Appooppanthaadi -56

I could not stop marvelling at myself! Where have I reached? In the same posture, exactly 3 years back I was typing one of the many Desert Living stories on my laptop that I have been propagating all these days. It is the same box type accommodation for me here too -it can be something like 15 feet length and 10 feet width with a cushioned bed of 3 feet width. Leaning against the pillows and the personal computer on my lap, I am watching the television  while making the stories, exactly how I did 3 years back. The only difference is that there in Syria, I was forced to watch only "Rakhi ka Swayamvar" everyday but here there are a good package of Malayalam, Tamil and Telgu channels to enjoy

Much more water flew in Periyar river since then. I traveled just like an 'appooppanthaadi' later on. It went to Europe, twice to China and then over to a totally unexpected place. Is it where a free flying object supposed to get holed up? It could be like one of many paradoxes in life. Unavoidable sometimes.

 

Finally I reached the Island. The Das Island. It is located around 150 kilometers off the main land UAE. The length and breadth of this piece of land, situated somewhere in the Persian Gulf are just 2.4 and 1.5 kilometers respectively. This island is much closer to Qatar and Iran

 People in this part of the world lately have developed a penchent for creating land in the sea. There are a number of such islands in the Emirate of Dubai. The Palm Jumeira is one of the finest examples of such unconvenstional ways of thinking and executing things in the world by the oil rich rulers. Land has been created in sea in the shape of a palm tree - not one but three - using dredging. It was not the compulsion of space crunch but in all probability it was just the fancy for doing something out of the box. Anyway, as the adage goes, if there is hair, we can style it as we please. Here, hair is replaced by money - and money makes all the difference.

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

Das Island is however not an artificial one anyway. It had even a hill once upon a time. Like in any place in the Persian Gulf, here too the terrain is sandy and rocky. This small strip of land was once used by turtels and some migratory birds to nestle and rear their off-springs. Unfortunately for them, human beings have reached here too. As is expected, the human beings never care for others. That has happened exactly this way here too. They razed the hill. They dropped big boulders and concrete blocks all around the land to prevent sea erosion. They distroyed whatever the other creatures used for their existance. Let others go to dogs. Let the God, on whom every human being vouches for, take care of these living things. If God is so worried, let Him make new abodes for them. We have no time, we have to make development for a brighter future of the mankind!

 

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

Das Island houses a crude oil and  natural gas processing plant and loading facilities. Abu Dhabi's oil and gas resources are tapped from their large wells named Um Al Shaif and Zakum. The high pressure crude oil and gas reach from these off-shore rigs through sub-sea pipeleines. This raw oil and gas is processed in Das Island facility. The major process is the removal of water from the oil and gas. The treated oil and gas are seperated from each other and then loaded on to the big vessels waiting in the sea. So, this Island may be called the power house of Abu Dhabi's economy. The major income for the Emirate is derived from the oil and natural gas exported from here. The other 6 Emirates are not blessed with such a huge quantum of natural resourses.

 

I took a plane to reach here from Abu Dhabi. It was a 40 seater turbo propelled air craft that took hardly 30 minutes to reach the Island. Das Island has an air strip also. There are 4 to 5 trips per day to and from Abu Dhabi Aviation Airport operated by the aviation department of Abu Dhabi. The travel to this island is free of cost  but one has to go thorogh a lot of government and military security formalities to get the travel documents cleared. Once cleared, we get an identity card, using whick, we can travel up and down as we need depending on the availabilty of seats on the plane

 

 

The plane shook violantly upon landing. While standing on line at the Abu Dhabi airport, all the passengers were seen picking ear plugs from the . I too picked a pair. I guessed, this might be needed on board the aircraft. I was expecting big noise inside while taking off and during the flight. Luckily, it was just like any other flight. 

There are around 6000 people - all men- living here. All are accommodated in the island.  Argueably this tiny piece of land is a place where people from all around the world can be spotted. Perhaps, it may not be difficult to find at least one person each from the 206 countries. 

The all familiar porta cabins are lines up on either side of the air-strip. So many, even one upon the other. I saw them in Qatar and then in Syria . These tiny boxes have everything inside that include a refrigerator, an air conditioner, kettle, tea bags, a bath room, a toilet, a water heater, a television besides bed, chairs and table.  What else we need to have a laid back life? But don't be misled. These facilities are extended only to the creamy layer of the work force. The hard working group, as usual gets a raw deal. They get air-conditioned, shared accommodation with minimal facilites.  

 

These birds are seen hovering around in less numbers

There is a big mess that serves a wide variety of food - all for free. One can eat as much as he wants. Dosa, Sambar, 'pulissery', 'avial', daal, rasam, aaloo gobi, roti, rice, many types of meat based dishes, vegetables, fruits, and sweets  are served  everyday. There are a number of shops that sell everything - from water bottles to Laptops to LCD TVs. There are two big mosques, two cinema theatres, play grounds, a bank, hair cutting saloons, Post office and mobile phone service provider's office.

The only thing that may be hard to find here is time. People come here, or rather are lured by the colour of dollars, only to work. Work for half of the day. The rest 12 hours for a little leisure, food and then sleep. The routine is non stop - there is no break on weekends. That is how the life in this island goes on

Photography is strictly prohibited. We are not allowed to bring cameras, mobile phones that have cameras or Laptops that have webcams. Security related restrictions are lot but in the internet, all information are available including a number of photographs. All the photos above are copied from the internet

 

Appooppanthaadi - 54

I just leaned against the pillow to tell you a little more about a desert that turned a mega city. This is the place where thousands of lives sold their dreams. Millions are still selling it but in a better living conditions. From better living conditons many have shifted to cosy living conditions. A welcome news indeed. Now, the creamy layer of the Gulf has a different worry - to find a parking space to park their sedans. Cities like Abu dhabi and Dubai face severe shortage of parking spaces and it is a nightmare for the car owners here. Admistration makes a good fortune out of parking charges in these cities.

After having a masala dosa from the nearby Madurai Restaurant, I had a brief walk along the roads. The masala dosa costed me 6 dirhams. There are a number of Indian restaurants around my hotel. Besides Maudrai Restaurant, there are Swagath restaurant , Cettinad Restaurant and Kamat Restaurant. All these restaurants are run by people fromTamil Nadu. There are lot more restaurants run by Malayalees too but the names given to them have no connection with Malayalam or Keralam and all of them serve mainly meat based food items.

 The Al Ridha restaurant offers lunch with all Kerala dishes along with their favourite rice. But, while enetering the restaurant, what is going to welcome us will be the tempting smell of fish fry or chicken biriyani!  I regularly have my lunch at Ever Green restaurant run by Gujaratis. This is a pure vegetarian set up. A thali costs 12 dirhams and they offer food as much as we like to eat. Chapatis, rice and north indian style 'sabjis' are available in plenty. I felt this restaurant is a nice survival point for a vegetarian.

A little far away, there are Sangeetha Restaurant and Hotel Saravana Bhavan, the big players from Tamil Nadu. They have a chain of restaurants in Tamil Nadu and now their network is spread all over Gulf too. There is another Arab Udupi Restaurant at a stone's throw. Sadly none of these restaurants could exibit the colourful images of their gods. Instead they decorate their cash counters with the images of the rulers of Abu Dhabi and UAE. UAE is a conglomeration of 7 Emirates - Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah - and they became a single nation in 1971. Like any other Gulf country, this too is ruled by various dynasties.

Where is that affable 'chayakkada' missing? (Chayakkada is the village side restaurant in Keralam) How exciting it could have been if I could spot an unassuming chayakkada with a glass paned cupboard in the front! I am missing the scene of a cupboard stacked with 'puttu kuttis' 'neyyappams' and 'sukhiyans'.

 By the way, did you have a sukhiyan in the recent past? If not, it is time you prepared them at home. Here is a recepie which I got from the internet : http://www.yummyoyummy.com/2010/05/sukhiyan.html. I had it just a few days back at Ras Al Khaima, thanks to a Malayalee restaurant there.

I miss those good old days of sukhiyans and the special 'appams' made of rice and coconut. We used to have these items at our homes. Our beloved grandmas prepared averything fir us. The rice appam accompanied by coconut chutney was one of the most delicious food stuffs I ever had. Now, I have only hauting memories. O sweet memories, let me take shelter in you whenever I take a break from my run after Gandhi.

The walk was mainly to find out some more restaurants. I really hate to walk along the roads here. The ambience is very hot. To add to that, the powerful airconditioners spit fire on us. Every shop has air-conditioners and their compressor units are lined up on the road sides. Another irritating thing about these air-conditoners is the water it discharges. A trickle there and a trickle there from the airconditioners of the top floors of the buildings is not so uncommon here. The authorities that are so strict about vehicle parking and road disciplne give short shrift to such a dirty thing often. Didn't I see such scenes in Dubai and Sharjah as well?

There were a few roads to cross. There are signals on every busy junctions. Believe me, the same drivers who throw every rule to wind in their home countries respect these signals as much as they respect their religious texts and gods. Eevn in mid night the traffic signals work and the alert motorosts obey whatever be the rules. No crossing of stop line. No acceleration at amber signal. Pedestians stand at the zebra lines and move when the green light is on. But, still there are violations.  A section of the pedestians cross whenever they want and wherever they like. I was told by my friends here that we must cross only at zebra lines and violations may cost penalty by the police. I could see so many people crossing the busy roads as they please.

Whenever the red signal is on, there appeared a motorscycle or two in the front. They wade through the long array of cars to reach the front. With a box in the rear, these bikes are the life line of Abu Dhabi's communication system. They carry couriers to different parts of the city. There are so many motor cycle mounted delivery boys from so many restaurants across the city. Though not in plenty, bikes are seen in Arabian cities.  These motor cyclists run very fast. Once the green signal is turned on, these guys run as if there are in a race. It is frightening to see their ride. Every green signal is opened with roaring sounds of the bikes.

The breakneck speed of the bikers gives the onlookers a heartstopping feeling. Their run is for survival anyway. There are so many anxious souls waiting elewhere in the 'third world' to see the money orders. Money orders are passe' however. Now everything is done through exchanges. In every nook and corner of cities in gulf countries, we can see money transfer agencies. They transfer money through internet at a lightning speed, but still I doubt if they can match the speed of the bike!

On my way back home, I got my mobile sim card recharged. Mobile service providers are limited to two. Etisalat and Du. They enjoy the monopoly and as a result, call charges are very high. We cannot find their outlets like we see in our country. To buy a sim card or a recharge coupon we have to visit certain shops like departmental stores.  Alternately, top ups can be done on the foot paths. At every corner of a building, we can spot a minimum of two men holding mobile phones in their hands. They do the top up for the mobile phones. This is a low income business but there are a lot of men involved in this. This sector is dominated by Bangaladeshis, I guess.

By the way, I must narrate my own adventure in between. As a part of the new job in the off-shore oil fields, I have been directed by the new employer to undergo a sea survival course. It was a one day course that included a class room seesion and a swimming pool session. As is wont for me, I dozed off for a while in the class room.   In the post lunch session, I have been put in a helicopter model. I sat inside the container tieing a seat belt and wearing a life jacket. The "helicopter" was lifted using a crane and then lowered into the water. As it went upto my neck level, the "chopper" has been rotated keeping me inside.

I was instructed to remove the seat belt once the 'chopper' comes to a halt. As it has been rotating, I lost all sense. After a few seconds, I found myself above water! Surprisingly, I remembered to pull the string of the life jacket at that point of time. The inflated life jacket kept me floating in water. This is a training everyone who wants to work off-shore has to take.

As I have been returning after the 'successful' completion of the training ( though I took only one day training, the training institute issued a certificate in which they mentioned I have taken two days' training!!)  , my mind was full of thoughts. Thoughts of those good old days with my previous employer. It was by and large a worryless laidback job. I could travel all over the world without incurring even a penny from my pocket. I saw a cross section of the world with avid interest. I enjoyed every bit if it.  Here comes a break to the globe trotting. The life hereafter will be in an open jail somewhere in the middle of the sea. Withdrawal Syndrome? Can be....

Appooppanthaadi -53

He boarded the plane only to drink Vodka. That was what I felt. He got the middle seat to sit. As I was about to make way for him to occuppy the middle seat, he had already made the way by himself. I was a little irritated by that action, but  now I know how to take the irritants in my stride. Anger and emotions need to be controlled to see a better and smiling world. I am learning it and trying to put this into practice. I desparately want to gift a peaceful world to my child to live

The plane took off and as the pilot switched off the seat belt sign, the crew swung into action. The first thing was to serve refreshments. He asked for Vodka. The host poured half level in the galsss and offered it to him. He was not happy. He demanded more and the host obliged. The glass was offered with full vodka, ice cubes and a can of fizzy soft drink. Within no time, the glass was empty.

After the refreshments, they brought the dinner. He demended another round of Vodka then. Knowing his needs, they offered it as he pleased. He sipped the drink along with the dinner that included mutton. I had a vegetarian Indian dinner along with a tin of Pepsi. After the food is served, the hosts reappeared to offer tea/coffee. He again demanded Vodka. The host tried to find an excuse. The agitated guest started protesting. He could speak Arabic. He persisited with demanding another bout of Vodka in Arabic. He even threated to complain to the higher officials of the carrier. Finally the cabin crew had to serve another cupful of the drink. Incidetally, I should say he was a Malayali. He boarded the plane from Chennai and was on his way to Muskat.

For a change, Oman Airways had men as cabin crew. It was however a welcome change. It was a departure from the devil -may- care style of the girls of Jet Airways and the rude behaviour of girls of Qatar Airways. True, the hostesses of many carriers have forgotten to even smile at the guests. The men on board were so pleasing. When the passengers wanted to tell something to these guys, they even squatted on the floor to listen to them. They were willing to listen with a smiling face. Those men on board the Cathe Pacific  flights between Chennai and Hong Kong also were so heartening. I wish, more and more men are found on board in future. Girls, please learn to smile, lest you may loose your jobs.

 

 There were a number of Arab nationals in the plane . Old men, women to children in small and big groups were seen waiting for flights to various Gulf destinations at Chennai airport. Most of these people are reaching Chennai and other cities in India to have specialised treatments. Chennai is one of the most favourite destinations as it can boast of some world class hospitals. One of the passengers on board was a small Arab boy with a broken leg. His left leg was fully bandaged and he could not fold his leg. An affectionate father was struggling hard to keep him in position on board. His love and care for the boy was so absorbing. For around four hours, I was in a class room, learning a lesson or two on how to become a caring father!

The Muskat bound aircraft landed one hour late and it was a 4 hours wait for me to catch the next flight.As I have been cooling my heels at the Muskat Airport launge, I was watching so many men and a few women shopping in the duty free shops there. I was simply awed to see how the people were just picking packets after packets of chocolates and other items and paying at the  cash counter with no emotions in their faces. All these people looked very ordinary and most of them were bound for various destinations in India. A few of them were packing up big liquor bottles too.

 

At 0030 hours my plane took off and in another 90 minutes, it landed at Abu Dhabi. I headed to the exit gate. Before the exit, I collected the visa, underwent the eye scanning,  then had emigration stamping on the passport and collected baggages. Within 30 minutes, I was at the exit gate. UAE issues visa to Indian nationals for a limited period. They send a copy of the visa to our mail id and the original needs to be collected at the airport. This visa is valid only for a few days. Those who need to stay for employment or business need to go through a number of formalities to get the visa stamped on their passports.

Like that I reached once again in the desert. Right now, I have been put up in a hotel and am waiting for the formalities to complete. As long as I am sitting in the comfort of the luxury hotel in the middle of the city, I will never feel that I am living in a desert. Airconditioned room, car, office and restaurants make everything cool. This is a place where petrol is cheaper than water.

Every second person I come across on the road was an Indian. The first person was a Philippino!  Looks may betray their nationalities however. Population of Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Nepalis is nontheless less than Idians. Malayalees were the pioneers, but they are now outnumbered by the people from different parts of the world.

Onslaught of Philippinos gives every Indian aspirant a run for their money. Every shop is 'manned' by Philippino girls. We can hardly see Indian girls in shops even though most of the shops are run by Malayalees. For that matter, all walks of life is increasingly being occuppied by Philippinos. The Life Line Hospital has a number of Malayalee employees, but the presence of Philippino nurses and other staff members was a pointer towards the forays they made in Gulf.

Contrary to the general perception that Gulf is totally occuppied by Malayalees, I could see more people from other states of India here. Malayalam is not enough to survive in Gulf now, rather, Hindi will be more conveniet as Bangladeshis and Pakistanis too speak Hindi. While the El Dorado Cinemas screens two Malayalam movies, the nearby National Theatres screen three Hindi movies.

I reached Abu Dhabi to open another chapter in my life. This chapter looks to have some turbulant happenings in waiting. It is definitely not going to be a walk in the park like I used to do during my early assignments abroad, while working with my previous employer. That is what the Sea survival training I took the other day suggests....

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…