The world is changing. Valentine’s Day is being celebrated with much gusto this year in Oman. Newspapers have all sorts of ads splashed for some days now – offer to buy gold, romantic dinners at star hotels, flowers, toys, perfumes, etc. Businesses don’t want to be left behind to catch a bite of this lucrative pie, and what was un-Islamic sometime back, isn’t anymore. It’s all about money, honey.

May be next year car companies will have teasers reading: “Buy a car, get a Valentine FREE”!

You never know.

I am the type who will never bother to check the bills after shopping in super markets – not that I am ultra rich, it is just that I am not cut for it. But, escalating cost of living in Oman has made me re-think on my habits. Now, I browse through the bills religiously to keep a track of expenses as well as compare prices of commodities at different outlets. I am realizing the difference of some basic items then and now: a kilogram of fresh chicken costs 500 baisa more than what it used to be six months back; a 0.2 kilo of butter costs 150 baisa more than what it was three months back, so on and so forth.

To add salt to the wound, my rents will be jacked up from next month. I have received sweet letters in this respect from the real estate company, which is in charge of our apartment complex. I tried to negotiate regarding the rent only to be told that getting one rial reduced also was just not possible. At this rate, unless private companies do something about the salaries, many NRIs at lower rungs will be forced to return back to their motherland. I hope good sense will prevail upon the authorities to get things back to normal.

Puzzle: What happened to many committees that were formed to check the rising costs of essential goods and house rentals? When will their recommendations be heard and implemented?

Last thing I want to hear is that a new committee has been formed to keep a tab on the earlier ones!

Cold…colder…coldest. That is Muscat from the last one week. With temperatures hovering around 10-15 degrees in the capital areas, it feels miserable to step out after 7pm. I am originally from a hill station in India, and can ignore cold weather to an extent, but Muscat’s cold spell has defeated me hands down.

Al Hamra near Nizwa witnessed light snowfall a couple of days back (check photo and video links). Snow in Oman? Where are we heading? Looks like unusual weather conditions are here to stay – first we had the devastating Gonu last year, and now this cold spell. Global warming makes more sense than ever before.

Member of the Arab Bank group…Commitment to excellence…75 years of dedicated service…400 branches and associates worldwide…blah, blah. I am referring to Oman Arab Bank, one of the leading banks in Oman. Are you in a mood to know more, then hit their website. Duh, you can’t believe your own eyes, well, this is Oman, and a majority of firms here don’t care for looks and marketing.

Take a look at the screen shot of Oman Arab Bank’s depressing website.

I keep wondering: what on earth keeps them away from having a decent website. On the one hand we have banks like BankMuscat, National Bank of Oman and Bank Sohar vying for the marketshare with a host of campaigns across mediums, and on the other we have banks like Oman Arab Bank who don’t care a damn for promotions in newspapers and magazines. Why? Maybe they have a decent customer base of locals and they don’t want more business or they believe in word of mouth campaigns or they have bad advisors when it comes to marketing. All said and done, it speaks well for the company to have a decent website.

I remember speaking to a manager of a web services company in Muscat last week, and she was telling me as to how difficult it was to convince locals businesses to have an Internet presence. In fact, they shy away from publicity, and prefer word-of-mouth campaigns, she claimed. Oman is known for its old charm, but when it comes to business do we need to be old-fashioned in these times of modernity? I guess not.

Related read: Cyber squatting