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.

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.

I have been quite engaged since the start of this week and pressure is mounting day by day. I keep the gtalk open to get notified of the office mails (provided by gmail hosting) but many a times that gives me a distraction, thanks to Suresh and Sekar. So I created the mesaages for them as well as all my friends
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But Ananya mistook that the message was for her, so akka created these custom messages to answer me, but I noticed this one only. Ha! A custom messages war...
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Quite funny that I couldn't resist posting this online..
{oshits} readers for this gtalkwar

Recently my friend mailed me these photos with the subject as "அட ராமா! இவன் அடங்கவே மாட்டானா? (Oh! God will he never be calm?)”. After seeing this I really got irritated at the poster. Will Tamil race never get sensible? When we are going to stop creating such 'Gods'?. Admitted that the poster may not be brainchild of the concerned actor or even it was approved by the actor's close circle, the persons who created such poster will definitely have tried this cheap gimmick to get into the good books of the actor. Instead why can't they directly suck the dick of the concerned actor or pimp their wife/mother/sister to this actor get favours from him rather than insulting the religous sentiments? This actor early tried to used 'Gitai' (short form of Bhagavad Gita) as a film name. When the Hindu organisations opposed the move, his father was supposed to have commented "Any form of publicity is good for my son, so let it be" rather than apologising. Thankfully that movie flopped. Coming to this issue, I am really surprised that nobody raised abjections for this filthy poster... Bastards, they should be hanged to death. Anyway as long as such idiotic fans exist, these actors will survive....

This weekend passed away without much significance. For Thursday night my first choice was strolling in Jhumeira Beach for the whole night, unfortunately there was a sand storm that night, so we had to look for some indoor choices. Then I suggested IBN Batuta Mall in the Sheikh Zayed Road but due to time constraints and the distance factor, we couldn't make it. Finally we, I an Thirumalai, zeroed in on 'Dubai Mall' that was opened 3 months back with the 'World's largest Aquarium". Dubai wanted the world's largest shopping mall and the aquarium, so they constructed 'Dubai Mall'. The place was nothing so great to write about despite having some nice features like a tall waterfall, ice rink for skating and ofcourse this aquarium. Literally the mall was empty by the time we had checked in, so we had a very nice time strolling there as I am somebody who loves lesser crowd. Since Thiru is about to get married soon, a lot of our conversation centered around the marriage life. But next day (Friday) we went to the only temple here in UAE and for me I was there after a long time. I really missed those chaotic Friday temple mornings. Then.... that afternoon we moved to company guest house in International City, which is quite a dull and boring upcoming residential area near Dragon mart in Hatta - Oman road. Let me see what is there in store for us here. - {oshits} reads

It was quite an eventful weekend with few sweet surprises thrown in. First things first... On Thursday I was leaving my workplace quite exhausted by 8:15 p.m, when my cousin called me offering to pick me for Thursday night roundings. We went to Mall of Emirates for strolling. Surprisingly I haven't been there even when I was there during the stay last time. I was stunned at the quality Sony's new DSLR range (Alpha) displayed in the Jumbo Showroom there. I didn't find the 'Mall of Emirates' special from other shopping malls, except that it houses the artificial snow valley in its top floor. They are charging Dhs 250 per person. We were not in a mood to shiver in already cold climate (I forgot to carry my jerkins), so we gave it a skip and no regrets. However I knew that the next day will be happy as I was planning to visit Akka's house at Abu Dhabi.

Rather than writing small blogs, I decided to compile 2-3 posts under the title of Dubai Diary series. 28th Feb 2008. I went to Radhakrishnan's accomodation on Friday and just envied his room. He is in a sharing accomodation and his room is in the landmark building - Bank of Baroda near the Burdubai's Abra (Boat Station). Quite a landmark building that it can be visible from almost more than a kilometer with large neon light hoardings of BOB. His room has a beautiful balcony from which you get a breath taking sea view and ofcourse the Dubai creek. I kicked myself for not carrying my camera when I went there. Evening we went for a stroll along the creek and visited the old house of Dubai's sheikh which is now converted into a museum. Also dropped into the Heritage village near by. My regrets of not taking the camera grew manifolds and I consoled myself saying that I'll be back to these places on 9th Feb (Miladi Nabhi) if they announce a holiday for us. More photos of these places on 9th... it is a promise.

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.