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.