Sacred Games

Although I wouldn’t count it among my favourite books, I quite enjoyed reading ‘Shantaram’ last year; mostly for its close-up view of the politics of the infamous-yet-awe-inspiring Mumbai underworld.

Bollywood has always glamourised tales of ‘poor-man-turned-powerful’ as well as ‘don-with-ethics’; told umpteen times in the 80s mostly with Amitabh portraying a diamond-smuggler; and lately there have been good mafia movies like Company & Sarkar. However the underworld has rarely shown up in good Indian literature (or maybe I missed those books).

Last week I borrowed Vikram Chandra’s ‘Sacred Games’ from a friend and I’m only half-way through the book now, but I already like the way the author has dealt with the theme. The food-chains in the mafia, the police force, political parties & even Bollywood are portrayed as flesh-and-blood persons. The power struggle, corruption & politics of it all make a gripping story, but they’re only secondary. The characters make this book worth reading. They all look, feel & smell like Mumbai.

PS: Have you noticed how Indian authors & movie-makers have suddenly become cool about the usage of hindi profanities? :)

Just Another Thought

We sat in silence one day & I realised,
'Silence' need not be the lack of words;
It could often speak truth instead of babble.

I saw a soaring dove one day & I realised,
'White' need not be the lack of colours;
it could often be the union of all the vibrant ones.

I saw a girl reading one day & I realised,
'Solitude' need not be the lack of people;
It could often be time spent with yourself.

I smiled to myself today & I realised,
'Bliss' need not be the lack of troubles;
It often is a constellation of happy moments.

The Arithmetic of Life and Death

I bought a delightful little book the other day called "The Arithmetic of Life & Death" written by mathematician George Shaffner. Its a book which approaches arithmetic the way 'Freakonomics' approached economics (although this book came about much before Freakonomics). Its simple, meant for lay-men, and seeks to explain the world & its ways through math. Well, I thought most of the arguments in the book were too simplistic, but I didnt mind reading them because they were quite interesting.

What I did love about the book was the wit & humour. This is the opening line of the book..."Since six billion people now occupy the planet earth, one could conclude that human life is as common as dirt in Denmark".

Hubble Telescope Pictures

I saw these pictures of the space taken from the Hubble Space Telescope & I was so amazed & astonished by them, I just had to post them. It's not that I didn’t know that the universe is massive, but to see it captured on camera is something else!

This picture is of the Sombrero Galaxy, which has 800 billion suns & 50,000 light years wide. Unbelievable! One of those rare occassions when we feel proud of being the most intelligent species on the planet!

PS: Would the 'God's Eye View' of the universe look like this?

Update: This picture also reminds me of one of the fables I'd read in a Khalil Gibran book:
A fish said to another fish, "Above this sea of ours there is another sea, with creatures swimming in it -- and they live there even as we live here." The fish replied, "Pure fancy! Pure fancy! When you know that everything that leaves our sea by even an inch, and stays out of it, dies. What proof have you of other lives in other seas?"

WOMAD Festival in Singapore

Had an interesting weekend; we watched the WOMAD concert. WOMAD stands for 'World of Music Arts and Dance' and is an annual festival hosted in many parts of the world. Singapore is the only location in Asia where the festival travels to.

We enjoyed listening to some non-mainstream music from across the world. The representation from the sub-continent included 'The Dhol Foundation' which is a Punjabi-Brit band of two drummers (their 'dhol workshop' was fun). Other interesting gigs included an Israeli band which got the crowd to sing in Hebrew (!!), a Japanese folk-rock band, and a band from Senegal with its catchy African tunes.

The evening got me thinking: isn't there a common bond between all of us that runs deeper than all the cultural & other differences?

The King & I

'The King & I' is one of the longest running musicals on Broadway; and we were lucky to catch the play on its Singapore tour last night. I had seen the movie version- ‘Anna & the King’ starring Jodie Foster- but the play had a different charm. The costumes were breathtaking, the Thai dances were beautiful and elegant, the actors (especially the girl who plays Anna) had great singing & acting talent; and some of the lines had first-rate wit & humour.

What made the evening special was also the fact that this was our first visit to the massive ‘Esplanade Theatre’ of Singapore. The theater is grand from inside & architecturally impressive from the outside (its made to resemble a durian, I'm told).

Nostalgia

I remember the days back then
the postman used to come around ten
& drop envelopes with letters in them.

Stamp of the place from where the letter came
hinting towards the sender's name
& the scent of travels endured since then.

I remember the anticipation in my head
till the letter was opened and read; re-read
it was so difficult not to run ahead :)

What spoke from the letter weren't just words
the perfume, the paper, the handwriting spoke two-thirds
completed by the stains of tears absurd.

Crossed out what was felt but couldn’t be said
then again, wrote again; carefully tread
after all veils cant be completely shed.

Once the letter was signed & ready to go
what was earlier neglected was added in the 'P.S.' below
grateful to the margins that allowed the letter to grow.

Now of course we're in the 'e-mail' times
they're quick, clinical and used often times
but dont we miss the postman sometimes?

Dont you agree?

I saw these words on one of the walls of the 'Singapore Art Museum' ...

Homesick

I wonder as I look back at the footprints I've left behind;

How the grains of sand cling to my feet;
from the places I left behind.

With every step forward, the sand makes patterns on my feet;
from the places I left behind.

The people I met; the friends I loved; the life I lived;
from the places I left behind.

Amongst Men A Man

We've moved from the hotel to a serviced apartment (until we move into a regular apartment on September 1st). The serviced apartment happens to be right next to the 'Singapore Art Museum' & I like wandering into it....its got a pretty interesting collection of modern art. This one below is titled 'Amongst Men A Man'.

Old Hill Street Police Station

This is one of Singapore's older buildings. It used to be a police station in 1930s; it is now home to the ministries of information, communication & arts. I love the colourful window panes!

Botanical Art

The other day we were walking along the Botanical Gardens of Singapore, when I came across these sculptures made out of stumps of tree trunks; and I thought they were quite groovy.

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.