Changing Lanes

This post is for my little sister...to understand somethings...

The shoes I used to borrow from my friend during my Parkour days. On checking the Dubai Mall website, I found out that they had a store here. So dragging SJ along, went there and bought a pair of Chameleon3 stretch shoes. Even SJ managed to get a good pair of chappals/sandals...Camera Model : Canon EOS 500D
Shooting Date/Time : 04/29/2010 11:30:17 AM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/60
Av(Aperture Value) : f5.6
Metering Mode : Spot
ISO Speed : 400
Lens : EF-S 18-55mm IS
Focal Length : 55mm

The bunch of lines that popped into my head on 8th August 2009...

Love someone so much that when you realize you don't have the ability to keep that person happy all their life....make a choice to sacrifice all you have, fabricate stories and tell some lies to make them believe that they have someone else better waiting around the corner....

I’ve told so many lies in the past 8 months that I sometimes get confused what is real and what is fake. It’s all jumbled up in my head. I wish I had written it all down. Now I’m busy trying to figure things out and note it all down in the form of emails so that in the future I can just read through them. No more confusion hopefully...

I'm stuck in my own web of lies....now the people who matter refuse to recognize me...

Camera Model : Canon EOS 7D
Shooting Date/Time : 04/06/2010 08:12:18 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 15secs
Av(Aperture Value) : f8
Metering Mode : Center Weighted
ISO Speed : 100
Lens : EF-S 10-22mm
Focal Length : 22mm

Today...On my way back home, I watched a bird get partially run over by a car that was 2 cars ahead of me, I saw it flapping its wings as the car went over its rear, I saw it trying to move after that and what did I do....I drove by and watched it in the side view mirror as the car behind me tried to avoid it as well while another bird flew right beside it....

I'm such a jerk. I should have reacted quickly, stopped the car, picked it up and placed it on the pavement. Dammit!!! I can now literally imagine it getting crushed by the cars that were behind me who wouldn't notice it struggling...

The whole process of it getting run over is going to play in my head over and over and over again for the next few days... I need to react quicker... argh!!!

Anyway on reaching my house I found a pigeon in my parking lot that was refusing to fly which meant as it got darker (it was already past sunset), it would end up becoming dinner for some cat so I decided to scare it to make it fly away. That worked and it flew away...

This shot was taken about 40 seconds after the previous Emirates Towers HDR blog post I had made.Camera Model : Canon EOS 1D MarkIII
Shooting Date/Time : 03/04/2010 01:18:57 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/320-1/5000
Av(Aperture Value) : f3.5
Metering Mode : Pattern
ISO Speed : 200
Lens : EF 14mm f2.8L II USM
Focal Length : 14mm

This quote was posted on Twitter by @ihatequotes

I'm strong enough to walk away, but broken enough to look back.

So the doctor does not think its Appendicitis anymore and that it might just be an infection. He has asked me to continue the medicines he has given me and to take some rest. If the pain increases again, then he has asked me to come back to him immediately. Hopefully it won't... :)

So according to the blood test, I have a high hemoglobin count while the urine test showed that I have an infection. The doctor asked me to check if it still hurts in the morning and asked me to call him. If I was still in a lot of pain, he'd make preparations for surgery.

Anyway woke up today to some pain but I'm not keen on having any surgery done especially when the doctor seems a little too keen on opening me up. Plus the pain isn't as much as before and I have a feeling it's just a muscle strain leading to internal swelling as I had dived a few times on hard ground during cricket and had landed on my right side on all the occasions.

I just hope what I'm assuming is right. Also I hope the pain I feel is infact less and has nothing to do with my high resistence to physical pain.

I know I should get around getting a second opinion but I don't have any insurance and I'm not really keen on being a bigger financial burden on my parents...the trip to the doctor yesterday already cost them AED1000.

I went to watch ‘City of Life’ with a friend after the badminton tweetup on Saturday. It was a bit of a last minute decision because according the cinema websites; Saturday was the last day it was playing and both of us really wanted to watch it. That turned out to be wrong but that didn’t matter, it was a nice night out.

Directed, written and produced by Ali F. Mostafa, a UAE based film maker, I heard about the film for the first time during the Dubai international film festival 2009 where it supposedly ended up being the most watched film. Being the first Emirati full length feature, I was looking forward to seeing how Dubai had been depicted so when I heard about its release, I tried to find someone to go with. There was a tweetup for it but it clashed with some personal commitments so I missed that opportunity.

Anyway coming to the film, it revolves around the life of an Emirati called Faisal (played by Saoud Al Kaabi) who’s unsure about his identity in society, an Indian taxi driver called Basu (played by Sonu Sood) dreaming to become a big Indian actor, a flight attendant called Natalia Moldovan (played by Alexandra Maria Lara) looking for companionship and an old Filipino cardboard collector (played by Itlanas Jr) and how their lives converge in the end for better or worse.

‘City of life’ is a drama set in the urban environment that is Dubai. How people from different cultural/ethnic backgrounds are trying to find themselves, figure things out and live. It also shows how certain actions and their reactions leads to a domino effect in their lives where some find hope and some find a reason to live.

Saoud Al Kaabi played his role well though he was completely over shadowed by Yassin Alsalman who plays his aggressive emotional friend to perfection. Sonu Sood as the taxi driver dreaming big was good in patches as I thought at some points in the film he could have showed more emotions to get the viewers really involved in his plight. Alexandra Maria Lara and Jason Flemyng (playing the playboy Guy Berger) were not very convincing while Natalie Dormer (playing Natalia’s roommate Olga) was quite good in comparison. Ahmed Ahmed (playing restaurant owner Nasser) and Javed Jaffery (playing Suresh Khan) didn’t have big enough roles to make any impact on the viewer while Habib Ghuloom (playing Faisal’s father) was quite poor in his single style of dialogue delivery but I suppose his role didn’t have anything else to offer either.

For a person who’s directing his first full length feature, Ali F. Mostafa did a fantastic job. I love the opening bicycle scene and the way he incorporated shots from old Dubai i.e. Satwa with the modern Dubai i.e. SZR road. I also like the way he included the various point of views and lifestyles i.e. covering the local, western and Asian. The story was well written though a little cliché but then that is Dubai in a lot of ways. The camera work in some places was a bit shaky but maybe that’s how they wanted it to be.

What I didn’t like about the movie was that it seemed to be just another thing out of the UAE that was trying to promote ‘Brand Dubai’. I know most movies do that when it comes to the locations they use and I’m being a little too critical about it but I just felt it could have been avoided in some areas.

As I stated, it was a nice night out. A movie I recommend to any person who’s lived in the UAE even if you might not be able to relate to any of the characters cause just watching Dubai on the big screen and trying to figure out the various locations is fun in its own way plus you get a good story to enjoy on the side….

After spending two hours playing cricket at Insportz on Friday, I got a slight pain on the lower right side of my abdomen which I shrugged off as I thought it was just due to exertion and dehydration. I made sure I drank a lot of water during the whole day but it still continued to bother me a little.

On Saturday, my whole body was hurting due to cricket and therefore didn’t think too much of the pain on the right side. I had a few panadols to keep me going as I had lot of things to do.

I woke up on Sunday to a lot of abdomen pain. Thought it had something to do with the fact that I had skipped dinner the previous night so I quickly had breakfast (corn flakes) hoping the pain would go away. I was wrong so had Eno and some other medicine. Nothing helped. So at around 11am, dad took me to the nearby medical clinic where the GP had a look at me and told me to go to the surgeon who suspected that it might be Appendicitis. He told me to immediately go for a blood test, urine test and ultra scan.

The results from the ultra scan were immediately sent to the doctor. He could see a bit of swelling but wants to wait for the blood and urine test results to be certain what the problem is. Gave me four tablets to take two times a day and he’ll get back to me by today evening.

I wish these ultra scan images would make more sense...Anyway I'm totally cool about it but moms worried cause the doctor did say that I should have come earlier plus big brother had an appendix operation about 14years back and there were lots of complications...hmm...

A HUGE thank you to all those people who have unknowingly helped me make sure everything happened exactly the way I wanted it to happen. I think now I can stop pretending and finish what I started....permanently....

Random quote in my head...

Denial is sometimes the best way to stay happy….

Camera Model : Canon EOS 7D
Shooting Date/Time : 04/19/2010 08:33:41 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/60
Av(Aperture Value) : f2.8
Metering Mode : Spot
ISO Speed : 200
Lens : 50mm f2.8 macro
Focal Length : 50mm

"I was happy because you were there :)"

An SMS I received from a friend yesterday. Glad to know that I can make someone happy without even trying. Unfortunately I can't be her friend anymore because I need to discourage such thoughts. She's going to get married soon and I don't want to see her sad or confused because of me. :|

There is a Hindi/urdo saying I think that goes along the lines of

Happiness is often found in other people's happiness...

Would it be appropriate to make blog posts commenting on events I cover for clients since my blog isn't very private anymore....??

I’d like to know if I’m right or wrong. Here’s the situation...

A girl called B breaks up with a guy called X and after a few days tells him that she’s involved (or something like that) with a guy called Z. X all shattered refuses to give up and keeps trying to patch up with B and ends up becoming a friend with benefits to her who at the same time continues to be involved with Z.

Now apart from X being an idiot...am I right to think that B is two timing Z and X even though publicly she’s not going out with either i.e. Z is a pipsqueak to announce it to the world and X does not know what he is to her...

21/04/10
13:05

They point
They snicker
I’m theirs to keep
I’m their parody

Flipping out
Ducking
Running
The spotlight burns

Basic needs
Conviction
Pretense
People...

Smothered
Further down
Just past that sign
On the floor

Fingers
Spaces
Outstretched
My feelings

Basic needs
Connections
Possession
Hate...

-Stained

My entry for the Canon 'Celebrate My City' photo competition.

This is a single RAW image used to create a 5 shot HDR with photomatix with some manual blending in photoshop.Camera Model : Canon EOS 400D
Shooting Date/Time : 01/09/2009 07:13 AM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/30
Av(Aperture Value) : f6.3
Metering Mode : Average
ISO Speed : 100
Lens : 18-200mm OS
Focal Length : 18mm

Every day I shatter...And every day I pick myself up...

I've been asked by tbreak to review cameras. I've never reviewed anything in my life so I'm kinda looking forward to this. The first camera I've gotten my hands on is the Canon EOS 500D (also called Rebel T1i) that was released a year back. It's an entry level DSLR replacing the Canon EOS 450D (also called the Rebel XSi) which I personally liked. I haven't used it yet cause it uses SD cards instead of the normal CF cards so I need to go buy a SD card for this. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with a decent review in the 2 weeks I have this camera. I still need to figure out how I'm going to test it. This is exciting... :DCamera Model : Canon EOS 7D
Shooting Date/Time : 03/20/2010 02:56 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/250
Av(Aperture Value) : f11
Metering Mode : Pattern
ISO Speed : 200
Lens : 50mm f2.8 Macro
Focal Length : 50mm

Took this 3 shot HDR from the 'The Gate' at Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) during the Landscape photography class of David Nightingale during Gulf photo plus 2010. I was shooting with the equipment I had borrowed from the Canon stand at the event i.e. Canon 1D MarkIII camera and a Canon 14mm f2.8L fish eye lens.Camera Model : Canon EOS 1D MarkIII
Shooting Date/Time : 03/04/2010 01:18:14 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/800-1/8000
Av(Aperture Value) : f3.5
Metering Mode : Pattern
ISO Speed : 200
Lens : EF 14mm f2.8L II USM
Focal Length : 14mm

Since the time I did my first photography assignment all the way back in January 2008 i.e. 27 months back, I've earned AED32,176 which comes out to be about AED1,192 per month. Also in the past 30 months, on photography itself I've spent a whopping AED25,014 accumulating equipment and cost of repairs. In the end, my savings stand at a mere AED10,000 as some of my expenses have been paid by my sister.

I know I'm chasing a fools dream here and I've hit a dead end now. I've got 2 shoots that'll make me AED1,500 this month and maybe 18 more days to live in the UAE. A country that I've been born and brought up in. The place that I call home. I'm not regretting my decision to be a full time photographer. I'm proud of myself for trying. But what really annoys me is that one of the main reasons for my poor financial state is that I refused to shoot things that went against my parents and my own beliefs i.e. night club parties, pubs, alcohol, nudity etc.

Anyway I know not many people read this blog but if anyone out there can help me out i.e. get me some work or get me a visa, it'll be highly appreciated....my email address can be found in the About me page.

EDIT: A small series of pictures showcasing some of my work is up on this blog. You can click on Portfolio(on the top of the page) to view them.

Was just reminded by my sister that going back to India is not an option anymore due to my moms health so I need to stay in the UAE. Time to move my ego aside and ask/beg some more people to help me out. I might just sms fud as well.....

I'm sure no one will understand this poem...

Mom was in the mood for pani puri, bhel puri etc so we all headed off to Al Qusais to the Shop n Save restaurant/cafeteria. Got there at around 7:45pm and I got busy ordering and getting the things from the cooks (it’s a self service place with outdoor seating). When I got around joining my family at the table, about 5 minutes later a lady approaches me and asks me if I was the same person she thought I was. Well she thought right and from that point, she started praising me and my photography. I have never been praised so much, ever!!!

Basically a month back, I was one of the photographers at the Emirates festival of literature 2010 and on the last day I noticed this little girl running around the area me and others used hang around. So I picked up my camera and snapped a few shots of the kid. I showed the parents the pictures....they like what they saw and asked if I could email the pictures to them. The father gave me his card and I sent them the pictures a week later.

Coming back to the praising, This lady was the mother of that kid and I hadn't recognized her but she recognized me. It has been a while that I’ve blushed so much. It was embarrassing but nice at the same time. My mom seems to be quite happy about it and I’m sure she’s going to talk about it for some time. I know I couldn’t be a doctor like my mother wanted one of her kids to be but at least through my photography, I made her feel proud for some time. Right now nothing can wipe the grin off my face.

On a different note…my niece fainted today. The doctor said that there was nothing wrong and might just be exhaustion but we’re worried. She’s just three and when she fainted she was out with my sisters family friends without my sister or her husband around so we are a little skeptical about what really happened before she fainted. Unfortunately my niece doesn’t remember what happened either so for now we'll just hope that it was exhaustion and that it won't happen again. I know for a fact that my sister is going to get it from my parents one of these over this. I just hope my parents don't worry too much about it seeing that they have their own health issues to deal with.

The first time I played table tennis was in 10th grade when me and a few others used to bunk class to go play at the schools indoor facility. I remember being useless at it initially but slowly I started playing better and even won a game a game against one of the better players in class. It was fun. I continued to play table tennis with an acquaintance when I was in 11th and 12th grade. I ended up being quite good at it compared to the people I knew. School ended but I continued to play once in a while for about a year or so during my college years. I was still decent at it and won most of the games I played.

Now for the past 4 years or so, I haven’t played table tennis at all. So when I heard about the Table Tennis tweetup, I decided to attend it to see how good or bad I was at it.

We had decided to go to Sports City that is located near the Union Metro station i.e. very close to where I live at around 3:30pm. I’ve been there before and know that they don’t have the best of facilities. It was surprising to see that the place still looked the same, even after 4 years. We played a bit of table tennis and pool. I was hoping to be more confident at playing pool because I felt I was less rusty but in the end I sucked at both. Apart from a single game with SJ where I managed to play well initially but that does not count because I was trying to teach her pool which reminds me that I’m a horrible pool teacher. Anyway I was rubbish at table tennis, more rusty at it than I ever imagined. It was 10th grade all over again. I know that table tennis is a difficult game but I never thought I’d be this bad. The only saving grace was that I wasn’t the only one who was rubbish at it. At least in the end we all had fun and that’s all that matters.

Coming to the second part of this blog post…Shoes.

I own two shoes. One is a pair of Adidas that I bought 14months back before I travelled to India and the other one are a pair of CAT casual shoes. Both of them are falling apart and I need new ones. So after coming back from the tweetup at around 6:30pm, I prayed Maghrib and decided to leave for Deira City Centre (DCC) to check out the Adidas store there to buy some shoes. I knew SJ wanted to go to DCC so I asked her to come along and she agreed. First we went to Sharaf DG to pick up some stuff for her and then went the Adidas store where they had nothing I liked so after that we went to this new store called Iconic that according to SJ had Adidas as well. They did have some but none of them were even close to what I wanted.

Left DCC and went to the Adidas factory outlet on the Airport road. Liked a pair but they were overpriced as they would have made decent playing shoes but weren't exactly what I wanted so decided not to buy them. SJ recommended we go to Al Ghurair city so we drove there, checked the Adidas store and Sun & sands sports but I didn’t like anything there either. Then went to Reef mall; tried Shoe mart, Athletes foot and this third shop whose name I can’t remember and none of them had what I was looking for. Gave up and headed back home.

It might seem that what I want is some unique totally different kind of shoes that no one seems to have but that’s not the case. I’m just looking for simple light weight running shoes with adequate grip (like the Adidas Supernova or Response trail) but all they seem to have are tennis, basketball or football shoes. Useless places…all of them.

Last night as a last minute decision, I decided to go for the movie '9'. I had first seen the trailer during the US box office countdown on MBC 2 all the way back in November 2009. The concept looked interesting and I had ticked it off as a movie I would watch in the theater. Recently my sister mentioned that the movie was releasing soon so I looked it up on IMDB. Co-produced by Tim Burton was enough information for me to understand that '9' is going to be a very different movie and I wasn't disappointed.

Wrote this poem last night and honestly I like it a lot. Writing poems is literally the only thing I like about being a little depressed with life even though I know I'm lucky to even be in the position I am in right now. Anyway poetry also does make me feel nice in a way cause expressing myself in my opinion is a good way to move on....

This random thought just popped into my head so had to put it somewhere for me to remember so here it is....

It's ironic how I get punished for my mistakes because there is no one by my side...all alone I stand, all alone I try to survive...

Camera Model : Canon EOS 7D
Shooting Date/Time : 04/14/2010 06:41:30 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/80
Av(Aperture Value) : f5
Metering Mode : Spot
ISO Speed : 100
Lens : EF-S 10-22mm
Focal Length : 22mm

Another shot I really liked from the shoot....This one is straight out of the camera i.e unedited...Camera Model : Canon EOS 7D
Shooting Date/Time : 04/11/2010 07:57:41 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/60
Av(Aperture Value) : f4
Metering Mode : Center Weighted Average
ISO Speed : 400
Lens : 24-105mm f4 IS
Focal Length : 50mm

I think it was an interview. I'm still not sure. Anyway here's what happened.

My favorite shot from the shoot yesterday evening...Camera Model : Canon EOS 7D
Shooting Date/Time : 04/11/2010 08:07:41 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/50
Av(Aperture Value) : f4
Metering Mode : Center Weighted Average
ISO Speed : 400
Lens : 24-105mm f4 IS
Focal Length : 24mm

So mom and sister are mad at me...again!!! Basically yesterday, I managed to somehow not notice mom leave for the doctor as I was engrossed into editing the Type-R video so that made my sister angry and upset mom. And then I somehow forgot to call my sister in the evening informing her that I will be late to pick her up from work due to the portrait shoot, that obviously annoyed her and mom got angry with me. So I got in trouble for that plus both of them are on a 'men are assholes' mood lately so me being a man puts me in the line of fire especially since I'm the useless child/sibling which means I obviously deserve it.

An average day with a bad end from the looks of it.

Was editing the Type-R video in the morning that took ages to render and it looks like crap. Need to re-edit it and that's going to take ages as my netbook is slooooow. At around 2pm, went all the way to KV to deliver pictures to a client for the third time. Drove to festival city where I met with SJ at 3:30pm as I wanted to discuss what I wanted to do for the portrait shoot.

So the client for the portrait shoot was supposed to come at 4pm...they ended up coming at 5:10pm which left us with very little sunlight to work with. On the plus side, at least had SJ for company while I waited for them to come. Shoot went on till 8:15pm, had to use off camera flash which almost ended up being a disaster cause my flashes refused to go off most of the time. I am glad I got SJ to come along with me cause she helped me a lot. Will someday return the favour...

Anyway got back at 8:45pm, had dinner and started checking my email, facebook, twitter etc. Had a message on facebook from the guy who's my current sponsor. Basically he has to cancel my visa in the next two weeks that leaves me with a maximum of 1 month and currently I don't have an alternative option apart from the freelancer visa which costs a whopping 20K. A few months back, the thought of going back to India would have freaked me out but lately it doesn't seem to be such a bad idea. New environment, possibility of making new memories and in general a wide variety of photo opportunities makes it look like a good idea. Hmm...should discuss this with my parents. Anyway I'm all tensed up regarding the situation, lets see how things work out....

This is the only picture I got of the Type-R yesterday. Rest of them are just videos at 640*480 resolution which means I can't ever get decent snapshots out of the video. I'm sad now!! :|Camera Model : Canon EOS 7D
Shooting Date/Time : 04/10/2010 05:05 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/60
Av(Aperture Value) : f22
Metering Mode : Center Weighted Average
ISO Speed : 100
Lens : 18-200mm OS
Focal Length : 18mm

Woke up at 9am so that I could wake mom up to go to the doctor. Should have stayed awake and taken her there but as I hadn't slept the previous night, I went back to sleep and woke up at 1:30pm. This kinda pissed my sister off as she wanted me to take mom to the doctor....

Had lunch at 2pm, edited some pictures that I had to deliver today which I can't cause I couldn't finish editing them. Then tried to convince Chikku or Nand to come along for a car shoot but both of them were busy.

So at 3:45pm I left home to take picture of a Type R for drivearabia for free. At clock tower, a guy on a bike pointed at my front right tire and told me that the tire looked flat so I parked near Dubai Islamic Bank and checked my tire. There was a screw in it which I assume was the reason the air was leaking. I drove to the closest petrol pump near Al Habtoor motors and got the puncture fixed for AED 25. I'm not too sure how long the fix will last cause this is my first puncture but I hope I don't have to change the tire due to it cause I can't afford to cause it costs a whopping AED1000 or more which is a lot especially since my earnings for this month has been zero

With the picture of the Dead cat embedded in my head, I drove to Insportz in Al Qouz to play some cricket. When I got there at 7:10am, only Sag and Kun had reached and they had been informed that our booking was at 8am and not at 7:15am...the time Div had told us the booking was at. Div, Gagan, Raul and Rit were still on their way somewhere near the 1st interchange so at around 7:25am me, Sag and Kun decided to go have some breakfast at the Emarat petrol station nearby. Got back to Insportz at around 7:45am after making sure the rest of them had already reached.

Yesterday I was at Shelter to watch the plays 'The Valiant' and 'The Seduction', a backstage presentation.

The Valiant

Directed by Sandhya menon and written by Holworthy Hall and Robert Middlemaass, The Valiant was a serious short drama revolving around the character James Dyke (played by Arjun Barman) who has been convicted of murder and is living the last hour (or so) of his life. Father Daly (played by Jamal Iqbal) and the Warden (played by Rohit Prakash) who are trying to figure out what his real identity is while Josephine (played Sandhya Menon) has come to visit Dyke to see if he's her long lost brother.

The play was interesting though a little predictable in places. I really liked the way Rohit Prakash played his role while Jamal Iqbal was good as well. Arjun Barman who played Dyke seemed a little off initially but ended the play on a high. Sandhya Menon in my opinion was the poorest performer in the play as she wasn't very convincing. Overall my first live play and it was a good experience...

The Seduction

Directed by Jesika Menon and written by Anton Chekhov, this short comedy was the reason I was at Shelter. The main character i.e The Seducer was played by a person I am acquainted with i.e Hisham Wayne. The story revolved around how he seduces a wife (played by Camilla Mclean) through her husband (played by Rodger Talty).

Wasn't as funny as I thought it would be but it had its moments especially the scenes between Rodger Talty and Camilla Mclean. Rodger Talty played his part perfectly in my opinion. Hisham Wayne did justice to his role while Camilla Mclean did a good job as well.

So today morning at around 6:45am, I left home to go play some indoor cricket. As I made my way through the parking to my car, I spotted the dead cat. Stood beside it for a minute staring. Its white fur had become red. And then I continued to walk to my car. Shame on me for not picking it up and taking it to the sand lot nearby to bury it. What a pathetic pipsqueak I am. I got back around 10:30am and the dead body was gone. I suppose the watchman picked it up and tossed it into the garbage box near by....

Last night, I went out for dinner with my family. While leaving home, mom spotted a white kitten possibly 1 week old stumbling around near the road. So she picked it up and left it in our parking near a wall. As my mom walked away, the kitten would follow her. It even tried to cuddle into her. It was adorable. I gave it some food and we left. Throughout the time we were out, my mom couldn't stop talking about it. I was certain she wanted to make it a part of our family. When we got home we couldn't spot it so we hoped it was found by its mother and was fine.

Today morning, my sister spotted a kitten and wasn't sure if it was the same one. Gave it food and told me to check on it later. It was the same one cause the description matched. I didn't check on it later cause I was being lazy and a little annoying. Basically I've been feeding about 6-7 cats daily for almost 6 months so I tend to take their existence for granted. I was out in the evening today with some friends and on getting back home, mom informed me that my sister spotted the kitten in our parking. It was dead, crushed by a car with blood splattered around. If I had gone to check on it, it would have been right now at home being taken care of and not dead. I can't feel anything right now....I'm empty. I hope I can sleep tonight. Honestly I wish CC was here, she knows how I'm feeling right now and she'd take care of me...

A few more shots from the desert trip during the Gulf photo plus 2010 event.

On 5th April 2010 I headed off to Grand Hyatt for the Hyundai Sonata launch. A completely redesigned vehicle that looked stunning in pictures.

Another short speech (from the stage) was made about the new Sonata. This is were I got interested. The car seem to come with a lot of standard equipment like automatic headlights, paddle shifters, fog lamps, leather wrapped steering wheel, Cruise control, CD/MP3 stereo with 6 speakers, USB and AUX ports with iPod cable, steering wheel buttons etc which is more than what you get in other similar priced cars. The only let down was the 176 hp 2.4-litre 4-cylinder engine which is less powerful than the engine this car is sold with in the US. Options for higher models include panoramic glass roof, intelligent keyless entry with start button, power-folding mirrors, HID headlights, driver’s power-adjusted seat, stability control, six airbags etc Quite an impressive list. For more information you can visit drivearabia.com.

The speech ended and the skin tight people returned but this time dressed more appropriately to perform the worst choreographed dance sequence ever. The horror ended and the covers were removed revealing the car to us. Another short speech was made and everyone flocked to the cars apart from a few including us. Dinner was served and this is where I don't seemed to remember anything apart from me munching on some fantastic food. The rice, kebabs, prawns, fish, paneer....everything tasted amazing. I have never eaten so much at any corporate event ever.

Once we were done with the main course, we made our way to the car. There were two of them, black and red, both were the fully equipped version. The car didn't look as impressive as I thought it would. It has a lot of curves which I feel seems a little over the top. Even the interior looked less impressive. Cheap plastic all over the place with hardly any soft touch material was a bit disappointing even though it was at par with the class standard. The leather seats were nice and comfortable while rear headroom was good but legroom was quite average. The only aspect of the car that really impressed us was the finish i.e the built quality. It was close to flawless. Overall the car is a lot better then what some competitions are offering and if I hadn't bought a car recently, I would have considered this as one of my options.

After that we headed back to our tables to enjoy some delicious desserts while watching the crowd slowly disappear. Till the time we left, there were maybe just 20 people left. By that time, they had ran out of press kits so we left empty handed which was sad cause that meant I didn't get any freebies. Anyway a good day out, where the food was just brilliant and the car was pretty decent.