Was aimlessly flipping through the channels the other night before i planned to doze off ( as i do ) and paused at a Denzel Washington interview in which he was asked ‘how it felt to be considered a sex symbol’ – to this, his witty retort was – “if in life you are ever intimidated by anybody – just imagine them sitting on the toilet with their pants rolled down……and if you are still intimidated – then you seriously have a problem”

From the top of my head… i can imagine quite a few people who i thought to be intimidating earlier – not so anymore.
Try it !! ;P

The Dubai Shopping Festival has been raging on for the past few weeks now and i am sooo glad that i dont have to fight the dreadful traffic anymore (thanks to my new office/studio being located in Sharjah). However, that hasnt quite taken me away from my attention to retail – bought myself these pair of shoes that i’d been dying to buy for a while now… (thats right!! i have developed a little bit of a shoe fetish in the past one year or so – and exhousemate Peter had quite a bit to do with that… so Peter if you are reading this – DAMN YOU !! ;P )

and oh!! aha !! i alsoooo got meself the iPOD !! yipppeee finally!
(i asked Prashant to get it for me from New York and although my wallet was hoping that he would forget – that wasn’t quite the case…. anyway i had been perving over it for a while now and it was only a matter of time)

needless to say that i am quite broke now.. so charity, donations and dinners are most welcome ;P

The day today just seems so unbelievably long … went to work – designed a few layouts – attended a quick brainstorm session – flew out to doha – flew back after a few hours – went back to the studio – completed my layouts – dropped off eric, apple and hari home on my way back – came home to design some pending stuff thats been lying around on my desk for weeks now – will probably abandon everything soon and just go sleep soon….

This flying out thing agin and agin is kinda getting on my nerves now … spotted some of the familiar cabin crew on board and a pretty new face as well. I tried hard to get her name but she would whizzzzz by the aisle really quick — so i will refer to her as ‘could-you-please-put-your-seat-in-an-upright-postion’ babe …. cuz thats the only bit of interaction i ended up having with her… mmm.. pity me.. ;(

.. anyway — am flying to bahrain or doha again this wednesday … have to make it a point to chat her up this time of she is onboard.

this was quite a pointless blog entry .. wasn’t it !???
oh well.. it takes all sorts

Flew out to Doha yesterday evening on an air arabia flight and i must say that i was quite impressed by the service and the much talked about leg room…. am slightly tensed about the all the shite thats going on with my visa formalities at the moment … but am going to try and focus on other things to keep my mind of it – lots of other things happening around the world besides my visa screwups and one of those things happen to be the ‘Epica Awards’ being held today in Budapest … oh how i wish i could be there ! –> click here to visit epica awards website

One of the most deserving prize winners this year that i am aware of is the ‘award for print advertising’ awarded to 180/TBWA Amsterdam for the Adidas “Impact” campaign. The campaign features a series of individual portraits of rugby players caught in the moment of impact. Stunning and Powerful images makes this extraordinary art project into a powerful and clever advertising campaign. In case you’all are interested in reading up about this, here is a link to an article that might give you an idea as to why i think this project is so cool click here for article

……. and in case you are not that interested .. let me briefly tell you whats so exciting about this campaign. Amsterdam Agency 180/TBWA gets a brief from Adidas for a Rugby championship campaign that basically calls for ‘ a campaign that makes an impact’ and so 180/TBWA does just that – smothers 16 of the world’s top rugby stars in acrylic paint and then asks them to kindly slam themselves into canvas-wrapped tackle bags resulting in a series of …. well… how do i put it ?? … mmm “self portraits/impact prints” — talk about taking a brief literally !!!

They say that ‘Impact: the Art of Rugby’ will be released as a coffee table book soon …. Cannn’t wwwait !

Went out tonight with Tia, Sarah & friends to watch Suphala perform – exceeelllent + magnifique + everything awesome and nice. Demure, Pretty and an exceptionally Talented percussionist….Sarah was considering becoming a lesbian because she was so impressed (funny lass). 5Green seemed a little crowded but it all added to the cozy ambience. The reasonable duration of the performance made it more of a perfect evening — thumbs up!

Visit Suphala’s website: www.suphala.com

Anyway.. went out with ‘Jolie’ chick yesterday evening… she started drooling over the Nikon digital camera and i would have had to put a leash on her and restrain her… (mmm… ) if she dint stop. But anyway … it was a good little unplanned-spur-of-the-moment rendezvous that destressed from the shite thats been going on with my Visa formalities.

Can you believe this ?? My working visa got rejected by Sharjah International Airport because ??
Because…. they couldnt understand why an Airlines company would need a ‘Director’ when they don’t have a theatre or cinema group…. they dint bother reading a little more and understand that i was an Art Director…

??????? ?????? ???? ??? ?? ? – i rest my case. anyway … now things are really messed up and i have to fly tomorrow evening to Doha and return with a 96 hour visa and then hope that my permanent employment visa gets approved by Sharjah International Airport… else travel again every 96 hours until this thing gets sorted out. … what a pain in the behind !!!

On the home front…..nothing too exciting… mmm oh wait… yea … i had one of those wierd dreams the other night where i kept dreaming that i was waking up …. quite annoying really…cuz when i did finally wake up it felt like i hadnt slept at all… arrgh !!

……. ok a tiny bit of an addition to a previous post i made a few months back –> Rediscovering Sharjah ( part1 )

Driving down to work everyday by the Sharjah Airport Road.. it struck me that this city really really really loves two things to death; its lamp posts and its fountains. These pictures probably dont quite highlight the essence of what i really mean, but anyone who has stayed in this country long enough will know what i am talking about….

imagine such ornate lampposts of the above sort on either side of the street for kilometers at stretch in the outskirts of the city !??? huh ?? huh ?? see what i mean ??

is it just me ?? or is there something a little odd about a beautifully done up fountain sitting all by itself on an open barren ground… i mean – was it reallly that necessary to get the fountains up and running before you constructed anything around the damn place !?? i dunno.. just find it quite odd. And there are two more fountians next to this one too (have to take a better picture sometime)

And while i am on the topic of Sharjah… tell me that you dont find it a little odd when you spot the rather over-zealous pathan washing his taxi/pickup in a tiny little puddle of rainwater that he has solely claimed as his own private car wash territory…. i still dont get that one no matter how hard i try !!

Anyway.. enough ranting about Sharjah… its not too bad a place after all… ( thats right.. i’ll keep telling myself that and soon i’ll believe it

Went to watch ‘The Incredibles’ this afternoon with Tia and all i can say is
‘ oooiihhmaaaiiihgaawwwhd ! what a brilliant film ‘

The people at Pixar cant make a bad film even if their lives depended on it ;P
but seriously – beautiful – simple – minimal and effective has to be the words that describe the film best. Probably the best piece of acting i have ever seen by 3d characters in an animated flick.

Been attending quite a few weddings and its just been an absolute thrill to see people in love (..or forseeing love ;P ) tying the knot … It was Hussein and Farida’s big day yesterday ( well… the final day of many days of celebrations actually ~ i missed the celebrations in mumbai ) and it was amazing to see Hussein dance the way he did. I Guess love just makes you lose all your inhibitions, let your hair down and dance like a madman.

Anyway, all these weddings have been great – great food – great people – great big receptions – great everything … but in a small way, in the corner of my mind, i find myself questioning the very concept and institution of marriage. I mean ~ on a very basic level it all comes down to one thing – ‘procreation’…. kinda funny that we find the need to formally announce to the society around us the right for two individuals to procreate with one another in such a grand scale. Am not in anyway promoting ‘chimpanzee infidelity’ here, but just curious as to what would happen to the loyalty and allegiance of one person to another if we removed the societal element from the picture… Would it put this thing called ‘marriage’ to a more severe test of character and personality ?… i think it would. ..

….. woooaah too much thinking for just a blog entry!!

woohoo… my first post from work
eeps — better keep it short before somebody catches me blogging instead of backing up the data server ( such a dreadfully boring thing to do – but more on that later). Mr. Accountant looked very tensed today morning (as he usually does) and strolled into the studio to inform us about the flood in ajman and jumeira. Mr. Production Manager obviously didn’t need to hear any more – his face lit up and he knew that ‘the perfect reason to go back home early’ was finally here …… guess he was a little dissapointed when he realized that the seriousness of the news wasn’t quite upto his expectations…. (thank god for that)

pics that came in from ruth….

apparently, a worker on one of ‘the palm’ islands got swept away ….. won’t know exactly what the casualty rate was until tommorows morning paper .. i guess.

geeez.. whats going on ??

Spent most of the day with Nada today and i cant remember the last time i actually laughed as much as i did. It was goood fun (easy for me to say ~~ she offered to drive so needless to say i sat there skipping through her ipod tracks and singing out loud to louis armstrong )

It was quite ironic that we ended up watching the film ‘Alfie’ starring Jude Law – reminded me of some of the current events in my life and retrospectively stuff that Nada has been advising me about. Thanks a million babe… you are too precious.

Another rather fun night out was Omran’s Wedding a few days back ~ even the words ‘unique’ and ‘extravagant’ falls short as adjectives. MMM… lets see now .. red carpets, sheikhs, royals, old friends and absolutely exquisite food were the highlight of the evening at the Grand Hyatt, Dubai.

Omran – you looked ‘royal’ and ’slightly tensed’ (its awright – i guess i would be too, if i was flanked on either side by sheikhs) but… dude thanks for the lovely time and if you dint end up reading the note with the bouqet, here is what it said -
” you have me thinking seriously about settling down now .. eeps scary thought! its a good thing you are having a go at it”
… see! nothing nasty…. ;P Wish both of you the best of luck and a very happy married voyage ahead.

Amidst all the fun stuff and festivity, a rather depressing piece of news came our way as a very close family friend passed away. It got me wondering about the fragility of the human life and body – a thought that has been bothering me for a while now…. ( maybe i’ll write about it sometime) For now… i am too sadenned by this awfully depressing news ~ hope her soul finds peace and her loved ones can muster up the courage to move on… she will be missed by all who knew her and loved her.