Monthly Archives: October 2006

Dubai Sojourn – Part 1

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Unlike last year, this year we planned to do something meaningful during Eid holidays, and we decided to visit Dubai. We opted to travel by road in the state-owned ONTC bus. Though we started off early, holiday rush was enough to make our lives miserable at Oman and UAE road borders. At the Al Walaja border in Oman, I had some tense moments as the driver of our bus misplaced my passport at the immigration counter. At the Hatta border on the UAE side, we were stranded for nearly two hours in the immigration counter owing to large crowds. Finally we reached Dubai at around 2.30 pm, a cool eight hour journey instead of the normal six hours.

On the way to Dubai from Hatta, we could see sand dunes and hordes of camels. Dubai, according to me, is simply international. Coming from Muscat, I could feel the difference between a happening city and a sleepy town.

Dubai Creek Park offers cable car ride for over 35 minutes. The tickets are priced at 25 dirhams for adults and 10 dirhams for kids. The ride offers a stupendous view of Dubai decked up in lights. It’s better to have a Dubai resident with you while you are in that city for the first time. We had with us — Mohananna – who can be termed a mini Dubai encyclopedia. He had an in-depth view of anything and everything on Dubai. Thanks to him, now we have enough and more stories to unleash on others!

Being the only seven-star hotel in the world, Burl Al Arab has become the ‘must see’ destination in Dubai. The hotel has been constructed over an artificial island in the sea. Tiger Woods has teed off many golf balls into the sea from its helipad, while Federer and Agassi have played a promotional match in the helipad. The hotel is known to have more than 200 suites and unique restaurants. At night, the hotel has an eye-catching illumination in place.

Dubai is also known as the ‘city of gold’. The Gold Souk is frequented by Westerners than other nationalities. A majority of the shops in the souk are owned by Indians.

Dubai offers a spectacular view in the night with the illuminated tall buildings dotting the landscape.


Dubai is quite notorious for its traffic snarls. During Eid the congestion picked up in the latter part of the evening, reminding me of the usual traffic jams in Bangalore. Like in any other Gulf state, accidents are plenty in UAE.


For me, Dubai looked like a concrete city with skyscrapers all around. There is construction activity at every possible place. Hordes and hordes of workers from the sub-continent can been seen sweating it out at these locations. The demand for housing is so huge that every other day a new project gets kicked off, and advertisements are splashed in local dailies. Dubai is growing at an enormous pace, and there are plans in place to make it the most happening city in the world.

Cauvery Sankramana

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Cauvery Sankramana, the most auspicious day in the Kodava calendar, was celebrated yesterday. It is believed that Goddess Cauvery appears in the form of a spring which emerges at Talacauvery. We were invited by the ever-affable Belluanna to celebrate the festival at his residence in Muscat.

Meanwhile, it is festival time for the next one week. Wish you Happy Deepavali and Eid Mubarak!

Getting ‘Real’

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I am a big time soccer aficionado. Real Madrid and Chelsea are my favourite European clubs. Though Chelsea bagged their second premiership title in succession last year, Real disappointed after a series of lacklustre performances. This year, Real has some new names to boast and have already showing their class in the Spanish and Champions league. I hope this time around they won’t disappoint me.
Being a soccer fanatic, I managed to visit the Santiago Bernabeu (Real Madrid Stadium) in Madrid, Spain, during an official last November. We opted for a 30-minute guided tour of the stadium that was priced at 9 euros per person. We were told the club earns lion’s share of its revenue via guided tours and selling paraphernalia bearing players names. No wonder Real Madrid is rated the richest club in the world. Here are some snapshots of the stadium taken during my visit.

Filmi, Very Filmi

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Our hero Balakrishna and his brother are captured by baddies and they tie Balakrishna to a chair…those idiots didn’t know that Balakrishna cannot be stopped by a simple chair…
Here is our hero’s brother…the baddies tied him up too and fixed a time-bomb across his stomach…the bomb looks more like a pack of sausage rolls….
Balakrishna sees some bullet shells lying on the floor…this means that the baddies had a gun…but they decided to use a time-bomb to give the ‘finishing touch’…this is what I call ‘innovative thinking’…
The shells triggered Balakrishna’s brain (if any) and suddenly he has an idea…He throws himself onto the floor and starts moving towards the bullet shells…
Now, lets have a look at the time-bomb…the timer (presumably a pager covered in plastic) is ticking…see the weird buttons on the bomb??…the red button is the On-Off button!!…Now, this is the world’s first time-bomb with such a convenient on-off button…this is what I call a ‘user-friendly time-bomb’…very easy to handle…can be used even by infants…
Coming back to our hero…he is struggling to reach the shells…look at his expression!
Finally, he manages to reach the shells…he picks up a shell with his mouth…the viewers have no idea what the hell he is up to…read on…
He concentrates with the shell between his teeth…look at the sweat on his face…gives an impression of how hard he is concentrating…with all his strength, he spits the bullet shell towards the bomb…

Lo and behold! The shell flies like a bullet through the air…credit goes to Balakrishna here…he has the ability to make a shell work like a bullet…he can be a good asset to the Indian army…The shell reaches the time-bomb and hits exactly the red button!!…the time-bomb gets switched off!!…Balakrishna saves himself and his brother!!
That’s it friends…Balakrishna has proved that he is better than our Olympics medal winner, Major R. S. Rathore….he has even shocked Rajnikanth and Chiranjeevi who were thought to be pioneers in such things…the latest buzz is that R. S. Rathore, Rajnikanth and Chiranjeevi have started training under Balakrishna…hats off to Balakrishna!
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No Comments, Please

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I was startled when I chanced upon a blog by Mr. Dayananda B, Superintendent of Police, Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka, India. Though I appreciate his thought of having a space of his own in the cyperspace, his idea of blocking the ‘comments’ section defeats the purpose of the blog. Like a mute spectator, one has to read all the PR (read blah, blah) and typical police stuff posted all over the place. At least, Dayananda could have activated comments moderation, so that he could decide what to show and what to ignore.

I still have the feeling that public servants just cannot accept negative feedback regarding their job/work. If they take two steps forward to reach out to the public, they make sure to take five steps backward.

How to make a woman and a man happy?

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To make a woman happy, a man only needs to be:

1. A friend
2. A companion
3. A lover
4. A brother
5. A father
6. A master
7. A chef
8. An electrician
9. A carpenter
10. A plumber
11. A mechanic
12. A decorator
13. A stylist
16. A psychologist
17. A pest exterminator
18. A psychiatrist
19. A healer
20. A good listener
21. An organizer
22. A good father
23. Very clean
24. Sympathetic
25. Athletic
26. Warm
27. Attentive
28. Gallant
29. Intelligent
30. Funny
31. Creative
32. Tender
33. Strong
34. Understanding
35. Tolerant
36. Prudent
37. Ambitious
38. Capable
39. Courageous
40. Determined
41. True
42. Dependable
43. Passionate

WITHOUT FORGETTING TO:

44. Give her compliments regularly
45. Love shopping
46. Be honest
47. Be very rich
48. Not stress her out
49. Not look at other girls

AND AT THE SAME TIME, MUST ALSO:

50. Give her lots of attention, but expect little yourself
51. Give her lots of time, especially time for herself
52. Give her lots of space, never worrying about where she goes

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT:

53. Never to forget:
* Birthdays
* Anniversaries
* Arrangements she makes

HOW TO MAKE A MAN HAPPY:
1. Leave him alone!

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