Holiday Travails!

Time was when we actually waited for those cherished holidays - Eid, Diwali, Christmas, New Year, birthdays and anniversaries - with pleasurable anticipation - time out, time spent with family, quality time, we gave it different epithets - these days really gave one a chance to catch up with oneself, and in a manner of speaking rediscover one's favourite pursuits....becoming a parent, or rather being a parent to today's kids puts a whole new spin on things - a 360 degree spin, in fact! Not only are holidays now spent with itineraries built around children's schedules, indeed they are the ones that form those itinerariees these days.....close your eyes for two minutes longer when you wake up in the morning, and you are invariably forced to jump up and attend to some thing that apparently urgently demands your attention - the older one has thrashed the younger one in the bathroom for making bubbles in the wash basin, or the youngster - more precocious of the two perhaps, has taken the older one's "life purpose" and most precious possession - the PSP and smashed it - you swallow, remind yourself about the importance of staying calm and meditating, and then promptly go and get smack, bang in the middle of a raging dispute! Which mark you is a lose-lose situation - if you take one side against the other, you are accused of favouritism, if you ground them both, you are such an indefatigable monster! Taking them through their studies, sorting out playtimes, fixing meals, resolving arguments and keeping them from the brink of disaster wherever they may turn....is it any wonder that you return from long breaks at home, with a big smile on your face, greeting colleagues at work with really happy expressions, causing them to grumble - wonder what she looks so happy about??! They have no idea, do they?! Take a holiday? No thanks, I'd rather go to work - or war! Am I the only one that feels this way?!!

What Moves Us?

The other day, sitting in the darkened surroundings of of the full-house Cinestar Cinemas at Deira City Centre, watching the new, much-hyped Hindi movie, Love Aajkal, I was forced to wonder what it was that drove us to be such obsessive, compulsive consumers of the same "Shaadi-Pyaar" theme - what is it about Bollywood that remains so ingrained in our blood that we faithfully head off to catch the first-day-first-show of yet another love story that revolves the formulaic hero-heroine-villain-singing and dancing around trees-plot to kill-parents-denoument.....why subject ourselves to three hours of nonstop, mindless entertainment? As an NRI, I have to say, I believe there's some justification for this behaviour - Hindi movies for me, and all my countless countrymen who do faithfully turn up to watch each one, I am sure, have become a panacea for missing India and home - our culture, traditions, beliefs, attitudes and all that makes the quintessential Indian are reflected faithfully in these flicks - yes, even when half of them are based in London, New York and Sydney! My husband refuses to join me on these movie trysts, saying, "Phew! Imagine subjecting yourself to three hours of unadulterated rubbish! Pyaar, pyaar, pyaar, shaadi....don't they really have anything more informative to talk about?" Well, the point is really, do people who go to these movies, actually go there for information or plain "masti" and entertainment? Of course, they don't want to hear all the serious developments in the world of climate change and fluctuating oil prices...they are here to simply switch off from their grim and often not-so-palatable realities....so of course they are more than delighted with seeing the same thing again and again! Why not? We all understand love, we all understand ambition and the need to become successful, our lives are all about fuelling aspirations and striving to meet them! And that is exactly all the Hindi movie promises to provide - three hours of absolute "suspension of disbelief" - heroines who are glamorous and efficient dressed in fashions to die for cavorting around places most of us would only have seen on films! And that feeling of fulfilment at the end of three hours when the lights go up and the final credits scroll on, is hard to explain to someone who bad-mouths these films! When Shah Rukh Khan manages to beat up the bad guys and win the heroine for himself, we all sigh and rejoice in our hearts - because it seems like there is some justice after all on God's green earth.....naive, foolish, sentiment? Well, tell that to the audiences that have fuelled and sustained the world's largest film industry through good times and bad!

Print Media More Relevant Than Ever!

A recent article questioning the importance and indeed even the relevance of newspapers and the print media in an era of instant messaging and communication has thrown up once again all of those questions - did radio kill newspapers? Did the advent of Television effectively silence the radio? And then again - with the all powerful Internet that spawned blogging, facebook, twitter, digg, stumble upon......and what else have you(!) are we any closer to seeing the end of Television itself?? The thing to realise possibly is to appreciate that all these different forms of mass media have their own use and purpose - just like we never forget to ride a bicycle or swim, we never forget to read newspapers for their depth and "tangible" reality. That is not to say the other media do not have that sense of reality, but consider this - are they not still tantamount to rumours until you actually read the printed word on something you can touch and feel? The article also made some interesting conjectures about how the printed word can continue to exist and give itself an enduring shelf-life - and it is all about convergence really. If newspapers can exercise a kind of dominant role in complementing the other types of media, and even embracing them, they have a far better chance of survival in the long run, than they would by ignoring them!
http://http://www.kippreport.com/2009/07/is-print-dead-part-i/

You Know You've Been In Dubai Too Long When.....

...You decide to take the elevator rather than the stairs to cover the smallest distances - You are on a desert safari and start looking anxiously all around for a Pepsi and McDonald's as relief from the heat ( and you probably will actually find it too!). Your competition with your girlfriends includes issues like which of you got the cheaper duplicate bag from Karama ("How much did your Chanel set you back?" is the nature of these questions!!) - You invite friends home and get take-away's - You wait for the weekends and then cannot wait for the week to begin again - You take in a dose of retail therapy no matter what the time and day to beat the "blue" feeling - You choose to live a life beyond your means and then wonder where the money is all going, You tell yourself this is only a temporary thing, and then find you are stuck with a car loan, a housing loan, and a maxed-out credit card! You think it is is exceedingly backward to actually pay for a purchase with cash - "What, no credit card? Not even a debit card??") .....You come into town young, nubile and naive and leave old, wizened and grey! You believe it is not only fun, but really vital to visit all the new shopping malls that mushroom one to the month! You cut traffic lines and raise your hands in obscene gestures if anyone has the temerity to honk at you from behind! You choose to speak your own version of the Queen's English, liberally peppering it with words and phrases from India, China, Australia, Timbuctu! You consider a BBQ to be an absolutely tame affair unless it's got "spiked" soft drinks and lots of it. You believe that Polite Conversation is actually asking your friends / acquaintances about their visa status, salary and how many houses they own back home! You think the weather's fine when it's a blazing 35 degrees in the shade.....Your best dreams involve moving into a Villa, a three-bedroom apartment with a maid to pick up the pieces for you and a chauffeur thrown in for good measure!You start dividing the years on the basis of the Ramadan, Eid, Summer and then some! You decide that the Shawarma could be standard fare on any dinner menu. You pay lip service to stopping pollution and greening the planet and then in the same breath decide that Dubai is so cool in planning the world's first air-conditioned beach and boasting the world's first indoor ski resort! You break up your day with what you did prior to, between and after shopping trips, You have to own that perfect piece of jewellery which you will never use. You have to buy books that you will never read, and accummulate them for all to admire.......and if they ask you what it's about, just say..."Oh, that one I am still reading!")......You enjoy coming back from a holiday so much more than going for a vacation back home! :)

Dubai Bling!

Whenever I hear people talking about the sorry state of the global economy, about how expensive things have become, and about how one in three people in the UAE have lost their jobs, my attention invariably wanders to those designer boutiques, which are a dime a dozen - and that is hardly even putting any value on the cost of the items these stores stock, if you know what I mean! - Manalo Blahniks, Gucci, Fendi, Dolce & Gabbani dazzle Dubai's fashion enthusiasts and wannabes making it impossible to pass by without atleast enquiring what they actually cost! And truly, the thing with Dubai is I guess, that you get carried away - it has unwittingly or perhaps much more strategically set up for itself a reputation of being a Designer City - where you need to own designer bags and shoes and clothes, or atleast amazing imitations from your friendly neighbourhood Karama stores - to actually belong! So you see every possible imitation under the sun - it could be fake Gucci sunglasses or Chanel bags....or whatever! You always see people negotiating best prices, the Big Red Sale sign is never absent from store windows for long, and we always see tourists to the city and the local yokels bargaining cheek-by-jowl for the best designer steals......"Bling It On" seems to be the Duabi slogan......and it is just not the Europeans, or the Americans - this seems to be a classless, casteless addiction that transcends physical boundaries.......what drives them, you wonder.....I was never one of those design-tastic people.....yes, always had the shopping bug alright, but it took coming to Dubai, and becoming a veteran of these parts to see the bug manifest into a full-blown epidemic, for which there's no apparent cure! So does the average Dubai-ian actually blow up large sums of their hard-earned moolah on these its-and-bits just for a lark....well, you've heard of music being the food of love....in Dubai it appears Shopping is the food of love. And the national pastime as well....did someone say recession? funny Ha-Ha, and Funny Peculiar! :)

Your Life Is Now A Tabloid!

Even as we resign ourselves to going about our daily tasks, so conscious of making the right impression, so careful and discreet about everything we do, simply because we are just so paranoid about making a "good impression" (who decides what's good is a good question, isn't it?), we suddenly find ourselves hurtling along the information superhighway, on which privacy is something unheard of - where bandying one's conscious thoughts, and even unconscious ones at times!- one for each minute of your waking hours - is the sort of fuel that keeps your vehicle in motion.....what am I talking about? Well, simply the whole obsession with Facebooking and Twittering and what have you! Why has it become so necessary to tell your friends and family - and believe you me, a considerable number of those 300+ friends you may have on Facebook, might not even be your "friends" in any sense of the term.....they inhabit a virtual world which is quite astronomically more dangerous than the real one we inhabit - for one simple reason.....in this Virtual World you don't know who your friends are or by the same token, who your enemies are, either!
Today it was interesting to read the Gulf News about His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, and Vice President of the UAE turning 60, and his Facebook page being deluged with complimentary messages! What was even more interesting perhaps was a research piece carried by online newsletter Matoob research which talked of how popular one world leader was versus the other....all based on the number of Facebook friends they had! What a funny world! Are you on Facebook....and Twitter....Do you Stumble Upon....or Digg....have you a blog? Or you have no life at all....seems to be the new-age mantra!

http://http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Government/10331542.html

http://http://business.maktoob.com/20090000007716/Dubai_ruler_Facebook_star;_Brit_PM_friendless/Article.htm?utm_campaign=Day-Newsletter&utm_medium=Main-News1&utm_source=Day-Newsletter&utm_content

It's Summer Time......And The City Sleeps!

Have you ever looked at the changing faces of Dubai, and wondered at this city which has so many extremes to offer? There's the hustle and bustle of the city in winter, where everyone is out and about and a spirit of exuberance is a palpable entity in itself, there's the quiet and sober summer months, when people leave the city in droves and the city, like a great big giant just stretches, lies back and goes into a deep slumber......we're in one such hibernation phase right now, where it seems not even the birds are around in as large numbers as before - everything is quiet and subdued......the decision this year to actually extend the summer break for schools - private and Government by another 3 weeks is simply going to add to the students' festive mood. But it does make parents pause to think what on earth to do about making sure the students do complete their portions, and to worry about the inexorable pressure that will be thrust upon them once schools do finally reopen? Isn't it sad that in countries like India, and even up until now in the UAE, the Holy Month of ramadan has been a month of reflection and solemnity, of devotion and abstinence, of going about your work as usual, even while you fasted and turned your thoughts to God.....and here we are, being given time off from school owing to ramadan, should be viewed as some kind of an anti-religious thing to do - after all, this is like saying you have a special license to compromise education, simply because you are fasting....fasting or feasting, difficult or not, the spirit of the season needs to be honoured. Not to mention that students need to be given an example that they have to carry on with work, regardless what may be the hardships involved. the irony is that in several countries of the developing world, including India, there are no special timings or benefits for people who are fasting. Quite often they go about their daily tasks with a minimum of fuss and drama. Perhaps it is time to observe festive seasons in letter and spirit....and reap the benefits of being more disciplined.....

Is it really Plastic Fantastic?

News in today's papers that the UAE has a Dhs 20 billion credit card debt is just another indication of how deeply recession has sunken its talons into this country, as much as the rest of the world. What's more 8-10% of those debts, according to news sources could be distressed or delinquent, meaning recovery was going to be difficult, if not impossible....financial experts say that this was only bound to happen, given the slowing down of the economy, the job losses, the global downturn in property and real estate etc. Dubai, much more than the rest of the developing world perhaps, has always been lured by the credit card trap.....people living economically at much higher standards than they could afford to to keep up with the Jones' are more the rule than the exception.....shopping and retail therapy are the national pastime and living the hi-life is most definitely perceived as the thing to do. How important it is, you realise in times like these, to simply have been brought up to live within your means. I remember as a child growing up in Chennai, when my sister and I made demands of our parents for a new school bag mid-year or for that new walkie-talkie doll, my father, a hard-working sales professional, the epitome of frugal living, who puttered around on a maroon-coloured Java Motorcycle (a gift his father had given him when he graduated!) - actually sat us down and pulled out his wallet. He taught us then a lesson in economics - "Here is how much I earn, and this is how much we now need to run the house after school fees, household expenses, etc....now tell me how I can afford to get you that?" - which we have never forgotten! It was not even as though we were old enough to understand the financial situation - I would say, not really, being around 9 and 7 respectively......but we did get the gist of what he was trying to say, and believe me, we've never even tried to live beyond our means since that day.....fast forward 21st Century logic and ideas - where only the best will ever do. There's colleagues and friends who tout the best Prada handbag, those "wonderful" Milano Blaniks, that "fabulous" Channel bag which they absolutely "Must Have", and the Ballanciaga, which "goes so well with my clothes!" What is with us and this obsession for all things branded? Wouldn't a more ordinary handbag priced at less than Dhs. 100 do just as well? Why would one need about 10 handbags, when it is actually only possible to carry one at a time anyway......what are we really trying to prove by constantly surrounding ourselves with all things bling and designer? Are they a kind of panacea for unrequited family and work fulfilment, or some other way of assuaging the loneliness we feel all around us? One wonders....and definitely with every passing day on the planet, when you see more and more extravagance all around, you can't help stop, pause and ask yourself,"Where will it all end?"
Perhaps that end is coming sooner than we all think - already a walk around Dubai's many malls, at one time filled to distraction with heaving masses of humanity, all trying to fall over each other in a bid to pick up the best bargains - seem to have dwindled down to a mere trickle....where people used to crowd for taxis for as much as two hours, today it is the taxis that wait anxiously in long lines, wondering if they can fulfil their daily target of Dhs. 400 which they need to hand over to Dubai Taxi every evening......and despite the many SALE signs that try siren-like to entice people into stores and plazas, it's true they've all seen brighter, better days as well......
To get back to that debate though, is plastic really fantastic? Are we really a nation enslaved by those little cards that give us a false sense of our own economic freedom and powers? Like with all kinds of Power, it corrupts absolutely.....so beware those who have not yet gotten into the Credit Card noose - there is no extricating yourself from this one easily! What's probably worse in the UAE is the rate of interest for defaulting on timely payments can easily reach 100% - and very soon, people don't seem to have any choice but to abscond from their lives and the only reality they know!

Metro & The City!

As the mercury soars and people gasp in disbelief at how much hotter it is possible for the place to get, all eyes are now focused on the Dubai Metro, slowly but surely getting ready to take its place as the lifeline of the city, with its Red, Green and Blue arteries.....could anything be more exciting than watching the city taking shape with a full-fledged transportation system - I am myself quite a cynic and have always derided the RTA and powers-that-be for making that poor labourer toil in the sun at all odd hours of night and day - but one has to say that the final product has been an effort worth waiting for.....and then comes the icing on the cake, with the RTA just deciding to pitch the announcement of the Metro's fares (really reasonable and on par with Paris Metro it appears - Surprise, Surprise!) just ahead of the summer exodus from the city, as expats retreat on their annual holiday, and the city wears a deserted look...
There is a caveat though to all this Metro Mania - the existing public transport system, including the Dubai Taxis and Buses, are already circling the city wearing a pretty forlorn air! The sudden repatriation of huge numbers of the city's primarily foreign population, has resulted in a sudden over supply of transporatation....those long vestibule -style buses snaking along congested roads like Meena Bazaar make one pause to think - "Who rides on them anymore?" - there is an apparent sudden erosion in the numbers of the middle-income migrant population, who have all either lost their jobs and left home owing to the Global economic crisis, or have decided that it is far more intelligent at this point in time to work in their own countries which are doing reasonably well, regardless of the downturn. So who's going to ride in those high-speed metro trains? Well, time will tell.....let's fast track to September and see where the downturn and the upheaval etc. have left us! Watch this space....

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&Itemid=1&id=559610&sid=4

Where is Kindness after all?

One of the thoughts that frequently stream into your mind in Dubai is the whole issue of kindness....that elusive "do good" quality that has always been touted as a virtue second to none.....do we ever in the course of our hectic days and frenetic nights here in Dubai actually spare a thought for anyone else's misery - to helping an accident victim....to just go out and hand out bottles of water to those construction workers we are always ranting and raving about.....to give a total stranger a meal that you know would be their whole meal for the day......to go and spend one's birthday in the company of special needs children and take them gifts that bring out the wonder in their eyes. It would be so wonderful if instead of whining and whinging about the common grouses we deal with in our privileged life - oh yes, I did say privileged because believe me we are privileged if we have the pleasure of four meals, a roof over out heads and limbs and brains that work......and start to worry about what we could do to leave the world a better place than we found it. Not just banal philosophy.....something to think about!http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/spirit/inspiration/slideshow1_ss_phil_feature

Effective Communication & Communicating Effectively

Last weekend was refreshing - on Friday, 19th June, I had an opportunity to speak to the parents of The Indian High School Dubai's magnificent Shaikh Rashid Auditorium - Grades Five and Six, as part of an initiative by the school's Counselling Centre - the topic chosen was "Effective Communication With Your Pre-Teens"....very interesting subject, especially as Pre-teens are the new Adolescents, in the media-explosive 21st Century. I began by outlining some of the interesting characteristics of Pre-Teens, the Challenges that Parents faced in communicating with their hitherto angelic children, as they stepped into the dreaded age group of 9-12 years, then went on to state and explain some do's and dont's in communicating with this age group.....vigorous debate, interesting questions and overall I hope we atleast managed to touch the tip of the iceberg, of a subject that is as vast as perhaps the virtual world we now inhabit! Speaking to those parents, I began to understand what a lot of issues the iconoclastic Gen Next - with its complete defiance of systems and authority - had created for its care givers, parents, teachers.....each person assumes theirs is a unique agony, but having a forum where parents could come and vent their spleen perhaps helped deal with the frustrations somewhat! And here's hoping we did actually start off a communication process!

Of Swine Flu and Summer Health Scares

It doesn't take much to get the rumour mills working overtime in a place like Dubai -tech-savvy people with their mobiles, blackberry's and other gadgets are constantly trying to "keep in touch", circulating news that ranges from the banal to the bizzare.....take the whole scare with McDonald's for instance - Swine Flue is suddenly the talk of the town, coming hot on the heels of the case of the two little children that died of food poinsoning after being treated for food poisoning at a Dubai hospital. And the overdose of Swine Flue news - its being declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation just recently isn't helping either - has most recently caught up with McDonald's with one of the fast-food chain's employees in its Al Nasr Street outlet supposedly having contacted the disease. McDonald's had to issue an official declaration that they are in the clear:

Swine flu rumours false, says McDonald's

McDonald's Arabia has been forced to issue a denial that any of its employees have been infected with the H1N1 swine flu virus and that it has had to close one of its retail food outlets, following rumours spread by mobile SMS messages and across the internet. It said the text messages, sent over the past week, were 'not true whatsoever' and urged people to instead rely on 'credible information' from 'official bodies'. Government ministries have also dismissed the rumours.

Now, while panic and knee-jerk reactions are not uncommon when it comes to diseases, things could reach alarming heights if we don't each and every one of us, take precautions to stop spreading malicious rumours, Maybe there's someone that doesn't quite like fast-food, someone else who is communist or anti-capitalist (no, they are no longer the same thing, I am afraid!). Maybe, the thing to do in situations like this, is to take what preventive action we can, and leave the rest.....eat at home as often as possible, when you are eating out make sure you choose a restaurant that is clean and has a good safety record (that is often apparent from the exterior itself). And NEVER order food from a place which you haven't seen or know nothing about. Slightly more difficult than the other points to consider....but definitely critical when it comes to your health and the lives of your near and dear ones. Of course, living the frenetic pace that some of us do, we certainly can't avoid eating out altogether. So let's take some effort to stay safe, and then, let it go. Nothing to be gained by rumour-mongering of course!

Dubai - Life and Times

As the summer season hits us in theUAE yet again, I am drawn reminiscently back home to the dusty streets of Chennai, in South India....it was a quiet time, the proverbial calm before the storm that was to hurl Chennai into the era of dotcoms and BPO's......drinking lime juice at a little room that passed for a canteen in Chinmaya Vidyalaya, an idyllic time when thatched huts served as classrooms, and teachers could happily thrash children if they misbehaved! Now you can see that my perspective has changed - being a parent does these things to you.....anyway, in Dubai where we heave and sigh with the traffic congestion, the construction overload - all of which we hoped had come to an end with the so-called crash in the real estate......here's a question, "what happened to repatriating expats?" - the place is now more crowded than ever.....