2009... in a few words

fini finis
完成
klaar fertig  
انتهى
skončil gorffen
selesai
alimaliza
críochnaithe
hoàn thành

statement of the year!

Sir John Hunt, cabinet secretary during Margaret Thatcher's tenure:
“Mrs Thatcher will attend the summit as Prime Minister and not as a woman per se."


britspeak never fails!

glocal warming...

from bur(p) dobuy to south dobuy

we have moved.


the spice-scented, bazaar-like lanes of bur(p) dobuy will no longer resonate with the thumping feet of a hungry ba-xi in search of sustenance. for, like hillary, fiennes and mallory, we have ventured forth to newer climes and pastures fresh. south dobuy, or so-du, for the so-ho & so-bo wouldhavebeens.

the verdant, pastoral climes of discovery gardens now have an added charm - herbie and owner. we can be found of an evening pacing the paved paths of the mediterranean enclave [a throwback to imperium romanum...? see attached image].


more on the discovery in posts to come. regrettably the garden is sans eve. we sincerely hope this is but a temporary hiatus - vergio vestalis is not our idea of a pleasant state of being.


visitors welcome. with sustenance.

good intentions are no good!

why are we all getting our chaddis in a twist and wringing our hands that "i havent done enough to make my city safe"?


although well-intentioned, these sentiments are misplaced. the ordinary citizen of any place is NOT equipped to do anything in these situations. nor is he supposed to.


there are agencies, authorities and individuals mandated to police / guard / secure the city. what the ordinary joe or jane [or janardan, to be PC] can do is mount social / political pressure on these agencies to make them do what they are supposed to do.


but at the risk of sounding king-learish, we dont see much hope of large-scale cohesion in bombay - the good folks of the city can't even agree on what to call the city!!!

can we forget?

dobuy survival

now that we are a hardened veteran of nearly 4 years standing in dobuy, herewith a couple of nuggets distilled out of these 4 years:
1. come with money to pay for house rent advances. 2-4-6 aint the new size zero - thats the number of months for which a consolidated rent is demanded depending on the area. and not all companies plump up those kind of advances to new employees who still dont know the right end of a camel from the wrong 'un
2. make friends with at least 2 good real estate brokers. preferably indian. the goras are too spaced out to realise reality (we spoke today to one blonde sounding gal who quoted AED 70k for a studio - 'its in marina'. we are still faint with fright!)

home alone...

forgive us if we indulge in some more pontification on home and travails thereof. caused due to a misguided adventure in the wilds of dubai to a place aptly called 'discovery' garden. it truly had to be discovered - being in the nether region between dobuy and abu dhaba - and unlike eden, had neither eves nor snakes (like i care a dam). nearest laundry: 10 min drive. nearest grocery: 7 min drive. nearest restaurant: 15 min drive. networks not work. we were out like the proverbial scalded rabbit!


the flag shall hopefully continue to fly in bur(p) dobuy for now. visitors welcome!

from home to home

we were home last week. came back home yesterday. therein lies the current confusion in our mind - what, finally, is home? is home where you feel at home or is it where you wish you didnt have to leave from? bombay and dobuy for us throw up this conundrum regularly!


be that as it may, was nice to spend quality time with the parents and avoid all but one close friend. realised that friendship is quite transitory, especially with women. narrowly avoided cyclone phyan (who dreamed up that name?) and rediscovered the pleasure of mom's cooking (not just a song...). returned by biz class so felt rather CEO-ish briefly. spoilt the impression by watching delhi 6 (cant expect anything interesting from someone who spells 'rakesh' as 'rakeysh').


struck zero on the nuptials front. modern trends discourage ladies from going to heathen civilisations like dobuy. but hope burns eternal. now if only that damn shaadi.com membership gets reactivated chop-chop...


ahlan wa-sahlan!

signs of the times...

seen in a times report on the death of stephen gately: 

Mr Dochev, 25, said: "I found Stephen dead and I woke his husband..."

how will the species survive?

cross fertilisation

should i develop a new app called face blog...?

bedouin musings - journey from dobuy to abu dhaba

• dubai to abu dhabi 2 hours. abu dhabi to dubai 90 minutes. or does it seem that way to a homesick dubai fellagha...?
• the pleasure of driving along the expressway cannot be expressed in mere words. since we don't do poetry or other art forms, we shall have to let it pass. but the senses tingle...!
• dhabas needed en route. not mallu garbageterias. alu paratha better than malnese (mallu chinese).
• 2 maseratis, 7 lexus, 9 mercs and assorted minor autoroyalty along the way. we in our crv were like the royal elephant
• fm helps. own music helps more. the beatles, cliff richard, dire straits (no reference to the road), hotel california (on a dark desert highway is quite appropriate), the doors, bob dylan. also shiv kumar sharma, hari prasad chaurasia, nusrat, rahat and hariharan
• good company good. own company tolerable.

bonne conduite!

tracking two trains...

dhow jones index - the dobuy metro

and there you are:
- the world's 1st driverless metro
- the middle east's 1st metro network
- the world's newest rail network


however we will resist the urge to trainspot:
- our car is too new
- bombaywallahs have an inherent suspicion of new & roomy trains
- the camel-to-train transition is still in test mode
                                                      - the nearest station from our home / office is too far to walk to and too
                                                        close to drive to


                                                        but travel in it we will, for that familiar swaying feeling and for the view!

à table!

eid has happened today and our ehtiopia-like situation has been resolved. fasting for a month might seem like a good idea for a lot of people. good luck to them all. we need our 3 squares a day (as well as several other shapes in the course of a normal day). our rather circular silhouette bears testimony to this!


we are looking forward to the table groaning under the weight of viands, victuals and vin...

dobuy driving travails

we have been considering posting on the travails that gentlefolk go through in getting a driving license in dobuy. put it off till the piece o'plastic was safely in our wallet. now that it is, and we are wheeled (as it were), here goes:

1. driving schools in dobuy are a means to sponsor bollywood fraternal visits. fees for every little thing, which are thrown at one like pellets from an air rifle.

2. most instructors are from around the khyber pass and wouldnt recognise a metalled road if it hit them (or vice versa).

3. most training cars are nissan sunnys. which is like learning about sex from mills and boon.

4. no trainees are allowed on SZR. imagine the terror of a freshly blooded driver when he sets wheels onto this road and finds 6 lanes of sheer frenzy. statistically the maximum accidents in dobuy are on this road, caused by 1st timers crouched under the dashboard in utter panic.

5. 30 minute classes are of no use.

6. inspectors annotate the driving test sheet in arabic. getting someone to translate and then understand what "you drive loose" means is ulcer-inducing.

7. most driving schools are manned by folk from a certain island nation of south-east asia whose name is similar to that of the king-consort of england. these folks labour under an average iq of 2 and deserve to be flattened further.

more later. keep driving.

dobuy quirks

seen recently in dobuy. we werent aware that habits were advertised quite so openly. signs of badvertising? or is this a sign of big brother dictating, in a generally very tolerant oasis?

Bah! rain?!

well thats how the locals pronounce it!

we spent 2 days in the kingdom of bahrain. though we are no apologists for a monarchical system, 'kingdom of bahrain' does have a rather regal air to it. now if it would only rain there! a chilled beer would have gone down right nicely but alcobevs are off the market due to the current month. wonder how the us navy's fifth fleet is taking it... the indian influence seems stronger than in the uae - more indian brands visible for instance. no doubt due to a strong trading relationship with yonder shores since several hundred years. cant avoid the natives can we?! perhaps the next trip will be more useful and enriched with photography...

our first bought

this is herbie. our first bought. she has completed 1 month and has already stepped far and wide (2 trips to abu dhabi). this post also signals the start of an occasional series on driving in dobuy - from travails to travels. stay logged on.

culinary revolt

after nearly 3 years of palate bashing, we have finally decided to revolt against the overbearing presence in dobuy of cuisine from the malabar coast! never has food been so tortured as in this cuisine, and the agony is exacerbated by the utterly crude and undignified manner in which the staff of every restaurant of this region treat customers! the only redeeming feature of this heathen cuisine from a barbaric origin was its ubiquity and cost. good for a homesick malabar man but not good enough for us.

will anjan chatterjee please take note...

dilemmas, on horns of

we wonder if fb is the antithesis of a blog. we have logged more hours on fb than on our blog. and there have been noteworthy happenings here in dobuy... car, for one. and liberty of space and thought thereby.

of course the old excuse of too much work and too little screen time can, and will, be trotted out in our defence. so all ye who mutter dark threats under your breath, know that we were kin to samson / ben hur / uncle tom et al.

we will return on the morrow...

Why we like the Beeb...

so quoth the Beeb:

Some place names suffer from a form of irritable vowel syndrome, documented by linguistics experts as the Great Vowel Shift of the Middle Ages

Hindland!

the following item appeared in today's Gulf News here in DoBuy on the occasion of the Queen's 83^rd birthday: "…Authentic British fare was on offer including fish and chips, roast beef, bangers and mash and chicken tikka masala."

janmadin mubarak, ma'am!

culture conundrums

one of those quirky bits of information that pop up during one's late shift at work.
when you do a google.ae search for 'identical twins in dubai', the first 5 links talk about... camel twins!

wonder if the obsession with 'leggy young things' also has a different connotation in DoBuy...!?

and finally would macbeth have talked about the milk of camel kindness?

oxymoron of the day...

"corrective rape"
referred to in various media articles in recent days about the prevalance of this practise in south africa to 'cure' certain mating preferences.

and the south african government has obfuscated in classic style: "While hate crimes – especially of a sexual nature – are rife, it is not something that the South African government has prioritised as a specific project." (South Africa's national prosecuting authority )

nice.

quantitative easing

sounds like an enema for the financial system! robert cole of the times describes it as "A posh way of referring to the process of printing money. It is a horrible piece of jargon..." (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article5753844.ece).

if only our personal financial woes could be solved as easily!

ides of march

for those readers misguided enough to wander past this blog! we refrained from posting out of sympathy for people's sensibilities. but we think that abstinence is a crime and hence we are back like hopeless addicts! besides after a month's holiday at home the batteries are supposed to be recharged and what better way to check than through a well drafted post...

Obamaguration

the defining soundbyte of the show: breathless BBC presenter to colleague:
"Rajesh he's getting out! President Obama IS getting out of his CAR".

whatever happened to the stiff upper lip...?