English Vinglish

Sridevi is an actress I have seen growing .

As a child she acted as  Murugan in Thiruvilayadal and grew up as a charming child artiste alongside an equally talented childstar Kamalahassan ,both of them would become one of the most succesful screen pairs later in life with movies like padinaru vayadinilee ,meendum kokila and moonram pirai  later taken in Hindi as Sadma .

Sridevi  became a succesful bollywood heroine and had acted in many other south and north indian language films

Now in her fifties married to Boney Kapoor with two daughters she  leads a blissful family life
 SriDevi has bounced back with her new film English Vinglish .

I think she set a standard with this for any comeback film .

 An elegant slim svelte Sridevi carries herself with aplomb speaking with her eyes and body language the emotions of a traditional Marathi housewife who travels to the  United States of America and to the big Apple itself with not knowing a word of  English and bearing a terrible inferiority complex because of this  .

Her travel is to attend and organise her nieces wedding in New York .

her  family in Mumbai would join  a month later .

Her teen daughter  is  a snob and never misses an oppurtunity to embarass and hurt her mother for her poor knowledge of English

her husband too subtly encourages the ridicule and indulges in sarcasm often

Sashi as she is known in the movie is an expert in cooking and her delicous ladoos are much awaited .in all functions .

she does a small catering business too.

Sashi is very anxious during her  flight to the  US but luckily she has a genial passenger sitting next to her in the flight  our very Amitabh Bachan  who gives her all assistance and the needed confidence to sail through

In New York Sashi learns about an english speaking class which promises to teach in 4 weeks spoken english and she joins it telling no one

the director has done a good job in scripting the characters  in the class ,

there is a happy go lcuky Pakistani driver ,a bespectacled square Tamilian who aches for his mother and for idli in that order  , a morose African who listens more than speaks , a plumpy Spanish maid who drifts to sleep all the time and  a chithcattering Chinese lass whom the Pakistani driver promptly  starts to charm from  the beggining and wins in the end .

and then there is that quite handsome smiling   French chef who is so  understanding and caring to Sashi and finally  falls in love with her !!

Sashi the traditonal Indian housewife wife loves her husband and family too much to succumb to such advances but traces of confusion are shown subtly by the director when she rebuffs the frenchmans affection .

David sir the gay teacher of the class is another intresting character .

The climax happens with Sashi winning all the way both in conquering English and also in love from a regretful daughter and husband who now realise her true value .

the big colourful indian wedding is there with all its dance song and rombustiousness .

during the weddding reception Sashi is asked to and  delivers a speech in slow but confident english and every single word comes from her  heart   on love and family and hurt
A  message not only to the new couple butto all watching the movie too

A delightful movie with no flaws

Sridevi has proved herself as a great actress and needs a national award for this

you have to see it.people ...... no xcuse

Mavericks in Indian politics

Indian politicians are mostly mavericks so the selected below are mavericks of high grade

Mamata Banerjee the fiery Bangla lawyer chief minister who single handedly axed the CPM out of the writers building in Kolkata ( the secretariat of west Bengal )which they had occupied for aeons .

Mamata fits in well with the label of a maverick

she is impulsive dramatic and an angry middle aged women fitting well  to the revelutionary fervour of the Bengali psyche .

The ultimatum she has given to the congress at the centre now could shake the polity a bit and could pave  way for future confabulations .

with all her imperviousness she is also a machiavellian politician whose larger ambiton would be to occupy the Primeministerial Gaddi in the near future .she knows the seat is up for  the gamble in the near future and she wants to be a possible contender .

Uma Bharati the inflamable sanyasin of the BJP would fit the maverik label well

be it her antics in Ayodhya ,or her challenging L.K. Advani himself  in her party or  by her robust speeches

 how can one forget Mayawati when we talk of maveriks

The great benefactor of the downtrodden and the lower castes had spend crores of rupees for erecting her own statues when her state reeled in poverty ,cooling her heels outside power for now the maverik would return anytime with a bang knowing our country

Jayalalitha the hooded empress of Tamilnadu continues to dance her way into the hearts of Tamils just like she did in  films years back 

She  never ceases to be the prime destroyer of her bete noir the dark goggled octogenarian polygamist Karunananidhi ,she is a maverick at times but also a mature stateswomen at other  times

most of the above examples   are females

this does not mean we have no male competiton 

the ancient Raj Narain  wh o was famous for defeating Indira Gandhi himself is a prime choice

from wearing sarees to drinking urine he has done it all

then of course we have our home bred Bihari Lalu himself who pu lts a front as a  country bum with a cleaver brain ticking  behind all along .

one can include Suresh Kalmadi who played the right and wrong  game in sports administration and made a packet for himself and his patrons in this group

cud have missed many more

as I  said difficult when the place is filled with mavericks

Dr .K.K.Haridas ...condolences

Dr Haridas the eminient cardiologist of Amritha Institute of medical sciences Kochi,Kerala is  no more .
I learnt this recently and was very sad .
Iam neither a professional colleague nor a close friend of Dr Haridas but as he would have for so many people he had made a touch in my life not to be forgotten .
Years back when myself and my wife were still a young couple bewildred at the storm that life gave us after a fairy tale romance and marriage  had gone to CMC hospital vellore taking our young mentally challenged daughter  Shilpa .
We had gone there to find a surgical remedy for her Ventricular Septal defect better known in common parlalnce as a hole in the heart .
this was one amongst her many problems .
VSD some times closes spontaneously but if big  can produce ireversible changes leading to cardiac failure .
We did not want this to happen to our dear daughter .
Christian medical college is a well known tertiary referral centre in South India but the cardiolgist we saw there lacked the very organ which he was specialised in !
he discouraged us and asked us whether  it  was cost effective to do such a surgery for a mentally challenged child and  also confirmed  that as a policy CMCH  would not  waste thier time on such cases !
This angered us  and hurt us a lot ,
she was our child and it was our decison and who was he to  stop it .

so we went to Madras ( todays Chennai ) and met the very famous cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Cherian .
who was in vijaya hospital at the time .
cherian a man of few words sized the situation and also our hurt very quickly he also knew we would need some concessions for the surgery .
Dr Haridas was the cardiologist then in the same team and Dr Cherian entrusted us to him .
we still remember how Dr Haridas took us and showed us around and gave us words of encouragemnt  The surgery too went off well .
After a few years Shilpa too left us .

years later Dr Haridas came to Kochi joining Amritha hospital and we met him once .
We told him about Shilpas loss  and about the school we started in her memory ,he not only remebered Shilpa well but came to our school and donated a very useful physiotherpay equipment .

Dr Haridas was a brilliant student  erudite scholar and emininet cardiologist and also  son of the legendary Dr Krishnadas of Trivandrim Medical college .

it is unfortunate to hear Dr Haridas is no more .
May his soul rest in peace .

Prime politics ...showtime

Most Indian politician don’t do their jobs but they are multi talented

We need to be receptive to their capabilities and use these to the benefit of our nation instead of constantly grumbling of their uselessness

Some small examples below of how this can be done …..

Bashing and punching inside the parliament and Assemblies of members is very common these days

We can have live TV coverage and legal betting on these heated sparrings this can turn into a goldmine if well marketed and will fetch lots of advertisements .

For example …..

Watch today 11 am…… Shri Bilawant sher singh of Lokhandwala constituency of UP biting into shri Ram Makhanpuri of Bhandepur constituency of Bihar ,( warning some of the scenes could be gory )

Dracula times ……. blood letting shot live in 3 assemblies ..watch experienced partymen draw blood from each other jumping over galleries

( warning these are professionals ….untrained people should not try this at home )





Watch tonight Bruce lee Banwarial l yadav throwing Salem shanmugham into the well of the house in one throw



Sunday 6pm recording replays of choice explectives series ….. this would be the weeks collection of rare auditory outpouring s of our elected representatives recorded by Oscar award winning Rasool Pookutty himself ( warning tender souls to wear earpieces to avoid tympanic damages )

Late night show Hijra MP from Madhya Pradesh does special Mujra dance on opposition tables

( watch only after children sleep) psst includes lap dance too !!!





Robotic dances from west Bengal could be shown at 9pm daily in National TV

Our new president himself would do it in the Mughal gardens of Rastrapathi Bhavan live to the tunes of Rabindra sangeeth



“ The Macroeconomics of being the right puppet in an emerging economy “by our PM

Would be the Republic day special for all networks



How to make puppets dance without even strings could be a popular educational series run by a well known Italian celebrity







How to squash flies and other enemies just like that talk show demonstration by MM Mani of Kerala

Emerging Kerala with submerging funds ,the looting chronciles lecture series in Keralas regional network on Friday prime time



Munnar matters ….. sarcastic comedy series by an octogenarian politician with shrugging shoulders syndrome

How to make good friends with jailed suspects ,talk series specially recorded from Kannur



Hartal holidays travel special by RED tours ltd

Snakes and lotuses ( thamara and pambus ) sponsored series by Beverages corpn



Alagiri films sole production released all over India and the world at same the time would show how disappearing sons could reappear with crores of rupees



Karunanaidhi from Chennai tinted glasses and three wives fame could be interviewed on

Veeranam to Cooum it is all money money ………. in veteran files

Amma and Sasikala breakfast show on capes and corruption in Tamil an exclusive from two leaves production s

Hamera banega crorepathi by MA Raja with anchor Kanimozhi made for u in Tihar jail



From Karnataka to Argentina part one travelogue would be immediately followed by Karnataka to Sweden and neighbouring countries……… this particular seires would run for approximately two years to cover the whole tours

Special focus would be educational inputs on how to conduct study tours when droughts plague home countries

How to keep smiling while states reel in debt would be the fashion show specials by these worthies



How to make Biriyani for terrorists would be the biggest cooking show of the year

Mahesh Bhatt and Shabana Azmi would stress on how good Biriyanis can change terrorist psyches

ArundhatiRroy could give expert comments

Believe it or not series on Anna Hazare on how to fast without any benefit for anyone

This one would l compete for rankings from Yogi Ramdev demonstrations how to get out black stools er sorry black moneys by inappropriate abdominal contortions

sports channels can have field days

One suresh kalmadi could make money for all of them

How commonwealth can be converted to personal wealth ……tricks form the great wizard of sports suresh kalmadi special

Juggling show by sugar cane biting Sharad pawar where he would juggle in prime time with BCCI and agriculture with his feet upside down

snoring stories

My daughter in her early twenties   had been with us for a month now and was planning to leave back to her studies in India in a couple of days .

 she wanted to sleep with both of us together last night for a change before she left us

A small yearning to be the small girl again and be with both her dad and mum together

 we too loved it

For the last several days mother and daughter had left me alone in the master bedroom  to brood

And so we chatted away and laughed a lot and slowly sleep took us over

just like those old days

After a small quick nap the bright light switched on woke me up

I saw Sruthi my daughter going back to the next room !

Me …..What happened molle ( dear ) …… ?

Sruthi…..Am, going back to my room to sleep …

Me ….Why ?

Sruthi… nothing ,   can’t sleep here !

Me …..Oh and why so ?

Sruthi….Acha ( Dad )       look   one can manage to sleep with one person snoring as it was for me the last one month but two of you together and in different tones and pitches is too much to bear !

You know as soon as I managed to grunt, shout, squeak, shake or even tweet the nose of my mother and she stopped, you would start where she left !

Do You have a relay system or what?

How united you are in this ?

Made for each other indeed !

I smiled sheepishly in the dark as she put out the light and walked off.





The funny thing about snoring is it is something that is never known by the snorer .

I always prided myself as one who never snored though I had a suspicion I sort of made blubbery sounds from my lips as I fell asleep

that didn’t count as real snoring does it ?

In my dreamy state it was like a soothing lullaby and it just heralded me to the bliss of somnia



Of course many of us snore  with different styles of our own

And sleep medicine is a great specilaity these days where effective measures reduce snoring and prevent something known as sleep apnea where one tends to stop breathing momentarily  !

Dangerous

We had no such pathological snoring of this kind
just some harmless non poisonous  rumbling you see

So I thought till yesterday !!



Talking about snoring We once had a guest who came to our house in Cochin and that was ages back when we had this small clinic attached to the house 

 on that particular occasion we had plenty of relatives visiting from the native village for a function occupying different rooms in the house .

This said gentleman insisted that he was happy to lie on the floor of the hall and he would sleep slowly watching TV late into midnight as this  was his regular habit  and so we agreed to his whim but warned him  of the presence of patients coming to the ante room clinic near the hall in the morning .

He guffawed and said ….. I would be up and about by  dawn as we are from the village you know and we hardly miss the sunrise there

I still don’t remember whether he meant sunset or sunrise  for he was deep asleep at 8.30 am

and out of our graciousness to a guest we didn’t shake him or pour a bucket of water on him!

Though I was sorely tempted to do so

Here was somebody who could sleep through a nuclear explosion with a smile on his face

Well I had no issues, let him sleep but couldn’t he have done it quietly

He seemed to have been a record holder in the Olympics in the snoring category as we came to know from the others who were traitorous enough not to have warned us of this knowledge .

The sounds that emanated that day amongst the coughs and sneezes of our patients was of high decibels

It ranged in several rare ragas

Wild and tame animals were mimicked

one minute we would be in the deep jungle as wild pigs rampaged amongst snorting crocodiles elephants bellowed while lions road  mice squeaked and ducks quacked

Resool pookuty the sound engineer who got an Oscar would have been delighted to get those rare sounds on record for posterity

The patients sniggered and some asked me

Doctor where did you get this special piece of art from?

Well he is a great artist, with great difficulty we had brought him from a far land because we were told that the vibrations that emanate from his snore  are part of a special vasthusasthra and does wonders to our fortunes !   ....I countered

And thus when the last patient had smiled away our man rose with a guttural farewell to his snoring paradise and squeaked his eyes open

Chaya chaya ( Tea Tea ) he bellowed

That was the most delicous sound to our ears that day .

Mohabati Sulaimani Ustaad Hotel

Any act of creativity with soul  stands out from others
so does the malayalam film USTAAD HOTEL  .

such films raise the hope for the future of mollywood

There is a scene in the movie  where  the veteran actor Thilakan    hands over a glass of  tea  he made to his grandson Sulfikar the hero of the film ,who is awed by its taste and enquires about it .

 Thilakan replies that  it is so because it was  a  sulaimani full of  mohabbat .
 ( a tea laced with love ) .

 The film is really a sulaimani with loads of mohabbat .

Dulqar Salman  son of the superstar Mamooty ( a tigers son cannot be a cat ) is a Swiss educated chef who loves being one .

Director Anwar Rasheed had made a good choice in him fro the film .

Dulqars  father the multicrore Dubai based business man  Siddique has his ambitons on investing in a five star hotel to be run by his son in India not as a chef but as a CEO .

To Siddique  cooking had always been  a stigma having grown up under a father who owned a decriept hotel by the beach in Kozhikode ( Calicut )  and when he thought he had finally left those sordid memories behind he begets a son who wants to be another  cook !

His infuriation and his new found wife (having been a widower for many years ) drives his son to his grandfather .

Thilakan the quintisential Asan or master chef makes his grandson go through the works from being a cleaner boy to an errand boy and slowly making him work his way up to being the chef ,
he also gets his grandson  a job in the nearby five star hotel and slowly Dulqar comes to realise that even the Biriyani which the beach 5 star hotel is famous for comes from Ustaad hotel  sold at astronomical prices there and that the owners were eyeing the property planning to drive off the old man from the dream of his life .

Dulqar throws away his job and with the help of his lady love Nitya Menon and some friends does a makeover to the Ustaad hotel ,there are so many problems like interference by the food dept and the media encouraged by the enemies which is all overcome and finally Dulqar and his dad come to understand  of what is true in life is what  is what is done with sincerity but by the time they lose the man who taught them this by living it .

The aromatic Biriyanis made in Ustaad hotel reminded me  of the famous Kayikan Biriyanis of Mattancherry Cochin which is also  well known for its mohabat .

films message I feel  is mohabat wins .........always...... yes it does ,in anything
 remember that !

an Ode to Independence

for every being his country is the best

to that person its  always a bit above the rest

after all is  it not  ones own nest  ?

its thoughts would ever fill ones chest

India  to me is a blessed place

full of excuisite  beauty and grace

with  a long history and a hoary past

its lands are spread out far and  vast

it has its tall and snowy peaks

its forests are filled with firs and teaks

its deserts are full of blowing  sands

and its blue  seas embraces its green lands 

it has multihued  languages  cultures and colurs

its subjects are immersed in several labours

but it has a string tying it  all together

like an umblical cord  its mother

A land with many varied thoughts

where   many paths to God are sought

a land filled with many wise sages

going back to the ancient ages .

a country which had been ravaged

conqured over  time  raped and savaged

for centuries  its wealth plundered

but with a  soul that  never surrendered

many came to its shores with greed
robbing it and letting it bleed
ruling it and damning its subjects
filling it with poverty abject

it had overcome all this to get its freedom
and from many little and big kingdoms
it was born an united country proud
to those men and women who brought this  our heads are always  bowed

to those valiant soldiers gaurding our borders
waiting for the enemy marauders
all we can do is to  salute and bow deep
for remember  thier watch makes us reap .

But there are many   enemies within us
the cunning and the conning powermongers
who  are no different from our invaders
they loot and cheat and sell our country like traders

in the name of freedom and democracy
they hold the reins of autocracy
 they play thier puppets and pull the strings
cutting and clipping our  thoughts and wings

they are clever in words cunning in deeds

they reap the spoils of thier seeds

and as our beloved country continues to bleed

our hearts wail and wait for  a change plead

is there a light at the edge of the tunnel

or are we doomed to fall in the funnel

what and where will we find that elusive  turn

before our dear  country succumbs to its burns

From sports to religon they meddle

and as we burn  they play the fiddle

these men and women who muddle

area dangerous and an unsolvable riddle

some  amongst them are men of virtue

but it seems like that  they are far and few

the harbringers of change are split

and thrown into deep and endless pits

and so the story goes on
sixty five years after we were born
eternal hope is the only solace
which we can blissfully embrace

India is too great to fall
for it has never done that at all
so the present devils too  will go one day
and only then   would  India shine with its golden rays

SPIRIT ...movie Review

The combination of Ranjith and Mohanlal should have been enough to raise the spirit of the malayalam movie Spirit ,but it really doesnt reach the nidus it was expected to .

For one it has  ,specially in the  second half a feebly docusocial lecture feel to it on  evils of drinking but if the intention was this then it would or rather should have made an impact .

After all Kerala is known for its drinking problem sic ,i mean the malaylaee is well known to drown his happiness or sadness in the vile liquid .

He needs no excuse to reach for the peg be it a marriage ,a death ,a good or a bad news 

A  hartal of course which is repeated regularly is more than an excuse for downing a few .

The liqour sales  touches  crores of rupees  during most festivals like Vishu and Onam and  the breaking news eagerly awaited  is of the district which made the maximum sales .

The line outside the beverage corporation is the only orderly line  in the whole state !

As the akbari contractor an ilk known by thier  dress and demanour to be an oily garishly dressed  alec with the right contacts at the wrong places laughs his way to the banks ,many familes go bankrupt as thier bread winner rolls in the brew  reducing  him to a slave to the habit . 

The film brilliantly portrays one such family that of Manian the plumber who most of the time is lost in the vapours of liqour clouding his faculties and goes around hitting his wife and children and generally being a destructive force ,there are large number of Manians in Kerala today and the Government never bothers about the ills that thier liqour policy does to the common man whom they are supposed to protect  as they count the largesse coming out of its sales and are preoccupied with distributing the spoils to thier near and dear .

Another class too is depcited that of the social drinking elite who are intellectulas stimulated by Bacchus in thier creative instincts or money raking business people or dhoti clad politicians who need the right chemistry for thie machiavellian machinations and vote garnering .

many of them are smug in thier confidence that  they know when to stop and a couple of pegs a day does good for them .

some amongst them cannot stop it when they want and go the Manian way albiet in thier own environment

Having worked in an IMA run deadiction centre as a volunteer medical officer I know the trials and tribulations an addict goes through to get out of his habit which is easier said than done .

Mohanlal as ever has no failings in his histrionics and Ranjith delivers  his crispy dialogues ,Thilakan the veteran is  wasted as a druken bum ,while  Lena does a brilliant protrayal of a smart commissoner of police

It is Nandu who really excels as Manian .

The picture hits the  malayalee and his habit where it should  in his solar plexus and tells him he is not the great intellectual he thinks while he down his peg on the rocks but just a fool lost in his habit

  I hope it also makes him come down from his Oh I know all attitude

Beirut Break

Beirut Break

Beirut the very  name conjures a Mediterranean haven of pleasure and Leisure

Dusky  evenings behind frosted windows  tall  clinking glasses ,Dark coffee in quaint cups  to be gulped on checkered  tables in  pavement cafes ,lazy hookahs their smokes twisting into the roofs ,the horizon with   distant mountains ,the aquamarine sea  , the drifting ships .the nights filled with  dance and song ,

After all was not  Beirut  known as the Paris of the East .

The Lebanese people are fun loving  ,good looking  ,large hearted people ,and to them life is full of fun and warmth .

 It is sad that such people should have been subjected to decades of unrest and civil war ,forced to live in a country split into two ,with snipers firing from the rooftops with bombs blasting and mines bursting .

The green line separated Beirut during  those hardy days of the civil war  into two .

 It was after the nineties when it all ended and their President Rafik Harirri brought some peace to the wounded land ,

Tragedy overtook again in 2005 when a bomb took away this handsome man from the streets in the very centre of Beirut ,

There is a sculpted memorial  in the very spot of the assassination with a bullet ridden bombed out empty building  in its back ground .

 Incidentally the place I stayed the well-known hotel Phoenicia was just facing this spot and I gazed at it from my balcony .

The history of Lebanon unfolded in my eyes there as I reminisced what I had seen from the visit to the well-kept National museum ,

Lebanon has a rich history dating back to the prehistoric,

conquered and ruled over the ages by the sea faring Phoenicians ,Byzantines ,The Romans ,The Greeks ,and later the Ottomans ,and in the present century  the French to  rule them

It was in 1947 that Lebanon was free to its own but the sixties brought unrest and the long civil war from which  the country is slowly waking up to its former glory .

  Religions meshed with cultures leaving deep imprints in the people

Now there is peace and coexistence

 The marks of history are seen in the landscape be it the Roman baaths or the Balbak ruins the magnificent St Georges Cathedral where the monks hid their treasures  in the basement for long during the wars

The Blue mosque its cobalt dome shining  the skyline as Beirut’s  landmark gazing into the yellow staccato baroque European style downtown buildings .

As I strolled along the turquoise  sea lining cornice into this enclosed area  I entered into a world which was unlike any .

The cobbled streets were neat flower lined  the pavements lined with boisterous coffee shops ,youngsters lively and colourful gazing at the upmarket malls fashion shows in ramps, the  live TV shows being recorded ,with children blowing bubbles in the air ,amongst all this all this a detective walked with a huge police dog leashed in a chain which went around sniffing for hidden bombs .he stopped often to pat children on their heads and many went on to caress the big dog’s head .

There were soldiers armed to the teeth gazing at the children playing smiling benevolently but ready to rise in any emergency,

The peace was palpable and there was a sense of calm and happiness everywhere.

I could see a retro wedding car awaiting the bride and groom to come out of the church accompanied by elegant guests.

Almost straight out of a scene from Godfather the Hollywood flick

Beirut is a small city, Lebanon has many other lovely places to visit too and places where there were snowy hills very close to the city but I had a very short stay.

i took an yellow cab to the museum which cost me 15 $ (roughly 1500 Lebanese pounds ) American dollars are accepted everywhere ,public transport is not much to talk about of course one could share taxis or vans which work out cheaper ,best option is to walk as generally climate is reasonably good and walking gives you the pulse of any place .

the Museum is divided into sections of Lebanese history from the prehistoric times to now ,many artefacts statues  line the small but well-kept museum ,nearby is the St Georges cathedral .

I went from here to Hamra the well-known shopping street ,this looked like the Brigade road in Bangalore or Jan path in N Delhi full of shops and restaurants good for people watching of course

 I did just that from a corner cafe as i munched into a crunchy sandwich .

I strolled along the American university hospital to reach the cornice ,I even found a Tamil worker on the way and stopped to talk to him for a while .

The cornice was quite as it was late afternoon but for a few fishing enthusiasts and their long poles

The Yatch club had a good collection of stylish yatches

Finally i reached my hotel to a well-earned rest .

Evening took me to downtown and its wonders and that night all delegates were taken for dinner in a lovely sea side restaurant and we bit into delicious sea food to gentle lapping of waves with salty winds ruffling our hair .

 

 The next evening too we went to a small exclusive restaurant dimly lit serving authentic Lebanese cuisine to the accompaniment of a  very interactive singer with accompaniments ,he made all of us get into the mood of the evening  and this was followed by a mini skirted female singer who was also good in her job .

Though I have taken a lot of the wholesome healthy Lebanese food in the UAE the food here was definitely more tasty and authentic as everything was fresh and tangy .

 After the next day’s meeting I had to return by the night flight

Beirut made an indelible impression on me

 

I bid farewell to the merry city of Beirut with its  happy good people promising to come back another day .