...shoOOonya...

I recently discovered www.VolunterInDubai.com a site where people can volunteer themselves for different activities. You can have a look at the kind of activities here . I nominated myself for 2 activities. One happened this Saturday and it was blissful. I volunteered to spend time with 'children with special needs' at the Beach. I got some help from another volunteer Shrimal to reach the venue in time. More than 20 volunteers turned up to play and oversee the 14 children who came with their caretakers from the institute. The site VolunteerInDubai.com is indeed a very good initiative (by Lola Lopez), providing people a chance to take time out from their lives and contribute to doing some good. It also encourages other people to organize such events which would not have been possible without the volunteers. Kudos to Lola for starting the initiative / website (the site itself is just a few months old). Personally, it was a very blissful experience for me. It ...

A few years ago when the novel as well as the movie Da Vinci Code became a hit ... a lot of 'Da Vinci Code' Tours spiralled out taking the tourists through all the places which are mentioned in the book. There is also another kind of Tourism which has seen a rise in the past decade ... the rise of Terrorism across teh globle. Places and Sites targettted by Terror Attacks by Terrorists have become Tourist Spots ... Whether it is the World Trade Center (9/11) or is it the Taj Hotel of Mumbai (Nov 26 or we denote it in India .. our 26/11) or is it any of the other countless 'bombed/terrorist hit' locations across the world ... all of them are are becoming Tourist Spots where people visiting the city come and see the landmark which was hit. Guides provide a vivid description of what happened and how they were witness to the horrors of the event (whether they were present or not is another story) ... It even get better ... with "Political Tourism" – the...

Since i dont get 'Colors' and since i dont really enjoy 'Star Plus', i end up watching 'Sony' here in my Dubai Hotel where the choice between Indian channels is pretty narrow. (Another reason i watch so much of NDTV 24X7 so much these days, no choice at all there :) ... and I dont regret it. hardly any other news channel which impresses me. So, while random channel surfing, i chance upon the latest reality show of Sony "Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao" and i was watching it with 'some' interest when suddenly something happened! I heard something (instead of something) and was shocked, surprised and amused (in that order) In a particular scene ... the word  ParleG was muted with a beep; the treatment which is usually reserved for all kinds of abusive words uttered in the reality shows (giving it the sort of essence of reality)! Was ParleG considered an abusive word or is simply the marketing and sponsorship department censoring the conte...

I blogged about my second attempt at "dieting/diet control" here exactly a month ago! The first one was pretty effective and I lost about 4 Kg in a month in the month of April :-) Well … The Diet plan for the month of July (second attempt) went for a completely toss. Well Almost. I had anticipated that the diet plan for the month of July might not be very successful since I knew that office timings will be rough and I won't be able to devote time regularly to gym and cooking; but I hadn't realy thought it would be this bad. I actually gained weight instead of losing it. Well … no cause for an alarm though. I have just gained a few hundred grams and I am not crossing the 81 KG mark in this month (I was exactly 80 Kg a month ago). My sight is now on the month of August-Sept. Hope that those 6 weeks are good and conducive for my diet plan. And can help me shed a few kilos before I go to India for a 10 day trip (wherein I am sure to gain a few).

I discovered Paratha King (near Karama Post office in Dubai) about 10 months ago and I fell in love with that place almost immediately. They serve about 100+ varieties of Parathas and the Parathas are really really good. They also have another joint " Go Bananas " which specializes in Western snacks like Pizzas, Frankie, Burritos etc. I love them too. This post is not about PK or GB or about the good quality food they serve and how much I love eating out at these two joints. This is about a funny incident which occurred there. One hot and humid evening of Dubai Summer (about 2 week ago), I went to Go Bananas along with my colleague Aseem. There is no/little space to sit and dine in PK so we sit in GB and order a mix of Paratha, Frankie and Burritos J (Enjoying the best fo both worlds :) There was new lady (I think Phillipino) to take the order and we placed an order for a "Mooli Methi Paratha" to begin with. To our utter surprise, after 10-15 minutes she...

You showed me the way ...  You led me through life holding my hand ...  You showed me what life was ...  You showed me what Love was ...   You showed me what being loved was ... You showed me what loving someone was ...  Now you are gone ... nowhere in sight ... Now in life, nothing seems to be right   Without You, i feel lost ... completely lost ...  

The education for the most part was of poor quality, but that does not matter, because of what I have called the Placebo effect of education. What it confers is confidence, while the real knowledge is gained on the job - which is why dropping out of college doesn't do much damage to upper-middle-class kids, who presumably already have an ample supply of confidence.       Quote from Sridhar's blog post Why IT Happened in Southern India, an Unorthodox Explanation      an interesting article