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 […]
Who will reign supreme in Paris?
Vidur Bhatia, an ardent tennis follower, previews Roland Garros that starts next week The French Open used to be the most unpredictable of grand slams among the men in the 1990’s until 2004. The Spanish and South American often dominated in that period (with the likes of Sergi Bruguera and Gustavo Kuerten) most of whom […]
Are we a world of fatties?
The affected global population of corpulent individuals has increased to epidemic proportions. According to the World Health Organization, 2 billion adults worldwide are overweight with at least 650 million clinically obese. Worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975. You are considered overweight when you have a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than or equal to […]
Cartoonist who drew the world’s children closer
I had the opportunity to meet Keshav Shankar Pillai, better known as Shankar, in 1986, soon after he turned the grand age of 84. Shankar remembered with fondness the days of exciting encounters with nationalist leaders and dignitaries like Gandhiji, Nehru, Rajaji and Lord Linlithgow. His thoughts took him back to the memorable morning when […]
King of Hearts
The King of Hearts, Egyptian-born Magdi Yacoub, has won international acclaim in the field of cardiac surgery and is also privileged to be a link in the Chain that saves children’s lives the world over. The scene is repeated regularly in developing countries. As Professor Magdi Yacoub’s plane touches the tarmac, often a four-year-old child […]
The Generation Gap
A generation is all the people in a family, group or country born at the same time. Alternatively, the average time that children take to grow up and have children of their own, usually a span of 25-30 years. Would the Covid years be considered part of a generation which had a succession of descendants […]