Appooppanthaadi - 1

30.11.2010 : The Emirates Airlines was kind enough to offer me a window seat in its flight while I flew from Chennai to Dubai and from Dubai to Frankfurt. This was my third journey to Europe; the former two were to Zurich in as many weeks.

 

As the plane took off from the Dubai airport, I hung out my head from the small window of the aircraft to have a good glance of the city of Dubai. Hanging the head out of the window is a little exaggeration anyway- Please excuse me for my affinity towards exaggeration. Those tall and magnificent buildings, roads, flying Audis, Camrys, Toyotas, the reclaimed strips of land in the sea and above all the tallest building of the world …all were a treat to my eyes. I took a few photographs of them too. Dubai administration reclaims a lot of sea space to construct fabulous buildings.

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The famous seven star hotel Burj-Al- Arab and Hotel Atlantis are situated in such reclaimed lands. They have so many such fancy ideas. There will be no dearth of flight of fancies, if we have a lot of money to spend. I too have a fanciful idea- to spend a day or two in the seven star hotel Burj Al Arab and wallow in its luxury with my family. One night stay at this most luxurious hotel in the world may cost a minimum of 6500UAE Dirhams besides the taxes. My billionaire friends in Dubai will certainly help me see through this wish. Luckily I have a dozen such friends in Dubai.

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The airplane had been cruising at a speed of 700 to 800Km per hour at an altitude of around 36000 feet. From water to land and then to water and then to land, the flight had been taking its chartered path. It first flew over Gulf of Oman and then over the vast expanse of the desert of Gulf. Sand dunes, small villages and then big cities of the desert were all visible like dots from the top. It flew almost over Baghdad and then entered Europe. The ice covered Dolomite Mountain – the Italian Alps, green valleys of Europe and the snow covered terrains all over. The display unit in front of my seat had been showing flight information. The temperature at this height was around -50 degree celcius.

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All through the flight, after it departed from the make-believe heaven called Dubai, my entire attention was to spot some heavenly characters out in the sky. All our mythical TV sops show Gods travelling in the sky, wading through the snow white clouds. I wish I could come across anyone among them. I just want to know how they brave the temperature of -50 degree and fast moving objects like our aircraft.

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I knew it is impossible. God is visible only to those who have unflinching devotion towards Him or Her. In the olden days people did have it, and hence Gods used to appear in front of them whenever needed. They incarnated in the earth whenever there was decline of 'dharma'. Those Gods, like dinosaurs made an extinct from the Heaven long time back. The modern day Gods are the creation of the mankind. Like flaws in any product the human beings make, these Gods are also made with flaws. They develop feet of clay when they are exposed to the creativities –or lack of it- of silly mortals like a cartoonist or a painter or a teacher or a writer. The Gods feel insulted or denigrated, and their creators suddenly take to arms to punish the perpetrators. Can a human being really insult a God? If yes is the answer, then it is high time we dumped those Gods along with the heaps of garbage we produce every day.

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Ok, back to the flight. The flight ended at Frankfurt airport after being around six hours on air and travelling 5000 kilometers. Frankfurt was a name I heard of many times. So many of our software geeks travel to Frankfurt to work in software companies here. I too got a chance to see the place, though I could be neither related to chalk nor cheese when it comes to software code writing. Destiny has its own ways, we must believe.

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After I disembarked from the plane, I walked towards the emigration and within no time the passport had been stamped and the baggage was ready for me. I collected the baggage and then headed towards the information counter. The information counter was manned! Or rather womenned. The woman in the counter guided me to take a shuttle bus from there and reach another Airport terminal- Terminal-1. As I have been standing in front of the terminal 2, the bus came and I boarded it. It took me to the Terminal 1. From there the sign boards were giving specific directions as to where I have to go. No need to ask anyone for help.

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I walked and then came across the railway station ticket counter. Railway station is right under the airport. I took a ticket to Mannheim and waited for the train. The train came 10 minutes late and everyone boarded the train quietly. Look, here too trains run late! As the train reached Mannheim, the announcement came in the public address system on the train and also displayed on the board. I got down at Mannheim. Walked out of the station and called a taxi, showed the address of the Hotel at Bad Durkheim. Hotel room had been booked by me through internet. The taxi driver took me straight to the hotel.

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For a twenty minutes ride on train I had to pay twenty euros and for a thirty minutes ride in car thirty seven euros. On the way I crossed the River Rhein too. The river divides Mannheim and Bad Durkheim. There at the reception of the hotel,I showed my booking number. The next moment, the receptionist handed over the key to me. There ended my first journey to Germany. Did it look so simple? It is so simple. Travelling in Europe is as simple as walking in a park.

Grüezi - Eurpoe that I saw (3)

When I stood in front of the Federation of International Football Asociations (FIFA) headquarters today (09.12.2010), I felt like a world champion. One of the few reasons I am proud of being a human being is that, they can play football. Creating a song with a globe like thing- only human beings can do, and I am proud of being one among them.

 

I wished the entire members of our village football team -Victory Sports Club, Olavaipe were present with me there. I could have reached cloud nine if the team led by Ravanan, the effervescent captain, took out a show down with our arch rival Nehru Sports Club, Olavaipe in the football field situated in the premises of the HQ. But sadly our reliable goalie, ‘Bhagavan’ Sasikumar will not be present. He had left from this world for ever four years back. A few drops tears is not enough to pay homage to my beloved childhood buddy….Sasikumar, may your soul rest in peace.

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The 'Home of FIFA', includes five underground levels, a fitness centre, meditation room, geographically themed parks and a full-size international football pitch. All these floors are underground. The height of the building, looking from outside, may be only ten or fifteen meters.

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In the morning, I woke up much early. Yesterday night itself, the excitation got into my head. I could not even sleep properly due to it. Turning sides, I got the night pass off. After taking bath, by eight o clock, I headed off to the Oerlikon railway station. Took a full day ticket from the automatic machine that costed 8 CHF (swiss francs). Got down at Zurich main station. Walked a little and reached the place where the tram no 6 to Zoo stops. Boarded the tram. It was just 20 minutes run for the tram. The same ticket was valid for tram too. Inside the tram, there was no conductor, but checking happens at random as the inspectors board the tram at their discretion.

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The last stop for Tram No 6 is Zoo. There, the direction board showed where to go. I walked. Within hundred meters from the tram stopping, I was in front of the FIFA gate. I took out the camera and started clicking. No one was present anywhere nearby. This building is situated at an isolated place in the city.

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I was not sure if outsiders were allowed inside. But since no one was seen there, I simply opened the gate on the left side and walked in. All along the way I took photos. All the places are thickly covered with snow. I wanted to enter the building but hesitated to do so, as I could not ask anyone for direction

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When I walked back from the HQ, I came across a man who was in a hurry to catch his bus, but obliged to take a photo of mine in front of the FIFA plaque at the entrance. He was an employee of our famed Tata Consultancy Services. From there I walked over to the Zoo. Zurich zoo is situated closer to FIFA HQ. From outside I could hear different noises of the inhabitants there, but I did not want to go inside. I did not like seeing animals and birds in cages. I believe, we the human beings are no way qualified to exhibit animals, birds and fish for our pleasure. These speechless creatures are much more civilized and disciplined than us. We shall allow them to live the way they want to live. If they happen to read a day’s newspaper, then we will not have a face to show to them!!

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I walked back. Took the tram back to the main station. Again I had to cross the lake. There too I found a man to help me click a photograph. Back in the room, it was pack up time. Vacated the room and again headed to the railway station. The same ticket was enough as it was valid for full day. Reached back at the main station, sat on the train to Mannheim, Germany. I had a reserved ticket for this.

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The train took exactly three hours and thirty minutes to reach the destination. Now, to travel among the Schengen countries, we do not require separate visa. Once we get our visa stamped at any one of the listed countries upon our arrival, we can travel anywhere as we please. Schengen is a place in Luxembourg and here is the place the European countries inked the agreement to do away with visa restrictions among many other things. The countries that are presently in this agreement are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Greece, The Netherlands and Norway. Inside the train, when we crossed the swiss boarder and entered Germany at Basal, German Police boarded the train and checked passports at random.

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It is almost midnight in Germany. The outside temperature is below zero. I am just leaned back on my bed in the hotel room. It is time to say goodnight to my friend –my laptop. The romance with the laptop continues tomorrow and the offsprings in the shape of stories will come out in the open for everyone of my friends to see...till then Tschüß(''choose'' this is the pronounciation that means good bye in German).....

Grüezi - Eurpoe that I saw (2)

Grüezi is a word the Swiss people use to wish others The dictionary meaning of it is good morning/afternoon/night or even hello. It is pronounced roughly like “gruetsi”. It sounds to be a German word but used widely by the Swiss. The people in Switzerland speak four languages – German, French, Italian and Romansh. Out of the four , German is the language majority speak. But the German they speak is not the one the people speak in Germany. The dialect the Swiss people use is called Swiss-German. A pure German speaking person may find it very difficult to make out what a Swiss German speaks. But the script they use is original German. So the people of Switzer devised a language for themselves, but forgot to make a script.

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Since different parts of people speak different languages in the country, the common language that connects them all is English. People use English even to communicate with the people from their neighbouring countries like Germany, France, Austria, Italy and Liechtenstein. Switzerland is geographically locked inside these countries. Most of the people can speak English or at least “ a little bit of” it. So, if we need any help we can easily communicate with them. However the older generation may not know English. The accent is easy to understand unlike the British or American ones. Thankfully, they have their own English accent. I could never follow the heavily accented American or British English. I normally avoid watching Hollywood movies because of this accent blues.

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Though Switzerland is not a super power in football, the headquarters of FIFA is situated in Zurich. All the power centres of European football like France, Germany and Italy are their neighbours. Still, Switzerland could not make it big in the football arena.

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On the first day of my arrival in Zurich itself, it took a stroll down the streets of the city. Oerlikon, the place where I stayed is well connected with other parts of the city by Bus, Tram and Train. My main aim of the first walk was to find out how a swiss-bank looks like. But I could not figure out a bank like thing that may be dealing with billions of dubious money from all over the world. I could see some banks that bore the name like GE Money or a Coop Bank. Most probably the banks that deal with dirty money hold no name in public. Only the customers may know the name and address of these banks.

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Though an infamous swiss bank could not be located, I could stumble upon an Indian restaurant. Madras Curry House. The menu that was displayed outside showed Idly, Poori and many tandoori items. Most of them were meat based. I wonder why an Indian restaurant in a foreign soil should be so fond of meat. Is it not their duty to proclaim and propagate the non violent principles we were expected to follow?

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All along the roads, we can see a lot of shopping malls and business establishments. Many people roam around inside these malls. Anyway these big halls are sufficiently heated and it is comfortable remaining here to beat the cold outside. We can see so many pram pushing men also. Usually we see women do this work. These men shop for vegetables and groceries with the kid in the pram. Mind it, men and women have equal rights and equal duties too to perform! Good tiding in the gender equality front. To me it gave a rare sight, as, back in our country men were not seen pushing a pram.

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In fact we do not use pram widely as we have to push it all along our dirty roads. Many times we may have to jump to avoid the stream of urine flowing from the adjacent wall!!! We prefer carrying the kids on the hips, shoulders or hands. I too carry my kid even if he is seven years old now. Though I cannot walk with him for hundred meters, it gives immense pleasure to me in doing so. I do not want to see him grown up. I wish the little innocent face and the unadulterated walk and talk remain unfaded for ever. But o’ God, you make him grow up and as a price for it, YOU take back his innocence (the photo you see here of mine and my kid is taken when we visited Andaman).

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Many of the shops at the main city centre show watches at the decorated windows. Swiss watches, as we know are the most famous watches in the world. Many people stand in front of them and take a good look of them. I just dropped in to a shopping mall there. The name of the mall was Coop-City. It has a chain of big complexes all over the Zurich city. The price of every commodity was prohibitively high. Still as a memento, I bought a table clock that looked like our vintage time-piece.

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Switzerland is famous for chocolates. Even in Dubai airport, they sell Swiss chocolates. We can see varieties of chocolates in the shops with attractive prices. I found this is the only commodity we can afford to buy. Though they are not so cheap, as a mark of our visit to the cities like Zurich, we are bound to carry something back home. So, best thing to have is chocolates. If we happen to visit Ooty or Kodaikanal, there also we can find handmade chocolates. They promise us to pack these chocolates such a way that it will not melt and set together by the time we reach home. If we believe them, consider we lost some money. These chocolates can never bear the temperature of the mainland. Ok, if we buy chocolates in Ooty or Kodai eat them there itself.

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Streets in Zurich are arguably neat. No trash is found thrown carelessly anywhere. Nobody was seen pissing or spitting on the streets. Perhaps these are the positive fall outs of prosperity and less population. But if anybody happens to visit the city of Kochi, we can see many people whip out their private part right at the street corner or closer to a wall and relieve themselves. They need not necessarily be poverty stricken or an illiterate and uninformed ordinary soul. Many educated people also join the chorus that is out to stink the public places in our country.

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Space is not a constraint anywhere. Enough space is left out in front of the commercial buildings, hotels, restaurants and on the road sides. No need of parking the cars and other vehicle hap hazardously. This itself gives a pleasant look to the city. All open places are paved with tiles and are being maintained neatly. At one of such places, I could see people playing chess. The chess board is the squares formed by the tiles. The pawns of the game were at least 2 feet high. The players could stand and move the pawns along the squares of the chess board. There were a number of teams playing chess on the courtyard of a shopping complex.

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The same place, on the week- end, ie Saturday, was turned into a market place. It looked as if the entire people of the locality had converged there on that day. From tomatoes to potatoes to flowers and carrots to meat, everything was on sale there. All shops were in makeshift structures and many of them where inside the vehicles themselves. As I was just walking around, I glanced at the price of tomatoes. One kilogram of tomato costs around 5CHF ( 1 swiss franc is equal to around 43 INR). This makes our Bharat really mahan. There we get a bagful of tomatoes for this price. Forget about the quantity of pesticides that may be present in those red vegetables for the time being.

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Zurich lake gives a beautiful sight. In Tourism’s parlance, it gives a panoramic view of the pristine water, floating big white ducks, beautifully constructed buildings in typical olden architecture, the nices decorated banks of the lake and above all the backdrop of the ice covered beautiful hillocks. We can just walk on the walkway all along the bank of the lake. The lake extends to the city as a small canal. After getting down at main rail station Zurich Hb, we can easily reach the lake by walk. One can take a good walk. It extends to a few kilometers-I walked for two kilometers. We can otherwise just sit on one of the benches and lazily observe those floating white ducks or the architectural beauties situated on both the side of the lake. Otherwise go for a cruise in the ship or a small ride in the motorized boat.

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In anyway, it is a perfect place for honeymoon. If anyone feels like to do a PDA(public display of affection) no problem. If the husby and the wife want to smoke cigarette, just do it. No one cares for anything. Those who missed honeymoon first time, don’t lose heart. Just pick and keep your international credit card in your purse, pack your belongings and set out right away with your spouse and children. You will not regret. Look to the other side, the gorgeous Alps is calling- who can resist its seducing charm?

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After a short trip to the heart of the city, I beat a retreat to my room. As I have been walking back after disembarking from the train, through the underpass of the railway station, I spotted a man standing on his heels with folded hands. He was there when I was going to see the city. He looked young, but the purpose of his being on the side of the underpass was to beg for alms. Beggars in Switzerland? Yes, believe me, there are beggars in this rich country too. Relax and take heart. Poor people are spread all over the world. They have not only made permanent abodes in the third world countries…

Grüezi–Europe that I saw (1)

My beloved friend Mathew M Baby, fondly known as Mathai has since visited more than 40 countries so far. By the time I finish this essay, he must have landed in new country.

Paying rich tributes to this globe trotter let me start a new sequel to the tales of my latest expeditions. Remember, Mathai has not yet started writing travelogues –fortunately or unfortunately. If he decides to do so in future, I will certainly lose my job. Those desert living sequels and stories from China will just look silly in front of what Mathai is going to narrate. Fortunately, he is an extremely busy man who finds no time even to take a good breath. He sells software to airline companies all over the world. Good luck to my friend. Carry on with your present job; don’t think of encroaching to my field.

My senior colleague in my present company used to repeat one incident he came across when he visited Switzerland last year. He had been driven by his host from the work place to his hotel room. On the way, during the conversation, he asked his host, what will be the punishment in case of traffic violation. The surprised host just replied he did not know. He asked back a question to my colleague: “why should I violate the rules?”

I too do not know what punishment I may get if I violate traffic rules in my country. I wonder sometimes if any such thing exists there! Only one thing I know, in case of traffic violation and a policeman happened to be there in the vicinity, I have to pay a maximum of fifty rupees to him as a gift and then continue breaking the rules with élan.

Now, looking from the window of my room in Zurich city, I can see a busy road down there and the vehicles moving very systematically. Red means stop, amber means deceleration and green means go! Pedestrians wait patiently at the zebra crossings for the green signal. Everything has a rhythm. Like a well programmed system, men and machine move along. At the zebra crossings where no signals are available, every vehicle stops till the pedestrians cross the road. Motorists wait patiently at the zebra crossings till the lat person crosses the road. Pedestrians do not even look to the sides while they cross the road at the zebra crossings. I feel, we must change the colour of zebra crossings in our country to yellow like here. Probably this will prompt motorists to respect the pedestrians to some extent!

Zurich is a very expensive city. For a 7 km drive from airport to my hotel, the taxi cost was 34CHF (Swiss francs), that is approximately equal to rupees 1500. When we start converting these foreign monies to Indian rupees, we really feel the big difference. Hotel rooms are costly as well. Ok, anyway my company is sponsoring everything, so I need not worry about it. I have to worry about food. I still could not come to know what these people eat! As a vegetarian, I find it very difficult to have something worth eating. So far, I have surviving with some salads, pastas and bread, fruits and of course with some eatables I brought from Chennai. There are some Indian restaurants too, but I am yet to visit them.

The most attractive thing in the city of Zurich is its public transport system. Buses, trams and trains run very frequently. Trams queue up on the roads. Unlike our Kokatta trams, these trams are clean and well used by the public. All the three means of transportation are functioning efficiently. It is very easy to use them and we can reach any destination so easily. Today I travelled from Birr, the village on the outskirts of Zurich by changing three trains. I need not even ask anybody for direction even once to reach my destination. Everything is well defined and people us it with responsibility. Tickets are taken through automatic vending machines. These tickets are valid for busses, trains and trams. This makes public transportation in the city so simple

Thanks to a simple and efficient public transport system, people sparingly use their own vehicles. This reduces the traffic congestion on the road to a very great extent. Unlike in Dubai and Sharjah, we can not find long queues of cars on the Zurich roads. There can be one more reason for the people to depend on the public transport. 1 litre benzene costs 1.65CHF and Diesel costs 1.75CHF. Perhaps this acts as a deterrent. Even in a rich country like Switzerland, people do not mind using busses and trains for commutation. They do not nurture false pride like owning a car is the symbol of richness and riding a bicycle diminishes the stature. There are so many cyclists on the road and there are specific lanes on the road for cyclists.

We can hardly find any high rise buildings in the city. All buildings so far I saw may have a maximum of 30 or 4 meter height. The city has no penchant for sky scrapers like Dubai. On every street we can find buildings built at almost same height. The greenery is lost for the time being as the trees have already shed their leaves in the winter. Walking on the streets of Zurich brought me back the memories of my China visit 3 years back. Cities like Beijing and Tianjin were so meticulously decked up by the government there so that their cities look just like a European city. So, when I walked on the Zurich city streets, I could not find anything new here. The same trouser and coat wearing men and the girls in tights, miniskirts and high heeled shoes. They looked exactly similar. I am not sure if I could use the term déjà-vu here.

Desert Living–17 - Dubai airport

Dubai airport is supposedly one of the biggest in the world. This airport is acting as a connecting point to several parts of the world. Many flights across the globe have stopover in Dubai. This sprawling airport accommodates so many duty free shops. Prices in the shops do not look to be significantly higher than that in the outside market. If the purse is big or you have a credit card, take a walk around the airport. You will be tempted to buy.

As we walk along, doing window shopping, we can spot many people sleeping on the floor just below the chairs kept for passengers in waiting. It gives an impression that we are somewhere at a bus stand or a railway station in our country. If you happen to be in Pondicherry bus station, at any given time, you could spot two or three men lying on the platform, smeared with vomit. No one cares for this, because, drinking is the state sponsored occupation for many in this part of the world.

It is not factually correct to state that we could hardly spot Arabs in public places. We can see so many of them in “Bars”. In the bars, more than eighty per cent of the tables are occupied by the Locals. Sipping the nectar, they while away their time lazily there. In the other room next to this, skimpily dressed Indian beauties were dancing their heart out to earn a fortune. Outside both the rooms, at the door, men dressed up in ‘royal suits’ salute every visitor expecting some tips from the users of the bar, to make both the ends meet. Life has extremes like this. Dear friends, relax. Be unfazed by all that is happening around us. Don’t get so perturbed if you feel that nothing much could be achieved in life so far. If possible, try to snatch a chair from the Arab in the nearby bar and gulp a glass of Chivas Regal added with a few cubes of ice. Let the spirit sour high. Without spirit nothing can be achieved, after all….

Locals are also found is shopping malls. There are so many shopping malls in the city built in multi stories and lakhs of square feet in area. Carrefour has a number of malls here. We can spot a Carrefour in the city just as we can spot a KFC and a Mc Donald in a China city. There are flyovers constructed exclusively to reach shopping complexes. Dubai Mall must be the biggest among all. In the Dubai Mall the biggest attraction is the aquarium.

Dubai Aquarium, one of the largest tanks in the world at 51m x 20m x 11m and featuring the world’s largest viewing panel at 32.8m wide and 8.3m high. Dubai Aquarium has more than 33,000 living animals, representing more than 85 species including over 400 sharks and rays combined.

Dubai Aquarium's 270-degree acrylic walkthrough tunnel makes for incredible close-encounter experiences with some of the most fascinating underwater animals on the planet. A special 'lunar-cyclic' lighting system will change the ambience of the tank depending on the time of day. (courtesy -http://www.thedubaimall.com/en/entertainment/entertainment-section/dubai-aquarium-underwater-zoo.html)

There is facility to swim inside this aquarium wearing diving suit. In the glass container, there were a number of varieties of fish, big and small, swimming around. Each type of them flock together and ‘go places’ as a gang. The groupism in the glass container just reminded me of behaviour of we human beings. If we are in a group of people from all over the world, we tend to segregate according to the countries we come from. If we are in India, we segregate according to our states or language and in the company of people from the same state, we segregate as per our religions. If we are in the company of the people from same religion, we segregate as per caste and the division continues. The only difference between the creatures in that container and the humans is that, they do not fight with each other.

My return this time was by Jet airways. The beautiful girls on board the aircraft gave a distasteful experience this time. They called everyone ‘sir’, including me. The not so sincere call gave be some kind of itching sensation all over the body. The tone of that call was definitely not befitting a service driven industry like aviation.

The aircraft was only partly occupied. Hardly after one passenger occupied his seat, one of the air hostesses approached him and requested him to shift his seat to another vacant one. He did not like it first, but obliged to her repeated requests. After a while, a little boy approached one of the girls to help him answer nature’s call. She had virtually shooed him away to his seat. As the flight took off, I demanded a feedback form from one of the crew members. She suddenly wanted to know from me if I was satisfied with the service rendered by her. She even dared to say if I had any complaint to lodge through the feedback form, she will not give the form. I do not know if she really meant to say this. Crew members of some airline services are no longer justifying the popular belief that they shower tons of smiles on the passengers and suffocate them with care and attention.

As I landed at Anna International Air Port, Chennai, another episode of desert living has come to an end. A delighted heart got back into the usual business in the chaotic ambience of its motherland…

Desert Living -16

Edifices in an illusionary world can not last long. Any discussion between the souls that weathered the turbulent recession period in Dubai recollect the horrific fall of the edifices of false pride and insensitivity with a chill in their spine. It took just a few days to see the turn around. Now, most of the projects that are completed with billions of dollars are lying vacant, waiting for any takers. Interestingly, these millions were borrowed money from foreign banks. When these foreign institutions suddenly took away all their money in a fine morning, the economy took a nose dive. The result of this reckless ‘development’ projects in Dubai was empty multi storied buildings all over the city and mentally shaken populace.

 

As Rajeev has been driving his car along the Sheik Zayad road, we spotted a cat lying dead right on the middle of the road. Sheik Zayad Road is the most used road in Dubai. It has 6 lanes towards each direction. Cars fly on this road- if there is any space available on the road. Almost all the big buildings stand tall on this road. The newly constructed Dubai Metro also runs parallel to this road for a good distance. This road connects Sharjah with Dubai and straight away leads to Abudhabi. As we drive past the pomp and flare of the illusionary world of Dubai, the rest of around 120 kilometers towards Abudhabi we could only see just desert all along. This reminded me of the life in Syria. The original inhabitants of this area live in makeshift huts elsewhere in this barren land along with their sheep and camels. These people are far connected to the rich world a few kilometers away. When we look back from the car , we could hardly believe that the jungle of concrete just behind us was built in a desert. We could see the high rise buildings and the flash lights from these buildings ascending towards the blue sky. In this jungle if anything smells so strongly, it must be the smell of the sweat and blood of Indians, especially the Mallus. They shed a lot of them in the process of building a dreamland.

 

Back to the dead cat; Rajeev said the cat had committed suicide. He said animals have the tendency to end their lives themselves. Though I did not take his statement at face value, when I came back to my room, I searched in the internet about this phenomenon. There were scores of links in the net that suggest the self destroying tendencies in the animals. Whatever is said and heard about this, do the human beings allow the animals live till they could even think of committing suicide? Before that we end their lives after -administering extreme torture on them.

As the city of illusions was raging on, the inhabitants and the expats were just watching it with awe. Prices of apartments were skyrocketing. Houses on lease were a dream- like commodity for the working class there. Lease for a decent apartment was increasing by minutes. Scared ‘servants’ started running away from Dubai. They found solace in the nearby emirate Sharjah. Rents there were comparatively low then. So, those could not pay the lease amount through their noses had to flee to Sharjah. There were long queues of hundreds of cars on the roads that lead to Sharjah from Dubai. Everyone started living in the cheaper emirate and drive to the rich emirate for job. It used to take more than two hours to cover a distance of around 30 kilometers from Sharjah to Dubai in the morning time. Similarly in the evening the reverse flow takes equal time to reach home.

Even in the post recession period, this situation still continues. Even at 0630hrs in the morning, cars line up on the Sharjah Roads. Even though it takes more than two ours to negotiate the heavy vehicle movement, the lane discipline is maintained by Chackos, Renjiths and Rajeevs. There will be just as many vehicles in parallel as the number of lanes. They line up in queues and patiently inch forward towards their destinations. However, once we could cross Sharjah over to Dubai, congestion gets eased to a large extend. They say, no one resides in Dubai, that is why the roads are free there. Anyway, we can not declare this city a ghost city as yet!!

The FM Radios do a commendable service in keeping the expat Indians connected to their homeland. There are many Indian language radio channels there, especially in Malayalam. There are news broadcasts in every hour. People are updated with latest happenings in India through these news bulletins. There are so many RJs who can speak good Malayalam and also there are so many female and male voices that virtually vandalise this beautiful language. I used to wonder why these broadcasting agencies and TV channels depend on people like Ranjini Haridas when there is no dearth of people here who can speak reasonably good Malayalam. The old songs flowing out of the small speakers of the cars on the road take us to the land of coconut trees and the tiny piece of our own land there and then, over to the nest like hut in that land. We unknowingly succumb to a kind of nostalgia. The car may take a turn over to the parking lot of the airport. Park the car there, throw the key into it and buy a ticket on the first flight to the land of coconuts. The procession of memories may conquer us. Images of those mango trees, pristine backwaters, green canopy of paddy fields, grandmothers, ‘chiratta puttu’, ‘meen curry’ and those still rustic friends may flash past your mind. No wonder if any one is carried away by these memory invoking songs.

Though not influenced by the old songs, many expats did abandon their cars in the airport and ran away during the meltdown. Sitting on the bandwagon of ‘development’ of Dubai, all and sundry took loan and bought cars and properties. As the horror of recession started unfolding, these ‘rich’men and women found themselves gasping for oxygen. Fired by the employers, many a king became paupers overnight. Hundreds had no means for sustaining life in Dubai, forget about maintaining a car. The simplest thing they did was to park the car in the airport and flee. Unlike other gulf countries, we need not have an exit stamp to leave UAE. Exit stamping is an employer favouring instrument to keep the helpless employees on their toes.

 

This time my taxi driver was a Taliban supporter. He gave a sermon about the jihad in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the emptiness and fruitlessness of life on earth . The true life is there at the Heavens. For reaching the Heaven at the earliest, he said he was willing to fight against America and other non believers. According to him, all those who were killed in the bomb blasts in Karachi or Lahore or Baghdad will definitely reach Heaven. He said all his relatives and friends, back at his home village in Waziristan are Taliban activists. He showed some video clipping on his mobile phone of some local Taliban leaders dancing to the tune of some crude drum beats. Please note…. morons are also driving cabs in Dubai!

Kunjamma, my first guru

Another special day passed into memory. The veena clad Goddess of knowledge showered a lot of blessings on all of us on this special occassion. Another Vijayadasami day presented another opportunity to recollect the past. Every special day like this takes me to the sweet memories of the yesteryears. Whenever the sweetness brims in the heart, the soul craves for sharing - sharing the sweetness with you all. I shall not enjoy the sweetness alone, so I share it with you. If you have a little time to spare, come with me. Let us take a small walk to those golden days of our childhood.

 

Any Vijayadasami day can not be remembered without remembering Kunjamma. There is a famous writer Lalithambika Anderjanam in our literature. Everyone knows her, but I know one more Anderjanam- Savithri Antharjanam. She was fondly called Kunjamma by all who knew her. As the name depicts, she was a lady who preferred to be inside the four walls of her 'illam' and tried to lead a contended life with her husband and four children. She was no woman of great substance like the former Antharjanam but still she knew the world better than many other Brahmin ladies of that age.

 

Kunjamma taught us the Malayalam letters. Her illam was just opposite our house in Olavaipe. We were sent to her house to learn the letters. My elder brother and me daily spent much of our day time there. Kunjamma sat along with us at the forecourt of her illam and by holding our index fingers, wrote 'Hari' in Malayalam in the sand. The mesmerizing beauty of a great language was being unveiled there. We were taught each letters in the sand. From "Hari sree Ga Na Pa tha ye nama:" to "ksha" we learnt the letters under her guidance. She took every pain and showed a lot of patience while teaching us. She could successfully handle my short tempered brother with her right attitude.  Many many years later, when I became a father, I realized patience was the essence while dealing with children

 

She was not a professional teacher and she had never taught anyone else than us before or after we were with her. Kunjamma lived for many more years. We went on studying and pursuing higher studies . Many tides occurred in the backwaters of Olavaipe in the meantime, but who cared for this? Like the famous aim of Arjun in the Mahabharatham, we could only aim at the coveted degree certificates. Nothing else came anywhere near our eye sight. Otherwise, we conveniently ignored everything that was not useful in achieving the academic qualifications. After gaining the certificate, the aim was shifted to gaining a job and then to power and positions in the society. The quest for a fat purse and the trappings of a flashy life never ended since then. Kunjamma was pushed to the backburner of our memories in this run. The guru who gave us the first taste of knowledge could wait or in simple terms, she could be simply left un-noticed.

 

She used to organize thiruvathira kali on the thiruvathira day of the Malayalam month 'dhanu'. Perhaps the women of that locality had a chance to play thiruvathira because of her. Singing songs about gods and goddesses and dancing to their tunes,  they spend the entire night. As the age started catching up with her, she stopped this too. Thiruvathira kali is now a stage show item in any expat malayali's Onam festivals. Of course it is an item in the youth festivals too. In the age of ready mix commodities, this beautiful dance form also is available is packets. We had chance to have taste of "ettangadi" and the "thiruvathira puzhukku". In the deep corner of the heart, the taste of these special dishes lingers on. Can a burger or a pizza help erase this?

 

On every Vijayadashami day, we assemble in our temple premises. Our books after 3 days' of pooja inside the temple are returned to us on that day. After collecting the books, we sit in the sand in the temple premises and write "hari sree ga na pa tha ye na ma:". We did this till we were in college. Now a days I never get a chance to be present in our temple during this season due to various reasons. But still I write all Malayalam letters in a plain paper on every Vijayadashami day.

 

Kunjamma left this world without bidding adieu to anybody. She suddenly developed some bodily disturbances and was taken to hospital. Within a day of her admitting in the hospital she passed away. A peaceful death after a graceful life….that had had no consequences in the society.  What was her mission on this earth? Did she ever bother to count the bank balance? Did she ever bother about the bulls and beares of the stock markets? Perhaps she was not aware of these jargons those days!! She reared her children dutifully. She could infuse some positive energy to the people who spent their time with her. She found happiness in what she had. As our famous scriptures say, perhaps she was aware that,  at death  it is impossible to carry with us even the clothes we are wearing.

 

Lives of people like Kunjamma's teach us a lot. Wise men and woman may take leaves out of the lives of ascetic lives like hers. They make us think whatever we have on this earth is not ours and will never be others too. In the short time we spend here, we shall live a simple and honest life. When we disappear from the world one day, others must say why so early? Instead of Oh, at last!  May  the soul of my beloved guru rest in peace.