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!