Dubai - The city that rocks 24*7

I sit in the back seat of an Audi as we are traveling down the 50 km long, Sheikh Zaid Road. The road has 6 lanes. The speed limit is around 120 kms/hour. As we are cruising down the road I notice the tall buildings. The Burj towers, the tallest building in the world, still under construction though. It stands 180 floors high. No matter where you are in Dubai, you can spot this tower. We cross other buildings like the twin towers, DIFC, MOE (The Mall of Emirates), my brother in law's office, my friend's office. I hear stories of these places. Things that fascinate me like Skii Dubai. I sit there looking out, looking at the buildings. Looking at the lit up buildings and wonder how pretty they look at that moment. And that if there was any way I could capture that moment. I open my bag and my hands fumble through the things in search of a camera, but as my luck has it, I am unable to locate my camera. Not wanting to take my eyes off this pretty sight, I stop looking for the camera and instead just sit there staring out of the window of the Audi. To add to this, the cars that I see on the road is something which again catches my interest. I see a Porsche, a BMW. I spot a hummer driving beside us. Just then something that catches my attention is the photo of this person (Sheikh). I ask who is he and i learn that he is the ruler. And that every shop, hotel or any establishment has to have the photo of the ruler. Sheikh Mohammad, is the name I am told.

As I look at all of this and as I hear the stories, I am sleep deprived since I have had a long day, a long flight. And I crave for nothing but a bed and a quilt to snuggle into. But as one part of me wants this the other still wants to stay up and not loose sight of what my eyes are witnessing. A battle that's taking place in my head. The human mind, always wanting everything and always wanting more han it can possible handle. My mind, half sleepy half excited. It becomes difficult for me to keep y eyes open any longer than now. I slowly drift away to la-la land...

86,400 seconds in a day...Idle time?

Look up the definition of the word HOBBY and this is what you will get on Wikipedia – a spare time recreational pursuit. Essentially it is what one likes to do in their spare time. One could either be fond of watching movies, dancing, playing some sport, anything. There are various types of hobbies – indoor activities, outdoor games, creative hobbies and many more. Like reading, collecting stuff, dancing would form a part of indoor hobbies. Any kind of sports or shopping, traveling etc would constitute outdoor hobbies. And creative hobbies are like cooking, pottery, knitting, glass painting, etc. It keeps one busy and occupied (meaning the same thing). I have lots of hobbies and since childhood they have been changing. At the moment I enjoy watching movies and reading, perhaps even writing. However, as a kid one of my hobbies was collecting stamps.

Speaking of which, I wonder if anyone has ever watched this movie or for that matter even heard of it. It’s called - ‘Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveler’. It’s another one of my favorites. As kids, many of my friends and I had a hobby of collecting stamps. It’s very interesting to collect stamps of different places. It was a hobby which we all grew out of eventually. Then, there was this movie which was released in the late 80s. It is about a few friends and their fascinating summer adventure. Tommy, who is a stamp collector, gets one of his friends, Ralph to trade him a stamp from his father’s precious stamp collection. From fear of getting into trouble for it, he and his sister (Nancy) try to buy the stamp back from the local store; however they are handed over a stamp collection in exchange. This contains a letter from a little boy named Charles. The letter contains magical rhymes, on reciting these rhymes, the person shrinks and he/she is then able to travel around the world on various stamps to different places. During Ralph’s journey, he finds out that he needs to get to Australia since a rare collection of stamps awaits him. And what happens next is something that even I don’t recall very well and to refresh my memory I will have to watch the movie again.

It’s an amazing movie and truly hilarious, which gets you laughing all the way till the end with the dragons, kangaroos, boomerangs, stamps and postcards. The chase, the suspense, the adventures are absolutely mind blowing and will certainly sweep you off your feet. One needs to watch the movie to figure out what I am saying. If memory serves me right, it also had a sequel. Something like - ‘The Return of Tommy Tricker’. I tried really hard to find more clips of the movie but this is all I could get. Check it out…

Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller

Now and Then - Stay Connected

I have been working for the last 3.5 years now. I am an adult. I drive, I go out with friends for drinks. I am a professional when it comes to my work. I know what I want and work towards achieving my goals. I have dreams and aspirations. I am a person who thinks logically and rationally, or so I'd like to believe. However, I wasn't always like this. A lot has changed about me since I was a child. So how was I any different from what I am now?

In every woman there is a little girl that she leaves behind as she grows up. I am no different from any one of them. Just like any other girl, I too had my dreams and fallacies. I was carefree, a feeling that I haven't experienced in a long time now. As I was growing up, there was this movie that played an important role in my adolescent years - Now and Then. It's about four twelve year old girls and a summer when they get involved in investigating a local mystery. Both happy and unfortunate events occur. These four friends make a pact, when they were younger, that if one of them ever needed each other they would be there. Now and Then used to be my favorite movie when I was younger and it still remains one of my favorites. This movie is absolutely wonderful, even now I could watch the movie all over again. It puts me in such a great mood. It makes me think that real friends do exist.

I was inspired by this movie in ways more than one. I still remember how I would cycle my way around the whole block from dawn to dusk during my summer vacations. It changed the way I thought and also my outlook towards things. As you are growing up, you tend to pick up a habit or a trait from everything around you. It could be actual people, a sitcom or a movie. All or any of it. It makes you who you are in today's world. I know I am one such person, a combination of many such things. Without them I wouldn't really be the person that I am today. And it's a good feeling when you relate to those things after all this time. 'Now and Then' reminds me of the times back THEN and then I see the NOW which is in front of me.

What's yours?

What do you really care about? What are the things in your life that make it rich and fill your days? What are the things that you consider yourself an expert on? Are you into gardening, photography, cooking, traveling, cars, bikes, jewelry and books? What is it that you enjoy doing? What is your passion?


Passion is the emotion of feeling very strongly about a subject or person, usually referring to feelings of intense desire and attraction.

What is it that I am passionate about? I don’t really know since there are more than just one thing that interest me. I enjoy traveling and meeting new people. I like exploring new places and this mixed with photography. When you are able to capture all those moments which with every passing minute keep becoming a thing of the past. It’s like only if I could hold that moment right there, for as long as I wished to. A camera allows me to do just that. And so when I think of photographs, every photograph reminds me of how a story or an incident is connected with each one of them. They become a part of our memories, which remind us of all the good times.

Ever think that you just want to let go of everything. Do you ever feel that you want forget everything that is worrying you and that’s on your mind? Think of something like dancing. Well that’s something I used to be passionate about. It allowed me to let loose, to forget everything and everyone. It was about me and only about me. It would let me focus on myself. It made me feel good and made me feel like I was on top of the world.

People who are passionate about bikes might probably look at this way. The open road, the wind blowing into your face as you cruise through the city life. The engine which roars like a lion and the feeling that you experience when you traveling at a high speed.

It's simply out of this world!

India - The twenty20 world cup champions

Cricket is a sport that every child/man follows in this country. It’s in his blood. Ask him what’s the national game of India and he might just end up saying – Cricket.

Traditionally so, cricket is a game of 50 Overs played with 11 people each in 2 teams. It usually is a long game, which essentially means that it takes up a lot of one’s time. Nonetheless, people love the sport and have been following it religiously for several decades. However, its audience which includes housewives and young women might have found it difficult to sit through a long game day after day during a world cup series.

Now the modern way of cricket is a game of 20 Overs. Hence, it’s been given the name Twenty20. How are people taking it? Not so good and not so bad either. Like they always say that there are two sides of a coin. Similarly, there are some people who love the idea and some who do not support the idea. They probably love the idea because now they can remove time and actually watch the match and enjoy it just like all cricket lovers do. It’s like finally getting to know that what’s the whole fuss about watching a cricket match.

The recent Twenty20 World Cup was a resounding success. I think that they were successful in their attempts of trying to entice the younger people into the grounds.

It’s a quick and exciting game. It brings a new audience to the game and generates interest in Essex. And here’s the biggest one - The Indians brought home the cup after 24 years.

Chak de India!

A day in our lives!

Every morning I wake up and get out of bed, head towards the closet and prepare for my day. Whether that means heading out to an office somewhere, sitting down in front of my computer, or may be just having breakfast with the family on my day off. We all do this day after day after day.

As I am driving to work, waiting for the computer to boot, or taking a shower, my mind is a million miles away. I am thinking about all that has to get done that day in order for me to have ‘done my job’. I read this somewhere, that in any given day a human mind has 8 million and 4000 thoughts.

I reach work, the security guard at work smiles and waves good morning. I open my email and mixed in with all the business emails is one from a friend just telling me to smile and have a good day. The day passes, I get busy with my work and appointments.

It’s the end of the day. I come back from work and I am exhausted. I realize that my list of things to do got longer instead of shorter. I sit and wonder why life has to be so hectic all the time.

I sit at the dinner table with the family and talk about the events of the day and all that is happening in my life. I nod and smile but my mind is on all the things that I still need to do. I collapse into bed, thinking about the project and appointments that have to be completed by tomorrow. I let my mind ponder on these things for a while and then I dose off and let my mind slip into la la land.

I arise again the next morning, my mind already in overdrive trying to figure out the best way to ‘attack’ the day. This is what we do. This is our life. Day after day!

Deeply disturbed!

They say that time plays a very important role in our lives. It can heal wounds with the snap of a finger. Just that a day includes 24 hours, an hour includes 60 minutes and a minute includes 60 seconds.

Time flies by and I simply wait with baited breath to see what life has in store for me. I am lost and confused. I want to run away from my life. I don't like it here anymore. I don't understand what's happening to me. I feel twisted in the head. My mind races through thoughts all the time. I can't sleep. My head wants to explode. I hate the way life feels right now.

I stood there in the office cafeteria this afternoon. I watched the people around me, as they all walked past me. I watched them as they were sitting and chatting with their friends and peers. I saw them and thought to myself...they too must have problems, we all do! What is it that brings a smile on their face and what is it that stops it from bringing a smile on mine. I thought, only if I were able to live someone else's life to see if they share the same pain that I do or even worse so that I could come back and probably not feel so terrible about my life.

Days turn into nights and nights into mornings and I wait...I wait for the sleep fairy to bestow her kindness upon me. I pop in a pill or two night after night so that the the sleep fairy would see my wrath and help me get out of it. The sleep fairy comes and goes and I lay around in my bed like a lifeless soul. No reading, no watching tv, no meditating can give my soul that peace and serenity that it requires at this point in time. I beg for your kindness to come and help me out. For only this once, like a little child would have said...

A web of many lives!

Went to the hospital, a couple of weeks ago. Why? The same old problem - my backache! My back had been giving me trouble again since the past few weeks. It had been difficult to move around and to be able to sit with ease. So i had decided to visit the doctor. I had met him the previous week and he had asked me to come back the following week. However, due to the pressure at work I was unable to do so. So I met him the next Saturday, that is as and when I got the time. So there I was, at the Apollo clinic at Vasant Kunj, in the lobby, waiting for the doctor. And I saw this family.

A father, a mother and a young girl. It appeared that the mother had come to collect some reports for some tests that she might have undergone earlier. The mother called out the little girl's name, trying to keep a watch on her. Malvika she said, as the girl wandered around in the lobby. She was carefree, just like any other kid would be. She tip toed, in and out of rooms where she obviously shouldn't have been going. She was this little person, so full of life. Despite the fact that her parents look worried after studying the reports she was just busy being herself, a kid! She would smile, look at her dad and ask, "Papa, what happenend to Mumma?" Papa didn't say much and dismissed her question by diverting her attention to a little toy. She then ran across the lobby, hopped onto one chair, then ran towards the other, sat there for a while and then moved on to the next one. She was like a doll who was totally unperturbed by what was happening around her, unlike me who seemed to have been caught up in their actions. Within a couple of minutes her father lifted her up in his arms and exited the lobby of the Apollo clinic.

I love watching people when they are doing their regular things. It gives me an insight into their lives. They are regular people with their regular problems. It just feels good to be able to relate to them once in a while. When I am feeling low and I see people who are happy around me, it instantly puts a smile on my face. Try it, it works!

Looking for someone...

I once heard this somewhere and it just stuck with me ever since.

We all need a witness. A witness to our daily lives! We want to be able to share everything that happens with us with that special someone, even if it’s something as petty as what happened with us a few moments ago. Some of us are lucky enough to find that person in our lives and the rest of us take to our friends.

For many years I believed in sharing my life with friends. I have always valued my friends a lot. Our friends look out for us; they are always by our side. I’m glad that I have been able to find such friends in my life. Though I admit that with time I have lost in touch with some of them.

For some people their friends are special enough and for some it’s that certain someone. Someone who would constantly be watching over us. Someone who would be a part of us. A part of every memory, every wound, every moment of happiness and pain. Someone who would be our diamond!

A wise person once told me this - Often people get so busy collecting marbles that they forget about the diamonds. I think I have it figured just right!

my most memorable moment...??

Ever been posed with a question like - what's your most memorable moment? Well I have always been at the other end, the person who asks this question. The usual responses that I get to hear include - "My most memorable moment is when I got my first salary, when I bought my car, when I won an award, when I got married....." and the list goes on. I know, that in my life, there have been many events and incidents which have been very important but I couldn't really figure out my response to this particular question.

Hmmm...my most memorable moment is ....when I fell in love. When I fell in love with myself, for the person that I am. When I fell in love with life and all the things it has to offer, along with the people in it. Life is very beautiful!

I like to believe that we have very little control on our lives. And that life has it's own course and we simply go with the flow. Everything in life happens for a reason and it happens for the best. We just need to put two and two together and figure it out for ourselves. I like my life. It's not perfect though but as the wise say that nothing can ever be perfect. I like the person I've shaped out to be; the credit of which goes to the events of the past. It's all amazing how this works! I can't say much but I love how it feels right now!

:)

Parties & pleasure!

Parties..alcohol...loud music and more!

Looks like this isn't my thing anymore. Not that it ever was but there sure was a time when I had taken to this stuff to run away from reality. A bad decision indeed! It never really did me any good. Never really understood the pleasure that people derive out of getting drunk, falling over each other, touching each other..It's disgusting!

Too strong a word? Perhaps it is..but that's the way I look at it. I'm not the sorts who believes in this kind of public display of emotions. Someone needs to put some sense in these kind of people. That's the thought that hits me everytime I am a part of one these parties. I was out there last night, once again. Even though I went there after a long time nothing seemed to have changed. It's all still the same there, from the music to the people and their actions.

Guess I'm better off without all of this in my life!

Life happens..

Its funny how everyone always has their stuff. Its only on different scales. Quaint isn't it? From my experiences in the past i firmly believe in this. Life is simple but it isn't meant to be that way. Coz if it were, then life would become boring too soon. Everyday, every minute would become a monotonous tale of living. However, whats interesting is that we humans tend to complicate things for ourselves in one way or the other. I could give you an example here. I have way too many friends, more than i can handle. Now i could choose to keep the number to a minimum and say 'NO' when i need to but instead i choose to do the complete opposite, as a result of which i am always running around, getting late, sometimes making it sometimes not and hence the complexities. This is just one aspect of it.

Relationships and their nuances too, can be quite fascinatig. Confessing your feelings and hitting it off to the start of a relationship isn't enough. Its the compromises that you make that keeps the realtionship going. For a very long time i dint know what did i want from a relationship. When i figured it out, i realised that it wasnt gonna be all that easy to get it. There are so many things that one needs to think about and the pros and cons that need to be chalked out as well, along with figuring out the practicalities. Sounds complicated? Who made it that way....you and I!

Now you perhaps have a better picture of this when i say that
LIFE ISN'T COMPLICATED, ITS WE HUMANS WHO MAKE IT THAT WASY!

Its valentines!

The recipe for a perfect valentines...many a smiles, some big bear hugs, a handful of kisses and a dash of love. This would bring out that glow in the eyes, that everyone looks for in their partners. That sudden rush of blood to your head, that tantalizing feeling of being possessed by the feeling of love. When that special someone holds your hand and you feel a current run through your entire body and you have butterflies in your tummy. The three little words ' i love you' have the power to make your ordinary humdrum life a fairy tale. Seems like a fallacy right? Well it is, but we all like to fantasize about such things. Life would be mundane and boring if we didn't think about these things every once in a while. We already know that there's no such thing as perfect. Life can never be perfect. But that doesnt mean that we stop hoping for better things for ourselves because its only human to do so. I have never celebrated valentines with anyone but that doesnt mean that i dont long for the same. Nonetheless, valentines is a day to express your love for your loved ones. Let 'em know that you care about them. Every year on valentines, my brother leaves a bouquet of flowers on the bed, next to my mother and me, while we are asleep. When we wake up in the morning its such a nice, refreshing and rather comforting feeling to know that your family loves you. It instantly puts a smile on my face. Thats the power of love. Love for family, love for friends, love for your partners, everyone thats near and dear to you.