Onde Ponde Ghoomde Phirde, Is Duniyaa Vich Challe Oye

things that rile me up today

http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Society/10280130.html

1) rich people balking on paying their gardners, give or take $80 dollars a month. "all on the oooh-its a global crisis, we have to cut back". yea you should cut back. cut back on your lavish dinners, outings, your gazillion cars that just pollute - try car pooling, or even better take the bus, cut down all your omigod-i-need-the-new-iphone-craze. not someone's livelihood. have a brain. and a heart.

2) rental prices in my beloved bankrupt dxb. i will still love you no matter how poor you become. heres a dekko.

http://www.gulfnews.com/Nation/Housing_and_Property/10276330.html

so i looked over the property prices for a measly studio. and at the lowest end is the yearly rate of 35K AED. (approximately 10K USD). upfront. and this isnt even in the heart of the city, forget living in posh areas or in a skyscraperish building, giving you the view of the sea from some obscure corner of your house (usually your bathroom ).

ok granted, dubai is relatively tiny compared to say, i dont know texas. but my rent in texas was 1000 bucks a month for a 2 bedroom/2 bath appartment. why are they milking people so much i have no idea. and the salaries arent noteworthy at all. my first job in Dubai i wouldnt been able to afford a studio on that rent. you can do the math. granted, i was just an intern. and it was before dubai went all crazy on raising the rent. just long enough for people to madly raise it, and then when things went out of control they put a cap. and now when property prices have fallen, they want to increase it again. this is totally bs. but salaries haven't been inflated as much, and a vast majority of people are still making less than 1000 dollars a month, and so they cannot afford to live in a basic stuido. a studio is shared by two, three and sometimes four people.

i live in a studio now, and i find it small by myself. and if say five pple are standing in my kitchen, it can give you claustrophobia. im not kidding. so this really really riles me up. just coz people have to make money and therefore they suck it up and stay with these conditions and they cant afford to complain, it doesnt mean they are happy. shouldnt the overall governemnt care about the happiness of these people? shouldnt everyone at least be paid so much that that they can afford to live in a basic studio. or shouldnt the prices of studios be affordable so that everyone can afford to live in one. and then they wonder why supply is so much greater than demand. and why they are going bankrupt. (i still love you)

3) slumdog millionaire mania.
first of all, its a good movie, its not the most awesome movie ever written. but thats okay, the oscars/golden globes aren't the pathar ki lakeer. so its great, that it got nominated coz it has desi actors and technicians. and yes barring the main director and the producers everyone else is indian. so thats still something good for india. so props to the team. and yes, it doesnt show india in the most awesome light. but no one can say that its not the truth. yes its not the whole truth, not everything in india is like what they show. but it is someone's truth. in fact a big slice of the people's truth. bollywood movies on the other hand, show a way tiny sliver of the truth. im sorry but regular people cant go on euro rail, or drive racer bikes for con operations, or do a dance performance in the alps. so im sorry mr bachchan. and guys slumdog is a slang word. at least to me, its a mixture of slums and underdog. and believe me no one i know has had any problems being called an underdog. so stop getting all preindependance-british-called-us-dogs. news flash british have left. and the only one calling u a dog, is you with your own banner signs. so stop all this morcha nonsense. and honestly, not the slums but your propaganda is giving india a bad name. ok wait that also is.


things that im confused about.

so air india have bit the bullet and have started weekly flights from dxb to srinigar. all for 99 AED. (~$27) one way. quite cheap i think.
I honestly dont know what to feel about it. i mean i dont even know if this is even a debateable thing. its good in a way since the tickets are cheap, a lot of people will now want to go there and then take a local flight to their homes. so its good tourism or commuter i would say business for srinigar. and perhaps a very good thing for the whole area. which has seen a lot of crap. but its also a quick getaway thing, as everyone and thier mom knows. dubai - which i never knew until recently, is really the getaway place for gangsters and their moms. in the book maximum city, the writer writes on how lot of these shooters when they do a job to disappear from india, go straight to dubai, and then cool their heels. they are well taken of. they have a flat, they go for movies, they blend into the city - a city full of expatriates and a city that minds its own business. but they get bored and itch to go back to india again. when i read this it shocked me, and when i would see a lone guy sitting in a cinema hall i did think of it. maybe im taking suketu mehtas word for everything, but im just saying it could be a bad thing as well. so im two sided. good that it might ease tensions when you have so many pple commuting to that region, bad since it may become easier for the wrong pple to blend in.

things that im happy about today

that tommorow is a friday. oh how i love you friday. you are so dependable and you shine your grace on me every week. life is about appreciating the small things. =)

have a good weekend, all.