Appooppanthaadi -55

I got a pleasant surprise today. I came to learn only today that till the recent past, the currency the people of Persian Gulf that included the present day UAE used was printed in India. The name of the currency was Gulf Rupee. The Gulf Rupee was printed by Reserve Bank of India for circulation in some Arab countries. The value of the money was eaquivalent to the Indian Rupee. However, the colur of the notes were different from the Indian Rupee notes. I only hope my stamp hunter fried Vincent is aware of this and he has a good collection of such notes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_rupee

During the early to mid-20th century, the Indian rupee was extensively used as currency in countries around the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula. In order to reduce the strain put on India's foreign reserves by gold smuggling caused by external use of the Indian rupee, a separate currency was created. The Government of India introduced the Gulf rupee in 1959 as a replacement for the rupee, for circulation exclusively outside the country. At the time, the Indian rupee was pegged to the pound sterling at a rate of 13⅓ rupees = 1 pound.

I heard that the people of old genereation still call their money rupee. Probably they are still living in the past. Before the gas was struck, people in this region were living like ordinary people of a poor country. The major income of the people here was from fishing and trading pearls. The life saw a sea change within a span of 50 years and now UAE is one of the richest countries in the world. Still one fact must make us really wondering. The Britishers who found oil in this region, established infrastructure to process and export this black gold had never tried to make the Persian Gulf their colony. Despite very sincere requests by the rulers of this region, the Britishers exited from the Gulf. In a way, the UAE was formed only because the Britishers refused to protect the emirates militarily.  It was a great loss to the locals here, because they lost a golden opportunity to learn "excuse me" and "sorry".

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Finally I got my UAE Identity card. I do not have a voter id or I have no idea how to go about getting the much hyped Adhar Card in my country. Thinking about those dingy 'sarkari' offices that issue these cards make me feel like vomiting. I only wish I will never have to visit a government office there. On the first day of my arrival here, I went to a government office. Here too, I could see crowd, milling crowd indeed. People of every nationalities were seen there. Despite all the big congragation, everything had a method. The first thing a visitor has to do is to take the token number and then relax in the chairs provided. Number is called and the visitor can approach the respective counter.

The first day itself, they took my blood samples, took X ray of my chest and then the thumb impression. It was not just thumb impression, they took impression of entire palms. Then a photograph too. Everything was over in a few hours and I was out of it without even having any conversations with any one in that government office. Nearly after fifteen days, the identity card has come to the nearby post office from where I collected it.

So much of tracking of the people in this country. The identy card contains every information pertianing to a person. Still, if the government could check the crime rate is to be debated. Just two days back, a Pakistani national went into a hospital owned by a Malayalee, caught hold of a Malayalee doctor and simply slit his throat, just like killing a lamb. He died on the spot. The killer has been a patient of this Eurologist for the past three months, but the motive behind this crime is not yet known. Crime happens despite all such high tech tracking systems.

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Eevery restaurant in this locality offers drinking water when the guests are in seat. These are Indian restaurants. Still there are one or two exemptions to this. The other day, I went to one such eatery. I ordered a sounth indian thali. It had very limited dishes and the taste of them had nothing to do with South India. Still the bill was for 19 dirhams, something like 6 to 7 dirhams more than the other restaurants are charging. Here, they do not offer water too. If we have to drink water, we have to order it, and a half litter per bottle costs 1.5 dirham. Strange. People find different ways to make money. One is this.


El Dorado Cinema is just opposite my hotel. I had nothing to do on Saturday. How many hours I can remain bed ridden in the room? I decided to cross the road and watch the Mohanlal movie Run Baby Run. For the evening show on a holiday, there were not even 50 people to watch the movie. The ticket cost was 30 dirhams, that is roughly 450 rupees, which looks to be high. The lower class costs 25 Dhs. The movie is based on the ethical as well as unethical media exclusives after which the present day electronic media is running to get maximum viewership. The charecters in the movie uses the modern electronic gadgets to do sting operations and exclusive stories  for their TV channels. Last time, when I went to watch Husbands In Goa on Friday noon, the audiance was numbering just around 25 people. I wonder, how the theatre is moving on with such poor patronage by the Malayali community here.


Patronage may be poor at the Cinema Hall but the nearby Spinney's liquor shop was full of 'patrons'. So many people on the Weekend eve were seen picking up different kinds of bottles from the shelves. One Malayalee lady was heard asking the shop attendant if Gin was available only to to be informed that Indian items were not sold in the shop. Look, Malayalees are sincerely patronising the humble beverages in a world where strict anti liquor policies are exisitng.