Sidebar

22
Sun, Dec
0 New Articles

Click the image to read furtherTill now it had been all car travels in Dubai either to office and on weekends because my friend was there who took me in car wherever we wanted to go. But after moving to Bur Dubai and with my friend going to India on vacation, I am exploring the public transport options. The situation is not so different from our Indian State transport services, except that here RTA (Road Transport Authority) has a good customer service (only) through a call center, who gives details about the routes and bus numbers when called. Along with this difference are other aspects like - a flat Dhs. 2/- for anywhere in Dubai, the standard of bus - Air conditioned, closed and infact thats the disadvantage because of the perspiration inside a closed space. Other than that there is no difference - same unpredictable timings of the bus arrival like in Chennai and even a checker doing the ticket checking in the mid way. However these bus travels take me back to the simple days of mine in Coimbatore and I am really enjoying waiting, 50 minute travel in the bus, so I am not complaining. I should have tried this much before itself and this is the only regret.

{mosimage}
Recently Anis, after seeing my Birthday fotos, commented "Mahesh has a different world where he will be in all smiles, people will be raving about him but on contrast he is a snob with a 'kadoos' expression in his face in another world". I neither want to deny him nor give explanations to the behaviours in the another world he mentions. Just like any human being I am very happy with people I am more comfortable around me. Unfortunately I haven't I learnt the diplomacy and the art of face masking the real thought process. I got the virtue of being so transperent that whatever is in my mind, my face broadcasts it. After seeing the birthday photos many people who matter me a lot said that my smile was too good in those photos. Again I neither wanted to deny nor endorse their comments, but even if the camera was not there my smile would have been like that when with people closer to me. I can attribute this to one of the interviews of Shabana Azmi, I have read when I was in my 11-12th std.

{mosimage}

I thought that this year's Birthday will be a quiet affair with a visit to temple and a calm dinner with friend Thiru & cousin Prakash. But little did I expect that my wife had planned for a surprise cake cutting through Thiru. All happened behind my back and I am not going to complain... ha! ha! ha! Prakash and Thiru made this birthday memorable by giving a surprise to me. Still more surprise was when Vijay made a surprise cake cut late night that day, which I never ever expected. Even though I don't celebrate my birthday like this, I had to give-in for this year's occassion. I had received calls from all those who mattered me and that's more than enough for me to cherish this occassion till the next birthday. Thanks a lot Anis, Akila, Akka, Priya & Bala, Vijay, Vijayakrishnan from Australia. Some of the photos inside.

This is the first blog I amSelf Ignorance typing in the laptop I had bought to indulge myself for this otherwise lonely birthday. Last time in 2005 I had a lonely birthday in Abu Dhabi, on when I decided that I should do something to be with my family in the coming birthdays, which was instrumental in moving to SAP. Even though I was in Abu Dhabi for 2006 birthday I was sure that I'll be heading back to India in few months because I had taken SAP certification in May 06. May be I realised the gravity of being alone on occassions like birthday I enjoyed the next two birthdays very much with family & also usefully. For 2009 birthday I am back to a lone birthday that too in the same UAE. Just hoping that the next & coming birthdays will be with my family. Am I alone feeling this way quite emotionally or do others also feel the same way? As far as I had seen, most of the people who doesn't think this way enjoy their life much more than people like me do. That set the ball rolling for this blog.

GTalkIt was a regular 'gtalk' chat request from an unknown email address and I never expected that the 'OK' button was going to get me somebody who could sweep me off. Like I had said that I had got some nice friends through my blogs, this chat request too was one of the regular ones. Normally I don't approve chats from strangers, but this time out of sheer boredom I accepted this person. He is from the Kangaroo's land and we hit off since the first chat. Slowly slowly he is becoming addictive and we are planning to meet in December when he comes to India on vacation. Sometimes you can get a feel where the relationship is going. Last time I felt so was with Ananya, whom I fondly address as 'Akka'. Normally I am very possessive about my friendship that I never shout from roof top like this but this time I am just hoping that this friendship should blossom into a long term relationship.

{mosimage}
An average of 358 visitors a day & 1.8 lac visitors an year... It is not for bragging or boasting, but just want to share my happiness with you all and thanks a lot for all those who had visited my site either accidentally or through bookmarks. When I started blogging by the late 2003, I never expected that I'll reach to so many people through my blogs. The visitor count statistics and the number of hits each blog receives makes me overwhelmed about the interest people showed in my blogsite. When I started I used all sort of "items" like sex scandal news / images to attract the readers and by the time I started getting genuine hits, I started being very original about the contents. Thankfully I started getting more appreciation & some nice friends through those articles. Hope you all enjoy your stay here.

{mosimage}
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.

{mosimage}
Vaithy, the anniversary things may remind me that it had been an year that you have physically passed away from us , but even today every conversation with our common friends here doesn't complete without the mention of you. Still it intrigues me why you had chosen the extreme decision of committing suicide, that too jumping from 12th floor, when you were so scared even to cross the road traffic. Many times I wish that Vaithy, Had you been around and I am here in Dubai we would have had a blast time painting whole of UAE red. I am still to come in terms that you are alive no more, still dreaming that someday that you'll call me / drop in my office here to surprise me. Ok... I have to admit the reality but I owe you a lot.. so lot that I can't quantify it in materials. Today whomever says that I have a good taste for fine arts, music, whenever my friends ask about Tamil literature & books, I still can't resist acknowledging that it was you who inculcated all those 'whatever good things so..' in me, making me a better human that I was yesterday, till you came into my life. Vaithy... I just pray that your soul rests in peace, else you give birth to me as my son, I will pamper you.

{mosimage}
Till 2-3 days back the weather of Dubai was like a seductress... sometimes sizzling and sometimes sandy... It is unusual that there had been rains in March - April, against the regular November - December rainfalls. My friends back home found it hard to believe that we are having rains in Dubai while back home the mercury is soaring. Even though there was hailstorms in Deira, the central part of Dubai, in the International City we didn't have anything of such sort. Just rains. Thankfully we are living in the 10th floor of an apartment, we tend to get a good view of our living area - International City. As usual I just tried to capture some of those moments.. just whatever I get from my room's window. Here for you.

{mosimage}After I came to this project I was introduced to many of the core team members in this company. Of which I got instantly attracted to two guys, for the reasons unknown to me even. The term 'attracted' sound crude but somehere there was an instant familiarity. They were Sijo and Jishore, the unconventional naming convention itself mighht have given away their race... ha! ha! Bonding with Sijo was a breeze as we yakked and yakked in malayalam and we go to room together sometimes in the evenings, but getting Jishore in my way was bit difficult. I used some pranks like sending anonymous messages to him, missed calls etc to get into his memory system. Atlast I took him for lunch last week and while observing him I realised why I got moved towards him.