Changing Lanes

Plots marked for Development, The University City-Kalba road

It was surprisingly very green, The University City-Kalba road

I like this shot, The University City-Kalba road

This Female Donkey was very protective about its kid, The University City-Kalba road

Some

The winding Kalba Mountain Road

That Truck ahead was speeding away...very unsafe

Mountains all around

The houses you can see are part of a new town established recently

The Bridge to the Town

Up we go....

The longest Tunnel in UAE...I think

The way down

The Smaller Tunnel

The winding Way down

That Lexus driver was another reckless person...

Flatness ahead

The Mangroves near the new corniche in Kalba

The Mangroves with the Moutains in the Background, Just after sunset...

The City road lights

Took this picture a week back near Meadows 9...

Shooting Date/Time: 3/11/2008 18:29:12
Tv(Shutter Speed): 1/80
Av(Aperture Value): 4.5
Metering Modes: Partial metering
ISO Speed: 100
Focal Length: 35.0 mm

I've been tagged by i*maginate.....atleast its not about books.... ;)

Anyway here it is....

1. Post these rules before presenting your list.
2. List 6 actions or achievements you think every person should accomplish before turning 18.
3. There are no conditions on what can be included on the list.
4. At the end of your blog, choose 6, or less, people to get tagged and list their names.
5. The tagged peeps write their own blog entry with their 6 suggestions.
6. Leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged.

*note, re: #3, erm, one must consider one's lo-ca-tion when considering conditions :)

Six actions or acheivements would be...from my personal experience and point of view....

1. Manage to stay away from any kind of addiction, i.e smoking, pornography, drinking, red bull, sheeshah, soft drinks, coffee etc... You don't need these things to give you a kick in life, youthness is all you need.

2. Do one crazy thing that you could get away with by being a minor. By crazy I mean innocent crazyness, not vandalism, harassment, sexual activity etc.

3. Stay a KID, and not to grow up tooo fast just to be cool and hip.

4. Study hard and enjoy your school days. Their the best days of your life.

5. Learn different languages from your multicultured friends and if your friends speak the same language then read books, lots of them.

6. Play every sport you can and even hurt yourself in the process. Later on in life every small bruise needs a month long recovery period.

I'll tag the same people as before....makes linking an easy job, just a copy paste... ;)
I tag Harsha, Dana, Gautam, Tanya.....

I've been tagged by 'D'...and here is what I got tagged for.....

So If you don't know the rules, here they are:

1. Choose the closest book to you with more than 123 pages (don't cheat)

Currently my investment management book called 'Investments' by Bodie/Kane/Marcus is closest to me. I know its kinda boring and it does make me seem like a nerd which is sooo not true. I borrowed it from my College Library on Wednesday and today being Sunday, I still haven't opened it.....

2. Open it at page 123.

Hmm...Page 123 belongs to the Chapter 'Mutual Funds and Other Investment Companies', Very happening....

3. Read the 5th sentence.

Read only, so I don't need to type it out here then..??

4. Blog the next 4 sentences.

"After all, it would not seem unreasonable to expect that professional money managers should be able to outperform a very simple rule such as "hold an indexed portfolio." As it turns out, however, there may be good reasons to expect such a result. We explore them in detail in Chapter 12, where we discuss the efficienct market hypothesis.

Of course, one might argue that there are good managers and bad managers, and that good managers can, in fact, consistently outperfirm the index."

*Yaaawwwwn*

5. Tag 5 more bloggers.

5 bloggers....aaaahh!!! Now let me see.....erm......Harsha, Dana, Gautam, Tanya.....thats it....

I was writing a poem last week but was able to write just one part of it. Not too sure if I've got a reason now to finish it....Anyway here it is...

I'm not going to test the waters
Cause I know I'll drown
Sinking to the deep unknown
Forgotten forever..
Left alone....

- Stained

Also here's a picture of the wheel on Muraqqabat Street during DSF 2008 though never got around taking a proper picture of it.....



Shooting Date/Time: 13/2/2008 22:38:26
Shooting Mode: Manual Exposure
Tv(Shutter Speed): 4
Av(Aperture Value): 5.6
Metering Mode: Evaluative Metering
ISO Speed: 100
Focal Length: 55.0mm

Well me and my friends went for the Terry Fox Run 2007(though it was held in 2008 due to delays) yesterday. This was my second time around. Had soo much fun, took 400+ pictures, walked the whole distance, smiled at all the cute kids around and laughed the whole way....

Anyway here are a bunch of pictures out of the mammoth 400 pictures.....

I remember how I used to tell my friends where I had reached on my way to a place where we were meant to meet. I never used street names, we Dubai people hardly seem to use them [unless the few known famous ones], I used to pin point my position according to the landmark around. Like saying I had reached Strand Cinema signal even though that junction is called something else. But slowly these landmarks are vanishing. My parents still call the bus stand [now going to be metro station] opposite Al Ghurair City as the one opposite Deira Cinema. Deira Cinema was one of the not so famous old cinema in Deira unlike its more famous old landmark, Dubai Cinema[Demolished and being replaced by Emirates Bank building]. Thinking about Al Ghurair City, it used to be a brown building called Al Ghurair Centre with that Sindbad play area [I think it was called Sindbad] and there logo on each of its tower like things[now been replaced by a bunch of helipads instead]. Also I'm not too sure if many people know that there was an Al Shaab Cinema ages ago where the Abu hail bus stand is, next to Galadari junction. Galadari junction was several years back called the Galadari Roundabout. That was one huge roundabout which during it last few years was a traffic heaven which resulted in its transformation into a junction that is now mutating into multiple bridges, tunnels and what not.

Thinking about the old times, we used to divide Dubai into two parts. One was Deira, north of the creek and Bur Dubai, south of the creek. Even though we had Karama, Quasis, Satwa etc; we still used to put them all together under these two parts. Now its a different story. I guess Deira is now the old suburb part of the city [till Palm Deira comes up I guess] while Bur Dubai is the small creek side area.

I miss those quiet days sometimes. Life was a laid back stroll and not this fast track bullying life.

Well coming back to the main topic of this post; 'The Clock Tower'. I took a pic of it a couple of days back. While I was going through my pictures today, I just stared at 'The Clock Tower' picture and wondered how long will it be till its demolished for development and mostly shifted to a more secluded place. I suppose it'll get the same treatment as 'The Flame Monument' [built in 1969, relocated in 1998] near the airport.

Anyway here's the picture that got me thinking....



Hopefully this Friday I'll be taking pictures of the 'Our Own English High School' on the Oud Mehta road as I've heard its being demolished to give way for a metro station. Though I still don't believe it but I can't find any news online confirming or denying it so I'll have to belief the words of the ex-students. So some pictures need to be taken before it vanishes too.

It's a real heart breaker
These things just seem to happen
Pretty much everything is lost
Just that freaking pain
Maybe that's what it feels like
Buts it's no secret

Everyone has a choice
Leave if you must
No one to hold you back
Nothing to feel for
This is pretty much the finish line
There is nothing left to say

A motion of freedom
It's a real heart breaker
But it's not my war to fight
I'm just here to watch the show
To live my life and be entertained
Loneliness was never an issue

- Stained..

A Poem after a very long time.....this one has been due for a few weeks now...

Was quite an effort to get these pictures.....

I was with my family having dinner at this Iraqi restaurant in Deira. We left from there at about 10:15pm went to my brothers office in Garhoud to pick up the camera tripod (without which the pictures would have been blurry). At that time my brother got this idea of going to the Festival City canal thing to show it to the rest of the family. It was nice and all but I wanted to get into position for the fireworks. We left Festival City by 11:15pm, took business bay, entered Sheikh Zayed road near Trade Centre. By 11:35pm we had reached the 3rd interchange and there seemed very less traffic. According to my plan we were supposed to take the service road near the McDonald's Emirat petrol station where we could have used our 4WD to get us around the sandy area and closer to the Burj. But unfortunately the 4th interchange exit traffic had a long line that blocked our way to the service road. So making a quick detour we took Salik and got to this new road (don't know what its called) between the Sheikh Zayed and Soufou road and luckily it was traffic free. We parked as close as we could to the Burj (right next to the Dubai Police Academy). It was 11:50pm, I crossed the road and waited while setting up the tripod. And after all this, I took approximately 150 pictures in those 10 minutes. Here are a few of them......

Shooting Mode: Manual Exposure
Tv( Shutter Speed ): 1
Av( Aperture Value ): 5.6
Metering Mode: Partial Metering
ISO Speed: 100
Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Focal Length: 46.0 mm