Under things I learnt today, Iraq has an absolutely wonderful region in the south called the Mesopotamian marshes. I am in awe of its beauty.
They seem surreal, in the backdrop of a country torn apart by militia, media, politics, IS, local rebels. For me, the below pictures make me realize that Iraq is truly beautiful and has always been.
Avatar, the movie, was way ahead of its time. Made in 2009, it could've well applied to a 150 AD Earth or a 2150 AD Earth. A beyond lush, resourceful and beautiful planet where life is simple. There is no junk food, no digging up Pandora for minerals, no electricity or sky scrapers. Simple sleeping pods made of roots. Simple food from available plants and fruits and perhaps the small creatures. You know exactly where your food comes from.
No politics, no news. A horse and a dragon for all. Not too bad eh?
Nature is amazing. It has everything for us. All energy is only borrowed and one day, you have to give it back. Every living being is connected - there's a flow which we do not realize. But we live as isolated beings, glued to our couches, working for money in small man made desks when in fact, we have all of the planet to wander on.
There was a sentence in the series 'Outlander' of which I saw a few episodes. 'We will live off the land'. I think the show was set in the 1700's. I am inclined to believe that people did live off the land - eating food in the wild, sleeping in the wild. A very different life to what we live now. I don't know which I prefer.
SS
I feel so empty. It's been a few days. Swimming really helps. I do not want to work full time. But it so happens that I want to travel a lot. I'm on the edge if may be I'd be okay to travel in moderate settings. I mean I would be more than okay to stay in boutique villas, luxury hotels, artsy nooks - but the question is, would I be okay to travel in moderate settings.
Apart from travel, another big thing would be kids. Having kids changes the whole equation. You then have a certain minimum standard and liability to keep up with every month. Or a sick loved one with above the moon bills.
At this point in life, neither can I travel thanks to Covid-19 nor do I have kids nor a sick loved one. So the motivation to work full time is missing. And it's been a while that it's been missing. I have a feeling many people en el todo el mundo feel this way.
SS
I swam for almost 40 minutes yesterday. High intensity swimming completing 50 laps. I felt so good. Observation of my life - when I'm in water/close to water I am so happy. It's not logical. I forget all my worries. I am a different person in H2O.
I sometimes wonder why I don't do it more often. Will my love for water fade if it is made available everyday? Is my illogical fascination for H2O driven by my infrequent visits to the pool/sea? I plan to swim daily and go to the beach every weekend. Let's see if the fascination wears off.
SS
In my previous office, my outside view was that of a desert. No, that sounds rather exotic for someone living in a busy city. My view was the of a barren land. Nothingness. Prior to that, I had no view. It was a room without windows.
In my current office, I get to see the tallest building in the world as my outside view, on one side. On the other side, I get to see the sea. Yes - the lovely blue Persian Gulf. Irrespective of what you were used to, this is majestic. I was bowled over on the first few days. Very naively, I mentioned to a senior person how wonderful it is to have this view. I asked (stupidly, in hindsight) this person if they ever got used to the view.
Today, I looked outside and just yawned. The view is now normalized. I'm used to it. I am used to this beautiful sea and the beautiful skyscraper. I'm a little upset that this view is normalized for me and no longer exciting or fascinating. Sigh. Humans.
SS
My husband is a huge fan of IPL - in that he doesn't watch all the matches - but appreciates certain matches and teams. Today, he was watching the IPL auction taking place.
I want to write about a particular bid - it was for Chris Morris. I had not heard of him until today. There were three teams bidding for him - and every few seconds, the bid price rose by 25 lakhs. 25 lakhs is higher than the average annual salary of most Indians. It is an amount some people will take a year to save - though closer to three to five years for most other people. Chris Morris was getting it by the second.
From starting at a base price of 75 lakhs to Rajasthan Royals winning him for 16 Cr - what a terrific journey of exponential growth in 10 minutes. Such is the money in IPL.
SS
I think the old age problem is not small. Nor is it confined to a specific race, gender, country. Who's going to take care of you when you grow old? Who's going to take care of your parents when they get old, now that you have a plush job in a swanky city far away from your parents? I think about this a lot.
If I'm so scared, I can only imagine how paranoid my folks are. And extrapolating this to other families, I'm almost certain this dilemma plays out to its full potential. Old age homes are frowned upon - which is really sad because I feel like they are great solutions. A community of similar folks living together, doing gardening (or that's just the way I picture it?) surrounded by gardens and trees. With nurses, attendants, cleaners and a doctor on call. How can this be bad?
Maybe the fact that your children do not have the time or space to take care of their parents? Parents want for their kids to do well in life, go to a big city, earn the big bucks but then somehow give all that up and come back to take care of the parents. Or find another solution. Such irony.
SS
Yesterday, I read about a 27 yo in the States, who claimed to have achieved FIRE. I was astounded. He's already saved up a million dollars and almost there with the mortgage for his house - at 27! How have some people figured out their life so fast? I'm not saying that hitting a $1m is figuring out life, but the thought of never having to work for money again is 'quite a lot of figuring it out', in my opinion.
Unrelated, I starting reading the Intelligent Investor 2 days ago and while some terms and sentences require me to read through twice, I can already foresee myself being blown away by the book. I know that the rich invest in the stock market. I don't know a lot of rich people who are not linked to the stock market in some way or another. So I think understanding more about it is a good starting point to creating wealth. Right? I don't know. I guess I'll come back here in a few years and update you all.
SS
If you like Dosa, you like it for life. There's no two ways about it. I joke (but I am fairly serious) that I could have Dosa 3-4 times a week and still continue to like to for life. It's a delicious, wholesome, reasonable, simple and easy to make dish. Throw in the freshly made chutney and you have yourself a full meal. It's almost like you can not over charge for it - that would be illegal in a parallel world.
My earliest memories of Dosa are at a restaurant called Woodland's Drive-in Madras. We would all go to the Marina/Gandhi beach and on the way back - we'd go to have a Dosa at this drive in restaurant. Sometimes it would be too crowded and we would have to wait our turn. I don't remember the ambience, I was barely 10 - but I loved the chatter of the people and loved the feeling of a full tummy having eaten my favorite dish. If I reminisce about Dosa, I can not not write about Pai Dosa in Kochi. I absolutely loved their Kancheepuram dosa - stuffed with a filling (I can't exactly remember what went in - beetroot and onion perhaps?) that made me feel so happy and satiated.
Decades later, living in Dubai, I may have found myself a good place. Mami's Illam - serving you delicious ghee roast and 3 chutneys - Coconut, Coriander and Tomato. The chatter continues in this small restaurant. What more can an old Madras soul ask for?
SS
I had a vision today - one where I was sitting with friends in a living room with a huge balcony overlooking the back waters. The weather was gloomy. It was raining - the steady downpour my home town is used to.
Suddenly I realized my eyes watered up. I felt such a strong longing to be actually transported into this vision. Then came a waterfall of thoughts. Lanes, corners, small shops, buildings, cafes, bridges - all from my home town. I know every nook and corner of this city. Which is enough to make me nostalgic. But throw in the gloomy weather and the rain - and I am 15 again.
Would you like to retire where you grew up? Lately, I have been considering it a lot. I'm quite used to the Dubai life so it'll be a hard transition, but the days I am nostalgic, nothing seems to hinder my retirement plan. Would you like to go back home?
SS
A 'Sex & the City' reboot without Samantha Jones - it's like a 'How I met your Mother' reboot without Robin or rebooting 'Friends' without Chandler (the thought makes my eyes roll and cry and itch). Can do but no good. But this piece is not only about SATC; it's about reboots. I'm not saying that reboots are a bad thing. 'One day at a time' and 'Gilmore Girls' are two examples on the top of my mind that were quite successful. But rebooting SATC without 1/4 main characters seems like pushing luck. I get that it is very easy money - but what about legacy? What about the risk to reward ratio? Is a reboot worth risking the legacy the show created in the first apace? Or is money so blinding - even for millionaire actors - that nothing else matters?
Or - perhaps - maybe the 3/4 actors are confident the reboot will be good? Or maybe, with Samantha Jones they would have made much more money, and without Samantha Jones - they will still make more money than not rebooting at all? Ah the permutations of life.
