Driving through Dubai

Where There Are Planes and Men who Sweat a Lot!

So I went to the Air Show.

No, I didn't buy a plane cos, well... I wouldn't know where to park it!

My colleague and I got entry and lunch passes from my manager ( a bribe for attending a super-boring conference) plus he let us go home at noon on a Thursday afternoon so that we'd be in time for the show.

We thought it was a good deal till we went there and realized that every single person in Dubai also had tickets and getting in was harder than getting first-day first-show tickets to Om Shanti Om, which, btw, is a mediocre movie at best, but I had fun cos I went with a crazy bunch of friends and we cat-called and danced and made the whole thing a lot more interesting than it actually was.

Anywayyy...

On the way there I saw a man standing outside the Airport Expo on his car and shooting the whole show on his camcorder! I guess he thought it'd be better than trying to get in!

Which was true! Cos it took us over an hour to get in and the whole process was just awwwful! We had to stand in a long serpentine line that refused to move forward. And it was hot and I realized that men sweat a LOT more than women for some reason!

And after sweating like pigs, they made them take their shoes off at the metal dectector place, right before entering, so the whole place was stinking something awful and I almost passed out! Talk about weapons of mass destruction!

Another weird thing about the whole "metal detecting" procedure... they made us remove every single item that we had on us... from belts to shoes to bags to wallets, except for our clothes.

Yet they forgot to ask me to take my watch off! Which is made almost entirely of metal! And the weird thing was... the detector did not go off!

So much for security eh?!

Anyway... we got to the place where we were to have lunch but lunch was long over... so we settled for drinks ( I had two glasses of Chardonnay) and watched the rest of the show, which I felt was totally not worth the effort, though it was very good I suppose.

I only had my cell-phone camera, so the pics weren't very good. But here's one of them:

I was so exhausted by the end of it all (and a little tipsy from the wine) that I just went straight to bed.

My last thought before I fell alseep was " My boss must HATE me!"

(all??) Men!

Guy at work slams the phone down and starts muttering

Him: Such irritating people!
Me: Who?!
Him: Wives!

He is only 25 years old and just got married a few months ago to his girlfriend of TEN years!! (crazy!!!)

Me: So this is what happens with marriages huh?

Him: Actually! She’s so bugging! Keeps talking about how I used to be in the past and how I’ve changed now.
She doesn’t realize… Tab pataane ka tha! Ab toh pat chuki hai!

It's been a while.


But sometimes there are so many things happening in your life that you don't know where to start. Blogging used to be topmost in my priorities a few years back. But now it isn't.


I guess it's mainly because I don't seem to need a medium to vent, which is basically what this was. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the rush of emotions I feel with the things happening in my day-to-day life, but talking about it doesn't seem to help.


The other day, it took me two hours to get to work because of the traffic.

Now usually, in Dubai, traffic is because of some accident or the other.


But last Sunday (which is the beginning of the week here in the Middle East and not a weekend) the traffic on Sheikh Zayed road was reportedly due to a film being shot near the Crowne Plaza!

Now who in their right minds would permit people to shoot a movie in rush hour traffic on a weekday?!


And what about the other main highway? The Emirates Road?

For one thing, there were several accidents on that one.

Plus the cops had completely blocked off one road leading to the free zone in Jebel Ali.
They would just re-direct you to another road, they didn't care where you went. And they wouldn't tell you why either.


I heard later on that a bunch of labourers had gone on strike and they'd gotten so violent that they had overturned the police vehicle that had been sent there to disperse the gathering.


They were on strike to protest a cut in their pay.
Apparently, they were just being paid 800 AED in the beginning, and then their pay was reduced to just 500 AED. How anyone can live in the UAE for just 800 AED is mind-boggling. To be asked to survive on 500 is just adding insult to injury.


The real estate business here is extremely competitive. And when each company bids for a project, what with most of them having the same kind of proposal to offer as far as quality and lead times as concerned, the only way these companies have any advantage over one another is on pricing. And since they cannot cut down on resources like building material, engineers etc. they cut down on the easiest thing possible - the labourers' paltry paychecks.



The workers here are are all from third-world countries and if you listen to their stories, your heart will break from the drudgery and the hopelessness of it all.


I have seen labourers working during the night (at 2 am even) and day and I've seen them doing the most dangerous of tasks- scaling tall scaffolds with nothing but a helmet, digging deep trenches... and the most dangerous one of all as far as I'm concerned... waving a red flag on a busy highway to warn oncoming traffic of road-work being carried out. Which is pitiful.


Can such a rich country not afford to pay for decent accomodation and wages for these people?
For the people who are building this country from a desert into what they claim is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world?

Life update (minus juicy details)

I've just returned from a trip to Kerala.
I'd gone to get some ayurvedic treatment done for my shoulders and neck. They've been hurting for a while now ( doc says cos I'm using the computer too much, but I'm in bloody I.T! How can I not use the pc?!)

The treatment did not go well unfortunately.
I don't wanna go into details, the pain is still there and I'm looking around for some good yoga classes in dubai, so if anyone knows of anyplace good, lemme know please! (and don't gimme some place in freakin Jumeirah or wherever, cos doc says I shouldn't drive too much either!)

I'm dead tired. My mum is in India with my sis now and it's just me and my dad.
And my dad is not the best of cooks, although he isn't the worst, I gotta admit! But he can eat the SAME thing for weeks without tiring of it, which I cannot do! (and the weirdest combinations too! I mean, who the heck has bread and aviyal??! For breakfast?!!)

Plus,my dad doesn't like the kinda stuff that I cook, cos I know how to cook more north Indian stuff than south Indian ( as my roomies in delhi were the ones who first taught me how to cook). So this time when I went to Kerala, I wrote down a bunch of mallu recipes with clear, precise instructions from mum (add 2tsp garam masala beta, that's the one in the dabba with the purple lid) and tried a few things in India and even taught my mum how to make northy stuff.

Also met with an old friend from college, whose three and a half year old daugther fell in love with me! ( How could she not?I'm so lovable na! ;o) )

So all in all, except for the botched-up Auyrvedic treatment, the trip was quite fun!

Anyway, back to cooking.
The thing is, cooking is a whole lot easier when you're not hungry and tired as hell and all you really wanna do is just jump into bed and sleep till midday. (from midnight of course, in case you're the anal type.)

but I came back from work and cooked! And even though I only made dal-chawal (too tired to make southy stuff, they're way too complicated) I was so tired that I didn't have the energy to eat it. (could be bcos I spilled water and then had to clean up the damn kitchen as well, but whatever!)

So I heated some milk, added a little sugar and a stick of cinnamon to it, and that was dinner.
It tasted reaaaal nice btw.

And now I feel nice and warm and sleepy. So I'm gonna go to bed.
Update complete!

My sister has gone to India for "higher" studies. My mother has gone with her.

They were supposed to come here to visit on the 24th this month as she's got her Onam holidays.

I was talking to her last week... Chech, when you come to pick me up at the airport, could you please get me a shawarma from that Lebanese place we used to go to?

I got a call at 4:30 am today. I was sleeping of course. When I talked to her, she was crying.

My stomach hurts Chech. I don't know what to do. It's hurting so bad!

I called my uncle immediately and he said he'll take care of it.
I called sis again and spoke to her to calm her down till my uncle came. He lives on the 2nd floor and my mum and sis on the 3rd of the same apartment complex, so he came in about 5 mins.

They ( sis, uncle and my mother) went to the hospital and the doc said she's got appendicitis. They took her into surgery and she's in post-op now. She's fine. Sleeping.

I talked to her before they took her into surgery. It wasn't hurting anymore cos they'd given her pain-killers I guess.
She was chirpy and feeling all important cos everyone was fussing around her.
I guess she felt even more so when I said I was going to fly down to see her.

No Chech! I'm fine. Don't come, I'll see you on Friday anyway.

She got off the phone and my uncle called about 5 mins later. She can't come. She isn't allowed to travel for about 10 days after they take the stitches off and after that her Onam vacation gets over and she'll have to go back to college.

The original plan was for me to go back with my sis and mum to Kerala for about 2 weeks. So I've already taken leave for September and I'll be seeing her anyway.

But I want to go now. And see her and be with her.
But for various reasons, I'm not going. And if you look at it 'logically', I suppose it's not necessary.
But I miss her terribly. And I feel helpless and useless.

And now... for the first time... I understand why parents worry about their kids being alone in the world.

Do Not Disturb

I won't go to the store at 3 am, but I'll go there first thing in the morning, buy the book, come back straight home, turn off my phone, ignore the world and read till it's over.

Anyone else a Harry Potter fan?

Someone like a Mom

I don't usually like people who don't like me.

My mum's no exception I guess.
Oh please! I'm old enough to know that all-mothers-love-their-children is all bull.

My mum does not like me.
She's got her own reasons for it.
She was fine when I was smaller. But then I grew up and ended up having a few opinions of my own, which were quite different from the kind of ideas she had.
I was too independent, I wouldn't get married to the man she chose, I ask too many questions, I thought differently from anyone else she knew in her life... her list is endless.
To be fair, so is mine.

I've tried to patch things up, but she isn't really interested. And I'm someone who has very little patience.
So that effectively ended it.
A long and useless relationship.

Now we just suffer each other.
And I'm okay with it too.


Except sometimes... when I'm feeling kinda low... I wish there was someone like a mom to hug me and tell me she loves me anyway.

Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears. In the end that's all we have -- to hold on tight until the dawn.

Shantaram
Last lines, chapter 2

Just when you think you've got things sorted out...

... you realize some things can never be sorted again.

Thursday Night

We went to Vu's Bar on Thursday.

Needless to say, the view was absolutely fantastic! It'd been some time since I had been even near anything alcoholic and I got drunk pretty fast (I also blame the altitude), but it was just as well, as it's quite an expensive place!

There were 5 of us, and when we got there we found the place was full and there were no tables free. Also, they didn't have any waiters there, only waitresses.

Soooo... for the first time in my life, I flirted with a girl!

"Haaii! Umm... Do you think you could get us a table for 5 for my friends and me?"

*wiiide smile*

"Oh I'm so sorry ma'am, all the tables are filled right now."

*very small pout* ( with women, I'm thinking you shouldn't overdo the pout, cos they'd get wise to you immediately)

"Aw okayyyy! But could you give me the next free table please"?

Oddly enough, it worked! :D

We got the next free table and we all celebrated with sambucca shots (which had a few coffee beans in it, for some odd reason. Can anyone tell me why?!)

I proceeded to get good and drunk and after a few drunken phone calls I was singing and swaying to the music and in extremely high spirits (pun intended).

Around 1 am, we all got hungry and decided to go to the madinat to get something to eat. Unfortunately, none of the places were open for dinner at the time. So we went to this small Lebanese joint in Karama called Al Reem, and gorged on some delicious cheese and meat manakeesh and I finally stumbled home around 2: 30am.

This is one of the pics I took when I was drunk and up there.

Ok ok, I know you can hardly see anything, but humour me. It's taken on my cell-phone camera and I was very drunk.

Maybe next time I'll get some better pics. :P

Lost

Another one to add to my list of “Things I’ve Lost”

My credit card.

*sigh*

Now how did it happen?
I don’t exactly know, but if I had to guess… I’d blame it on my car.

See, when I checked my account history on the website to see if the card was stolen (this was on the 12th of June, *ahem* that was when I realized that I’d lost my card in the first place, till then I always just used my other and assumed that the one I lost was just inside my wallet somewhere) I saw that the last transaction I’d made was on the 5th of June, at ENOC, to buy petrol.

Which means, I paid for the petrol, signed, took my card and (I think I must have) put it on the passenger seat instead of inside my bag (I know I know, I shouldn't have done that) and then the card fell into the Bermuda Triangle that seems to exist somewhere in my car (I’ve lost my lip-gloss and comb to it before).

I think that’s how it happened. But of course, I can never be sure.
I’ve blocked the card and they’re sending me a new one soon enough. So it should be alright I suppose.

Except I know what’s going to happen next.
I'm going to get my new card, and then the old one will turn up.

Murphy’s Law , don’t you know?

In Kerala

yup. i'm in kerala.

my folks got here early, so i was on my own in dxb for close to 3 weeks. which was goooooooood. :o)

and now i'm in india. all sick with cold and cough (which happens EVERYtime i come to india, for some odd reason) but i've had sooo much FUN here, which i totally did NOT expect.

what i expected was to be forced to "see" odd mallu men and be coaxed to get married to one or the other or explain what exactly my "intentions" were. But my uncle (who's The Boss of the family) has given strict instructions to everrrrryone (including my parents) to leave me well alone, and that i can choose to marry whenever i want to and whomever i want to.
:D
which is cool.

So i've been travelling in and around kerala a lot, finally being able to admire the beauty of this place (which i never realizedb efore as i was always sullen and angry about the marriage thing), eating deelicious food from amazing restaurants and generally having fun with my cousins (who have flown down from the u.k. on holiday) and sister.

i've met with my old friends from college. one of them had come down from Bangalore, and when she came into my house... I didn't even feel like I was "meeting her" again after so long or anything...it was so norrrmal, and that felt soo good!

This visit is so far one of my best visits to Kerala.

I've learned to like the place.

I've discovered my family is actually quite fun and i feel for them more than i thought i do.

I've learned that old friends are the bestttt!

and... I've learned that MEN ARE ALL THE SAME (this is directed at ONE particular man who will be reading this post, whenever
he reads this post. so no, i won't explain further, and yes, Mr. Man, you're in Trouble. i don't care for your excuses!)

Trigger for Happiness

I was all normal-like... driving home.
And then the RJ played dekha jo tujhe yar dil mein naji guitar...

I KNOW it's a comPLEtely silly maamu kinda song. And I HATTED it when I first heard it, but now whenever I listen to it, my feet start tap-tapping and I can't help but dance. :D (go on K! Call me a plebian! I don't care!)

So this guy (the RJ) had me dancing around ( if anyone driving on the Shk. Zayed Rd last Tuesday saw a crazy girl in the car who was jumping around...hi! that was me :D) all the way home, and once I got home, I went online and started listening to all the desi dance numbers.

Which brought me to Fanaa from Yuva.
Which took me to Khuda Hafiz... which took me all the way back to Delhi..to when I used to wake up late in the afternoon during the hot summers there. I used to stay in Hauz Khas at the time, near the market.

There was this place there where they used to sell ready-made chicken curry. I used to buy that and brown bread and heat it in the stove and that was lunch. That and kesar-flavoured milk.

I would get a book from the library (and by "library" I mean a guy at a wayside stall with a bunch of second-hand books that I could rent for a couple of bucks a day)
I would get back and have toast and chicken all set for lunch, and when I turned on the TV, Khuda Hafiz would be on a lot at the time.

I was seeing R at the time, but this memrory of mine is just of me, alone.

My little bubble of happiness. Where I was content with my own company without really realizing it.
I'm not sure if I love the song so much for the memories it evokes or cos it's just such an awesome song.

...Kal Miley Na Miley Sochna Hai Kya
Shor Mein Abhi Kuch Bolna Hai Kya
Ye Jo Pal Hain Wo Apne Hain
Ruk Ja Zara O Deeewani...

Such simple triggers for happiness! Who would've thunk!

Family Ties - II

I don’t know how many of you still come here, but for anyone that does…

If you remember this post…

The girl in question got married last Thursday.

:o)

I'm so happy for her!
Although she’s had to go through hell for it. Her dad finally just signed the no-objection letter. But they refused to have anything more to do with her.
Told her alright, if that’s what you want, go ahead.
Just go.

And she left. She’s been holding on for so long trying to make them understand. But I guess people have different priorities. Some people care too much about what others think. Her parents were more bothered about society than their daughters’ happiness.

I wonder why parents do this to themselves and their children. So much of hatred and anger, so much heartache…all for what?

I have seen several instances where the children love and respect their parents and wish that they would be accepted by their parents for who they are. And so they wait and wait, hoping that their parents will someday understand and accept them and the choices they have made.
Unfortunately, the parents don’t change, and the finally, the children get weary and resentful, and they stop trying.
Which is sad.

Hopefully, these children will treat their own children better.

How you can tell I work in I.T.

My colleague and I were going to work together.

On the radio, they were playing that song from the movie hum dil de chuke sanam – Tadap Tadap.
I love that song and I think the lyrics are amazing.
Except there were some bits I didn’t understand (my Hindi isn’t that great, and my Urdu is pathetic!)

…Agar Mile Khuda Koh
Poochhoonga Khudaya
Jism Mujhe Deke Mitti Ka
Sheeshay Sa Dil Kyon Banaya
Aur Us Pe Diya Fitrat
Ke Woh Karta Hai Mohabbat
Wah Re Wah Teri Kudrat…

So I asked my colleague "Umm.. dude? What’s fitrat?"

"Ummm… configuration."

And I understood exactly what he meant.

:)

My Orkut Fortune for the Day:

Stop searching forever, happiness is just next to you

:o)

To borrow a line from Nike ... Just Do It!

A while back, a friend of mine (F) told me he was going for salsa with his wife and the classes were a lot of fun so I should join in as well. I've wanted to learn salsa for yeaaaars now, but never quite got round to it. So I was very enthusiastic when he told me about it.

That was 3 weeks ago, but I never actually went.

First week, F didn't go for the class. So I didn't go either. I should have gone, I know. But I chickened out.
The next week, his wife fell down and hurt her leg. Which meant he'd be missing classes for some more time.

I badly wanted to go, but everytime I thought of going and making a fool of myself in front of a bunch of people, I'd make some excuse or the other to myself.
And giving excuses to yourself is awwwful. Cos you know the real reason. So today, I called up this girl from work (R) who was interested and made plans to go with her.

And then, I had another one of the (now regular) fights with my folks about marriage.

I keep telling them I'd find someone on my own, but they aren't willing to wait. (It's too late, you're too old, why would they marry you... my folks instill such confidence in me with their encouraging words that if I did find someone genuinely interested, I'd be surprised.)

Today it got down to What are you going to do if no one marries you? (note the choice of words? 'no one marries you'. Not 'if you don't get married' my folks are convinced that only a total nutcase would ever want to get married to me! )

I told them "then I'll live alone".

Afterwards, I got ready for salsa, went to pick up R and had just parked near her place when she called up to cancel cos she wasn't feeling well.

I got off the phone and just sat there, thinking.
I was terrified of the prospect of going alone. I had no partner to dance with, I didn't know how to dance (ok, I can, but I'm very conscious and feel awkward) and I was just .... a wuss.

How the hell was I going to live alone all my life if I couldn't even go for a dance class by myself?!

My friend(who knows about this i'll-do-it-later tendency of mine when it comes to salsa) kept telling me it's OK to be terrified.
(Said friend would not dance even if a gun was pointed to his head, fyi! :P
Truly though, he was the only person encouraging me with anything at that point of time and I'm really grateful for that!
K, u Rock! in a sober and sedate kinda way, but you do rock! )

He said "If you do it, you'll feel great"

I didn't know about that.
But what I knew was that if I didn't go, then I'd feel terrible about myself. And I wasn't going to make me feel terrible about myself as well. I had had enough of that from others.

So I went.
I was terrified, but I went.
And it was wonderful. I loved it.

I met a lot of fun people, and though I'm sure I danced badly, I had a LOT of fun doing it.

It's not that big a deal to join a dance class, I know. But I was terrified, I was alone and I was badly in need of confidence, which I knew I wasn't going to get from anyone but myself.
And I feel a lot better now.

So I'm learning.
:o)

Me.

As I write this my dad is on the phone talking about me to a strange man who is the father of another strange man who is, apparently, an engineer, has done his BTech from so and so university and MTech from some other place and is working in dubai as well, and is, of course, is of marriageable age.

I'm listening to my dad put all of my life in 5 minutes of conversation... she's an engineer(that part comes first of course) ... she's 5 feet 3 inches.... she's been in dubai all her life... she's working in so-and-so place... and we need to check if the horoscopes match... yes...

so then... this is it. that's my life as my dad knows it.

"So Sonia, we'll go meet this guy tonight ok"

"Ok dad."

whatever!

You see these shackles baby I'm your slave ...

Ohhhh yeah!

No, it's not what you think. I didn't ever care for justin timberlake nor his music.

BUT.... recently, I happened to see the guy on tv and realised that he looks an awwwful lot like this guy at work that I'm totally attracted to!
Which essentially means I'm looking at justin timberlake and aahe bharo-fying all the time.

Guy-at-work is quite fucked up, and needs help big-time. Dunno if that's the reason I find him so fascinating. ( i know i know, how scrwed up am i!)

Annnyway, we ended up going out and we were at Barzar at the madinat jumeirah, at the waterfront, and I was quite drunk and the guy smokes like crazy and I ( drunk idiot that I am) threw his cigarettes into the water to make him stop.

Which in itself wouldn't have been such a big deal, except the cigarettes were in a special leather cigarette pack holder... which turned out to be a gift!

No, we haven't been out since.

this place is mad, but i don't wanna leave.

All these days the shopping festival has been going on in full swing and I've completely ignored it. (not that I haven't been shopping, but shopping from the malls hardly counts!)

I haven't been to the Global Village or the Festival City, nor have I entered any of the draws to win a gazillion prizes that'll change my life overnight. Having been in dxb since the beginning of the DSF, I've pretty much gotten used to most of the hype around it.

But even I couldn't be blasé about this. I mean, a jaguar for every property bought... ok.
A freakin jet for the raffle draw winner?! I mean, I knew they were rich, but this is just plain crazy! And what is average person gonna do with a jet anyway? Not everyone has PPL. And it'll cost around a 100,000 AED to get it ( I know two people who have it). And what about fuel costs? and parking?
Obviously, if an average person wins, he would just sell it. Which is what they are banking on, I'm sure. Although I haven't really worked out their strategy behind it.
Yet.
I usually figure out what all the strategies are, but I've just been too busy to dwell on this, and the promotions have been too damn many for me to just concentrate on just one.

Anyway, that is not my point.
My point is, all these days, I've been ignoring the DSF, but now that I have to leave I feel like going everywhere. Even Global Village, in spite of the traffic and everything.
But I have no time.
I leave tomorrow and I haven't even packed yet.
I know I'll be back soon, but I'm feeling strangely reluctant to leave.
I never thought I'd say this, but I'll miss dxb.

I wonder why.