Sunday Blues

I've been struck by 'Sunday Blues' - yet again :(

It is that dull feeling that I get on most Sunday afternoons. It is not the sadness of the week ahead or the feeling of the passing weekend. It is just a feeling of boredom - not interested in doing anything that is physically tiring, not interested in studying, but not interested in staying at home either. I feel like going out and enjoying, but not so interested in traveling or doing any remotely tiring.

This happens almost every Sunday. Back home, I'll meet my friends in one of our houses, by around 5. We'll go to his terrace and keep talking something till 8 pm. Then we'll go out to eat somewhere - It could be the local 'Bhagya's' or 'Gangotri'. It could also be a short bike ride to 'Eden' or 'New Yorkers' :) Oh! Those good old days ... terrace cricket... carrom... besant nagar beach... one of the countless 'eat-outs'...

"Universe Conspiracy" theory

“When you want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
- The alchemist, Paulo Coelho

My friend, ‘Mr.M’ was quoting this to everyone. He was actually quoting it from a Shahrukh khan movie. I didn’t think it was originally from the movie. So I googled and found the source – Paulo Coelho from his famous ‘Alchemist’ (Alas, I’ve not yet read this very famous book which everyone else seems to have).

Obama...Osama ???

I was preparing a small write-up on great orators and as an obvious choice, I started writing about Obama. And there it was - the notorious squiggly red line of MS-WORD. This time, WORD had dutifully underlined Mr.Obama's name. I dutifully right-clicked on the word; Here is it's suggested correction:

I know that this blooper has been noted and talked about so many times in the world wide web. But I could not resist posting my 'discovery' here :)

Dubai Nila

A couple of photos of "Dubai Nila" (Dubai moon) that I clicked from our college. It was quite a beautiful sight that day - the place was completely quiet, green lawns and desert sands around and the moon above ...

Coffee with camel's milk

"Ottaga Paal-la tea podra; Ottaga paal-la tea podra-nu ethana vaati solliruken. Dubai-lalaam appadi than poduvaanga"

- popular lines from a Vadivelu comedy that sprang to our minds when we saw the bottles of camel's milk in a supermarket here in Dubai. :) Since coming to Dubai, we've been having coffee / tea only with cow's milk :( So, we decided to give camel's milk a try. Still skeptical of the taste, we decided to go for a small bottle.

We came back to our rooms and told our plan to a few people around and it spread across the entire place with many people curios about this. But no one really wanted to try it out. One of the guys from Rajasthan warned us that Camel's milk taste very bad. After lot of hesitations, we decided to try out. My friend made coffee using camels' milk. Our first victim was a girl who was brave enough to come and try this. I was having a camera and closely watching her first expressions after sipping the coffee. She first looked at the colour and texture of the drink; smelled it slowly; looked at us; and slowly proceeded to take the first sip. Then her facial expression changed - not happy; not distaste; but disappointment. My friend had used a lot of coffee and very less camel's milk that we couldn't really taste the milk. So, we decided to directly drink the milk. I decided to take the plunge and took a first sip from the bottle. For a moment, I didn't feel anything different. It didn't even taste like milk. Then it slowly came out - slightly sour, more salty and little thin. Final verdict - not bad.

But contrary to what Vadivelu said, they don't use only camel's milk to make tea/coffee in Dubai :) In fact it was very costly - Double the price of the usual cow's milk !!!

And here's the vadivelu video :)

Dubai - first impressions

Dubai - the city where I'm going to spend the next 5 months. New York and Dubai are totally different in so many ways. While New York started its journey somewhere in the 1600s, Dubai as we know today is onyl a few decades growth. Both cities have one of the largest number of skyscrapers. But while New York has packed so many of them on the Manhattan island, Dubai has allowed them them to spread across.

Dubai seems to have had a unique growth model. Unlike many other world cities, which grew as the population moved in, Dubai was specifically planned and built, so that the population would one day move in.

Everything here is so big and built on a very grand scale. They've tried to create the world's largest, tallest, biggest ... in everything. While Old Dubai area called Deira has its share of narrow streets and old buildings, they've just built an entirely new downtown area called 'Burj Dubai' consisting of huge 16 lane roads and super tall buildings.

The Sheik Zayed road is the spine of Burj dubai. This is a 16 lane road stretching for miles inside Dubai. In fact it also connects to Abu dabhi and other emirates. On both sides of the road are one of the most dazzling array of super tall buildings. Virtually, every major company has set up shop here. There is a huge indoor skiing place that has ski sloped of the expert levels. The Burj Dubai building is currently the world's tallest building. It has not been completed, but has already reached 818 m. A building stretching almost a kilometer into the sky!!!

Then there are palm Jumeira islands. These are entirely artificial islands built by dredging the sea shore. The islands are shaped like a palm leaf. The leaf like structures are called fronds and each contain luxury villas that have sold for millions of Dirhams. Even the smallest apartments cost over a million. At the head of the structures is the ultra-luxury hotels - Atlantis, that supposedly has rooms under the sea. So, if you look out the windows of one of those, you'll see under the ocean.

Apart from the downtown district, Dubai has allocated chunks of desert for different industries as free zones. The usual laws of doing business in UAE does not hold good in these zones. There is an academic city(where my college is), international city (place of my stay), silicon oasis for electronic research, aviation city, sports city etc.

Construction has been going on in every single part. At any point, you can dozens of cranes over buildings. But it is so glaringly evident that things have gone terribly wrong in the city. The rulers have taken too huge a step and as a result, have been so badly hit by recession. Foreign investment has totally dried up. One can see huge buildings in the downtown district sporting the "for rent" signs. The roads are seeing less traffic as so many expatriates have returned. Most of the projects including the Dubai metro have been delayed or stopped.

Dubai is a millionaire's paradise. It grew so fast and hence when the fall came, is hurt so badly. Hopefully, things get better and the city starts growing again.

First Days in Dubai

After a 2.5 year stint in the U.S., it is now time for a stint in Dubai. For good or bad, I've taken a decision to break out of my comfort zone, resign my job and pursue a MBA degree. I landed in Dubai on 01-Apr-09 and will be spending the next 4.5 months here.

We went around Dubai yesterday (03-Apr-09). Compared to Indian cities and the Us, Dubai is very different. The pattern of growth has been unlike any other city in the world. I'll write a whole different post on Dubai :)

Today, we had a full day of inauguration activities. We were asked to wear suits for the occasion. So, I had to wear a tie for the first time. It is one of the most uncomfortable things to wear :) but I felt I do look good in a suite. :):):)

The day was filled with speeches. Our president and dean gave long speeches on the value of MBA program and their expectations from us. There was a 2 hour session where each of us had to come up to the stage and introduce ourselves. I think I did good, though I forgot to say a couple of things that I had planned.

There were a few other sessions dedicated to scare people - sessions on grading system, warning against plagiarism of assignments (this was a long one), effects of absenteeism ... Suddenly I felt as though I'm in school again. College does make you feel young :)

There is one common thing that everyone is saying - the course will be tough, tough, tough. 4 hours of sleep is supposed to be a luxury. Sometimes I do ask myself - "What have I gotten myself into?". But then, hard work need not be painful. I just hope that I can turn this into a transformational experience and have an open mind.