Guns N Roses & Bryan Adams - in one weekend

When asked how my weekend has been and what I have been up to my answers rarely vary. It's usually "Cleaned up the house...entertained some friends...watched a movie...read a bit ..." and so on... But last weekend was truly different. I attended the Guns N Roses concert on Thursday evening and the Bryan Adams concert on Friday and both were spectacular.

Not much of a rock fan myself I was at GnR on work since I was producing our evening show which was broadcast from the venue. The concert started at 10 pm on the dot and was followed by two hours of great music and brilliant production. I loved their rock rendition of the theme tunes of Bond and The Pink Panther. It was a high energy performance by Axl Rose, with him and the guitarists constantly running across the stage, good lighting and pyrotechnics - keeping the 21000 people strong audience enthralled. Abu Dhabi sure does know how to pull off an event!


The Bryan Adams concert on the other hand lacked the production value that GnR had but that became irrelevant once he started singing. My first reaction on seeing him was that he looked so much older than I had expected him to but obviously that has not affected his music.


The highlights of the concert for me, other than his singing Summer of '69, was when he sang 'When you're gone' with a girl from the audience. She was from Goa and was very impressive. He also performed with an Oud player from Lebanon, whom he had met backstage for just five minutes before the concert began. They were good together.
I will remember this concert as the first concert I attended alone and loved every minute of it.


Dubai has been good for me music wise. Since moving here I have attended concerts of George Micheal, Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Sir Elton John, Bryan Adams, Santana, GnR, Nelly Furtado, Jonas Brothers, Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and more. My dream would be to watch Madonna and Abba live and I wish I had had the chance to watch Micheal Jackson in action.

Anyway...here's to many more concerts in 2011!

How long does it take to write a letter?

I had made a resolution way back in July this year to write a letter to my sister's in-laws who reside in Germany. Having met them when in Germany I thought it would be nice to stay in touch with them after my return to Dubai. Letters would be the best way to do it since they are not internet savvy. For somebody who used to write letters very regularly about twenty years ago this tiny task took on mammoth proportions. My letter writing got pushed to every 'next weekend' and here I am five months down the line without a written word. With Christmas round the corner I have decided to make amends by sending them a Christmas card. I have finally managed to type and print the letter and hope to make it to the post-office early tomorrow morning to post them.
How long does it take to write a letter and when did I get so lazy?
While on the subject of letters I caught Aparna Sen's new movie 'Iti Mrinalini' (The unfinished letter) It was part of the Dubai International Film Festival which is on these days. I liked it, though there are some disappointing errors in the use of props and costumes which are meant to be of the eighties. Konkona Sen Sharma is such a brilliant performer. I hope the movie wins the People's choice award.

View atop the Burj Khalifa

I finally went up the Burj Khalifa last week and here are the pictures. (double click on image if need be) They are taken from the observation deck on the 124th floor of the building. The Burj Khalifa has 165 floors in all. I was fascinated by the lift that takes one up there. It is supposed to be the world's fastest lift and goes up to the 124th floor in just one minute.

F1

The Etihad Airways Formula 1 Grand Prix is due to take place at the Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, this weekend. This year's race is more exciting than last year's since it will be the deciding race of 2010 F1 season. My radio station is the official media partner of the event and I've been to Yas several times lately for meetings. I do not follow the F1 races but today I realized that it is difficult escape the excitement when actually at the venue. These are the pictures I took from my mobile phone -

I also caught a glimpse of Italian F1 driver Jarno Trulli and our very own Karun Chandhok. Mark Webber of Red Bull was checking into the Yas Hotel while we were leaving and he was happy to pose for a picture for me. He stands at number 2 in the rankings so far with 238 points, but experts say that it could be anyone's race this time at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Display at New York Fries...

Off to the races...again!

So it was that time of the year again when the Dragon Boat Festival took place as part of the Adrenaline Sports Festival in the capital city of Abu Dhabi. This year too I volunteered to be part of the Radio 2 team which was supposed to be a mixed team with a minimum of 13 men and 5 women in it. We had asked our listeners to text us, if interested in being part of the team, and the response was overwhelming. This time we were hoping to do better than our previous races in which we had come last in all the races!

Training sessions took place on two Saturdays before the event from 2 pm to 4 pm in the waters behind the Shangri-La Qaryat-Al-Beri hotel. We were trained by professional dragon boat racers and it was nice to once again respond to commands like Paddles up, Stop the boat and to row to shouts of 1 to 10. In our second training session we had an excellent coach Yanni, a Canadian citizen of Romanian origin who has been a coach for more than thirty years. This particular training session was intense and Yanni helped us focus and gave us the strategy of starting with 10 powerful strokes, followed by 10 quick strokes and then covering the rest of the 200 metres on a steady count of 1-2 with long and relaxed strokes done in unison. The result of the training was an aching back and arms but confidence levels were up since we won the mock race held that day against two other teams.

The day of the finals dawned and our first race was scheduled for 11:40 am. There were six teams and we came third covering 200 metres in 1 minute 5 seconds. Our timing was good enough to get us into the semi-finals with the next race scheduled at 3:20 pm. It was a warm day and we had to make sure that we were not dehydrated. We came first in the semi-finals timing 1 minute 6 seconds which was very good since the wind was against us. For the first time ever Radio 2 entered the finals of the Dragon Boat Racing Festival.
Our final race was at 4 pm the next afternoon. This was the finals of the Corporate Plate category and although the excitement and commitment was great our performance was not and we came sixth in a very closely contested race. It woud have probably taken a miracle to make us win since the other teams were professional dragon boat racers. On the bright side of things we were the sixth fastest team out of the 43 teams in this category and were also the best Radio team since the other radio stations lost in the first round itself.

Three things that I realized over the last three weeks – I love dragon boat racing. It gives me a high and I love being in the waters and being part of a team sport. Secondly being short really helps since the shortest person in the team needs to be on the last row of the boat. Last but not the least we have some wonderful people listening to our radio station. Out of the 18 member team only 3 of us were staff and the rest were our listeners who put in a lot of passion and time into this. Two of them could not make it to the finals because they were aching too much but they arranged for a substitute and were there to cheer for us.

Damn....was a second late on 10/10/10

Sign in a hotel close to my house

Not bad, huh?

When I got an email from the Lecturer of the Multimedia & Graphic Arts Department of the Cyprus University of Technology saying that the photograph I had taken of the Rock of Aphrodite, Cyprus, was selected for research and a possible publication I was thrilled to bits.
The photograph (one above) is part of the many I had put up on Picasa after my vacation to Cyprus in June 2009. The Cyprus University of Technology left a comment for me on Picasa, more than a year after the album was put up online and I signed the consent letter today.
For a photograph taken from a simple point and shoot camera the result is not bad, huh?

Bright-time or Night-time

Over the lunch table yesterday my colleague was telling me about her four-year old’s way of describing day and night. It’s so simple and uncomplicated - for her it’s either bright-time or night-time. That prompted me to pen down some other beautiful moments I have spent with children that have either left me spellbound or speechless.
Another friend’s three-year old daughter Neha, was showing me her storybooks and pointed to the picture of Billy Goat’s family – youngster, father and grandfather and said ‘That’s Appa Billy Goat, this is Amma Billy Goat and this is Neha Billy Goat’. How cute is that?
My little niece Aditi has always amazed us with her questions and comments. Once, she was irritating her mother with her continuous questions, and my sister grimaced, to which Aditi, then just three, asked ‘Mama why are you getting frustrated?’ And not too long ago their television set was not working and a very worried Aditi asked ‘Mama, is there a technical problem?’
And then there’s my three-year old nephew Mihir, who goes up to his mother and says ‘Mom, I have a terrific idea….’ When he was visiting us in Dubai he took to me instantly and was not so sure of my husband Aniket. So his way of addressing Aniket was ‘Kanchan Maama’ :)

I mean seriously...what is with her bathroom obsession?

And no wonder my plants look harassed when she is around.

Nugget

Little Nugget (my manager's kitten) is with us again, this time for more than ten days. She's grown and is still very naughty. She's taken a liking to all things linked to the bathroom, as is obvious from the pictures -

Holiday trivia

I'm waiting for the weekend to write about my vacation to the south of Germany and Amsterdam. But here is a quick post on some things I learnt while on vacation -

This is the symbol for a Toilet, so if you happen to be at a place that is old, chances are that this is what you should be looking for, if you are looking for the facilities. I saw this for the first time at an 17th century brewery and again at the Neuschwanstein castle.

While in Fussen I noticed a strange system of house numbering. Now the norm is to have all odd numbered houses on one side of the road and even numbered houses on the other side. This is done to make it simple for guests, courier delivery services and postal services to locate the house they need to be at.
But couldn't quite figure out why some houses were numbered 51/2, 91/2, 121/2. I saw this in Fussen only and so I wouldn't be surprised if there is a story behind it. Wonder what it is...

Another thing that caught my eye was this - 20*C+M+B*10. I found this written in chalk on the main door of most of the houses in Germany.

I was told that it is how the singers of a chorus keep track of the collections they have made for Christmas. 20 stands for the millenium. 10 stands for the year. C+M+B stands for the three kings - Caspar, Melchoir and Balthasar, who went in search of Lord Jesus on the day he was born. Now since orthodox Chrsitians (followers of the Julian calendar) celebrate Christmas on January 7th, the collections for this year were made and Christmas already celebrated.

A fat me

Back to work today after a lovely vacation. Ate lots and not surprisingly have put on oodles of weight and look like this -

OK, that's not entirely true. This image has been generated by the Fatbooth Application on the iPhone. A colleague has bought the iPhone recently and cannot stop playing with his new toy.

I must put this picture someplace where I can see it everyday to remind me of the consequences of over-eating and lack of exercise....

Last few minutes of my birthday....

So yet another birthday, yet another year and yet another beginning. Just another ten minutes to go before my birthday ends, as per the time zone in Germany. It has been a great birthday spent with my sister and brother-in-law and of course the good old husband. My sister's in-laws baked me a cake and they made up for the absence of my parents here. Photos will be added on soon.
I'm writing this post in a slightly intoxicated state so you must pardon the exagerrated sentiments, but this is a great moment to thank everyone for just being there. Ever since I have got Feedjit installed on my blog I know who visits it. Thank you to everyone for stopping by. Must admit that there have been moments when I thought I was the only person reading what I wrote. A special thank you to the person following my blog from Los Gatos, California. Thank you. I would love to know more about you. I am planning a visit to California in April and cannot wait for that vacation!

A silent killer is on the prowl

I leave for Germany day after tomorrow to attend my sister’s wedding there. I was in Germany last in July 2006 and had stayed for a couple of days in the beautiful city of Dresden with Lorna Lindner. Mrs. Lindner, as I called her, was my landlady in Mumbai. My dear friend Anu and I stayed in her spacious 1 BHK in Andheri East which we had rented from her. I was there from 2003 till I got married in 2006 and my friend Anu continues to stay there till today. Mrs. Lindner is a Manglorean, grown up in Mumbai and married to a German – Gerhardt Lindner. She was in Dresden, Germany for almost 20 years. She was in her early sixties and an extremely active lady with an excellent green thumb. She used to visit Mumbai every 2 years or so. As a landlady she was strict but also generous and our rent was always considerably lesser than prevailing rates in the expensive suburb of Andheri – a discount she had given us keeping in mind the fact that we were both single and fending for ourselves in Mumbai.

I wrote to Mrs. Lindner on Thursday to inform her about my trip to Germany. I wanted her phone number since I thought I’d catch up with her on phone since meeting her this time seemed difficult. The next day I got an email from her son Franz saying that his mother was in hospital, suffering from cancer and the doctors said that she would pass away in the next few days. He asked me to pray for her. The mail was so shocking and I was just about coming to terms with it when I got a call from Anu saying that Mrs. Lindner had died on Friday morning, maybe around the same time that I read the email from her son. I was in a daze for the next few hours thinking of the wonderful time Anu and I had with Mrs. Lindner when she visited us in Mumbai. We used to catch up almost every night, drink tea in our living room with us telling her about life in the media in Mumbai and her urging us to meet more people so that one day we would find someone to settle down with. The fact that both of us were unmarried was almost as much as a worry to her as it must have been for our respective parents. I remembered the time I spent with her in her cozy home in Dresden and how just less than a year ago Gerhardt and Franz had visited me in Dubai and I had sent a whole lot of stuff (mainly mangoes and marmite) for Mrs. Lindner.

She was in Mumbai earlier this year – from January to March and when she went back in April she learnt that she had stomach cancer. She lost her battle to cancer in just three months. What a shock it must have been to her family. Franz is only about 20 now. I am not looking forward to the phone call I will be making to Franz in the next week.

I am also alarmed at the number of people I know who have died of cancer recently. Just on the 20th of June I lost my uncle (father’s sister’s husband) to lung cancer. My aunt, his wife, died two years ago of stomach cancer. A neighbours’ boss’s wife is dying of cancer. Another friend lost her mother to cancer earlier this year.

No wonder Cancer is known as a silent killer.

My new Afro look

So the weekend mood's kicked in already and everyone is fooling around in office which probably explains why there are lederhosens and afro wigs lying around our work stations. My colleague mailed this picture to everyone. Subject of the mail was - Missing Pointer Sister found

Sights in my office after England's defeat in the World Cup....

The lederhosens came out and these brave English boys swallowed their pride and paraded the office in them.

What's in the mail......

I'm looking after my boss's kitten these days. Her name is Nugget and she's adorable and this is what she does each time I check my mail -

R.I.P Rekha

I have just come back to my seat after observing two minutes of silence in office in memory of Rekha who died in yesterday's plane crash. Rekha worked in the finance department of Gulf News and worked closely with our division. I remember her as a lady who attracted attention whenever she came to our side of the office because of her lovely sarees, her big bindi and the earthy colours she wore.She was off on her annual leave and was supposed to leave on Friday but pushed her tickets to Saturday instead since she still had to finish packing. Rekha, her husband and daughter died in the crash.
It was no surprise that by the end of the two minutes most of my colleagues were in tears. I have goose bumps on me as I write this post.
Rest in peace Rekha...

Musandam (Oman) - A perfect get-away

We went to Musandam, in Oman, recently for a quick get-away from Dubai before the onset of summer. Musandam, otherwise known as Roo'uoss Al Jibal in Arabic is a peninsula separated from the rest of Oman by the United Arab Emirates. It is where the Arabian Gulf meets the Indian Ocean, whose waters are called the Gulf of Oman. This is the Straits of Hormuz, separating the Gulf from Iran.

The quickest way to Musandam from Dubai is by road. We first drove from Dubai to Ras Al Khaimah. The roads are good and sign posted and you get there in just over an hour. We were looking for the Al Dara exit point in Ras Al Khaimah. One needs to be alert as one gets closer to Al Dara because the sign posts disappear suddenly, but there are enough people around to guide you. The road leading to the border suddenly narrows down so one needs to drive carefully.

The process of entering Oman takes about 40 minutes including the formalities needed to be completed while you exit the UAE. The entry fee to Oman is 6 Riyals per person and for some reason only credit cards are accepted at the border. Once in Oman one needs to follow the signs to Khasab. Meaning fertility, Khasab is a peaceful town lying in a small harbor at the base of Wadi Khasab in Musandam.

The landscape changes almost as soon as you enter Oman. The roads are winding but well marked and a pleasure to drive on. The road to Khasab is lined by mountains on one side and the sea on the other.

Since ours was a day trip we did not have to hunt for a hotel to stay in. We came across the Golden Tulip Hotel where we stopped for a bit waiting for the lunch buffet to start at 12 noon.

The highlight of a trip to Musandam is the dhow cruise along the Fjords of Musandam which takes you into the Straits of Hormuz through the 16km fjord (Khor) The cruise is almost 4 hours long and there are a number of dhows along the Khasab harbour waiting for tourists.

One needs to bargain a bit and we managed to book our seats for 80 dirhams per person as against the 100 dirhams we were asked for initially.

Once the cruise began the sights and sounds that followed put us in a state of speechless marvel.

No words can describe the beauty of the spectacular mountains standing out in the middle of the sea with not a patch of green on them.

These naturally carved limestone mountains come in all shapes and sizes.

About an hour and a half into the cruise we came to the part of the Strait that is home to many dolphins. Very shy initially the dolphins later got into their playful best and swam along side our dhow. They are fast swimmers, it was difficult to catch them on camera. They swam next to our dhow for almost 25 minutes and we were told that we were lucky to see the dolphins at a time when they were active and awake. At one point we had a school of almost ten dolphins close to our dhow.

The cruise then took us to Telegram island where we could swim in the sea with the colourful fish.

I was wondering if there is a story behind the name of the island but no one seemed to know anything. The water was cold and swimming in it with a float was not as easy as one would imagine. As the dhow took us back to the harbour one witnessed the shadows on the mountains and the different hues of the landscape.

A few days after our visit to Musandam my parents visited me in Dubai. It is a pity I could not take them to Musandam because the UAE does not issue multiple entry visas. Hence one needs to fly directly to Muscat and then go to Musandam to see this scenic peninsula. There are plenty of opportunities to go snorkelling and deep sea diving here, so a trip to Musandam would warrant a two day stay for the more adventurous traveller.

Suspicious Minds

I was in a bit of a pickle last week when a colleague's wife called me to keep an eye on her husband. They’ve been married just 6 months and she suspects him of hiding something from her. Apparently when with her, he avoids calls from one particular number and if she asks him anything about it he gets irritated. My job was to find out more since her instincts tell her that he is up to some mischief. Of course I wriggled my way out of this assignment but could not help thinking of Elvis Presley’s song Suspicious Minds -
We can't go on together
With suspicious minds
and we can't build our dreams
On suspicious minds

As an aside, and also based on some experiences I have had in the past I wonder what it is with men? Is it so difficult to be loyal to one person?

Such is life.....

Last Tuesday my colleague Noufal received a call from the police saying that his friend had met with an accident. Even before he could reach the hospital he got another call saying that his friend had died on the spot. Noufal took the rest of the week off to fly to India with his friend's body, attend the funeral and also take care of the paperwork involved in the two countries.

I met Noufal at work yesterday and we were chatting about how unpredictable life is. For Noufal this was the second friend he lost to an accident in Dubai in three years. This friend got married just eight months ago. Noufal's wife and daughter - just an infant of six months, are in Kerala and after this incident he is under pressure from family to either return to India or to get his wife and daughter to Dubai.

It takes something like this to remind us, yet again, of how precious lfe is. I hate it when I get those 'goody-goody' emails on life, love, time etc but this incident made me think about how true they are. It also gave me the chance to look at my life from another perspective - for the time being atleast.......

Talk about having your pulse on the city....

Heard it on the radio today that select theatres in the U.A.E. are going to telecast IPL matches live this season. I wonder if this is already being done in cities of India. I think it's a great initiative and will take the IPL fever in Dubai to greater heights. Talk about having your pulse on the city - I wouldn't mind going to the cinema hall to watch the finals on the big screen. Wonder if it would be an ad-free transmission...

KKKP

It's been a strange last few days with most of the people around neither in the best of spirits nor in the pink of health. Given that, we (my husband and I) were thinking of what exciting thing(s) we have to look forward to and we came up with this -
We have kind of adopted our building cat. He is our watchman's cat actually - very scrawny, temperamental, badly behaved, likes guys more and all that... We feed him every night and are very fond of him and I think the feeling is mutual. Lately he has taken to sleeping in the parking basement, right in front of my car, on his little cat bed which is a gift from us. He starts mewing as soon as he hears our voice in the basement and almost brings the roof down with the racket he makes :)
According to my husband feeding the cat is our duty - our Kartavya as it were and we make sure that we do our best. So no matter how tired or how late we go to the basement with his dinner every night. We have not met him the last few nights...he is around and is eating but it's just that we have not seen him. So the big question for us is - Will cat be there today? Now with only this much to look forward to at the moment how do we make the scheme of things more exciting? We turn it into a serial produced by Ekta Kapoor. We title it 'Kartavya Kat Ke Prati' and it's promo would be Kya Kat Khana Khaayega? Kya Kat neeche milega?? Kya Hoga Kat Ka???!!! (close up of Kat repeated thrice with him mewing helplessly) Kya Aniket aur Kanchan apna kartavya nibha paayenge???? (close ups of Aniket and me repeated thrice - Madras cuts as is known in editing jargon) Dekhiye...aaj raat 9 baje sirf Aawaazi #3 mein.....
So much for excitement in Dubai.......

The man in black

I am not sure I know how to appreciate poetry but this one impressed me much. This came to me from one of the music companies I am in touch with. February 26th would have been Johnny Cash's 78th birthday. People were requested to wear black for the man who always wore black. I read out this song/poem in my book club meet and it was well received. The movie on Johnny Cash 'Walk the line' is one of the best movies I have ever watched. Take a minute to read the following song written and composed by Johnny Cash -

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.

Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.
I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen' that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen' that we all were on their side.

Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black.

The RAK Half Marathon

I took part in the RAK half marathon this year, an event known as the premiere road race in the UAE. My team was participating in the relay which meant that between the four of us we had to cover 21 kms. Since we had registered for this event in November I had a good three months in hand to train, but as always happens with me I started the training enthusiatically and lost interest somewhere along the line. I must have gone running a total of ten times in all and was travelling till the week of the marathon. The marathon took place on Friday, the 19th of February.
We had planned on meeting in office at 5 in the morning and then driving to Ras Al Khaimah. I had the blue bib which meant that I was the second runner, running from 5 kms to 10 kms. About 10 minutes after the start of the marathon we saw a group of runners pass through the 5 km gate. I never thought I would be someone who finds beauty in a marathon but the sight of that group of runners was one of the best I have seen in a long time. They looked like a flock of deer, agile and fit and not distracted by the cheering onlookers. Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya went on to win the marathon. He covered the 21 kms in 59 minutes 41 seconds only.


Coming back to my running, Rakesh, our team's first runner finally made it to where I was. He was completely out of breath and started retching almost as soon as he stopped. There was no time to ask after his well being since I had to take the ankle strapped timer from him and move on. I started well but about 2.5 kms into the run my left leg started cramping badly and all I could manage was some brisk walking. It was only about 8 in the morning but the sun was beating down the left side of my face and at one point I thought my heart was going to burst out of my back and explode into a thousand pieces. I cursed myself for not having taken the training seriously. The thought that Florian, the third member of my team was waiting for me at the 10 km gate made me pull myself together and I managed to run the rest of the way. The last two minutes of the run - when the gate was in sight and all I had to do reach it - seemed the longest two minutes of my life. My team completed the 21 kms in 2 hours, 23 minutes, 55 seconds, which was better than how most teams fared. We really enjoyed receiving our participatory medals and were jubiliant about running the marathon.


If I were to run this next year I will make sure that I train thoroughly for the same, I ran 5 kms in 37 minutes and 59 seconds and I need to aim for 30 minutes next year.