Postcard From Heaven
A post card.... A window into the illusory afterlife that was designed by man to appeal to his delectations: women and an endless supply of wine. The tempting routes and inviting door bells. The...
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The aftertaste of lukewarm coffeeand the looming doomTomorrow is a vacant bungalowon the lake of endless gloomA variable camouflaged from usBy a hundred spikes of denialA camera slung on slumped...
View ArticleIn the quest for a song...
There are places only books can take you. The same is true for music. Sometimes it happens in public, I'd be doing something mundane (like eating or smoking), or slightly intellectually stimulating...
View ArticleArticle 12
"...What actors know about emotions is that they come in pairs, often in direct opposition to each other. That's what it is to be conflicted. We want what we should not want and we know it. We desire...
View ArticleLove in the eye of a wind turbine
Love in the eye of a wind turbineThe moments twirlwith a constant puzzlewaiting for the starsto be alignedYour hair is mussedwith the flow of timeand our gusts of passionhere, intertwinedCartwheeling...
View ArticleWriter's Block
Behold the writer's block, its cementitious make-up and rough surface. Its weight, the cuboidal shape and the volume it occupies. Just what makes this bloody block so damn heavy to move or to nudge, to...
View ArticleA Perspective From The Graveyard
We stood around with our eyes fixed on the slight bump in the dirt before us. My colleague was wearing a white dish-dash with blotches of mud on it, evidently from the burial process that took place a...
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Under My Olive Tree
The olive harvest season falls on the months of October and November. The exact timing of harvest varies from one region to another, and from one kind of olive trees to another. And it also depends on...
View ArticleSelf Defenestration
The father brought little Mohamed a trinket tied to a lanyard.Little Mohamed loved it, he kept it slung around his neck all the time, getting on his mother's nerves.The mother got fed up and took it...
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Burst Pipe
Dubai: An underground water pipe that burst on Shaikh Zayed Road on Monday morning caused traffic congestion and a number of minor accidents, Dubai Police said.The Al Marabe'e exit on Shaikh Zayed Road...
View ArticleThe Elephant
There is an old story from India that aptly illustrates how frame of reference affects an understanding of physical properties, and indeed of the larger setting in which those properties are...
View ArticleApril Fools
Childhood memories are the hardest to interpret. It is hard to fathom why a certain scene stayed with you, while other, probably more significant events, didn’t make it through your memory's natural...
View ArticleMagic Potion
Here's my attempt to re-write the lyrics of Teardrop by Massive Attack (Try to sing along to the same tune, here goes):Come on Spell the beans Get your hands on a touch screen Unwind that tape of...
View ArticleHow To Report On Issues Related To Construction
1- Hire construction reporters: there are business reporters, crime reporters, science journalists, life-style editors, etc. So why not construction reporters? It's a huge sector. And no, I don't mean...
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Qatar World Cup Stadiums: no air-conditioning?
Hello there!I have not blogged in a year (For various reasons that I'm not going to go through now.) Today, as I sat reading about a new proposal for stadiums in Qatar for the 2022 world cup, I had...
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Gravity
(Spoilers Alert)Who has not heard of Isaac Newton's apple falling off a tree? It is one of the most talked about and repeated stories of science told to kids. And that's because gravity is itself the...
View ArticleNelson Mandela
It is understandable that people don't like to dabble in politics. It is also understandable that people are more inclined to idolize saints than politicians. After all, saints are neutral, all-loving...
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Rasem Badran (and my response: in defense of Dubai)
Below are a few ideas I’ve written down after attending a thought provoking lecture by world-renowned Jordanian architect Rasem Badran. The lecture was held in Dubai Municipality HQ and I thank them...
View ArticleUAE Tobacco Law
As reported by The National.It's interesting that the law is concerned with "the sales and use of Tobacco". If you want to be pedantic, the fruity tobacco mix that is used in shishas is not strictly...
View ArticleBefore I Sleep
That feeling of sudden night stillness, it stuns me as I lay down to sleep. This quiet, contrary to the hustle and everyday noise, is unnerving. My eyes move behind shuttered lids, looking for...
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Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature
No one in my social circle read books. None of my colleagues or the friends that I meet on regular basis read books. Heck, not a single one of the people I meet on a weekly basis read books.Basically,...
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The Business Bay Canal: Water Under The Bridge?
7 Days reported what you have been dreading (but knew was gonna happen anyway): Sheikh Zayed Road traffic near Safa Park will witness a massive diversion while the bridge over the business bay canal...
View ArticleArguing About History
I’ve always found arguing about history an amusing exercise. History by definition is that past period of time that had elapsed long before you were born (unless you were really really old), that you...
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"The Sunken Oasis"
Architecture is a field with a great potential for cultivating creativity, but it's also a lab for experimenting with random ideas. And sometimes there's just a thin line separating these two...
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