Wet sand?

the rain in Dubai can be a funny thing. when a region gets a maximum rainfall of something like 30 mm annually, you tend to forget what rain feels like, smells like and more importantly the havoc it can create!

however, a 30-minute drizzle (as seen from my office alongside) two days ago led to some 700 minor accidents across Dubai! it also led to some strange sights (for Dubai)- puddles of water, people with umbrellas, wet shoe marks on pristine marble flooring...

but the weather has been beautiful, with cool winds and temps in the mid-teens. cloudy, grey skies provide a welcome relief to never-ending sunny and cloudless days. and also set the mood for a single malt come the eve.

desktop criticism

faithful readers have complained that my postings are not true to the spirit of this blog. said readers feel that i should write more about life in araby and not publish guff downloaded from some site (with due credits of course).

point noted. shall endeavour to spread more sand. but exercising my right to creative walkabouts, i shall continue posting points of general interest & flavour.

after all, no one ever talks about reader's block.

a holothurian or femella as a pet?

would u care to have this as your pet:







Excerpt from The Times: The creatures, also called sea cucumbers, or bêches-de-mer in French and namako in Japanese, are one of the items on Asian menus that Westerners often find most difficult to swallow. Known to scientists as holothurians, they resemble bloated brown sausages studded with warts. They scavenge from the sea floor, catching plankton and ocean debris in their tentacles. When alarmed by predators, they react first by firing sticky threads, and then by vomiting their internal organs, which later regrow. As if that wasn’t enough, they breathe through their anuses.
but taking a buddhist perspective (of all living creatures having SOME use), people of far-east asian ethnicity consider this as a delicacy, best had boiled and dried (perhaps with a spot of chutney on the side). bet no japanese kid yells if he has to eat broccoli...

as for me, i would rather have THIS as my pet:

GarageWare

VCs have always pored over balance-sheets, burn rates, IRRs, ROIs, blah blah blah & blah. this is esp true for investments in software / IT startups. but methinks VCs should also bring in real estate consultants when they analyse a funding proposal. for garages seem to loom large in these software successes. YouTube (the latest money machine, taken over by Google some time back) is just another startup that was founded and initially run from someone's garage.
so i have an idea: identify all the available garages in a given market (especially in California & China), buy them up and rent them out to wannabe software moguls. eventually corner the world garage market, and set up a consultancy to advise these moguls on the ideal garage to rent. this new input to the software indutry will be called garageware, and a new company will be set up to run this business. the company will be called GarageDoors, and will have Windows.
remember u read about this here first!
more on the biz plan later.

random pensées

just to get back into the groove as it were. diarists in times past used quills, reed and wood to fashion their writing instruments. the modern diarist uses the keyboard. is that writing? or is that data entry (i dataentered this blog on thursday...).

news today of a neighbour's death from over-indulgence in the demon brew. the 2nd in his family to be killed thus. this family is a microcosm of a larger economic context - a vicious circle of poverty, big-city aspirations, minimal education and a grinding inability to bring in resources to get out of this circle. leading to escapism, a denial of reality.
had spent some pleasant times as a boy with this man. and i will always be grateful to this family for making me develop a more rounded perspective. and also because seeing their situation helped me stay rooted to a hard reality - life CAN be unfair. so make the most of it while it is.

have developed this funny craving for chelo kebabs. thankfully, staying in dxb ensures access to this most sinful of delicacies, first experienced in a bombay eatery whose fame and recall just highlight the fact that PR can do wonders, even without underlying substance.

consistency

the gap atwixt my posts is steady at 6 weeks - remarkable consistency for a gemini.
this gap has seen a lot - the passing of a loved relative, rather severe ill-health, post-campaign stress disorder and nervous jitters brought on by the fact that there was nothing to be nervous about.
am told by the local bedouin that adjustment to the summer heat here takes a while. and hence the ups and downs. thrilled me no end to hear that.
but the ramadaan feasts have helped improve morale! more on this in the next post!
till then, festina lente!

Time n tide wait for no man (perhaps ariel does)

this matter of posting posts... a blog cant be a blog unless it's updated regularly. (dead blog: log). and there have been the odd grumblings of discontent from loyal readers (2 at last count) at the lack of new content. To them, and to future LRs, apologies and a promise to be more regular.

Cherrabay!

a year ago today après moi le déluge became a reality for bombay. bombay survived. battered, bruised and wet behind the ears & elsewhere. but alive and open for business. unlike the namesake town of the supposed author of the quote.
plan to open a very dry wine tonight to salute those who battled & won, battled & lost. and a friend who provided shelter and entertainment in his car for 19 hours.
this day last year i could not imagine that exactly one year later i would be sweltering in 48 deg heat. in a country where average monthly rainfall is 7mm. such are the vagaries of life...

in memory...

We are all British!!

Hillary Rodham Clinton traces her origins to the same part of northeast England as George Washington, the first president of the United States.

The great-great-grandfather of George Clooney, the actor, emigrated from Ireland and became a jeweller.

President George W. Bush is connected by one blood line to Wild Bill Hickock, the western gunfighter. (Blood SHOULD spill if this news really gets about.)

Tom Cruise traces his roots to a Welshman who emigrated to Kentucky in 1850.
(His real is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. He has all our sympathies. Must have really annoyed his parents.)

Tom Hanks, the actor, is distantly related to Abraham Lincoln. (wonder if thats the inspiration for the beard in Castaway).

(since my parents were technically british till independance, i wonder if i can claim british ancestry... any light on this will help my move to the mother country!)

Swallows in summer too...

Monica Lewinsky is in the London School Of Economics...

Champagne - Coventry - Chandigarh

A guide to those misguided souls who think champers should be uncorked with a loud POP, and let the precious fluid spurt away, to be soaked up by carpets and divers other non-appreciative receptacles.

Scientists at Coventry University have developed a mathematical formula which enables people to uncork the bottle without wasting even a single drop of champagne.The formula, which has been named "Smith's Law" after its founder, Dr. Steve Smith, is P = T / 4.5 + 1, where P stands for pressure and T indicates the temperature. It is based on the well-known fact that the pressure in a typical bottle of champagne at room temperature is equivalent to the pressure of a double - decker bus tyre. As per the formula to stop the cork from flying off, the temperature of the liquid should be between 5C and 7C, which means that the pressure will be 2 to 2.5 atmospheres, a third lower than when the bottle is at room temperature.The researcher says that keeping the temperature right is the most important thing as if you get the temperature right, the pressure will be right and you will be able to enjoy the champagne at its best.

A thought: cricket, that most english of pursuits, celebrates victories big and small with champagne, that most french of philosophies. However, that does not explain the ludicrity (does that exist) of a milk-drinking jat popping open a taittinger at the conclusion of a certain epic battle in 1978. At Lord's.

The incredible lightness of being

an accidental look at my weight the other day made me wobble with fright - 100 kgs and counting! called for prompt action through the correct channels. a pizza later, decided to do the GM diet.
at conclusion yesterday, i was hoping to bounce along the asphalt, pounds lighter. tho not too much avoirdupois has been shed, i AM feeling a bit cleaner (internally, as it were) and am planning to do this diet once more.
the only fly in the ointment is the preponderance of fruits in the thing; fruits being one thing at which i look askance. am more the meat and veg types...
attached pic shows effect of day 4: 3 glasses milk & 8 bananas...

By the way....

what do birds and bees talk about....?

Go to Hell!

On the Day of The Devil (according to popular custom), thought would pitch in to help drive tourist traffic to this little town in Michigan, USA. Around since 13 October 1841, with a permanent pop. of 72. Joins other American towns and cities with names that defy logic - Arab, Intercourse (Alabama), Unalaska (Alaska), Allah (Arizona), Yellville (Arkansas), and so on and so back. For more pointless city names in a rather pointless country refer to http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Pointless/Cities.html.

Was planning to go see The DV Code today - devils day and what have you. ticket cost (AED 30) and a tendency to fall asleep in my coffee (result of being at client's service till 4 in the morn two days running) forced me to change plans. shall festina lente and put up the feet with a pipe tonight instead. with a stiffish G n T.

the Dubai dacha and environs

in kitchen after succesfully boiling water

Kunal (house mate) n self in the lawn.
when elephants dance, the grass is trampled
(old ba-xi saying)







1 Bakhit Villa from a distance.
Bakhit's Buckets on thu nights.

the long and winding road...

we are back

apologies to myself (since i seem to be the only reading my blog!). a two month gap cannot be attributed to mere writer's block!
these two months have seen a lot of action - more work, an unexpected trip home, a birthday and a raise at work!
helios seems to be in his element these days, and the weather is manna for sun-block makers et al. native wisdom (i.e. the gardener at home) has it that temperatures in June are likely to hit 49 deg c. time to break out the bikinis....
this post is by way of getting my hand back in. stand by for more...

I'll have an irish

esp since the following laws, extant since 1100 a.d. will be repealed soon:
1. the denial of a citizen’s right to adulterate coffee with sheep dung.
2. the burning of witches at the stake.
3. the entertainment of crowds with tiger fights.
4. Tippling Act 1735, which prohibits a publican from pursuing a customer for money owed for any drink given on credit.
5. Assizes of Arms (1181) forbids Jewish people from owning armour.
6. An Act of 1421 provides for the “Pope’s sanction to a crusade against the Irish enemies to be sought”.
7. An Act of 1360 makes provisions “against people associating with the Irish, using their language, or sending children to be nursed among them”.
8. an Act in 1366 forbidding the English from marrying Irish people.(passed by the parliament in Kilkenny)

thot nuts existed in brazil alone, but obviously they are more geographiclly spread.

ah weel, go n-eiri leat.

Saath, samundar paar

The Gang Of Four at 1, Bakhit Villas, Garhoud, Dubai

Doctor, heel, thyself

Government doctors in Maharashtra on strike.
Government sacks them.
Government advertises to fill up vacant posts.
Striking doctors apply.
Government selects them.
Striking doctors refuse to join work because they are on strike.

elegantly confusing. confucius would have approved.

jalsa ghar

a house-warmer last weekend at which brave gentlemen and fair ladies wended their way to 1 Bakhit Villas, al Garhoud. the stuff flowed like the tigris, and mountains (pisgah not everest) of food were scarfed down. some photos....

PC @ CP

Thats Pierre Cardin at Cut Price. Had to buy a blazer chop chop and peering out of the window for inspiration found a Pierre Cardin Store with signs screaming "upto 75% off". Popped in to have a dekko and came away with a blazer at Dhs 300 against an MRP of Dhs 1390. Also set of 3 Ted Lapidus silk ties at Dhs 90 for the lot (Dhs 660). Original stuff no worries. Not a bad day's work, think I.

All this for a media party with a twist - dress code "formal". Wonder if well-pressed jeans and a clean tee qualify as "formals"...

Ignored the Indian budget for the first time in a decade. The benefits of living in a tax-free zone. Apparently nothing earth shaking like "Income tax reduced to 1%". Perhaps the title of this blog could be applied to our Finance Min too...?

Its been dry since three days and early mornings are rather nice. None of that "glorious dew 'pon the rose petals" stuff but cool enough to revel.

Desert, anyone?

'tis wet, windy and woebegone outside. always thought that dubai was on or near a desert. one lives and learns. maybe all the construction is pushing back the sand (20% of the world's construction cranes are in Dubai).
Funny to watch people handle the rain here. Traffic alerts every minute on FM, slick roads, cars crawling at 40 kmph instead of 140, people calling in late or not coming in at all... and all this only after 5 mm of rain! wonder what they would do with 900 mm of the stuff. probably sink wells...
This is the second rain in as many days here, and more expected over the weekend.
Seems the desert safari is one of the must-dos here. Perhaps when it stops raining.....

Dubai: first thoughts and observations

this shall be by way of maintaining as daily a journal as possible of my stay in Dubai - the land of the twist and sheikh. while no commercial motive has as yet been ascribed to this exercise, i am not averse to the occasional donation (bank account to be informed later) for victuals to keep up my strength.

readers are welcome to post their comments / suggestions / advice / et al, which may or may not be read / actioned / welcome.

the aim of this blog is to amuse / entertain / inform and insha'llah that is what it shall be!

tally ho and may the journey never end!