My Family

I am a polytheist. I believe in my own holy trinity, which consists of my parents and brother.
Words are inadequate to convey the depth of my love for these three people in my life. Everything I do is in some way inspired by them and dedicated to them. I consider it a sublime privilege to be born to such people as my parents.

SUDOKU

This is an addiction; a serious, distracting, impertinent, outrageous addiction. Sudoku has got the entire UAE in a frenzy of numbers and squares. Luckily, work is a little slow these days (I guess there are others who have caught the Sudoku bug too) and we’ve been honing our skills with contests.
Try it and give me a shout if you get stuck somewhere.

more on Saudi, this time not so favourable

I am travelling to Saudi later this month. now that's something you don't want to be saying too often.
for all I know, my experience in Saudi may be an enriching one but something tells me that it is not likely. for, of all the places in the world that r said to be retrograde, Saudi is at the top (or very near to it) of each list. now, I have nothing personal against the Saudis. the few that I have met have come across as very decent and even possessing, very counter-intuitively, a sense of humour (I'd always imagined Saudis to a bearded, fierce looking Arabs, ready to take offence at the slightest hint of humour). but the Saudis that I have met are Europe/America educated and sophisticated with good jobs in multi-national companies, earning in one month as much as I earn in a good year...in short, as un-saudi as one can get. well...listed below are some facts (not statistics) about saudi that make me less than enthusiastic about going there.
1. In Saudi, women are not allowed to work with men, which effectively means that they are not allowed to work.
2. women are not allowed to drive. i do not know the rationale behind this. the only thing i can think of is that since women are not allowed to work with men, if women have to be taught to drive, they will have to be taught by women instructors. which means that there will have to be a separate infrastructure for women and thats too much work, ain't it!
3. all women, irrespective of religion have to cover their heads in public.
4. it goes without saying that everyone has to dress modestly...and 'modestly' not in the western sense of the word.
5. alcohol is 'haraam'. no alcohol is available or allowed in saudi. thats why u finds hordes of saudis making a beeline for bahrain, where they get to booze and womanise. as an aside, it is a fact that the highest consumption of 'Johnny Walker' is in saudi. also, throat syrups and gargles do huge business in saudi...why?? of course, because they contain alcohol.
6. images, idols (islamic of otherwise) are not permitted inside saudi
7. mobile phones with cameras are not permitted in saudi because the wise men at the top think this will prevent men from taking photos of women on the sly.
8. in general, all creative and performing arts are discouraged because in ultra-orthodox islam, it is 'haraam' to try to copy Allah's creation. there are no cinemas and theatres in saudi.
9. there is significant discrimination against non-muslims. it starts from the time u get ur work permit...muslims have green work permits and non-muslims have red.
10. too much power is given to the religious police (mutaween). there is an infamous incident where a girls school was burning down in mecca and the mutaween prevented the rescuers from going in to save the girls because the rescuers were male. the girls were not wearing 'abayas' or headscarves and the mutaween decided that it is better that the girls burn to death rather than face the ignominy of being touched by males.
11. this is true of all gulf countries...there is general ill-treatment and exploitation of indians and other south asians.
12. saudi follows the shariah in its original archaic form. therefore, public stoning to death for serious offences, cutting off hands and flogging of thieves is not unheard of there.
13. saudi does not allow tourism. either u go there to work on on a brief business visit. if u r muslim, u can also go for the hajj or umrah.

In Praise of Saudi

One seldom gets the opportunity to write anything positive about Saudi Arabia so when I thought of the contents of this post, I immediately put them down in writing. So, in future, when I write about the regressive and anachronistic laws in Saudi, fair-minded people will remember that I praised Saudi where I thought they deserved praise.
Saudi’s are Wahhabi’s, or more appropriately ‘Salafis’ The word Salaf means predecessors (or ancestors) and refers to the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad (the Sahaba), the early Muslims who followed them, and the scholars of the first three generations of Muslims. They are also called as ‘Salafus Saalih’ or "the Righteous Predecessors". The Salafis view the first three generations of Muslims, who are the prophet Muhammad's companions, and the two succeeding generations after them, the Taba'een and the taba Tabe'een as perfect examples of how Islam should be practiced in everyday life. In doctrinal matters, Salafis adhere to pure Islamic monotheism and believe, amongst other things that venerating the graves of dead prophets or scholars is incorrect.
The long and short of the above is that when King Fahd (the incumbent Monarch of Saudi) died on Monday, it was widely expected that a long period of mourning would be announced along with at least a few days of holidays. However, not only did the Saudi royal family not give any holidays, they also held a very modest ceremony for the late King and finished with their mourning in three days. I thought this was extremely admirable. In fact, UAE had announced a day of holiday in mourning but after realising that Saudi itself had not declared any holiday they rescinded their decision.
I can well imagine that an event of such magnitude in India would have led to a number of days off for the public sector and a general breakdown of public services through the country. I thought that the Saudi viewpoint, although based on theology, was also practical and devoid of all pomposity i.e. an example for us in India.

Vande Mataram

Last Friday, when most of Dubai was gearing up for another weekend, cries of ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Jai Hind’ were heard coming from a forlorn corner of the city, more accurately, from ‘InSportz’ in the Al Quoz industrial area. One would have been forgiven for thinking that the Indian Independence Day had come a bit early to this part of the world. The real reason was that India had just beaten Pakistan at indoor Cricket, not just in one match but in two consecutively and the Indian players and spectators were enjoying a round of jingoistic celebrations.
Indoor Cricket in very popular in Dubai and I have been playing regularly for over a year now. Most of the players are from the sub-continent but there are also a few teams representing the ‘white’ Cricketing countries. Indoor Cricket is fast paced and very exciting and takes only an hour per game, so it is a huge pull for people of the sub-continent, who are otherwise Cricket starved.
Man to man, Pakistan had a better team but the Indians played better as a unit. The pairs played well together and each bowler did his job, not trying to play beyond his capacity. India played percentage Cricket and won.