Friday mornings in Dubai

Friday mornings in Dubai are eerie.
The reason is - the whole of the week one is used to noise- a mad rush in the traffic- traffic jams- no place to park- shopping for groceries etc.
Then comes Friday and Dubai sleeps all morning .
Till about 11 am an eerie silence pervades the city. People sleep late- you see no wasing on the balconies ! Car parks in malls are empty- car parks in residential are full - roads are dirty usually ( even the cleaners rest I guess ) .
Everyone seems to be making the most of it.
Then at about 11 there is a stirring.
Fathers, then mothers get up and start moving around - kids usually sleep till noon or later !
Super and hyper markets start filling up - washed clothes start making their appearance - cars start moving and gradually the whole city gets into motion.
Parks fill up with those eager to make the most of the last of the cool weather .
Kids go down for a swim- most residential buildings have pools .
By afternoon its madness again
Roads are full with everyone going everywhere .
Malls are mobbed - it seems like everyone is in every mall !
Its the weekend
Its the time to unwind and enjoy.
For my part - I cant sleep late - be it a week day or a weekend.
Friday morning I am usually up by 6.30 - tea , news papers and the laptop .
Boring ??
No- relaxing - its the weekend  for me as well and I don't need to rush out
I enjoy the white space I mentioned in an earlier article- just  being alone & doing nothing official ! 

Friday mornings in Dubai

Friday mornings in Dubai are eerie.
The reason is - the whole of the week one is used to noise- a mad rush in the traffic- traffic jams- no place to park- shopping for groceries etc.
Then comes Friday and Dubai sleeps all morning .
Till about 11 am an eerie silence pervades the city. People sleep late- you see no wasing on the balconies ! Car parks in malls are empty- car parks in residential are full - roads are dirty usually ( even the cleaners rest I guess ) .
Everyone seems to be making the most of it.
Then at about 11 there is a stirring.
Fathers, then mothers get up and start moving around - kids usually sleep till noon or later !
Super and hyper markets start filling up - washed clothes start making their appearance - cars start moving and gradually the whole city gets into motion.
Parks fill up with those eager to make the most of the last of the cool weather .
Kids go down for a swim- most residential buildings have pools .
By afternoon its madness again
Roads are full with everyone going everywhere .
Malls are mobbed - it seems like everyone is in every mall !
Its the weekend
Its the time to unwind and enjoy.
For my part - I cant sleep late - be it a week day or a weekend.
Friday morning I am usually up by 6.30 - tea , news papers and the laptop .
Boring ??
No- relaxing - its the weekend  for me as well and I don't need to rush out
I enjoy the white space I mentioned in an earlier article- just  being alone & doing nothing official ! 

Recognition

Of all professions I feel that a teacher's is the most recognized.
Let me try and explain.
I have been a teacher since 1978 .
Have taught boys in the Boys High School Allahabad  in 78- 79 - 80and am in touch with a few.
From 1981- 2001 taught boys at The Bishops School Pune
From 2001 - till 2006 was with boys and girls at The Modern High School Dubai
From 2006 have been at The Millennium School Dubai
Hence have taught/ been in touch with  thousands of pupils and their parents.
Allahabad is not too bad but when in Pune I meet pupils at every nook and corner . Almost all recognize me - for me the face is familiar but usually not the name unless the pupil was very clever/ very wicked/ a boarder/ a tuition boy !
Be it a bank, a hospital, a mall , on the road - I meet some pupil  or the other !
It feels good
The same with Dubai !
If I were born again I would chose no other profession - I guess once a teacher , always a teacher .

 

Recognition

Of all professions I feel that a teacher's is the most recognized.
Let me try and explain.
I have been a teacher since 1978 .
Have taught boys in the Boys High School Allahabad  in 78- 79 - 80and am in touch with a few.
From 1981- 2001 taught boys at The Bishops School Pune
From 2001 - till 2006 was with boys and girls at The Modern High School Dubai
From 2006 have been at The Millennium School Dubai
Hence have taught/ been in touch with  thousands of pupils and their parents.
Allahabad is not too bad but when in Pune I meet pupils at every nook and corner . Almost all recognize me - for me the face is familiar but usually not the name unless the pupil was very clever/ very wicked/ a boarder/ a tuition boy !
Be it a bank, a hospital, a mall , on the road - I meet some pupil  or the other !
It feels good
The same with Dubai !
If I were born again I would chose no other profession - I guess once a teacher , always a teacher .

 

Bitten by a snake- Denzil Fernandez in Bishops Pune

It was about 5 am and I was jolted awake by loud knocking on the front door. I was in Simba Dorm in Bishops  at the time and in charge of the boarders there .
My sleep vanished as soon as I opened the door - " Sir - Denzil  Fernandez has been bitten by a snake "
Now let me explain- Denzil was a boarder - quite a naughty one - he was probably in Class 8 or 9 at that time but I can't be too sure . He was an ace footballer/ sportsman and so he and some other boarders had gone down to play football on the field at about 4 . 45 am . The ball rolled into some shrubs- Denzil went to retrieve it and was apparently bitten by a snake.
I dressed in  jiffy and rushed to the clinic - Denzil sat there- a trifle white in the face and quite confused -  with a swollen hand . Even more petrified was the school Matron who said " Sir we need to rush him to the hospital immediately ,Kuch bhi ho sakta "
So off to Jehangir hospital we rushed in the school Ambassador.
Thankfully it was morning because at night the driver was usually drunk !
Along the way I kept talking to Denzil-  we made small talk - I  did  not want him to die on my hands !
 His hand was now swelling  fast and the skin looked like it was about to tear open - the wound was red and there were distinct fang marks or so we thought . I kept asking him if he was feeling drowsy - I had heard that snake bites made you drowsy and they you died !
We reached the hospital and rushed into the EMERGENCY !
I was asked what had happened and made to sign some papers - and Denzil was admitted immediately .
We paced around outside- no we did not even think of phoning his parents who were in the middle east- you guessed right- there were no mobile phones back then and we would have to go to the telegraph office and probably book a call which would ( hopefully ) come through in an hour !
The wound was cleaned , probably an injection/ a tablet or two was given and the diagnosis was pronounced - IT WAS PROBABLY  NOT A SNAKE BITE !
The doctors had no idea what had bitten him but they said it was not a snake.
It was now about 9 am - relieved I asked the doctors to release him.
That was easier said than done. "No", they said
Like all good hospitals they wanted him to stay for 24 hours to make sure he was fine .
I tried to reason that the swelling had started going down and by the way, he looked fine but the doctors would have none of my logic.
I think Denzil wanted to be admitted so that he could bunk classes .
He had been admitted and now the doctors  had to make sure ......................
To cut a long story short I once again spoke to them to let him go back to school -  signed a paper accepting responsibility if anything  should happen and soon we were on the way back to school .
Denzil was smiling - the nurse was  scolding him for causing the confusion early in the morning and I was relieved.
What made Denzil and his friends decide to play football before 5 am and what actually bit him - I will never know .
Thankfully it was NOT A SNAKE .
 

Bitten by a snake- Denzil Fernandez in Bishops Pune

It was about 5 am and I was jolted awake by loud knocking on the front door. I was in Simba Dorm in Bishops  at the time and in charge of the boarders there .
My sleep vanished as soon as I opened the door - " Sir - Denzil  Fernandez has been bitten by a snake "
Now let me explain- Denzil was a boarder - quite a naughty one - he was probably in Class 8 or 9 at that time but I can't be too sure . He was an ace footballer/ sportsman and so he and some other boarders had gone down to play football on the field at about 4 . 45 am . The ball rolled into some shrubs- Denzil went to retrieve it and was apparently bitten by a snake.
I dressed in  jiffy and rushed to the clinic - Denzil sat there- a trifle white in the face and quite confused -  with a swollen hand . Even more petrified was the school Matron who said " Sir we need to rush him to the hospital immediately ,Kuch bhi ho sakta "
So off to Jehangir hospital we rushed in the school Ambassador.
Thankfully it was morning because at night the driver was usually drunk !
Along the way I kept talking to Denzil-  we made small talk - I  did  not want him to die on my hands !
 His hand was now swelling  fast and the skin looked like it was about to tear open - the wound was red and there were distinct fang marks or so we thought . I kept asking him if he was feeling drowsy - I had heard that snake bites made you drowsy and they you died !
We reached the hospital and rushed into the EMERGENCY !
I was asked what had happened and made to sign some papers - and Denzil was admitted immediately .
We paced around outside- no we did not even think of phoning his parents who were in the middle east- you guessed right- there were no mobile phones back then and we would have to go to the telegraph office and probably book a call which would ( hopefully ) come through in an hour !
The wound was cleaned , probably an injection/ a tablet or two was given and the diagnosis was pronounced - IT WAS PROBABLY  NOT A SNAKE BITE !
The doctors had no idea what had bitten him but they said it was not a snake.
It was now about 9 am - relieved I asked the doctors to release him.
That was easier said than done. "No", they said
Like all good hospitals they wanted him to stay for 24 hours to make sure he was fine .
I tried to reason that the swelling had started going down and by the way, he looked fine but the doctors would have none of my logic.
I think Denzil wanted to be admitted so that he could bunk classes .
He had been admitted and now the doctors  had to make sure ......................
To cut a long story short I once again spoke to them to let him go back to school -  signed a paper accepting responsibility if anything  should happen and soon we were on the way back to school .
Denzil was smiling - the nurse was  scolding him for causing the confusion early in the morning and I was relieved.
What made Denzil and his friends decide to play football before 5 am and what actually bit him - I will never know .
Thankfully it was NOT A SNAKE .
 

An ode to Sorpotel- ( Not written by me )

 

 

AN  ODE  TO  SORPOTEL

For the hotch potch known as Haggis
Let the Scotsman yearn or yell
For the taste of Yorkshire pudding
Let the English family dwell.
For the famed Tandoori Chicken
That Punjabis praise like hell
But for us who hail from Goa
There's nothing like SORPOTEL!

From the big wigs in Colaba
To the small fry in Cavel
From the growing tribes in Bandra
To the remnants in Parel
From the lovely girls in Glaxo
To the boys in Burma Shell
There's no Goan whose mouth won't water
When you talk of SORPOTEL!

And Oh! for Christmas dinner
Don't you think it would be swell
If by some freak of fortune
Or by some magic spell
We could, as they have in Goa
A bottle of the cajel
And toddy leavened sannas
To go with SORPOTEL

And from good ol' Kolkata,
Please let me add some thoughts,
Of hing-aer kachouris, and tea in chatty-pots.
A perfect combination,
I'm sure you'd remember well,
But for that sit-down dinner,
It's got to be SORPOTEL!

Now the anglo-bras will swear,
by smelly balichow,
And butt curry from Chulias,
(You know, the innards of the cow.)
But they get all stoned and dreamy
when they get that heady smell,
of toddy-drunken sannas and steaming SORPOTEL!

And every bloke from Cal ,
Will talk of kati roll.
Of puchkas, dalpuri and nehari,
And sometimes maachaer jhol.
Panthey Kowswey jhalfrezee and pepper water
Oh I love them as well,
But if we have to go to the polls
I VOTE FOR SORPOTEL!