Life is a journey they say...

Life, they say is a journey, complete with a beginning, a few pitstops and an end. During the beginning and the end, you have no emotions about your conditions, but other people do. The various pitstops are what shape you and define memries of you.

Some people lead content lives, and others do not. But just as everyone is born helpless, everyone dies helpless as well. Everyone likes the fruits of fame and good fortune, but what satisfies a person is wisdom and strengrh.

Priorities

What's more important - the supply of fresh potable water or the disposal of raw sewage? Its an odd question for me to ask, but I am beginning to wonder now, and there seems to be no better place to observe than Dubai.

Being a desert, there is no readily available fresh water source, nor is there a resource to dump sewage. So for its part, Dubai brews potable water by desalinating seawater at a huge cost. On the other hand, it struggles to get rid of sewage at most sites by storing it in tanks and getting trucks to clear it out every once in a while. These trucks queue up at the treatment plant for about 15 kilometers on either side, and are lucky to get more than one trip a day. This delay and frustration has led some truckers to quietly empty their payload into desert land in remote areas or to "accidentally" leave their valve slightly open, so that after the first 6 kilometers of remaining in queue to the mother ship, their tank is empty, allowing them to pull out of line and make another run for money.

Any decent city that claims to be as cosmopolitan and fast growing as Duabi would have thought of this right before they started driving foundation piles. A city like Dubai should have had utility tunnels running under the city for as deep as 30 meters by now. The fact that this does not exist is testified by the background stench that hangs in the air, especially when the atmosphere is cold. This now reinforces my statement - "Dubai is full of sh*t!"

To anyone thinking dreaming about something new, think this - would you rather be in a pristine desert with no water, or would you like to quench your thirst while wading in raw sewage?

Where am I?

I should be asking this question of myself more often. I've been away from this blog for a long time now.

The time in between was pretty eventful actually, full of ups and downs, rights and wrongs. After it all, I am now physically transplanted to Dubai, working as a GM in a company. This is when I really need to ask where I am...

I work in Dubai, I study in Milwaukee and I live in India.

My heart is in India, but a piece of it is in Milwaukee.

I study at work and work towards my studies.

I was born in Sharjah, have an India passport and an American driving license.

I notice a new sign on the road, but hardly notice the new furniture at home.

I need a break but am unwilling to take one.

I love cars, but don't seem to notice them anymore.

Steel and hydraulics excite me and anger me at the same time.

I am reachable all the time but accessible none of the time.

Most people don't know where tomorrow will take them. I just don't know where I am today.

Gender Equality

Living in the USA let's you observe some very peculiar social setups. One if them happens to be the proclamation of gender equality. This drives me up the wall.

I am not a misogynist by any stretch of the imagination. But the vehement claims of women and men being equal is not something I agree with. This is mainly because equality has come to mean sameness in this society. I believe that men and women, like all other species are created equal but different. Nature creates two genders to complement each other and thus distribute the responsibilities of a species; I doubt this is any different for humankind.

If in the name of equal rights, everyone abandons their individuality to become "same", some part of evolutin is slowly dying out.

Construction Material

This is probably the worst picture I've put up here in terms of
quality, but I simply could not pass the opportunity to share this
moment captured in a cell phone picture.

If you notice closely near the construction workers on the scaffolding
of the building, you will notice a bicycle precariously hanging off of
a platform about 40 meters above ground. Call it absent minded parking or ultimate two wheeler security, this is a unique sight unto itself.

Location: Milwaukee

Olympic fever?

Seen outside a grocery store. Preperations for the Beijing olympics seem to be in full swing

Testing my phone

After getting myself an Internet enabled mobile device I had to see
for myself how well it would do at being an input into a blog.

Light

The fluorescent light does save a lot of energy compared to the incandescent light bulb that Edison initially dreamed up. Once I fiddled with the exposure settings a bit, I was immensely pleased with the picture. There is something in the way a twisted piece of glass gives off light that invites you into its luminescent coils.

The incandescent light bulb - an energy hog, yet a testament to a thousand experiments that were aimed at illuminating people's lives. Edison truly made the night longer with this invention.

Horizon

I was immediately drawn into the picturesque tranquility of this scene while I was driving by the lake. The picture has the character of belonging in an inspirational poster.

City by Night

This is the skyline of Milwaukee as seen at night from open water on Lake Michigan. The reflection of the skyline on the water is something I wanted to capture, but wasn't able to successfully.