Whetting the Appetite
Feeling a little restless, trying to cope with the pollution, we decided to make a foray into a new complex of cafés and restaurants at the National Gallery of Modern Art. We called in advance to book a table at “The Saddle House”. Surprisingly, the staff training did not include answering the phone identifying the […]
Just follow your nose
Dubai’s Souks have combined the Middle Eastern flavour with the characteristics of the city’s growth. The most well-known are the gold souk, an unbelievable display of hand-crafted and machine-made glittering jewellery, displayed in abundance with no signs of security or caution. But what really was the most fascinating, was the perfume souk. You don’t have […]
The binding factor was love
Younis Mohammed Noor, born in Deira, Dubai in 1944, reminisced about the good old days when life was about close ties, emotional bonds, warmth and bonhomie and less about fast-lane careers and opulent lifestyles. He started attending Al Qassimiya School in Sharjah around the age of 10 and recalled that the daunting task of the […]
More than just a work of art
The art scene in Dubai in the 1980’s and 1990’s was on the verge of taking off. Perhaps if they had not come to live in the Emirates, Ramni Talwar, Vandana Valrani and Nermeen Norani may never have translated their interest in art into a passion. They were three women with disparate backgrounds who discovered […]
The Covenant of Water…An Epic Read
We read The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese for our book club recently. Sanghamitra Bose, Founder of Sshrishti Trust, reviews the book: This is an engrossing read that is exquisitely crafted by the author Abraham Verghese, who took 14 years to write this epic. He is a doctor and a professor of infectious diseases. […]
Taking large strides in progress
In 1992, I had the opportunity to meet Kawla Lootah, a young local lady from the Emirates, who had started the first Social Development Centre in Dubai which was under the aegis of the UAE’s Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The Social Development Centre was established only for women and taught them various diverse […]
The Amitabh Cult
Tall, lanky and debonair, ‘the national heartthrob’ and the biggest box office draw in India, the superstar and the one-man industry, was due to visit Dubai in 1981 and I was asked by the editor to do a piece for ‘Al Juma’, the weekend magazine of the Gulf News. Rumours that the formidable Bachchan phenomenon […]
Do you enjoy being fit?
You are never too unfit to be without hope. A lifestyle fitness program is designed to enable each individual to calculate precise fitness levels of each major muscle group in the body. You can estimate how much fat your body can contain and how much weight you should sensibly aim to lose. The key to […]
A hair-raising matter
Edward Lear’s limerick is evidence enough that beards have evoked more than a passing attention from mankind: “There was an old man with a beard,Who said, “It is just as I feared! –Two Owls and a Hen,Four Larks and a Wren,Have all built their nests in my beard!” The hirsute appendage comes in a staggeringly […]
Forbidden, Intimidating, not for the faint-hearted
The Shihuh mountains can be approached from two routes – the more difficult one is through Ras al-Khaimah, U.A.E. where one drives through Wadi Al Bih past the mountains and then south to Dibba. The other easier and more frequented route takes one from Dubai to Sharjah, Dhaid, Masafi and then north to Dibba. This […]