Recession Depression?

I have gotten very busy with work and that takes up most of my time. Everyday I decide I want to write a post and read some, but it never happens. Off and on, I have been going through some of your posts - sometimes commenting sometimes not. But I am still here and finding it hard to give up on blogging!

Recession has hit everywhere - but I hear it's not as bad in India? Is it true? Dubai is different story altogether. With the real estate sector booming in the last couple of years, most people were dabbling their hands in property. Many made tons of money (I am not sure how many of them have been able to retain those profits, as they always reinvested to get greater returns you see). Suddenly that sector is wiped out. Companies are downsizing and people are losing their jobs left, right and centre. Banks, Steel industry, Oil sector, Retail - everything has been spiralling downwards. Yesterday I was told by someone, a local bank announced to the top management that they will be downsizing. Within 1 hour they had a list of people to be fired. Those people were to empty their desks and leave the office in the next 30 minutes! And they fired over 300 people.

Dubai is a rootless place. When I say rootless, I mean the people living in this country are mostly expats. And they are here either for money or to break their journey towards West. Since one can almost never get a citizenship here, as soon as the job/business is lost, the expat is ready to leave. There is no real attachment or reason for one to stay back. In fact even if one wants to (for whatever other reason), one cannot because the visa is cancelled.

So as I was saying, a friend pointed a very different perspective. If people lose their jobs and leave the country, how will the economy ever pick up? Is job cutting the real answer to this problem? Is it possible to cut costs by cutting salaries of people rather than downsizing? That way atleast the person has money to spend and would thus keep the demand for things going (however slow that might be, atleast it won't be zero).

They say "the pain has not even started". I wonder what a real depression would be like. Not that I am dying for a first hand experience, but I am curious! And we are starting a new business - yes a new one - at this time. It's good because the costs are coming down, but then so is the demand. So keeping our fingers crossed!

PS: Saw and read about the Pink Chaddi Campaign. Fantastic effort by these girls. Ram Sena deserves a super "moohphat" jawab like this!! Check out their blog here

Edited to add: Did you watch the NDTV Greenathon? I wonder why none of the politicians came forward to adopt a village? I mean that would've earned them brownie points and some votes too! As much as I applaud the effort, I also wonder if this is in any way freeing the Government from doing their duty? Afterall we pay taxes for this very reason - so that every village/city/town gets a decent infrastructure including electricity. Right?

Love Is In The Air

This is the month of love - not only beacuse of valentines day but also because it is our anniversary this month. February remains special for us for this very reason. I still remember, eight years back, when we were on our honeymoon, on our first valentines together we fought. Yes we did. The evening started very mushy mushy, as hubby gave me an extravagant gift and off we went to a very romantic place for dinner. Everything was going fine till we got into an argument somehow and left the place early - both very angry! We made up by the time we reached the hotel (which was an hour away from the restaurant!), but the evening was spoilt. The next year was a more pleasant and hubby surprised me by first taking me to dinner and then staying back the night at the hotel. I was naive enough to not have noticed that he packed my things and kept in the car that evening! But it was a good surprise.

Usually Anniversary for us is celebrated with family and friends. Don't remember spending the night alone ever! But the anniversary eve is reserved for just the two of us. This time it'll be different though. We plan to go out for dinner alone and get drunk. And if you know me, you will also know that it only takes one glass of wine for me to get drunk! Last week, I suffered a hangover the whole of next day because I took a glass of wine. Moral of the story? I will drink 5-6 glasses of wine from now on. Because the next day is going to be just the same ;)

I am wondering what to gift hubby this year. Last year I made a scrapbook of all our correspondence and pictures and presented to him. He loved it but then that was the end of the story. I am the one who is responsible to look after it and make sure it is kept in a safe place! So this year it has to be something more materialistic. I've already gifted him a watch (twice rather), shirt, wallet, key chain, pen - are we left with any more options now? Maybe this time he will have to do with a hug, some flowers and cards alone...what do you say?

And R if you are going to read this post (which I doubt you will!) but just want to say I love you soooo much and hope we can share this wonderful time with each other for a long long time to come.

Ram's The Way To Be?

Outrage over Mangalore attack; police forced to act

This is outrageous. Where is our freedom to live the life we choose to? Who gave them the right to beat a woman because 'they' thought she is indecent? What good is a supreme court judgement post the event? What is the difference between them and any other fundamental groups? Is it not an offensive to use Sri Ram's name to harbour such hatred and intolerance? Wasn't Ram's Sena the protector of all women? Shouldn't these people be punished to set an example for the rest of the 'Ram's Sainiks'? Or should they be sent for a Pscyhotherapy treatment to fight such unacceptable thoughts? Are they to be blamed for being ridiculous or for following instructions with a blind eye? Is this really intolerance or a game of politics once again?

We wonder and question while some people face the horror in real life every now and then...

Temple Visit

This thought has been lurking on my mind for a long time now and I really get agitated with it. I have noticed that whenever I visit a temple, the people guarding the place, as well as the pujaris behave in a very harsh manner with the people coming for darshans.

After standing in the queue for a long time when you finally reach the idol, you are shooed away briskly. And that half a minute darshan is almost always marred by shouts like "jaldi karo' "aagey badho" etc. Do the devotees not have even that much respect towards others to let them pray in silence for a moment? From Pashupatinath mandir in Nepal, to our very own temple here in Dubai - they all seem to be following the same procedure. It's as if if you dont shout and create a scene, the mandir is not a popualr one.

In Pashupatinath temple, I was appalled to see people spitting inside the temple area, throwing prasad everywhere, the most commercial pujaris doing pujas everywhere and not cleaning up ever after it - and one needed to walk barefoot throught this place. I felt ashamed. A place so sacred that you are not allowed to enter with your slippers on, but dirty enough for all and sundry to spit around!

Any place of worship is a place where one can unite with the divine, pray in silence and seek the guidance of the lord. It has to be a quite, humble and polite atmosphere where all devotees get a chance to pray whole heartedly - undisturbed. And everyone has to respect others. Instead of shouting and shooing people around, one can be humble and ask them to move faster in a polite manner. Some such temples that I visited were the AksharDham temples (in Delhi, Gandhinagar and Toronto) and the Golden Temple in Amritsar. No one utters a word, no one pushes you around, and every devotee is given their due respect.

New Year Celebrations

Before I start this post, I'd like to wish all of you a very happy new year :)

I have been itching to write a post on all that we did but wanted to wait for the pictures as well. Yes my camera ditched me so waiting to collect them from my friends. And I don't know how much longer I have to wait so I have decided to write about it anyways.

We started from Dubai on 31st afternoon and reached the desert camp by early evening. Since it was our first time there (the rest of the group went there for the last 2 years), we were warned that the place has very basic facilities and we should not expect much. But we were pleasantly surprised to find a huge area just for our use, with 10 very neat and clean chalets (all ours). There was a Majlis where we would be partying in the night and a dining hall (for all the meals and tea). There was a swimming pool which we obviously couldn't use because of the cold weather and then there was a separate area for team building activities like a spider web, wall climbing, skiing etc.

Chalets were lined up on one end of the property

The vast area had some well highlighted trees

The Majlis was our playground for all games, fun and frolic

Most of the evening was spent talking with friends, setting up the projector and sound system in the Majlis and general chit chat. This was followed by a barbeque and then dinner. After dinner we all were supposed to get dressed and assemble in the Majlis for our skits!

Much as I was excited about the skit, hubby ditched me last moment :(. He refused to do the skit and well so I just did a karaoke song to cover up. He had had a bad day and I didn't feel it right to push him too much. Rest of the group did some funny stuff. One couple danced on a song, one family did the Gujju thingy in Kal Ho Na Ho (G-U-J-J-U...Gujju...something - it was hilarious!), one family did the Jay Leno show where the wife became Jay, the hubby a guest (as SRK and then as Gabbar Singh) and the son was a rock legend and played guitar. One family did jokes the Goodness Gracious style and the other did mimicry of all famous stars as to how they would record their voice message. Then we all danced and welcomed the new year. This was followed by a bon fire which lasted till the next morning.

1st morning was very relaxed with most people getting up late. Then it was time for the guys at the property to take over. They divided our team into 2 groups (all couples were separated) and each team was taken to play one game. By the time we finished both the games it was evening and I need not mention the amount of rivalries that were created! But in the end, both teams scored equal. Evening again was chilled out with most of the time in the majlis doing karaoke, playing roulette and recollecting the previous day's performances. But the highlight was a quiz organised by one friend. The teams were in action once again and the quiz master had to take care of a lot of accusations ;)! By the end of the day, one team was leading by 2 points.

Next morning was devoted to 2 more games - one was a race on wooden skis which was a lot of fun. We had 5 people on each ski, who needed to coordinate their leg movements in order to lift and move forward. So one person would shout orders left right left right, and the rest would follow. We had to cross a particular path and reach the finish line. The other game was more creative. Each chalet was given a set of 8 captions. We needed to click pictures for these captions in one hour and submit. To give you an idea, here are some captions:

1. A thumbs up to 2009!
2. Look overhead
3. Hum hain rahi pyar ke
4. Pool dude
5. If you were attacked by the terrorists

This was great fun not only while shooting but even to review everyone's pictures and voting on the best ones. After all the fun and frolic, we parted finally only after a group photograph!

PS: I will try and update this post with some more pictures as soon as I lay my hands on them.

Santa Comes My Way

I had finished writing a long post and was trying to format it. I don't know what's wrong with blogger, that whnever I try to select the entire post using the touchpad, everything disappears. And at that very moment it automatically saves the post!!AAArrrggghhhh!!! I will now try and re-write the entire thing as much as I can... :( - only this time on a Word document! Arrraggghhhh!!

Christmas this year has been an eventful one for me. It started with an award by IHM. It’s a cup! I have never received such a cup in my life so I am happy! I am adding it to my award column on this blog. Since there are no rules mentioned for this award, I will just pass it on to, Renu and Nisha.

Another first that happened to me was to attend a Christmas Lunch today. Yes, I have never been to a “Christmas Lunch”before. Never. Ever. Till today. I mean we do go out for Christmas eve every year, last year we were in Goa at this time and it was amazing, but going for a porpah chrsitmas lunch – never before.

This friend had organized a sit down lunch for a cozy group of 15 people. Each guest was advised to get a unisex gift under Dhs.X. We deposited these gifts under the christmas tree and were given return gifts while leaving. When we entered the apartment, it was buzzing with children running around, glasses clinking, casual conversations and laughter all around. The view of the sea was stunning. We sat down for lunch on a balcony way up in the sky. Actually we could call it more of a supper since the “lunch” started at 4:30pm and finished at 7:30pm! The food was yum and each course was served with utmost professionalism.

The conversations hovered around the Mumbai terror attacks and how Mumbai has become so quite now. There is excessive security everywhere and there is just no mood for celebration. Another topic that kept doing the rounds was the speculation on the today-released movie Ghajini (in Dubai the movies are released on a Thursday). That reminds me, the maid at home got a holiday today since it’s her Christmas today. Yes, we do not have a public holiday for Christmas here. Neither for Diwali. Every nationality has the freedom to take off on their festical, but rest of the staff works. Anyways, so the maid went to watch Ghajini today. Her review? The Tamil version was much better! It doesn’t convince me. Being an Aamir movie, I would like to check it out myself!

BTW here’s an update on the New Year’s Eve party – Hubby and I are contemplating on doing the RNBDJ pair. He would wear a trouser with a plain shirt, white sneakers, black square glasses, a moustache, carry a bag with the saying “I work for Punjab Power”, and an old mobile. I would hand him the tiffin at some point, which he will accept with a without-showing-teeth-smile. We still have to figure out the skit though. Yes we haven’t worked on it as yet! Any ideas?

Before I finish this post I would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!
(Just in case I do not write till the new year!)

Pic Source

Eighteen Ka Tag

Just Call Me 'A' tagged me for this wonderful questionnaire last week. Have been itching to do it asap so here it comes. (I know this is not asap, but nevertheless I am equally excited about it now as I was last week). The rule says that for every answer I have to google image search and pick a picture on the first page with minimal explanation.

Seems someone wants to promote google image search further...but well I don't mind at all :). So here I go:

1. The age you will be in your next birthday: Ah Ah...wrong question. No one asks a man hi salary and a woman her age...

2. A place you’d like to travel to: Prague, Paris and Nice

3. Your Favorite place: Grindelwald, Switzerland

This Ski village in Switzerland is a paradise. With snow all around the place, every person living in this village is connected to skiing. I hear this place is equally good in summer with a lot of people trekking the mountains.

4. Your favorite food/drink: I am a foodie and the fav food and drink varies. Indian I love choley bhaturey, Paneer Butter Masala, Chinese - Chilly Paneer, Japaenese - Dragon Roll(Sushi), Italian - Gnocchi in pink sauce, Thai - Green Curry....hmmm the list goes on and on...

5. Your favorite pet: Dogs. There is no other being that can show such unconditional love for anyone.

6. Your favorite color combination: Again depends on the season. Right now it's Black Grey and Red.

7. Your all time favorite song: English - Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers, Hindi - Main Jahan Rahoon, Namastey London

These two songs have some of the most amazing lyrics and music. Can hear them over and over again and not feel bored.

8. Your favorite piece of clothing: used to be jeans, but now I like dresses the best

9. Your favorite TV show: F.R.I.E.N.D.S I can laugh over the jokes umpteen number of times and every time I watch this (well I have done so over 4 times) I have a new favourite. Last time it was Joey.

10. Full name of your significant other: His name is R * Beeeeepp *

Rukavat Ke Liye Khed Hai (Sorry for the interruption)

11. The town in which you live in: Dubai

12. Your screen name/nickname: DeeplyDip

13. Your first job: Sucked. I worked in an events company

14. Your Dream Job: To run one of the best fashion/design company in the world

15. Bad Habit you have: I drinks loads of tea. Though tea is not bad as such, I am finding it hard to control the quantities I consume.

16. Your worst fear: Like everyone else said - Losing a dear one

17. The one thing you’ll like to do before you die: Travel the world with R.

We are both vagabonds at heart and ready to travel at the drop of a hat. By god's grace we have explored many places but the world is large and there are a lot of places we need to visit.

18. The first thing you’ll buy if you get $1,000,000: A new House. Then a new car if I have any money left (what with the property prices soaring, I hope by the time I get this money, real estate will be more reasonably priced!)

I now tag Reflections, Mampi, Coconut Chutney and D. From what I saw, most of you seem to have done this tag, but if you have'nt and I missed you, then please feel free to take this tag. It's fun answering it, it's fun (but a bit tedious) finding the pics and it's super tedious trying to format the post in Blogger, but once it's done, its super fun reading the post. So go on and tell us a little bit more about yourself. We are waiting :)