So what did I do in the last year? Was there anything, anything at all that was worthwhile? Let me try to recall and see how many such things I can list out.

1. I quit smoking in 2009. Rather, let me put it this way – I quit the habit of smoking. Now I smoke like once in 2-3 months. So I guess it is safe to say that I quit the habit. This isn’t an achievement but given the fact that I had been trying to quit smoking for so many years now, it is worth a mention. I did something good to myself, to my body.

2. The house that I wanted to construct for my parents and brother is almost complete. It isn’t anything big or luxurious, but this is something I had to do and I always wanted to do. I only put in the money, everything else was taken care by my brother. The work was started in 2008 itself but it never really took off then. Most of the work was done in 2009. Wow! We have a house now!

3. 2009 was the year when I seriously thought about my marriage. I felt I am ready and I decided to get married by end of 2010. Sadly, I do not have a girl yet and marriage talks are not going good. I also had a bitter experience about this marriage thing but nevertheless an experience that will keep me in good stead in the future.

4. My penchant for photography took a big leap when I bought the Nikon D60 DSLR camera. It’s a fantastic camera and gives wonderful results. I love it. This one has to be my best purchase of the year.

5. I bought a Sony Vaio laptop. And this one has to be my worst purchase of the year. It cost me a lot and now I am frustrated with the limitations it has – windows vista, no driver cds, single drive etc. My old Acer Aspire 5050 was much better. I had the freedom with it.

6. I hit the gym last year for a brief period of 3-4 months. I built up some muscle and shape but sadly, I discontinued it for no real reason and I am disappointed about it. I should start over again this year.

Well, cannot think of much more things to write about the last year. I bid adieu to 2009 and hope that 2010 will have better things in store for me and I will have a long list of things to write about at the onset of 2011.
Good Bye 2009. Welcome 2010!

Professionally, I have gained very little. The IT industry here is not quite up to the standard that we have in India. Things are not streamlined and working as a consultant is not the best position to be in. There is a marked difference in the way the consultants are treated in comparison to a permanent employee. May be that is the case in most places.

Burj Al Arab - the famous 7 star hotel

I have, however, enjoyed the place otherwise. I have been to most tourists’ destinations in Dubai. Modern architectures in this place have really amazed me. And then there are beautiful beaches. The beaches in Dubai are clean and quite safe as there are no high tides. I enjoy going to the beach. However, only 4-5 months are favorable as the climate is too hot for most part of the year. Come winter, and the beaches are flocked with people. There are many parks too, with facilities to barbeque, where you can spend your day or the evening. It is quite amazing, the amount of greenery maintained and the efforts they put-in to be green.

One event I enjoyed very much is the Desert Safari. It is an unique experience, one that should not be missed if one visits the middle-east. The ride through the desert is quite thrilling. And then there is the belly dance performed by professional artists.

Another first-time experience was ice-skating. Yes, this desert land has ice-skating rinks. It even has skiing arena. The great satisfaction I got from ice-skating is that I learned it within a couple of hours. Although I was far from being perfect, I learned quite a bit. If you saw me ice-skating, you would not say that I was a first-timer.

A Hyundai concept car on display at the Dubai Motor Show

However, the event that tops the list is the Dubai Motor Show. This was a world class event. There were cars on display by every prestigious and top brand that I had ever heard of. I felt really excited to be sitting on some of the cars like Rolls Royce, Bentley and Ferrari (even though they were just on display). I really thought that a Motor Show cannot get bigger than this as there were the fastest cars, the costliest cars and the concept cars, all on display.

Experience of Dubai would be incomplete without experiencing its night life. Dubai is quite liberal, in the sense that liquor is served in most star hotels. There are innumerable dance bars in Dubai and on weekends they are always full and remain open till about 3:00 AM in the morning.

The world is amazed at how the city has made its progress to become one of the major financial centers of the world, without having any natural resources. That in itself is reason enough to visit and know this place. Remember, Dubai does not have any oil fields beneath its sand.

To sum it up, I have enjoyed my stay in Dubai, seen almost everything I had to see. I believe it is time to move on. I am obviously aware that my career is not progressing here and I have given serious thought about going back to India sooner than later.

There is another accusation that I have read quite a few times – that today’s communication channel, the internet, promotes mediocrity. I for one do not look at it that way. Sure it allows anybody to write anything, but do you read anything written by anybody unless it is good? Internet has no boundaries, there is no screening as to who is eligible to write what, and that’s the beauty of it. You are no more bound to follow one writer and be guided by his/her point of view. Search a topic in the internet and you will certainly get multiple answers and not necessarily with the same point of view. People have different perspectives and it is up to the reader to gather what he/she wants. And by the way, how do you judge that a piece of an article is great if there is just one? It is only when you read multiple articles on the same topic that you know which one is better. Of course, every article on the internet is not standard, but only the standard ones will prevail. There is one aspect though, that can be true of this accusation. The amount of research that people do when they write an article can be debated. There are many who copy what is already available on the internet, rather than finding out the ground realities. But those writers are hardly going to find a reader. So, write on! I sure will, because that is the only way I can improve and rise above mediocrity.

We were walking past a small pond that day. The pond had water hyacinth flowers (called Meteka Phool in Assamese, my mother tongue) blooming. In full bloom, these flowers look really beautiful. But they are of no use or interest to people as they do not have any fragrance and can not be used for any purpose. But to us kids, they were as beautiful as any other flower.

water hyacinth

My cousin stepped a foot into the pond and plucked a flower. The flower was big and beautiful. I also wanted one for myself. There were plenty of them in the pond, so I thought I would pluck the best one. I finally spotted one that was bigger than the one my cousin got. The only problem was that it was a little far from my reach. So I grabbed a weed in the shore, put a foot into the water and tried to pull the flower plant. It was just inches out of my reach and I felt that if I could stretch a little bit more I will get hold of it. So I put my other foot into the water and stretched a little bit more. In doing so, the weed that I took support of got uprooted and I slipped into the water.

I had seen people swim. My father could swim across big ponds. I saw him swim in rivers too. Even my elder brother and his friends often swam in our neighbor’s pond everyday until they were chased away. I, however, would always keep to the swallow end of the pond. I was not afraid of water. As village kids, we were not taught to be afraid of water.

So I thought, “there is nothing to worry about. My feet are still touching the ground. I can take one more step towards the flower and reach it”. As I reached out to the flower, the ripples took it a little further away from me and in the process I went too deep into the pond and could not feel the ground below my feet anymore. I got a little scared now and decided to get out of the pond. “Forget the flower, I will ask my cousin to get one for me” I thought, and tried to swim back. I flapped my feet repeatedly into the water like the others do while swimming. Yes, I was floating in the water but I could not surge forward. Even my hand movement was not helping. I was terrified. I was starting to drown. I needed help but could not shout out. I looked at my cousin to pull me out. But he too was equally terrified. I drowned. My frantic hand and feet movement brings me up to the surface again. I had gulped some water and now could not breathe. I started to cough. I again drowned as if something under the water was pulling me down. I again struggled hard to come up to the surface. I struggled to breathe. I could see my cousin getting scared and shouting now. But I could not hear him quite clear. His voice was fading away. I could not hear a thing after a while. I lost my consciousness.

I woke up to a big gathering, everyone looking extremely relieved to see me open my eyes. I did not understand a thing for a while. And then I looked at my mom, her eyes full of tears. I slowly started to recollect what had happened.

My mother would answer my curious questions later, that my savior was Moina Pehi, a lady in our neighbor. She somehow heard my cousin shout in panic, and came in running to find me, to her horror, deep in the pond. She jumped into the water without a second thought and pulled me out. This is how close to death I was that day, probably a minute or may be few seconds away from death.

Dear Moina Pehi, I can not ever thank you enough. Today I live, because you gave me my life.