Qatar diaries: “Wait, of all the places to visit, Doha???”

“Of all the places, Doha???” was what I got as a comment when I innocently posted, “What’s there to visit in Doha?” on a highly frequented travel website.

“Of all the places, Doha???”

Interesting question. Well, I didn’t have much of a choice. The CEO of my company wanted us interns to visit either Qatar, Oman, Bahrain or Kuwait.

I liked the name ‘Doha’. I reminded me of some Rahims and Kabirs. Some two weeks later, I was lying on a cushioned bed in a three star hotel in Ad-Dwahah, Qatar.

Names. Always deceive.

Now, as I was already in a place which was not supposed to be in the list “of all the places”, I decided to make the most of it. 10 days in the capital city of a country I would have never even dreamt of visiting.

I opened some travel sites. BBC travel and lonelyplanet came to rescue. I made an itinerary for the 10 days and went ahead. Thankfully I had brought my old faithful Sony H55.

That old bastard friend of mine which refuses to leave my hands. Here’s what both of us captured in Qatar:

  Restaurant Deja Vu: May be in some vague dreamy vision, I had been to this place before.

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The Indianness of Indians.

Photo By: Vishesh Gupta

I was dazed when I heard that a guy no longer wanted to prepare for the IAS because he foresaw lower corruption rate in India in the coming years owing to all the ongoing movements. I was enmeshed in abysmal thoughts for a week!

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Know the difference.

What do you say to a know-it-all lady with anger management issues?

Nothing.

You make an easily understandable no-nonsense poster for her.

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The unsolved mathematics behind replacing JEE and AIEEE with ISEET

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Photo By: Mohi Narayan

Scrapping JEE and AIEEE is no joke. To what extent is it justified? One needs to ponder over it. What necessitates replacement of JEE with ISEET? And, why is this proposal being pushed in such a hurry?

Ministry of HRD has grievances – much to state the unexplainable stress management – against the pattern of JEE. There, Kapil Sibbal poses, in volumes, about (ISEET) Indian Science Engineering Eligibility Test. This new entrance exam, based on the lines of SAT, aims to unify multiple entrance examinations – not counting private engineering colleges which have yet not joined the “cause” as maintained by the minister – putting forth a question that how this step unifies the already hassle free AIEEE and JEE leaving aside hundreds of other entrance exams of different private institutes with a pair of ‘E’ at the end of their spellings.

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Avengers. IMAX 3D Dubai. Shit just got Real!

And before I begin, let me give a humble advice to all. If you want to try the IMAX 3D experience, choose superhero movies. Or better choose superheroes’ movie.

Or best, choose The Avengers.

I have seen quite a lot of 3D movies before, and more often than not, have returned home either with a ringing headache or a thoroughly unsatisfied experience, thanks to the blurry flimsy 3D glasses that apologize for having sat on your nose.

But this movie in IMAX 3D, as Captain America says for Loki, “grows on you.”

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What’s the connection between the Arab culture and a disposable razor?

So the other day, I was working in my office, trying to ponder over why disposable razors are not a craze in India (we prefer system razors with spare cartridges refills), while in arab countries, they sell like hot cakes.

And then, like any other post-lunch-yawn-filled office hour, my train of thoughts led me to think about the way people behave in UAE in general and Dubai in particular, and compare it with the rest of the world. And I reached a dilemma. But we’ll get back to it later.

For now, the only word that comes in my mind when I think of the Arab culture is…

“Conservative”. Yeah, I know you had already guessed it.

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Google’s Project Glass: Are we ready for it?

Does anybody remember Alex James Murphy, the cyborg police officer of Detroit? Our very own RoboCop? Google’s augmented reality glass reminds me of him. Especially, when a virtual overlay map starts giving you directions on the road, you video talk to your boss on the go, you reply to emails in the middle of a meeting, you click pictures by blinking your eye while passing by a hill, you fill an empty plot with a virtual image of your dream house and what not, without any obtrusive headgear. As a matter of fact, you do so without holding a single device like those of smartphones and tabs in your hands.

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