This has been the most laid back and rested holiday in Doha. I arrived last Thursday and pretty much within the last couple of days had the oppotunity to meet some old friends, to drive with a friend to the northern most peak in Qatar known as Al Shamal. It was a beautiful site. In the midst of this scenic view, we also drove to check out the Al Ruwais Gardens and the Al Zubara Fort which I thought was quite and achievement. The road trip only took 1 1/2 hours to get there and another 1 1/2 hours back. Doha has been cleaned up quite a bit and some of the areas have been beautified with flowers and landscaping. As usual, I made sure I made my routine trip to BHS and Marks & Spencers. Ramish and family had moved from their house in Al Saad to the Sheikh's compound at Gharafa, so I adjourned to their place and spent another good 3 days with them. It was just nothing but cooking, watching tv, chit chatting and catching up. The trip was really about wanting to get all the rest that I could get before I went on my Egypt trip. On one morning, I went to the Gharaffa office to meet Janette, and Daniel the new project manager. I also had the opportunity to catch up with Kevin, GM from Dream Laundry and it felt so good to just walk through that office where I spent bulk of my 10 months in Qatar.
Tonight I will be going to stay with Premeeta and soon we shall be of on the 3pm flight tomorrow to Egypt. Premeeta works for the Grand Hyatt and this gives us the opportunity to stay at the Grand Hyatt Cairo that I have heard overlooks the Nile River. So wait up and look forward to more posts from me on my Egypt trip. Meanwhile, enjoy the Doha pictures.
By the end of that meal, we decided to try for movie tickets at Mall of Emirates. Alice in Wonderland was playing and it was 3D. By the time we arrived at the theatre, there was only front row left for the next session that was at least 3 hours from when we got there. Melroy (Michael's brother) joined us for the movies and after much struggle on deciding what to watch, we settled for When in Rome. This comedy was about Beth Harper in Italy for her sister's wedding. While there, she takes some coins from a "fountain of love" and ends up being pursued by the men who originally tossed the coins into the fountain. Complicating everything is Nick Beamon, a journalist who seems to have genuine feelings for Beth.
Since I have been to Dubai, I have not really had much family visiting and news from Kuhan that his conference was in Dubai only made me delighted about the fact that finally some family will be in Dubai. I was looking forward to his trip in February 2010. He knew this as early as October and when I was back in Malaysia the last round, Mama, Mami, Bavani and Sharanya were suppose to come along.
It all did not happen thanks to Air Asia cancelling their route on the last minute to Abu Dhabi. Finally only Kuhan made it to Dubai for his conference. We had a good weekend that I could take him around to show him one side of Dubai. He did not quite get to see the dunes and the desert.. but he certainly covered the tallest, largest, biggest of everything there was to see in Dubai. One of the most unique experiences was the floods in Dubai Mall where we ended up having to walk through some water to get to the car that we had given or valet.
Kuhan wanted to get some dining table lights of a certain kind and finally he managed to buy it from the Karama where we went shopping for it. He said he managed to get what he was looking for so I was happy that he could finally take back a souvenir to remember Dubai although it was a short trip.
It was indeed great to catch up although it was just both of us with 4 others missing who could have only enhanced the mood off the weekend a lot better. Well there is always a next time and I hope they are still planning a trip this way.
It was a girls evening out at Zabeel Park. We left it in the good hands of Shirley and Caroline. The girls had planned this outing to celebrate their recent title change from HR Coordinators to HR Executives. I have to say it was a good evening. My first time at a park in Dubai but we played some crazy games at that crazy hour and wrapped up by 9:30pm. The team has one of the biggest nationality mixes in the Company.
By the time lunch and shopping was over, I was barely left with anytime to drive back and come back to the mall for an evening movie at the Reel Cinema. Kevin, Sharon and I wanted to watch "My Name is Khan so there I was spending another 1/2 hour with Aseem and Natasha at Starbucks while waiting for Kevin and Sharon to arrive. The rest of the Saturday was spent watching this very different 2 1/2 hour movie which I have to say in my opinion was well taken. There were many versions to whether the movie was a good or bad one from friends who had watched but the boys at the ticket counter said this was a superb movie and definitely a MUST watch and I will only tend to agree with them that I have watched the movie myself. What can get better than the screen chemistry of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol.
The plot of the story goes this way. Rizwan Khan (Tanay Chheda) is a Muslim child who grew up with his brother Zakir and his mother (Zarina Wahab) in a middle class family in the Borivali section of Mumbai. Rizwan is different from the other children and no one, including his mother, can understand why. However, he has certain gifts, particularly a special ability to repair any machine that is broken. His difference leads to special tutoring from a reclusive scholar and extra attention from his mother. This attention, however, leads to a heightened level of jealousy from his brother Zakir, who eventually leaves his family for a life in the United States. Despite this resentment, as an adult Zakir (Jimmy Shergil) sponsors Rizwan (Shahrukh Khan) to come and live with him in San Francisco. It is at this time that Zakir's psychologist wife, Haseena (Sonya Jehan) diagnoses Rizwan as having Asperger's syndrome, a disorder which makes it difficult for people to interact socially. Rizwan also begins to work for Zakir as an herbal salesman and in the process he meets a Hindu woman, Mandira and her young son, Sameer or Sam (Yuvaan Makaar), from a previous marriage. Despite Zakir's hostility to the match, they marry and settle down in the fictional town of Banville, where both Mandira and Samir take Rizwan's last name as their own. They also live next door to the Garrick family. Sam is close with their young son, Reese (Kenton Duty and Michael Arnold) while Mark (Dominic Renda) is a journalist and Sarah (Katie A Keane) is a friend of Mandira.
The Khans' perfect existence gets disrupted, however, after the September 11 attacks on the twin towers in New York City. Mark goes tocover the war in Afghanistan and dies there. At the same time, the Khan family begins to experiencepost 9-11 prejudice in their community and Reese begins to turn against Sam as well. One afternoon, an argument between them turns into a racially motivated schoolyard fight between Sam and a number of older students. Reese tries to stop the fight but is held back and Sam is injured so badly that he dies. A shattered Mandira blames Rizvan for his death stating that Sam "died only because his name was Khan." She then tells Rizwan that she no longer wants him in her life. When he asks her what he has to do to be a part of her life, she tells him that he has to tell the people of the United States, and the President that his name is Khan and that he is not a terrorist.
Rizvan thus sets out on a journey that takes him from one US state to another (including Georgia, where he is befriended by Mama Jenny) in order to first meet President George W Bush and later Barack Obama. During this quest, he is detained and later freed from the San Francisco Airport. Later, in LA, he prays in a Mosque and overhears violent rhetoric from Faisal Rahman (Arif Zakaria) He reports this to the FBI but there is no response at that moment. Later, while waiting in a crowd to meet President Bush and repeating again and again, "my name is Khan and I am not a terrorist," Rizwan is arrested and placed in a prison by police who misinterpret his statement.
While in the prison he is tortured as a terrorist suspect and meets the psychiatrist Radha (Sheetal Menon) who believes he is innocent. He is later released after a media campaign by two Indian student reporters Raj (Arjun Mathur) and Komal (Sugandha Garg) and Bobby Ahuja (Parvin Dabas) prove his innocence by unearthing his attempts to inform the FBI about Faisal Rahman. After his release, he returns to hurricane-hit Georgia to help Mama Jenny and her son. His efforts attract media attention and numerous Muslims come to help as well. At the same time, Reese confesses to Mandira and reveals the identity of the boys who beat up Sam. She informs Detective Garcia Benny Nieves who has been assisting her on the case.
After they are brought to justice, she joins Rizwan in Georgia. At the moment she arrives, Rizwan is stabbed by a follower of Faisal Rahman and is rushed to the hospital. With Mandira's help, he survives and meets President-elect Barack Obama (Christopher B Duncan) who tells him that your name is Khan and you are not a terrorist."
Its been a while since I had left the house at 10:00am on a Satuday and returned home in 12 hours because usually Saturdays I go on hibernation mode. But this particular Saturday was really different. I had made plans with 3 different groups of people for things to do and it all started with the Dubai Classic Car Show in front of the Dubai Mall. Eddie and I drove to Dubai Mall and from one end to the other we walked to click pictures of the stunning cars till the sun really got to us.
The day did not end there, Aseem and Natasha joined us at the Mall so that we could get some lunch and soon after we accompanied Natasha who wanted to try on some maternity wear. Lunch was at the food court and I have to say the choice of having something from the Asian selection was indeed a good idea.
We had received announcement that Serpil was made Finance Director and this gave me an excuse to bring Serpil and Eddie for a treat to celebrate their promotions. We went to Da Shi Dai and enjoyed a simple chinese meal. Eddie of course brought dessert and they were the magnolia cup cakes... which I refused to indulge in because it was looking so fattening and sweet but with a bit of force, I tried a pinch on the cake and left the cream and I must say he was right, it is one of the best muffins ever.
