A Life Less Ordinary....

As we go about our daily lives, fetching, carrying, organising, planning - have you ever wondered what makes one life more special than another? Is it only high achievers and ambitious people that can stake a claim to leading fantastic and even extraordinary lives, that us lesser mortals can only look at enviously....so do they also serve who only stand and wait?Do people like mothers, housewives and helpers ever help to make a difference?Well of course they do....we know that, we need no affirmations to tell us that those people are the most vital part of our lives - and help make the world go round in fact.....but do they ever get the recognition they deserve? In more cases than ever in the 21st Century they are forgotten, or considered appendages that only obstruct growth. So to all those mom who gave up their youth and fun, so that their kids could appreciate and feel a sense of warm security, thank you. There is more merit in being able to shape another human being than in wearing several corporate medals and badges of honour.....even if the acheievements of motherhood happen to be grey hairs and more creases on one's face tha anything else!

Of Ash, Flights & Food

It really is true today that no man is an island.....sitting in Dubai on a brilliant, sunshine morning, you may look at that newspaper which tells you on the front page that the cancelled flights due to the Icelandic Volcano Ash impairing visibility has set the Gulf and Arab airlines back by 67 million dollars....."WHO CARES?!" tends to be your attitude, and not unsurprisingly, you would not be even considered selfish for voicing those sentiments. But, like it or not, we all better care,it appears......hypermarkets in Dubai are voicing concerns about dwindling stocks of fresh food from European markets....so you may get up tomorrow, go to your neighbourhood Spinneys or grocery and find the shelves that are always replete with succulent fruit and meat and cold cuts from Europe, the gorgeous Australian pears and New Zealand apples all gone.....what then? Aha....now that is making you sit up and take notice, isn't it? Especially in markets like Abu Dhabi and Dubai, where we are so much at the mercy of the rest of the world when it comes to even our daily basic supplies, one just cannot underestimate the importance of the marvellous connectivity we share with the world, being such a geographical meeting point for the East and West.....so perhaps it is as critical for us to worry about when flight connections will be restored, as for those poor stranded passengers at airports in Europe or Dubai...

All we need is psycho-gaga!

Boy meets girl,boys runs after girl, boy and girl run around trees, boy and girl face stiff familial resistance.....put up token fight,huge bust up with villain, boy and girl's family realise their mistakes, they are reunited....formulaic films that used to be the norm once upon a time, and we, the willing multitudes - used to enjoy going to the movies, getting our small packet of popcorn, if we were lucky, and sitting through three-and-a-half hours of a film, in less than desirable environments - simply for the dose of escapism from our stark realities - that they offered.....zoom forward three decades, and things have radically changed.....movies are now quite literally larger-than-life, with some sophisticated huncho backing every small venture, and some big corporate somewhere having an ulterior motive in wanting the film to be a runaway hit........the 21st Century has proved to be a throwing out of formula and embracing of the stark reality time - most films have some kind of a leitmotif - other than the routine pyaar - shaadi - what is fascinating, but perhaps not entirely unexpected - is the sudden focus on all things psychological and psychosomatic - it is not just the interesting undercurrents or psychological nuances that were obvious in films like Kismet Konnection - today there are much deeper psychologicasl messages - not just at a subliminal level - in your average Bollywood film.....why's that you wonder? Really? In Bollywood? you ask.....yes really.....My Name Is Khan is the most recent one to explore these subconscious depths of a problem - in his portayal of Rizwan Khan, a person suffering from Asperger's syndrome, Shah Rukh Khan is the most recent star to jump on the psyhology brandwagon.....Aamir Khan did it before him in his debut film as a producer with Taare Zameen Par....andKajol has always found herself part of such fasninating story lines whether as the hapless wife of a wanted terrorist in Fanaa where again the focus is the mind of the terrorist - to My Name Is Khan - where the approach is about proving a man being treated as "national combatant" to be a national hero in the real sense of the word......it looks like Hindi films, like everything else, have comes full circle, in their treatment of reality.

One Attitude Wherever In The World.....

Living in Dubai, we are always criticising the system, the maintenance people, the maids, the visa situation, the traffic, the eternal construction clearances and detours - all issues that we find in most growing young economies, and situations, which we would not bat an eyelid about in our native countries.....why? Is it the same inconsistency that makes us meticulously careful about littering in Dubai (sometimes) while it is almost the first thing we find ourselves doing when we get off the planes back home? Perhaps the same approach that makes us weather the weather and grub, filth and garbage on the roads in our home countries, while we grumble loudly to anyone who is listening, including the maintenance people (bear in mind these guys are even working religiously at 6 a.m. on Fridays, when the rest of the town is sound asleep in warm beds)if there is any mess on the streets here, or if the rains cause a mild disruption in our not-so-busy schedules? Where do we shed this whole attitude? Is it even possible to stop the rant and rave and become more responsible about venting spleen. How wonderful things would be if people could present the same face to everyone, and consider the whole world to be their home (only from the point of view of keeping it in ship shape and caring for it).....I bet it would be a small price to pay for everyone's peace of mind, if we could only get a harmonious attitude.Imagine not being subjected to whinging and whining, either at work or home.....I bet we could all get so much more done in half the time! And that would lead to the said quality time being spent outside of work, and at work as well. Hmm....utopia! :)

Everyone is equal in front of the Law??!!

Even as the news comes in that Shaikh Isa has been cleared of the torture alleagtions against him, for "apparently" beating an Afghan businessman and setting his body alight, there now emerges a counter strike by the defendant's lawyers that this was after all a case of the Shaikh being "victimised" and his mind being meddled with owing to some medication he was on.....does anyone in the cynical, 21st century world actually buy this story? Why is the legal system hell-bent on meting out punishment only to those less privileged? Is the not-so-well-to-do section of humanity worse than the lowest form of low life, and therefore entitled to only the harshest punishments? Having lived in the UAE for several years now, I've had the fortunate / unfortunate experience of seeing absolutely innocent people languishing in jails, for unwittingly bringing in some Khus-Khus (dried poppy seeds, a substance banned in this country, but a common spice in places like India), for flouting a visa rule although they may have had no control over their circumstances, for being caught eating or smoking during Ramadan, for so many other apparently simple misdemeanours.....while those in high places guilty of fraud, embezzlement and yes (sometimes even murder) get away scot free. It is time perhaps to make each person accountable, and therfore the legal system, less of a laughing stock, by shifting responsibility for action squarely on to the individual's shoulders.Until we do so, the world will continue to give the UAE little credit for being free and fair....essential prerequisites to step up its image as a dynamic economy.
To be quite honest, this is of course, not just UAE's problem. In India, the BJP party has some MLA's who make a habit of bumping off people who disagree with them on the slightest issue, in Italy Sylvio Berlusconi can because of his political clout get out of any legal wrangle, in France, Nicolas Sarkozy has the last word in what constitutes ethics, he hss the habit, by the way, of also changing his take on any point.....more frequently than women or the weather are rumoured to do! Reminds you of the Orwellian phrase from Animal Farm: "All animals are equal, some are more equal than the others." Will we ever see justice on God's green earth, or is the divine justice going to be the only kind that might be served.....

All jobbed out!

Having just been told by the HR department of the Government TV network where I work that I have another 25 days to pack my bags and leave the unit, my services are no longer required, thank you very much, I have been gobsmacked for the second time in four months...why does someone get the sack for doing their job? What are some of the parameters to holding a job in Dubai? Looks definitely like hard work and integrity don't belong on the list at all. Possibly playing politics does, measuring up to people's liking you does, and celebrating the system definitely does earn you kudos which doing your work and being a nice person does not help accomplish for you.....curioser and curioser - like Alice would have said in Wonderland - it is a bit numbing and definitely the pressue that being unemployed after having had a job all your life, is a bit of a downer...do things happen for a reason - let's take the positive spin on that and say, definitely - there are reasons and reasons.....what is a good reason on God's Green Earth....nice to think, que sera sera, whatever will be will be, but definitely Dubai is a place where working to earn a living is expected of you - the same way as breathig is, for instance! I often wonder what would have happened if Issac Newton had felt similarly pressured, or Leonardo Davinci had been berated for spending time painting chapels, when he could be earning an honest wage?? Is great creativity often the casualty in our humdrum worlds, built to nurture a capitalist economy? Is creativity something that needs to be told to go to hell, if one must remain sane in a work place?? Let's work, work, work and go, go, go....as that inimitable cartoon character - the smurfs - would have put it.....here's to thrifty days and nights!

The Write Line: Today's News, Tomorrow's History??

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