After all, who are we?

A couple of weeks back, there was a fire accident in Bahrain. A gas cylinder blew up in a building where more than 40 people are staying. Most of them are from my state, Andhra Pradesh in India. As soon as they heard the blast, they ran for their lives without taking care of their belongings. They lost their passports, money, mobiles and other valuables in the fire(this proves that we are humans and we care for nothing other than our lives).

All the people in the building are poor and all of them are dialy labourers. Most of them are run-away employees or people who came on visit visas and over stayed here. Almost all of them have large fines pending with the ministries.

As soon as we(TKS) got the news about this accident, our people rushed to the place and brought all of them to TKS premises(as they don't have any other shelter). Food was sponsored by some other NGO for them and our people took the responsibility of delivering the food. We collected clothes, blankets etc on war foot and distributed them to these 40 people immediatly. Thanks to many donors, we were able to fulfill the basic needs of those people(this proves that we are humans and we care about others too). It was heartening to see them scrambling for old clothes so that they have something decent to wear for work.



The first day was OK and then we asked them their details so that we can arrange for duplicates of passports, resident permits etc. But not many are willing to reveal these details as they are staying illegally here. Then we informed them of the possible difficulties they are going to face in the future because of their illegal stay and not a single one was interested to listen to those words. We also informed them that if they can leave Bahrain as soon as possible, we can try to nullify their pending fines, but still the response is the same(this proves that we are humans and we tend to take things lightly). They wanted to live like rats but don't want to go back to India. We don't know what problems they have in their home towns, but still it's better to leave than live such a miserly life here.

At first, they are manageable but after one day, they started demanding(kind of) instead of requesting. I was shocked by the following incident: We were distributing them some T-shirts sponsored by some other NGO and a couple of guys adamantly asked me to change the size as L size "may be" loose for them!!!!! Man, this proves that we are humans and always ye dil maange more.

Anyways, it's been two weeks since this happened and no one was ready to leave Bahrain till now. But the good part is they are back in to their normal lives and got into some other new accommodation. Long live, mankind.

A pictorial post

The lonely traveller. On my way to Hyderabad from Visakhapatnam.


A dead jelly fish. Felt bad that it had to die a lonely death. Who knows how our death may come?


A view of a rainy morning through a car window.


The third lady from left is a Raman Megasis award winner. OMG, she's so humble, so adorable. Her name is Mrs Shanta Sinha. She is an anti-child labour activist



I know that some of you like this picture.


Villagio shopping mall in Doha, Qatar. Image courtesy Zenoed. The blue sky you see on top is actually a poster which's pasted throught the mall giving it a street llok.

Titbits

Somebody asked me "Are you really busy?". My answer was "Can you believe that after going home from office yesterday, I removed my shoes n just slept off without even changing my attire. Forget about the dressm I didn't even remove the mobile from my pocket?". Well, this is a fact. I was so stressed at that moment. And thanks to some management changes, my life is going to be f@#$ed up this month end. I want to tell my superiors the story of a donkey which died after it's master put too much load on it.

Anyways, my trip to Qatar was pretty small(just 3 days), but eventful. I visited some shopping malls and I loved the way the Villagio mall was built. It was simple awesome. I'll keep a picture of it in my next post. And almost after an year, I rode a quad bike and that too in real desert. That was one hell of an experience. But, the temperatures were soaring out there. Even though Qatar is just a few kilometers from Bahrain, the climate looked completely different.

Coming to other issues, my life has changed quite a lot:
1. My good old Sony Ericsson K750i moved aside and made way for the Nokia 5800 XPress Music.
2. My long time companion, Casio calculator watch(it was with me for the past 12 years without a complaint) didn't move aside but gave some space to a new Casio Chronograph watch.
3. I was addicted to video games when I was a kid. After all these years, I thought I need a break and bought Play Station 2 last week. OMG, I'm already addicted. Right now, I'm playing Price of Persia(Two Thrones) in it.
4. I am back into enjoying my fav dish of the world, ice creams. Every week, I'm making sure that I have a week's supply of them.

That's all for now. I'll be back pretty soon with a pictorial post. Till then, cheers and Hakuna matata

"Temper"ary

Folks, days are too hectic for me these days. That was the reason why am not updating any nonsense in my blog. However, one good news is that I'm taking a small break this week and going to Qatar to meet my cousins. I hope this provides me with the necessary energy re-fueling.

Coming to the tile of this post, I hope some of you caught the reason behind it. Yes mates, these days I'm too angry on every little thing. In short, I am seeing myself in short temper most of the days. If I see something I don't like, then am simply shouting at others, be it at work or outside. I don't know the real reason for this sudden change in my behavior but I suspect that my hectic work is making me feel so.

About a couple of weeks back, I was going to TKS with my friends. We saw that our car was blocking another car in the narrow lane. First, we couldn't understand whether the person driving the other car wants to go front or back as there was no signal from that car. So we decided to go back and give the other car way to come out. Me and another friend of mine got down and started crossing the lane on foot while my other friends wait for us in the car.

Suddenly, the two ladies who are in the front car started abusing us(in Arabic) and that too, as if we're going to rape them. On any other day, I would've just laughed in myself and moved away from that place. But, that day, I stopped on my track and yelled at them to shut up and mind their business(but never abused them). I know that it's some mad rage in me that made me talk like that. Prior to this incident, I can't recall even a single incident in which I shouted at females.

This is one of those silly incidents in which I'm losing my cool and the HULK in me comes out. I hope to get rid of this alter-ego of mine and be my usual self soon.

BTW, I am getting a new Internet connection at my flat next week which gives me more access to Bloggerville and hence, I'll be back to my usual Blogger life. Till then, take care and have a wonderful week.

May Day Celebrations

Last weekend, we got three day holidays(thanks to the Labor Day). I hope you all remember that I'm a member of the Executive Committee of Telugu Kala Samithi(TKS) for the year 2009. We, being representatives of TKS, organize a picnic sort of event, every year on Labor Day to entertain the blue collar workers. As most of you know, this Middle East region is full of blue collar workers from India, particularly South India.

This year was the first one when I was giving my full support for this event. I was entitled with job of transporting all the materials to the venue and making sure that they all reach back properly. The event was organized on a beach front and more than 100 workers are supposed to participate in the event. So we went to that place the previous night itself with all the items needed for the event and put up some tents(to protect people from the hot sun while the event was going on). What we missed that night was some sort of flash lights, whose absence made our work more tough. We, somehow, fixed the make-shift tents and it was around 2 AM, by the time we finished our work and then we retired to sleep. It was nice to sleep at the beach front on mats. That was one wonderful experience.

Next morning(May Day), after waking up, we saw that some tents were loose(it was pitch black the previous night) and started fixing all those. By the time we finished, people started coming and we don't even have time to change to some decent clothes.

Many games were conducted for the workers(which they sincerely enjoyed) and the participants were duly awarded. Breakfast and lunch were served for the attendees. It was a nice feeling to interact with the lower class people and trying to make them forget their miseries for at least a few minutes. The joy we saw in their eyes, while receiving their prizes, was something that made us forget all the hard work put in by us the previous night.

I'll put up some photos from the event soon. Maybe tomorrow. Until then, adios amigos n senorita.


Participants getting ready for the three-legged race


Kabaddi.. kabaddi..


Winners and the Committee

Am back

Hello folks, am back. In fact, I came back to Bahrain almost three weeks back, but was busy, both in and outside office.

Well, coming to my vacation, it lasted just 16 days in total, but was good enough to leave all those sweet, lingering memories for quite sometime. In fact, am still homesick!!!

The main reason for going on vacation this time, was to attend my best buddy's marriage. Boy, it was too good to be him after quite some time. This guy is a US citizen and we rarely meet, as our trips to have to coincide with each other. But we meet, somehow, at least once a year. This time, I think we spent about 4 quality days together with another good buddy of ours. Of course, this was before his marriage.

We stayed at his native village, which was so remote that no bus comes there and people have to depend on auto-rickshaws to move to some other places. Also, there's a minimum mandatory power-cut for 6 hours a day, irrespective of the season. Still, I felt as if it was the best place to live in, thanks to the plush greenish fields, pure air and some untouched hills. It was simply awesome.

The marriage went on well, except that it started raining just before the marriage(the ceremony was outdoor). Luckily, they had an empty mandap in the indoors.

Other than this, rest of my stay was at house. Who doesn't like sitting idle at home and eat food cooked my mom? I was awesome. My sister and brother-in-law came from my Bangalore during my stay and we had quite a bit of fun. Coming to my marriage, my parents asked me for my requirements(ya ya, I know that "requirements" is not a good word to use, but I'm compelled) in the girl like education etc. In fact, they pressed on me to reveal my intentions when I tried to postpone the matter. So, the official lookout has begun!!! But can I satisfy the girl's requirements? Time has to decide this.

I spent the final day in Hyderabad, meeting friends and relatives. I met one of my close friend there, whom I didn't meet in the past 3 years or so. It's good to spend some time with him and chat just as we used to do so in our engineering days.

Below are a few pics of my stay with my best buddies, Rajesh(the groom) and Hema Srinivas.

A beautiful lake near Rajesh's native place


B&W photos always makes us nostalgic. But this was a recent one


The best of friends


Dancing one the village roads during a public orchestra


Ready to roll at the marriage (did u notice that me n Hema are wearing the same shirts?)


The bride n the groom


End of the trip

On vacation

Friends, I'll be going to my homeland, India, for a small vacation of two weeks. My bestest friend's marriage is on 20th of March. Got to attend that and file a lot of memories. My number in India is 9701838249. It'll be active from tomorrow till 28th of this month. Feel free to contact me anytime.

I'll be away from Bloggerville during this period, starting tomorrow. Until then, all of you take care and enjoy this cherished life as much as you can.