Blog of a slightly odd individual

Two weeks ago I had a meeting at work with one of my partners, few managers, and more so senior associates. A total of around 12 work colleagues. And I was the ONLY non-Arab, and the junior-most team member present for the meeting. I expected the meeting to start in Arabic since everyone for whom the meeting was important (i.e. everyone except myself) was Arab, but the partner led it by speaking in English and did not once stop to indulge in Arabic speech or vocabulary. The manager who followed after him also did the same and never once uttered a word of Arabic. They probably would have been more comfortable speaking in Arabic, being their first language and that of everyone else, but just spoke in English to accommodate and include me in the meeting, even though my presence there was not really essential. Just goes to show that sometimes people do things to make others comfortable at a slight expense to themselves.

Just changing my ringtone today to Coldplay’s ‘Every tear drop is a water fall’ I realised that 2 out of my previous 5 ringtones, and I change them VERY infrequently, were Coldplay songs. The previous two being ‘Clocks’ and ‘Trouble’. Just goes to show how catchy their songs can be (or how crappy my taste in music can be?) lol

I had gone to Grand Mosque (Abu Dhabi) about 2 months ago (surprisingly my first time!), when it was still summer and sunset still at late evenings. I clicked a lot of photos while I was over there and used my mid range Canon digicam (yea not yet convinced I’m enough of a shutterbug to buy an SLR) after around a 2 month gap. I must say the architecture is quite stunning and the mosque evokes a feeling of grandioseness both mesmerising and a little repulsive, the latter due to some of the crass pompousness of it. Anyway it was good photo clicking opportunity and got me clicking quite a lot of snaps. Although immediately after that I just stashed away my camera again for a 2 month gap (for some odd reason my photography bug just shoots up every 2 months and then quickly dissipates) and just went through those shots last night and did a little amateurish editing on a certain (free) software perfect for un-knowledgeable photographers. Here they are:

I was pretty surprised to see Bangalore on this Lonely Planet list and so highly ranked too. It’s definitely my favourite city in India and I can’t see myself living anywhere else in India. But when I was living in Bangalore for 3 years after living most of my life in cosy serene Abu Dhabi I didn’t share the same emotion. After being used to the conveniences and luxuries of Abu Dhabi it was a task to get used to the lifestyle and way of living in Bangalore, especially the severe over-population and the significant difference in infrastructure between the two cities mentioned. I guess I was too focused on all the negatives of Bangalore that I did not fully enjoy my time there or appreciate the positives of the place enough. It was only after leaving Bangalore and then being back in Abu (boring) Dhabi that I realised how much more better living in Bangalore is. The description of the city in the above referred Lonlely Planet link is so true and unexaggerated that I really wish I hadn’t had such a negative mindset when I was actually living there.

The only reason why I’m surprised to see it on Lonely Planet’s travel list is that Bangalore (now Bengaluru) doesn’t have the same global profile as a Western or SE Asian city and nor do Indian cities rank highly or at all as a tourist place. Anyway this article, though lame it may sound, has given me added excitement for my next trip to Bangalore (which incidentally is now where my parents have relocated and settled).