Tower of Arabs

...is what it means (in Arabic). Tops in the list of attractions in Dubai. Designed to resemble a billowing sail, Burj Al Arab soars to a height of 321 metres, dominating the Dubai skyline. Built on an artificial island constructed 280 meters offshore, this place is simply individual, inspired, impressive & characterizes itself as the world's first "7-star" property. It has a helipad on it too.

We spent a day at this part of Jumeirah beach that offers a very close view of the architectural splendor. We walked and walked and walked some more, without being bothered of getting tanned. I had seen such blue-green waters only in the pictures earlier.The beaches here are beautiful, pretty clean and not crowded at all. Still there is enough activity around to keep you engaged. See, I love observing people without giving them my intruding looks, so I enjoyed watching them surfing, playing in water, making castles of sand, sunbathing and we also kept taking pictures of everything that caught the eyes.

We had a great morning, followed by lunch @ KFC and we were still not done with our beach love for the day so again went on exploring the beach walking in the opposite direction now. We were so deeply immersed in our conversations that we dint feel fatigued and before we realized we had also ended up promising each other the plan for all out next outings.. i.e we have to experience all the adventure this land offers (Scuba diving, snorkelling, jet skiing, surfing and all other water sports, paragliding, parasailing, hot air balloon, sand dune bashing, desert safari, dolphin stuff and there is much more) what fun! Just a mention is enough to charge the freaks that we are! only miss having some friends with similar interests.. It adds to the adventure when u have company besides the discounts offered to groups on the deals, which is also in my jobless mind :P

Anyways, for now I offer you a sneak peek into the album I uploaded with the pics of the day.

That was our valentines day...

Hope you like browsing through them.

one plus, one minus

Use of plastic irritated me in India for it creates a non biodegradable waste & I am all for greenstorming n stuff, but seeing the amount of plastic waste in Dubai, that seems too little. This is worrying. I keep trying to use and waste as less as possible though.

But if I forget that for a while, the shopping experience here is pleasant. I mean, in India nobody has time to exchange a smile, forget anything more. I am writing as it comes to my mind, and coming to think of it, they do have time to stare at you or give u an odd frown at times for reason known only to their god. I dont mean to generalise, this is out of experience. But here, when I go buying the veggies or grocery, the staff greets me with a smile (no, you are wrong if you think that the staff must be a male! Even females do so). If I have to wait even for 10 seconds at a counter, they apologise and are so helpful in general. The other day I was looking at different kind of green leafy veg's & was picking whatever i thought i would experiment with. I didnt have a basket or polythene bag in my hand so this guy comes and gives me 2 small bags. I thanked him with a smile & got back to my business, moving to the pulse section looking for peanuts. Another fellow comes and asks me if I m done with the vegetables. He took them from my hand, got them weighed and returned the bags to me with price tags on them. 

Felt nice but to be honest I couldnt casually take this much of kindness, simply coz I have never been used to it. Even the bus driver here has patience to greet me when I board one. Small things but this is wow!

I by no means am comparing the two countries, perceptions are built by experiences and I am just sharing mine. Good and Bad exists everywhere I guess.

How much will you buy ur groom for???

Y would a physically healthy, educated, earning/working, grownup young guy need money? I am not sure of his mental health and maturity though? I ask this to myself. 

"Well, there could be many reasons" says me to myself. "He may want to buy a land or a house for use or investment, study further, trave abroad, just splurge doing some fun things, buy some fancy gadgets for his home, contribute in his siblings wedding, gift his parents some material stuff or just put in his bank for assurance and liquidity."

Fine.. possible.. sounds good & its all ok.

But the annoyance comes into existance when you learn that he wants this money from the girl he would marry or from her parents.

yes, he needs D O W R Y.. In the form of cash or car or house or one side funding the whole wedding or a lavish honeymoon or all of these or whatever????

I dint encounter such a family during my own groom hunt search. Must consider myself lucky. 

BUT HOW??? how on earth, in todays age, can somebody even open their mouth to seek dowry, I fail to understand??? WHY is it that a girl equally capable (if he cant accept her to be better or more) does not make it all for a wedding alliance???

I have heard of girls bringing car or at times house, appliances or furnishings as wedding gift accepted from her parents. I know every parent wants to shower their daughter with everything possible for them and girl has full right to bring it along if she so wishes and if the grooms side has no issues in accepting them. Can this be termed as dowry? I dont think so, dowry is what the guy or his parents demand and I am wondering how can they make this demand... &%#$!! sorry, I had resolved not to use bad words this year!

I usually dont get into such hurting, argumentative subjects; not because I am fine with them but because i feel so incapable of changing and dealing with them on a larger scale. However, I decide to live the change; as they say- it starts from within.

All my respect goes to those parents of girls and in many cases of guys also, who oppose this sick-cheap custom or tradition. Like all other customs, dowry must also have started with some logic or reason that doesnt exist anymore but some shameless families are still safegauring this and not hesitating even if this means 'selling their son'. 

When will we change for good and move ahead??? Pains to see my country still trapped in such issues?

One of my friends came across this handsome guy whose family had a big enough mouth. With her consent I reproduce bits of what some of them said or felt. Its pains to read thru, each statement for a different reason.

guy's DAD - "I have given huge dowries for 3 of my daughters - so now I want it too."

guy - "nothing like that was mentioned on the matrimonial profile so we thought you would be open to it” 

girl - "Perhaps they didnt like me & hence asked for so much"

I am happy my friend's parents were against dowry seekers(inspite of having 2 sons u see) but who is the sufferer here? The girl ofcourse, as she makes this wrong and negative assumption about her own self..

I only told her not to think like that as I think the loss is all on other side. 

Is dowry not illegal? Something must be done to stop it, to wipe it off the society... I really feel so incapable of doing anything here but I am so upset with it :O Sorry for this cheap subject line but I am really appalled right now.

Someone out there thinks guys can be put up on sale, sons can be auctioned for a car or something. Doesnt that sound disgusting.. Its more heinous than that.

Perfect start of the day

A walk in morning dew laden grass

barefeet

with gentle cool breeze

rays of the rising sun shining on ur face..

music playing in ur ears

& you browsing thru the suppliments of the days paper.

I wish I had taken the camera along, would have definitely captured this.. 

I must do it the next time I have such perfect start.

Tales of a housewife..

I tried the most typical wifely thing today. guess what!

I took the roti n saag to the farms where the man of the house had been toiling in the soil err sands... yes, something on these lines I did today and had a day well spent!

& What made me do that is a story of our laziness and time miss-management but all's well that ends well, so lets not talk of that. Here is what I had cooked.

Best thing was having lunch together (you somehow dont feel like having lunch when u are alone at home) and besides that, got my visa-medical done, checked out a mall that has a sky effect created indoor and also saw another part of Dubai. The more I see it more I like it. Its an amazing land. & The weather has also been kind to me till now. So of this amazing land I was talking - Its one of the examples of what human hard work and creative mind can do to a endless desert. Green lawns, beds of flowers in all possible colors, trees wherever possible - nothing could have been a reality without the metiulous effort of people. For every filament of green life, there is a perfectly laid source of water. And I loved to see this effort bearing such beautiful fruit all around.

Coming back to the wifely thing that I did, reminds me of the blr days when this man of the house used to bring home cooked lunch to my workplace & we had some nice lunches together exploring places around my office & giving headaches to my office people with my absence :) 

Is it attachment or just plain convention

that I am finding difficult to alter with. 

Even after being out of India for good 10 days, my cellphone as well as the watch shows India time.

Everytime we feel we are late for something/somewhere & I look for time, I only get knocked for six as the Indian time further adds an hour and a half to the delay :( :(

When I am home alone, I keep looking at the wall clock where Amit had set UAE time before I came and chk the India time on my laptop clock and start thinking what ppl back home would be doing now (yes, India time on laptop as well, I hvnt changed it anywhere yet.)

I think its too much! but no, I am not missing India. I will change it in a day or 2.