1. He was wearing two different color socks today. White & Black. A pretty good combination. No one noticed in the beginning until he folded the trousers a bit to expose his socks.
2. He tried to eat with left hand. It was so hard to hold the spoon and he spilled half the food.
3. There was a red stripped snake in the campus. The campus is in a godforsaken place, out in the wilderness. People can come here with their family to have a picnic. We come to work everyday.
We work where snakes live. Tomorrow snakes will work where we live.
4. The guards shoved the snake away with a pink stick.The stick turned green with envy.
5. She snored the whole evening like there is no tomorrow.
Have you heard a young woman snore so loud? I have.
6. A pink house is made of pink brick, a red house is made with red brick, a white house in made with white brick. Then why do people say a "Greenhouse" is made of glass.
7. People should never stay in glass houses. They will turn Green.
8. Windmills produce clean energy. The energy we use in house is dirty,filthy. We should stop using the same. Let's stay in darkness.
9. People will be happy in darkness, at least they cannot see who is making faces at them.
10.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
HUMPTY DUMPTY !!
Physics, Metaphysics & Spirituality
I was so impressed by a write-up by Mr. Deepak Ranade that I thought of putting it down in my notes.
They say matter and energy are inter-convertible. Matter is present in various energy states which are temperature dependent. The higher the temperature greater is the energy. All boils down to the behavior of the atoms and molecules. Water has three states dependent on the temperature. At normal temperatures its fluid, when the mercury goes negative, it becomes ice and when we subject the same to higher temperatures it vapourises. At higher temperature the disorder in the molecules increases and in lower temperature in decreases. In physics they call this as entropy. It represents the excitability and chaos of the molecules that constitute matter.
When matter is cooled to very low temperatures – to absolute zero (this is not minus zero but minus 273) then the entropy should decrease and matter should come to zero energy state. This zero energy state in physics is called Bose – Einstein condensate (In school level physics we were not taught all this metaphysical stuff, now I realize what I missed). This state of matter is also called super atom as the entire mass behaves like one big single atom. But thiese “big”, “single” adjectives are misnomer as in this state the mass (atom) loses all its properties like shape, charge & polarization. It probably reverts to a shapeless, attributeless phenomenon, reverting to just the potential to manifest as anything.
The mass becomes a literally “IT”.
The human brain in an aggregate of nearly hundred billion neurons. This is the main control station of the body. The thoughts that crowd our minds is a sum total of the simultaneous activity of different neurons. The structure of our body is so advanced that even the tiniest of activities is sensed by the neurons and translates as an activity or a feeling through the connectivity of the neural network.
If the entropy in the brain is high people will find it harder to concentrate. You cannot write a poem standing in a busy loudly market. But closing your eyes help. The sensory organs serve as an important pathway to increase the entropy as they stimulate various neural circuits adding to the entropy. All the five senses we have are constantly searching for signals and these signals are processed by the brain simultaneously.
When you concentrate, there is a resultant decrease in the disorder of the neural system. By switching of your sensory organs and concentrating you can reduce the chaos of the neurons. Just like matter attains a zero state as near Absolute zero levels, in the state of meditation you reach the same condition. The neural stimuli decrease in amplitude and frequency. As the level of meditation increases, the entropy of neuron decreases and a state of calmness is perceived. The neurons start becoming synchronous. That is they neither modulate nor amplify any signal. They just resonate in harmony. This dance of harmony continues until final state of zero entropy arises, where all 100 billion neurons function as one big single neutron.
The Bose- Einstein condensate equivalent of the neuron system is what may be termed as Samadhi – what we lesser mortals call as “kicking the bucket” and little learned ones as “enlightenment”.
The soul leaves the vessel (body) and has the potential to manifest as anything.
Where physics ends spirituality begins.
INSANITY !!
I have tried putting down my thoughts in different ways, writing letters to unknown people, starting blogs (five in total) and talking to myself. None was effective enough and in the end I was left struggling with my inner senses and chaos that has become a regular feature on the right side of the brain.
The other problem was when I used to write something, I could not find the right words. All were jumbled up like a lump of ice, felt like throwing it at someone, but every time I threw it bounced back and hit me.
People would call this stage as the first step of insanity, I would prefer to be insane rather than living in this sane world, where insanity is viewed as a premium. Coming back to my thoughts, there is really nothing new. That’s what I feel as I could never put it down systematically, logically & effectively.
What if my thought reads like a maniac? What if it throws up something unusual, even I do not know? Do we have control of our thoughts, we think we have and that is the reason we have coined a term called “sub consciousness”. Isn’t it a dichotomy?
I was reading in the newspaper few days back. It proclaimed that the most effective decisions are taken in sub conscious mind. Like when you are sleeping, day dreaming or taking a siesta. It is always a mystery who conducts all these tests and what is the validity of these tests. Newspapers have produced millions of information (both useful & pathetic) from the day they started printing them. Sometimes I wonder, are all true or they manufacture news to fill up the volumes?
People is
Now if my thoughts veer around such ambiguous, imaginary, chaotic subjects – what is the world going to perceive me as?
Insane? Maybe.
But people will gulp up every word that comes in print formats – books, periodicals, newspapers and obviously the biggest of all media - television.
My thoughts can be as crazy as your daily bit of news, but please don’t call me insane till I get the same clarified by some test results.
I will come back with more thoughts after I collect some.
MUMBAI - Down & Out
The television channels are still rambling with the Mumbai news. Fighting with each other for TRP ratings.
In Chennai there is DJ festival going on. Tickets are in demand. Ian Anderson will be jamming with Anoushka Shankar in Palace Grounds,
That's
The news channel says that people are venting anger on politicians. Good, its their democratic right, but who represents the common man in television channel – socialites?
Yesterday Barkha Dutt of NDTV ensembled a bunch of socialites. Simi Gerwal, Prasoon Joshi, Luke Kenny (my God, this guy needs a Hindi translator), Ness Wadia etc. The zoo was full house. Simi Gerwal was looking as young as ever - maybe she had spent atleast 2-3 hours in her dressing room before coming to the show.
Everyone said,"Enough is Enough". "The politicians cannot be tolerated anymore".
So what do we do? Throw out the politicians and have anarchy.
Have a land where people make their own rules, take justice upon them - go a few million years back and pay tribute to our ancestors.
I have not seen a single discussion where anything concrete came out. It cannot. You cannot make a judgment out of haste. Idea of bombing
The times are disturbing. Yes, emotions will run high, people will give vent to their pent up feelings. But does that mean we resort to anarchy, like the television channels are provoking.
We can translate our anger into action, in four months time, in the next general elections. But during that period Simi Gerwal will be in
Mahesh Bhatt - lets not even waste a letter on this guy.
Lastly, English media knows they are a bunch of hypocrites. They know they reach to 5% of the population but behave in a way that they will change the face of the society.
Please Socialites, there is life beyond the glamour of metros, we have something called villages, where more than 70% of the population leaves.
Don’t even dare going there, lest you damage your Dolce & Gabbaña.
Those who lost their near & dear ones will still be grieving in the darkness, while the television channels will be busy fighting for TRPs.
I Don't DREAM Anymore
What could a man in his late thirties dream about?
I often have nightmares, because dreams have become a luxury.
Dreams transform with age and so do age with dreams.
Gone are the days when you would be romancing with Merlyn Monroe in
Now you wake up in shiver thinking about your family’s future.
Not everything is so bad at it seems like in nightmares, neither life is that colorful as it is in dreams.
That’s why reality is so sweet.
A morning cup of flavored
When your child runs up to you and you enjoy the innocence in his face, then you know dreams are only an interpretation meant for Freud and you are far luckier to live life like any other normal people.
Philosophy imparts knowledge and tries to make logic as a guiding factor for your sustenance. I reasoned everything in life but not now.
Too many unanswered questions pull you down; you forget your sense of survival.
Dreams are unrealistic answers to unanswered questions, and it appears only when you are sleeping.
When your son smiles in his sleep you know he is not dreaming, because he does not know what dream is. And you never bother to find out why he smiles, but you stare at him and enjoy the smile and wish he smiled like this for ever & ever.
My Long Lost Friend
This was my second face off with my friend Hypertension. Last time we met was way back in 2004 and that time too he made it sure that I give him quality time - so i was in hospital for 2 weeks.
This friend of mine is quite demanding. He never knocks on doors or gives you any intimation of his coming. When he arrives he needs full attention.
On 28th July came back from
My BP was whopping 230/150. The doctor was more scared than me.
He was fumbling - "You know with su ..ch pressure your thi...n blood cells ca..n bre..ak and caaa..use a hea..rt att...ackkk."
No, Sir, I don't but if you can prevent it I shall be grateful.
"Sister, immediate hospitalization for this young patient".
Even during those times it was nice to hear someone referring to me as YOUNG.
The next 6 days had an intimate relation with HTN. We chatted all day all night, slept together in the small hospital bed, played hide and seek with the nurses - BP was always fluctuating and HTN also invited Diabetes to be a good friend of mine.
It was an eventful week and I landed up with another new friend - DIABETES.
I don't even thing my wife gets so much of devotion, dedication that I give to HTN.
But, HTN also comes once in 4 years - I think it is worth it, but I have to reduce his visits.
And, doctor - I will take care of my Thin Blood cells and hence NO SMOKING.
I have to live for my LITTLE DEVIL.
The night club is located in the York Hotel - just don't remember the name of the club.I had been to this place when I first came to Dubai and before my wife joined me. You know how wives are!!
The place was totally crowded,even now it is crowded and there were more ladies than men.That equation also hold true now.Let me clarify one point at this time,which might not fit into everyones equation.These ladies are pure businesswomen and they do things better than your perception of your wife doing the same.
When I first went, the place was crowded with women mostly from eastern block countries like Ukraine,Romania, Bulgaria,Latvia and all those countries belonging to earlier Russian Federation or the Iron Block countries.
Hey even if you did not indulge in business discussions, the drinks went down smoothly and it was good both for the mind and body and off course your eyes.This time was a real shocker - all women are from China, Korea. Not a single one from those eastern Europe.
We realized that when Chinese makes an entry into any field in a market, they just kill the market with cheap prices. So much so that they have driven an entire community away.It was purely volume business and a price related entry.
Cheap and comfort that you expect out of cheap products.Along with the absence of European ladies the nature of men also changed. Now there are mostly Asians swinging to Desi Music.
Every women will come up to you and say,"India, good country. I like India." even if you are from Pakistan or Bangladesh.
We also are facing the same problem in our business - we have to face competition from Chinese products and we are having a tough time.Either we bring down our prices or we perish, or we shift our manufacturing location to China.But for human beings that might not be possible. Shade!!
Mixed Feelings
My two year stint in Dubai will end in September, this year.Mostly because of problems at work I could never get to love this country, I always wanted to catch the next flight back to home.
It took full two years to get my return ticket, one way.
But as the day comes closer you feel something around you. I think its true for all. If you stay in a place for more than an year you have a sense of attachment.
Apsara Supermarket, which we started referring to as ours, the dry cleaner who never came on time until & unless called upon, long wait for home delivery from Karachi Darbar, the shawarma guy near Apsara, who made it as per our taste (hot, more chilies, a little more, no tomatoes,some more chillies please) and Burjuman, where we spent lovely moments - my wife looking for apparels and me birdwatching.
Hmmm!! you can't get the best of all. Life has it's own rules, we have to play as per that.
N.B. Indrani, will be flying Emirates only.
Lies,Damn Lies & Statistics !!
Everyone knows Sales people makes the world look like heaven before getting an order or closing a deal and after that they show the real movie – the Hell in full glory.
But it’s a funny game everyone enjoys playing – both the customers & the suppliers. The customers will always press for deliveries and suppliers will always give reasons for late delivery.
I heard one of my colleague telling a customer (this customer is also beloved),” Sir!! How can you be so selfish? There’s a full blown war going on in Lebanon and you are worried about your materials. Now we are too much focused on the war. Please bear with us till the war is over.”
Good thinking I would say. But after half an hour another guy from the same customer calls up and tells my colleague,” Boss, we are desperate. We got an order to ship the materials to Lebanon. It’s for the Army. I think it’s your duty to help us now.”
We talk about smart sales guys – what an underestimation?
I am trying hard to figure out a structured way of lying – Hey!! It’s not that easy. It’s like a chess game. You lie, and then you think about all the possible questions or replies you will get and then frame another lie to counter all such individual questions and it goes on & on. At the end the brighter of the two players win.
Either Karpov or Kasparov.
IIM to Tirupati - a Spiritual Journey
This is not the main news.
Piety and knowledge of Buddhist scriptures used to qualify one to be a Chinese monk. Now, add computer knowledge skills, foreign language ability and degree in financial management.
And like most things in the super competitive, rapidly developing country, it’s become both big business and a field in which people are eager to get ahead.
That’s creating a new breed of multi-tasking, tech-savvy, upwardly mobile monks.
Hui Jui, the Deputy General Manager of 120 year old Jade Buddha temple has just completed his degree in Business Administration and the next batch of monks has already enrolled themselves for the next batch.
Now turn to Tirupati, the home of Lord Sri Venkateshwara. This is the second busiest and richest religious centre after Vatican. The annual turnout is to the tune of 12 million people per year and the temple receives in donation about 10 billion rupees per year.
The temple is run by a trust – TTD and the chairman is appointed by the Andhra Pradesh Government, an IS officer.
What has made Tirupati so different from other religious places?
I believe someone had the foresight to develop the place as a huge Corporation.
Religion is one thing but how to attract people to the temple, the same question that hunts the churches in the Europe & America.
What Tirupati sells is Faith and it has built its brand on this attribute.
Look at the facilities provided by them, place to stay- low cost, no frills but comfortable.
The queues are immaculately maintained, VIPs are treated separately.
The famous Tirupati “Laddos” are made in mass with the same quality standard – as a part of line extension now they are available in your city, neatly packed along with blessings.
Tonsuring is done in a separate area and hair is made to good use to protect the ones who don’t have (wigs).
And can you imagine managing 10 billion per year?You have to pay the priests, create hierarchy and ensure responsibilities.
What do you call this but for an Organization?
TTD maintains its own website and it’s very professionally done.
TTD maintains 12 temples and sub shrines and employs 14,000 people.
And TTD runs it quite professionally and makes profit every year – anything to learn from?
Du Bai or not To Buy
Coming into terms with this situation I decided to put my thoughts about Dubai or say Middle East per say in my blog.
More you stay in this country more fascinated you are.
There are lot of topics I want to write about , but being uninitiated in the field of writing I, first of all beg pardon from my readers. My thoughts may skip jump & hop faster than a frog but then you know that I am no Gabriel Garcia Marquez. You may find that there is no fluidity in my writing but that’s when I need your constant feedback so that I can develop my skills a little bit. Everyone is not born a Rabindranath Tagore.
Anyways let’s start with November 15th 2005, the day I landed in Dubai from Mumbai. There is a saying,”Cool dudes buy from Dubai & fat Mom’s shop in Mumbai”. I don’t know how true it is but yes, one thing for sure; they maintain the temperature quite cold in the malls.
O.K. no more jumping around. The journey from Airport to the Hotel Apartment – “Golden Sands 9” was quite impressive. Neat & Clean roads with some forced greenery on the side roads, huge buildings on either side of the road – it creates an ambience of overindulgence around it.
Let’s start with Golden Sands 9. I am very particular about this 9. Because there are eleven Golden Sands & nine Silver Sands. All are Hotel Apartments and depending on your number you have different facilities. The area where “Sands” are located is called Bur Dubai.
Now a little bit of geography. Take a plain white piece of paper. Fold it in to halves. Label the left as Diera and the right as Bur Dubai – Karama. That’s Dubai geography for you. The line that you get by folding the paper is the Dubai Creek.
Diera is old city, more like Mumbai 20 years hence and Bur Dubai - Karama is like New York say 8 years ago.
Now put this paper in a table. If you leave the paper and travel further left (North) you will be traveling towards Sharjah, Ajman, Umal Quiamn , Ras Al Khaima and then to the Arabian Gulf. If you go further right behind the paper (South) you cross Al Ain, Abu Dhabi till you kiss the feet of KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).
Now that you have fair idea about the geography of Dubai It will be easier for me to explain “Sands” to you. This huge property of Hotel Apartments is developed and run by Arenco Properties. The reputation of the hotels is quite good but the reputation of the area is quite poor- we will revisit the same later. Most of the Hotels in Dubai are Hotel Apartments. They can be from Studio Apartment to Three Room Apartments (3BHK in Mumbai style). They are fully furnished with Kitchen, Washing Machine etc. etc. They are rented from daily to yearly basis. Self sustained apartments with full privacy – that’s a key word – Privacy.
Shop Till You Drop
Now the nearest to the “Golden Sands 9” was Spinney’s. It’s a big chain of Supermarkets.
There are four big chains in UAE – Spinney’s, LuLu, Choitram & Carrefour – British, Keralite, Indian & French.
To me Kerala is God’s own country – so I dare not club it with India.
Now all the Supermarkets cater to different taste and have different strategy.
LuLu caters mostly to Indian and more specifically to Keralite taste. It was founded by Mr. Yousaf Ali M.A, a person who came with Rs 1000 to Dubai and has made a fortune in one generation. Now he the MD & Chairman of EMKE group, one of the biggest Indian conglomerate in Middle East. LuLu is not only in UAE but throughout the Gulf and now he plans to open 50 Supermarkets in India. You name it and you get it in LuLu.
Choitram – they started as traders in Dubai way back in sixties and then diversified to supermarkets as one of their businesses. They are the first to open Supermarkets in the posh Communities and serve the Europeans with their choice – but if you want to have Nuremberger “Bratwurst” in Dubai, you need to pay the price. They are niche players, in short.
Spinney’s also caters to Europeans but also to classy India expatriates. They have a tie up with HSBC, so if you bank with HSBC, you got to go to Spinney’s to take out money. They also have MMI – i.e. from where you can buy Liquor by providing your license. Focused business with strong customer base – mostly Brits & Russians. They have the best of Bakery among all Supermarkets.
Carrefour is huge. They have very few outlets but they are like Wal-Mart, “Everyday Low Prices”. They cater to all tastes but with a little inclination towards the Arabic people. They are so huge that you can safely move around with your “date” even when your wife is there in the same supermarket, lost in one of the aisles. The butchery section & Fish section is quite big – even they offer “whole” goat – if you are interested.
Now these were the branded ones. Besides these there are lot of small to big shopping malls in most localities + local Grocery shops , which can in some way related to Kiran & Santosh as mentioned above.
But what fascinates me is the fact that all the supermarkets & Grocery shops can sustain by themselves. This makes one thing very clear – the purchasing power of people in Dubai is quite high.
The "TEA" Tale
Besides I was involved in some sort of study in a sector which is totally strange to me – Tea. The fascination for this sector grew mostly thru FM radio reviews.
First let me state some facts about the market and then to the weird reviews which led me to delve deep into this sector.
“The tea market in the Greater Middle East is worth more than three billion dollars. In the GCC, Unilever enjoys 80 percent market share and 90 percent household penetration.”
The amount (volume) of Tea Uniliver (Lipton) sells in UAE is measure in terms of – multiples of the weight of number of Free Willie (Tiger Shark). Before that it was multiples of the weight of number of full grown Elephants. This reports led me to do some research and also find out how “Lipton” can create such a market.
Alcoholic drinks are not freely available in UAE, They are available in Restaurants with permit, but it’s costly. Also due to religious biases people evade alcoholic drinks. The favorite pastime of Arabs which also has percolated to other nationals is smoking “Sisha” or “water pipes”. Along with Sisha – a brewing cup of “Mint Tea”.
Even in restaurants after your meal people will offer you a cup of “Mint Tea”. That’s the local custom here.
The recipe for Mint Tea is quite simple – take a cup of boiling water, put some mint leaves and a tea bag of Lipton Yellow Label and its ready to sip.
Coffee (Arabic/Turkish) is the biggest competitor for Tea and you have another big brand fighting it out – Nestle. But with people becoming more health conscious and doctors advising you to drink Tea which is a lesser Devil among the two, Tea consumption is gaining ground. Some figures:
Tea Bag Consumption – 73% in 2003 to 75% in 2005 while in the same period consumption of Coffee (Traditional) has declined from 61% in 2003 to 57% in 2005. But it’s not that simple – the market share for traditional coffee has been cannibalized by modern/branded coffees & exotic coffees like Cappuccino, moc-ha, etc. with penetration of “Coffee Pubs” like Starbucks, Second Cup, and Costa etc.
Till 2003 sale of loose tea outnumbered the sale of tea bags by 60 to 40. But with repositioning of tea for the middle & high income group the sale of tea bags is gaining prominence. There has been whole lot of product expansions in the tea market, Uniliver alone has 23 varieties under the Lipton brand and each focused to a target group. The promotion also varies.
While Yellow Label tea bag commercial boats of Asian faces the same for Lipton Pyramid targets the local Arabs. In similar fashion Lipton Earl Grey which is focused on the up market segment, the commercial shows a multinational crowd in a Hi Tech office.
Also the theme for the commercial varies – in some it focuses on the energy aspect of the drink while in some it stresses on the “alertness” factor. For Lipton Earl Grey the message is,” It’s cool to drink Tea.”
Aerated Drinks and Juices has started threatening the Tea market in a big way and given the account of summer temperatures in UAE they are sure to make some grounds, mostly as local companies have started selling “Butter Milk” & “Coconut Water” in Tetra packs.
But at least for some time to come Uniliver bosses can comfortably sip on their profits with a cup of “Mint Tea”.
Show Me The Money, Honey
Dubai is also trying to create some artificial greenery, some places which can give your eyes a break after being strained looking at the deserts or the reflections of the sunrays from the concrete high-rises, in terms of parks. Zabbel Park which just got inaugurated in January is a sprawling 20 acre piece of land in the heart of the city. It boasts a playground for children, amusement rides, and cozy nooks for discreet lovers and pathways for simply strolling.
Then there is the sea and the beaches. Most of the five star hotels on the sea shore have private beaches, with opulent facilities. You can find the anemic whites lying on the beach chairs in their birth attire with their bums facing the sun. Then there are public beaches nicely maintained and charged a minimum of 5 Dhs for maintenance. Some days are designated as family day and some especially for ladies (heard so, to find out the authenticity have to be there once and find out how serious they are.)
Dubai tried to put some historical perspective into the city but it’s really difficult. The colonization of the people and formation of states and country started in the 50’s. Before that it was mostly like tribal rulers fighting against one another for a piece of desert. But still half a century gives some historical credibility and the same has been nicely reflected in “Bastakiya”- the history of Dubai. There is also Centre of Islamic Art and other cultural places but nothing to attract the tourists in hoards.
In winter the Dubai Creek and the desert provides good entertainment. There are dinner cruises in lovely wooden steamers in the Dubai creek. Earlier they used to have “belly dance” on board but for obvious reasons that has been banned from 2005. Even you can personally hire an Abra (a small boat) and sail down the creek in the comforting winter breeze.
The desert gets cooler in winter and you have conducted “Desert Safari”. They take you the desert, drive you through the dunes in 4X4, make you ride in camels and provide you with sumptuous barbeque in a desert camp.
The beautiful girls belly dance to Arabic music by the side of camp fire. The experience is intoxicated, pixilated.
But on the whole Dubai is for those who have money and can afford to have people to count that money. Its for the rich, richer & the richest.
A Pleasant Summer Tale
What I like the most was that strategy adopted by the mall owners during the DSS. How can you keep back the people back in Dubai during these summer months? The answer, although seems quite simple when you think of it now, but was really challenging. If you keep the children back, where will their parents fly? The focus in the DSS were children, captivate them in all possible ways, entertain them, put adventure in their lives. DSS has a mascot in the name of “Madosh” – it looks more like me and that’s what makes it amusing for kids.
I reluctantly had to take my kid (off course that’s my wife) to Lamcy Plaza most of the Fridays. She was more interested in the shopertainment rather than the kid’s shows. Does anyone understand that shops cannot sell any product less then their buying price? That’s this concepts defeats all purpose of doing business. Are the shop owners there to make charity during the summer months? But how do you make this understand to kids and WOMEN. They both belong to a different world. Maybe that’s a topic which cannot be covered in a blog – I mean it can be if some site offers unlimited MB space and someone has the nerve to put the rest of his life in writing on this topic.
You are grounded because your kids want to have some fun and the weather is too hot outside. So the only place to venture around is in the malls. That’s sometimes pretty costly for prime earner in the family (no biases) but you are in Dubai not only to make money, to spend something also.
As per a recent survey the footfalls in the malls have increased this summer. What used to be a loss making season has become profitable. Dubai has flair of turning around things and this is just one of them.
What can you expect next – an air-conditioned canopy covering parts of the desert for people to enjoy?
If Mall of Emirates has a Ski slope, my idea may not be absolute junk.
EMMAR, NAKHEEL are you listening?
Post It, Your Way
When you need to visit any establishment here you have to ask for the “Location Map”. It comes by fax and then you have to follow the map and reach the location – nice way.
There are Post Offices in UAE and then you can register to Post Office Boxes. All your letters should carry your P.O Box number and it will accumulate in your box. There is no mailman running around delivering your post – strange, isn’t it?
Now our countrymen are always ingenious in doing something different and making us “Proud”. But they do not realize that it vitiates the entire country’s image when they write, talk or publish about their resourceful practices.
Mails if they come from India are mostly from Kerala. Mostly it’s the family of the labourers who still believe in snail mail – for others telephone or Email has taken precedence.
Recently the local newspaper published a report on the “Stamp Scam”. They have just learnt the word “Scam” here – another import from our beloved country.
A person buys a postal stamp in India and daubs the face of the stamp with a thin film of transparent glue. Then he pastes the stamp in the envelope and sends it to UAE by post. The receiver cuts out the stamp, puts the same in water. The effect is that the stamp not only comes out of the envelope but since the front side was glued, the official marking (the stamp) comes out along with the glue. So the stamp is ready for use the next time.
After being caught the response of the wrongdoer was simple,” His family is too poor to buy postal stamps”. I can sympathize with the idea that they are poor but that does not give them the license to felony.
But in the same breath I cannot crucify them also.
Have We Achieved Our Rights
The recruitment agencies bring people from India, especially Kerala, by luring them with the prospect of good salary & better working environment.
But once they reach the country their dreams are shattered.
The monthly salary a labourer gets is 500Dihrams (equivalent to Rs 6000) and they are made to stay in labour camps. Labour camp is a like a huge mess – ten people are stacked in one room with a common toilet. They are given daily food, carried to worksite by a company bus and after the days job brought back to the camp in their dungeons. The work condition – think of piling or digging in the construction site at, 48 – 53C.
Here the newspapers would never declare temperatures above 50C, because as per human rights you have to stop all construction activities for temperatures above 50C. But everyone knows the truth and no one will say anything – that’s life.
As per the statistics released by Indian Consulate, the suicide rate among the Indian labourers is increasing. This year (2006), till date more than 100 workers have committed suicide. The reason being the same, they could not cope up with the living conditions and they were too afraid to go back sans they will lose their face with the family and the society.
In developing nations we do hear a lot of NGOs – mostly all socialites are attached to an NGO. But do you ever come across any of those creatures here – no way!! In Dubai you are to make money, do not care to bother about others.
Recently during the Independence Day week lot of good thoughts, Power point presentations were floating around in the Net. All of them glorified India, they exalted the growth and development in India, were proud to announce how Indians were taking over the world.
One said, 37% of the people working in NASA are Indians, 25% of the medical practitioners are Indians, and 13 to 36% of workers in IBM, Microsoft, and Xerox are Indians.
Yes, if this is the real statistics we should be proud, but will someone add 80% of labourers on Gulf are Indians who are treated like rodents, discriminated and given a status no better than a slave.
All these glorifications lose their value in front of the massacre of Humanity that takes place in the Gulf in the name of Money.
We the educated lot has certain responsibility towards our society and should not have an ostrich attitude towards things that pain us from within. How long will these festering wounds be sequestered in our hearts?
How long will we prove to the world that we are a nation with a cheap source of labour?
How long will the developed countries take advantage of our enduring poverty?
Yes, we are intelligent, we have the capability to rule, but as they say,” Charity begins at home”.
I, for instance, would feel better when poverty is eradicated, people are educated enough to call away the bluffs of recruiting agents and we all together can rise and demand our rightful position & status in the world society.
Business, The Du "Bhai" Way
Decades ago when the Gulf was not developed like the way it is now, but still then the rich locals had enough money to afford the luxuries, the companies in the name of spreading their reach gave exclusive distributorship to local companies. By decree it was also not possible to sell anything in the Gulf without a local partner – the rulers wanted to protect the interest of the locals, ala India till eighties.
All companies whether selling pins or luxurious automobiles had to have a local partner. And that agreement stuck to them like a constricted leather jacket till now. Look at Siemens, Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, GE all big guns in their own rights are now pawns to their local agents.
Toyota does not decide how many cars they should sell in Dubai; it’s decided by their agent Al Futtaim.
Al Gargash decides the marketing strategy of Mercedes in the Gulf, the promotions they should run and the prices they should offer in the market.
Can anyone believe that one has to wait for months to get hold of Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla in Dubai? While the fact is that if you drive down to the bordering country Oman, you can get it off the shelf.
It’s more of a sophisticated monopoly in all segments in the name of protecting the interests of the locals.
I believe Dubai or for that fact UAE is losing its competitiveness.
Take for example telecom, throughout UAE there is only one player – Etisalat like our own MTNL. They provide landline, mobile & cable service. Just relate to the services you can derive out of Etisalat, Its painful. Since Etisalat only had the rights to televise World Cup Football, they made the interested viewers cough out AED400 for a month and guaranteed a year’s viewer ship along with the deal.
This year after much criticize & public frustration a new provider has emerged, Du. But both Etisalat & Du are controlled by the rulers of Abu Dhabi & Dubai respectively. So one has to wait and see how competitive they are, given the fact that Du is using the existing infrastructure of Etisalat.
Moeller, one the renowned electrical & electronics product manufacturers from Germany in represented in UAE solely by Juma Al Majid. The products are available only for their consumption, that’s the way it is. Full stop. ABB had the same fate with Al Gandhi. It took them 8 years court battle and 30 million AED in compensation to get out of this exclusive agreement. Siemens is still trapped in the same fate.
But all distributors do not have the same philosophy. If they are business minded they can make fortunes. For example Jumbo, the sole distributors for Sony, They have taken the brand to such heights that they lead the market in most of the product segments they are present in. Jumbo has made the art of distribution to near perfect. They have a vast network of retailers and a huge logistics & distribution system. Jumbo has its own store in most localities but its more of brand promotion, new product introductions and the stuffs. Their prices are always higher than the retailers and the promotions always focus on the retailers.
The same is true for Nokia. No one knows the name of the sole distributor for Nokia. The market share for Nokia is more than 55% in UAE. It boasts of an excellent after sales service in every nook and corner of the city and has created an entry barrier to most of the competitors in terms of pricing & service.
So every coin has two sides, the heads & the tails. WTO has set a dateline for 2010 and most companies are waiting for that. UAE has also realized that it has to be competitive to make it in this competitive world. The government is trying to implement a law by which multinationals can open companies in UAE without a local partner. We all hope it’s for the betterment of the economy and the customers.
Business, The Du "Bhai" Way
Decades ago when the Gulf was not developed like the way it is now, but still then the rich locals had enough money to afford the luxuries, the companies in the name of spreading their reach gave exclusive distributorship to local companies. By decree it was also not possible to sell anything in the Gulf without a local partner – the rulers wanted to protect the interest of the locals, ala India till eighties.
All companies whether selling pins or luxurious automobiles had to have a local partner. And that agreement stuck to them like a constricted leather jacket till now. Look at Siemens, Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, GE all big guns in their own rights are now pawns to their local agents.
Toyota does not decide how many cars they should sell in Dubai; it’s decided by their agent Al Futtaim.
Al Gargash decides the marketing strategy of Mercedes in the Gulf, the promotions they should run and the prices they should offer in the market.
Can anyone believe that one has to wait for months to get hold of Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla in Dubai? While the fact is that if you drive down to the bordering country Oman, you can get it off the shelf.
It’s more of a sophisticated monopoly in all segments in the name of protecting the interests of the locals.
I believe Dubai or for that fact UAE is losing its competitiveness.
Take for example telecom, throughout UAE there is only one player – Etisalat like our own MTNL. They provide landline, mobile & cable service. Just relate to the services you can derive out of Etisalat, Its painful. Since Etisalat only had the rights to televise World Cup Football, they made the interested viewers cough out AED400 for a month and guaranteed a year’s viewer ship along with the deal.
This year after much criticize & public frustration a new provider has emerged, Du. But both Etisalat & Du are controlled by the rulers of Abu Dhabi & Dubai respectively. So one has to wait and see how competitive they are, given the fact that Du is using the existing infrastructure of Etisalat.
Moeller, one the renowned electrical & electronics product manufacturers from Germany in represented in UAE solely by Juma Al Majid. The products are available only for their consumption, that’s the way it is. Full stop. ABB had the same fate with Al Gandhi. It took them 8 years court battle and 30 million AED in compensation to get out of this exclusive agreement. Siemens is still trapped in the same fate.
But all distributors do not have the same philosophy. If they are business minded they can make fortunes. For example Jumbo, the sole distributors for Sony, They have taken the brand to such heights that they lead the market in most of the product segments they are present in. Jumbo has made the art of distribution to near perfect. They have a vast network of retailers and a huge logistics & distribution system. Jumbo has its own store in most localities but its more of brand promotion, new product introductions and the stuffs. Their prices are always higher than the retailers and the promotions always focus on the retailers.
The same is true for Nokia. No one knows the name of the sole distributor for Nokia. The market share for Nokia is more than 55% in UAE. It boasts of an excellent after sales service in every nook and corner of the city and has created an entry barrier to most of the competitors in terms of pricing & service.
So every coin has two sides, the heads & the tails. WTO has set a dateline for 2010 and most companies are waiting for that. UAE has also realized that it has to be competitive to make it in this competitive world. The government is trying to implement a law by which multinationals can open companies in UAE without a local partner. We all hope it’s for the betterment of the economy and the customers.
When Winter Comes
Agencies have started promotion for the “Desert Safari” and “Creek Tours”. Within months the beautifully light boats will be sailing around the creek and competition for share will become fierce. More people will be found jogging/walking along the corniche. People will come out of hibernation and first thing they will realize is that their waist line has increased, so run, run, and run.
Hotels will start hiking up their rates, tourists will flock in hoards, and Dubai will be fairer than in summer. In the malls Asians will not get the same attention they get in summer, more waggle to attract foreign tourists with cash. Bag packers will never visit malls, will head towards Fujairah and soak in the sun in the serene beaches.
Life will change dramatically. People will go to office early so that they can leave early (where they have flexi time). People, usually lazy like a crocodile in summer, will suddenly be rejuvenated and tend to overdo in anything they would try to do. Traffic will increase, more time in car, more stress related heart attacks and more assurance from the traffic department, that solution is just round the corner. Where the street bends in a corner is very difficult to find out.
Parks will be flooded with people, from people having a good time to some enjoying barbeque.
Sell of Playstation or X-Box will relatively go down as kids will be more involved in becoming Sachin Tendulkar or Ian Botham. Electricity bills will go down due to sparse use of air conditioning and women will try to spend the savings in shopping.
More young guys will go to the beaches, not for bathing but bird watching. Bare white flesh in golden sand like button mushrooms growing in negligence in the wilderness, scattered and not cared about, only watched from time to time by ones who can only dream but for them reality bites.
Flamingoes will come in the lagoon. The pink shades will merge into the blue of the ocean to create an illusion of sunset.
Dubai, the city of Gold, the paradise on Desert will be more gorgeous.
And I will be busy packing my bag to leave.
Earth Is Moving Again
North Korea went ahead against all the threats issued by US and went “Nuclear”. UN Council went gung-ho about the major crisis in the Far East. The balance of power got destabilized in the area and the “Nuclear” test has created a big threat to the neighboring countries (read South Korea). This is the first time UN was so fast in taking a decision – levying a sanction against North Korea. Iran got an impetus and is now running at the speed of light to go “Nuclear”. This is a new fad – “Go Nuclear” like “Go Vegetarian”. It’s good for the mind and spirit of individuals in the country. US have again started issuing empty threats. They never get tired, I salute them. They create all problems around the world and when the matter gets out of hand, they backtrack out by telling stories to the whole world and try to be the world peace keeper. In the 70’s during the Cold War to keep their sway in the oil market they only provided Iran with all the nuclear technology. Now they are shouting about balance of power. Funny no brainers these people are. What more can you say when they have surnames like “Bush”.
I am very skeptical about this word “Balance” like in balance of mind, balance of money, balance of power. What it really means is quite different. Balance of mind means when you stop thinking and do as others tell you, balance of money is that when you do not have money and borrow money from one who has aplenty, balance of power means when US has the only right of developing and stocking nuclear weapons and others are like observers. US has got an arsenal of 300-400 thousand nuclear warheads which exceeds their nearest competitor Russia by 100:1 and when the same country goes around crying for World Peace, isn’t it a dichotomy.
Bangladesh is basking under glory with Muhammad Yunus winning the Nobel Peace prize. As a Bengali I am also proud of him. I truly admire the way the Nobel committee works. There is no nomination process for the prize and hence no lobbying as it happens in most other ceremonial awards. There outlook is also quite different. World Peace is not only about mitigating conflicts, making peace processes between warring nations. This everyone thought as a defacto standard and hence all kinds of names were floating around like the Indonesian president. But Nobel committee turned everyone around and took all by surprise when they declared the winner. Peace is also about eliminating poverty, empty stomach leads people to commit crimes, go astray. Everyone does not want to be a millionaire, but want to have basic minimum for survival. That’s what Grameen Bank has given to people. They made individuals into businessmen, suppliers, traders – made them stand up on their feet and challenge the world of death and violence. Grameen Bank elevated “Micro credit” to such a macro level that Capitalism sounds micro in comparison.
I got a loveletter from my estate agent. They have increased the rent by 20%. I believe now people in Dubai will start working for HRA only rather than salary.
It's a different "BALLGAME"
After Laloo Prasad Jadav delivered his first lecture in IIM, Ahmedabad, Bihar is getting management savvy. Now it’s the turn of the beggars. They have formed a union. The areas have been properly distributed among the members so that there is no collision or competition between two beggars. The minimum alms they have fixed are Rs1. Below that they don’t accept. Everyday the collections are combined and then equally distributed. They also have job rotations so that they understand the psyche of that area and develop their strategies for better profitability. Union has given them the strength to fight against local small time criminals and as a registered union they can launch complaints in the police against the goons. They take a weekly break on Thursdays to be with their family and pursue their other interests. After formation of the union they are a much better lot.
Overweight Rules !!
But jokes apart, this is an alarming situation. We have all became soo lazy. It’s not always our fault. Nature is taking its toll. All the developments around us are meant to make our lives comfortable. Television has converted us into couch potatoes; all house appliance gadgets have reduced our efforts. Exercise has become a fashion. We need Nike sneakers, track suits to jog. We jog to find out who is looking at us rather than concentrating on weight loss or to keep fit. We can’t lose weight without going to gym or going through a dieting regime. That’s the “in” thing. Look at our earlier generation, were they overweight? They used to do more manual work, walked distances and had little bit of indulgences that kept them in shape. We never realized that we are born into nature and it will be too difficult to surpass the same.
Take myself as an example. When I arrived in Dubai the first 6 months before I obtained a driving license was totally different form the life I am leaving now. I used to walk around Bur Dubai, Karama by foot. We used to stroll down the Dubai creek in the evening, went to Meena Bazaar and did window shopping – life was fun. But now to go to Apsara Supermarket, which is 5 minutes walking distance from my house, I need a car. I have to think thrice before going to Meena Bazaar because it’s always a problem getting a parking slot there. So options are getting limited, go to shopping malls where there is plenty of parking, indulge yourselves in junk food and add to the statistics. Even in office we are confined to our own cubicles. Intercom solves all problems of communication. Earlier we used to go up to the fax machine, now that’s a story of the past. We transmit the documents we want to fax directly from our PC through the server. Life has become so simple and we are paying the price, overweight, obese leading to cardiac problems.
As per another study, constant use of mobile phones leads to infertility in men. Next time you call up your boyfriend, give it a thought.
GOODBYE DUBAI !!
I am from India, so all these things, sort of comes as awkward to me. If the road is clean then for us the houses must be dirty – where else will they dispose their wastes?
I went straight to office, more so to get my jaw fixed. When I reached the team assistance came running and handed over my laptop and cell phone. Maybe he wanted to reduce his burden of responsibility. But for me it was like WOW!! And it did pain me in the jaw.
Only thing that is universally true was also true here – sitting space was in scarcity.
It took me time to come out of this make believe place and come in terms to reality. Inflation was trying to follow the Colombia space shuttle, house rent kept on changing like babies diapers, always new & improved ones.
Two years went past like my favorite Thai soup, leave it in front of me and next moment it’s gone. Hope the taste will keep on lingering.
Time is like an ever alluding illusion. We spent whole life, born and reborn only with a singular hope that some day we will catch up with time. We die with that hope and are reborn with the same hope.
Dubai was a place of contradictions – rich people, richer people and the richest ones. All towering over the poor laborers, who can make tea with their hot boiling blood, working at temperatures of 50 degree.
Malls are in abundance, all brands under the sun crowding in those malls. Poor Pilipino sales ladies, who can only touch those things, but never have them. People of all colors – white, black, brown, yellow and all derivatives, moving around but hardly touching shoulders. Colors decide the treatment and so does the treatment differentiate colors.
Work was sort off. Will leave with a sense of unfulfillment & unaccomplishment. That’s life after all. Had lots of good colleagues, but never a friend. My fault, only my fault. But work was always fun. Downloaded lots of songs from Multiply, filled up 30 GB on my iPod. Drank in seclusion, read with the agility of a tiger. Never thought will be able to finish so many books in such a short period of time.
Now its time to go back, time to kiss the earth where I was born, back to my mother & father, back to the little house that I can proudly call MY HOME. Home, sounds so sweet when you are away. Home, not a place to live, it’s a feeling of comfort, belonging and where you can always dream when you close your eyes.
