Being in a cultural melting pot like Dubai has its advantages - you can be able to meet people from various cultures and appreciate their unique quality. If there is any race in the world who teaches that there is more to life than money, it will surely be the Filippinos. In Dubai, almost all the shops employ Filippinos for the front end & in the cash counters as they are ever smiling and a pleasing appearance. These positions are not highly paid, but that doesn't stop these people from being cheerful and charming. 'Good Morning shaar... ekshkyoos me shaar.... thaank you shaar'... Something fills us with a peace when we hear to these filippinos on the stores. On the Fridays when we come across those people in the streets, the way they enjoy the life cheerfully by laughing, going around merrily... just puts us in shame that we are not capable of enjoying life like them despite being that they are low paid. I am trying to take them as inspiration to live my life happily.. unconditionally.

I always pity the Dubai's RTA taxi divers, poor souls they slog for the commission which is their bread winner. So they try to prolong the journey if they realise that you are a stranger to the town. However I have learnt to instruct them the right way if they tend to stray. One thing is that you talk to them in a humane manner and strike a right chord with them. I always try to keep talking with them when they travel and some drivers are intresting personalities. Yesterday while returning to Bur Dubai from Ras Al Khor, our working place, there was a huge traffic jam. Our taxi driver was dull and regretted that whatever route he went that day, he was getting struck in the traffic jam, so couldn't make much trips. I really felt sorry for him, while getting down I just told him that "मै आपकॆ कियॆ धुआ करता हू कि आपका बाकि दिन और कल अच्छा हॊ!" (Let me pray for you that the rest of your day and tommorrow be a good day). The smile these words put on his face was refreshing. Even though I couldn't do anything more than this for him, I just hope these kind of soothing and positive words drive his day better. - {oshits} reads

It has been almost a week I had come to Dubai for a project work, but I feel like being here for a long time. After Coimbatore, this is one place I feel at home. When looking back I can't reason why I feel comfortable about this place because it is so hot, dry, policies are quite expats unfriendly but something holds me in this place. May be some sweet memories of the last time stay is doing the magic. We are quite deeply engaged in work, so not much time to go around, but Thirumalai took me outside for a couple of days to buy some basic things and dinner. My website (www dot maheshwaran dot com) is blocked here and due to technicalities the *.net domain was not working fine, which made em think that I won't be able to blog for next 6 months. But thankfully I got one proxy that helped me to make changes to keep the *.net domain working. Love to keep you all informed about my stay here in Dubai.

It is official atlast. I am quite excited about leaving to UAE for an implementation project on 19th of this February. After a while my long cherished dream of an 'end-to-end implentation' is going to come true. This project being executed in the customer's place at Dubai is an added bonus because I am going to be closer with some of my friends in UAE. Ananya had already "welcomed be back to UAE". Infact I tried to go to Dubai, which is quite closer to my heart, for a vacation last April but it didn't materialise at that time. So in all aspects this trip to Dubai is so exhilirating that I am all charged up to give my best for this implementation. Don't know whether I'll be able to blog regularly like how I do here because it is definitely going to be a demanding process, but let me make up for it with a bang after I return back to Chennai.

Once I read in a Sharukh Khan's interview that for Indians cinema is like brushing the teeth and it can't be avoided any day. Seems it is too true. Oflate I notice that in any social gatherings people speak more about cinema, cricket and mega serials. Gone are the days where people were more concerned about the relatives (even in the form of gossipping). Recently I went to a funeral. After a while people we talking like "You know, Vikram had crooned all the songs for Kandhaswamy", "Heard that Naan Kadavul is good. Any reviews?"... sort of conversations were in rife. It was quite disgusting. There are lot of things, leave out intellectual stuffs, to be discussed in a common life, but why the fcuk only cinema is being discussed all over.

It has been about 7 years I am with internet and 5 years as regular blogger but still remember the day I "saw" the internet for the first time. It was a summer 1999, the word 'internet' was buzzed around but what it was all about, none in my circle could explain. I had completed my final semester exams and in the interim period I visited my sister's summer project at IISC, Bangalore. So it was she who 'introduced' me to internet and the first 'website' I had seen was the Official website of the movie "Taal", because when she asked me to name a site, I had the cassette of 'Taal' in my hand, so I read out that. Needless to say I was quote fascinated and when I joined my Masters, I had a keen intrest on the e-commerce papers. When the Chennai girls of my class were talking about emails and portals, I used to take Philip Kotler to the browsing centers to see the example sites mentioned. In the due process I fell in love with the medium for accomodating anybody who is creative and letting the whole world see your body of work without restrictions or censoring or editing. At the end of the course, I got an urge to develop my own content.

Let me confess that this blog is 'inspired' by RGV's blog on money and the views, incidents are purely mine. This blog is all about how much I value money and materials in life. Like everybody I too agree that money is THE important thing in life no matter whomever may claim that money is immaterial to them. But how much you value money is something that depends on person. Some people are happy with the money they had made to live in a contended life whereas some people chase money no matter how much they have in abundance. The number of people in the former category is very meagre whereas the latter has more. We are living in a materialistic world, so we can't rule out the necessity of money but must learn to balance between the necessary and a luxury.

Surya and Jyothika are my most favourite couples in the filmworld. The kind of commitment they showed towards each other when in love and also balancing the conservative elders' views. (Surya is a Tamil Gounder, whereas Jyotika is a Punjabi, half-Muslim). When Actor Sivakumar announced the wedding of Surya with Jyothika, like millions of their fans, I too felt very happy as if some of my friends are going to marry. Even though it hurted a bit as an average film goer that Jyothika stopped acting, her "Mozhi" was a memorable swansong. Blessed with a daughter "Diya" (Notice that Surya, Jyothika and Diya (lamp) all are the names of "light"), it was warm seeing the first birthday celebration of their princess. Some photos I got recently, so sharing with you all.