien, even distgusting to them. Yet there is a minority cult which feels that to breathe shared air is to taste real freedom.

'Gandhi-toxin' is a story in the conflict-torn & hatred-ridden future where a scientist re-creates the DNA of Gandhiji. Some hope to conquer the world by injecting this formula in people and spreading pacifism in the enemy camp; but instead get conquered.

These stories create a very bleak & grim vision of tomorrow; but bring out rather simply where we're heading today. Found them fascinating.

While on the subject of futuristic stories, I read this the other day: Indian movie-maker Shekhar Kapur is making a movie called Paani (Water); which is a futuristic satire. His movie is going to be based in Mumbai of 2040 where water becomes a precious currency; a sort of borderline between the have's and have-not's; and a weapon of exploitation. Hmm, can't wait to watch this one! (More on his website.)

Cafe Ceramique

We've got to be the most untalented couple ever...This is what we managed to create in Cafe Ceramique; the ceramique-painting-plus-coffee-n-snacks place on Jumeira Road. H made this jewellery box for me; and I made this pen stand for him. It was great fun being at the cafe and getting our hands dirty in paint :)

What can I say, it wasn't a happy realisation that we don't have enough talent to even make it as amateur ceramique painters; but it was exciting discovering that :)

Blood Diamond

We came out of the movie ‘Blood Diamond’ & didn’t say a word to each other for the first ten minutes. It’s a good movie, but one that haunts you even days after you’ve watched it. The brutality of the civil war, the sheer number of the child soldiers & the scenes of anguish, horror and hopelessness just stay with you.

The movie is staged in Sierra Leone in 1990s, at the beginning of the insurgency against the government to seize control of the diamond mines. The irony strikes you almost immediately…how a country rich in the world’s most precious stones, is one of the poorest countries in the world; how the people killing over these diamond mines have never owned a diamond themselves; how easy it is to believe in the power of the gun in a world where poverty has killed hope & compassion; how a beautiful stone has a story behind it of blood and mass-murder.

A pity Leonardo didn’t win an Oscar for this one…he has done a great job with his character & the Saffie accent (yea, yea).

Some more Khalil Gibran...

He is my absolute favourite poet & writer...Khalil Gibran just had a way with words. This short parable is from the collection 'The Wanderer', and is titled 'Garments':

Upon a day Beauty and Ugliness met on the shore of a sea. And they said to one another, "Let us bathe in the sea." Then they disrobed and swam in the waters. And after a while Ugliness came back to shore and garmented himself with the garments of Beauty and walked away. And Beauty too came out of the sea, and found not her raiment, and she was too shy to be naked, therefore she dressed herself with the raiment of Ugliness. And Beauty walked her way.

And to this very day men and women mistake the one for the other. Yet some there are who have beheld the face of Beauty, and they know her notwithstanding her garments. And some there be who know the face of Ugliness, and the cloth conceals him not from their eyes.

PS: Did you notice that Gibran has portrayed Beauty as a 'her' and Ugliness as a 'him' :)

PPS: Here's an older post on Khalil Gibran, and another one here.

Men really are from Mars

If H & I have a tiff, he would apologise; but if I ask him ‘What exactly are you sorry for?’, he almost never gives the right answer!

Arrgghh, isn’t that more disappointing than not getting an apology?!

Not just Moroccan food

I recommend everyone in Dubai a dinner at Shoo Fee Ma Fee, the Moroccan restaurant in Madinat. Not only because its a good fine-dining experience; but one with a twist.

Moroccan cuisine is a result of the unique geographical location & history of Morocco. You can taste the influences of the African neighbours, of France & Spain across the Mediterranean, of the Arab invaders & Persian settlers.

The mezzes are good, and there is the usual kuskus that goes with most dishes; but if you're in a really adventurous mood try the pigeon pastilla & the camel kaftas (dont make that face yet!!)...both are deserving candidates for the 'things-to-taste-before-you-die' list :)

A Balloon Flight

We went hot-air ballooning in the desert this morning & its the most fun thing I've done in a long time. Being in the sky and looking down on the desert is quite an experience. Its a bit like looking at the sea & its vastness. Its humbling and makes you wonder at the scale of the universe. Here are a few pictures we took...

This is the balloon being inflated & then the take-off on the right: This was the view from 2000 feet. (This is how it would feel to stand on the top floor of the Burj Dubai):
After the desert landscape when we finally saw an oasis below us, some of the women in the balloon went 'aaww!'. It really is brilliant to see that piece of green in the brown. Unfortunately I didnt get a picture of that due to the fog.
Well, this picture is my favourite. Can you spot the shadow our balloon casts on the sand behind? Pretty awesome, isn't it?

What Freedom?

When the nationalists got M F Hussain to apologise for his nude painting of Bharatmata or "Mother India" it really irked me. Not just because I'm a fan of Hussain; but because these hooligans get to decide on everyone's behalf how art and obscenity should be percieved.

What irked me even more was the parallel drawn by the media between the Danish cartoons that were derisive about a religious faith, and this work of art; as a basis of a discussion about freedom of speech & expression. Really, that was wrong on so many levels.

It was only recently that I actually got to see this much-debated-over painting & anybody who thinks that this depiction of 'Mother India' is distasteful, should look harder.

The Inheritance of Loss

I have been reading Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss over the week (a beautiful book by the way; a deserving award winner. )

One of the themes of the book is the plight of the menial worker from the sub-continent struggling to make a living abroad. In Dubai too, this has been the subject of many debates; scores of young men come to Dubai, work in the unyielding summers here, live in cramped lodging, work under unsafe conditions, survive in abject poverty. There are many who say that better human rights enforcement is needed.

But one rarely hears the workers complaining. What competitive advantage do they have but their low wages & attitude of servility? Are they really worse off here than in the famine-struck villages or city-slums that they will be forced to go back to if they lose that advantage? Have they ever been accustomed to clean drinking water or adequate living conditions in the first place? Is the apathy to their safety at work any more hazardous than their being homeless and spending their nights along the highways of Mumbai or Calcutta?

I recalled this from a play written by George Bernard Shaw: "Poverty is the greatest of evils and the worst of crimes....only fools fear crime; we all fear poverty"

Victory Parade

UAE won the football Gulf Cup the first time ever, so there was this huge impromptu victory parade on the weekend. It was very enthusiastic (football is a big deal in this country!) & traffic came to a halt on the main highway of the city for the festive cars to pass. Some of the cars were screen-printed with the faces of the football heroes, some had random graffiti...well tacky, but I think its rather sweet the way winning something (even a regional footfall tournament!) brings so much cheer & togetherness in people.

What are the places to see in Mumbai?

A European colleague asked me, "I'm going to Mumbai for 3 days. What are the places to see there?"

I was stumped. Its my favourite city, my home and I couldn't think of a single place that could be a 'tourist attraction' (Well, the Gateway of India came to mind, but thats not what Mumbai is about).

It was only later I realised that the unique things about Mumbai, which make it a 'must-visit' place are not its high-rises or beaches. I recommended her to visit the VT station on a weekday; a Bollywood movie in a cinema hall; bargain shopping at Colaba Causeway or Chor Bazar; chaat at Chowpati, biryani from Noorani and burji-paav at an Iranian restaurant; crazy rickshaw rides & fearless pedestrians; cows napping on highways; pubs, bars, fine-dining restaurants, kulfi wallas; Ganesh festival & janmashtami pyramids; film-stars' mansions in Juhu & Bandra; fish market by the docks; Jehangir Art Gallery, Prithvi theatre; swanky malls in mill compounds & shops on footpaths. These are the places to see in Mumbai.

The Prestige

Last night, we watched The Prestige. I loved the movie. Its a story of two rival magicians; both obssessed with being the best; their relationships & the sacrifices in their lives (to the finish where the magician kills himself as a cost of the prestige; the final part of a magician's trick). Towards the end, the movie makes a beautiful leap from the logical illusions (being dished out as magic) to the surreal (portrayed ironically, as a scientific invention).

The plot is like a jigsaw puzzle - the movie goes back & forth in time and the crucial piece of the puzzle is revealed in the climax. The moment you get it, you want to watch the movie all over again in the light of that last piece :)