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I think I have stayed too long in Singapore and long enough in Dubai to start compiling a Dubai vs. Singapore list for things that are different between the two. So here it goes! Part 1 of possibly many!

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Dubai: You almost forget there exist things like clouds and rain.

Sg: At times you almost forget how it is to have a day without rain!

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Dubai: You forget the concept of postal addresses, and start thinking in terms of “blue building”, “behind the petrol station”, “next to Greens” etc and drawing maps instead of giving an address!

Sg: It is the other extreme where you have to tackle Nanyang Avenue, Nanyang Terrace, Nanyang Crescent, Nanyang Road, Nanyang Circle, Nanyang Place, Nanyang North, South, East and West, Nanyang Close, Nanyang Estate, Nanyang Drive, Nanyang View, Nanyang Heights, Nanyang Walk, each with numbers both sides! (I wish I was kidding about this, or even exaggerating, but I am not!). But somehow the cabbies seem to get you to the correct place when you tell them “12 Choa Chu Kang Avenue 3″ (if that exists!).

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Dubai: There’s that annoying Ground floor and then the first floor starts from above it. I still do not understand why this system exists (here or in India for that matter)

Sg: Floor numbering goes 1, 2, 3… excellent!

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Dubai: Lifts (elevators) allow you to cancel a wrongly-clicked floor by double-clicking them again. Neat!

Sg: With high-rise buildings all around the place, I dont understand why this feature is absent! Easily exploited by the likes of Rohit, who used to live on 36th floor, and annoyed his friends by pressing every floor on the way!

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Dubai: So dusty outside that you need to polish your shoes almost every other day.

Sg: Cant recall ever having to polish my shoes! Compounded by the fact that it rains so often, its a self-cleaning item!

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Dubai: Owning a car is a must, driving like mad is common, the authorities do not believe in public transportation (yet)

Sg: Owning a car is an optional luxury, the driving is civilized at worst, and public transportation facilities are excellent!

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More posts to come on the same topic. Plus, there would be many similarities, that for future posts!

My first Ramadan in Dubai has come and gone, and it has been an experience! Eating, drinking, smoking and even chewing gum in public is prohibited. Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, companies cut down work hours at least 2 hours every day, and there is a sense of control over everything.

All eating places (ones that open) block themselves out from public view.

While in the topic of control, I did try out one day of fasting (for the company Iftaar, or event for breaking the fast), and that really changed the way I looked at this whole exercise. I do consider myself one of those rare ones who can easily de-prioritize food in the daily scheme of things. In fact, for most of the day I was fine, but somewhere around 5PM, I realised how difficult it was starting to get.

Had I been fasting without my active knowledge (which my friends from NTU would vouch for), it would have been easy, but conciously suppressing the urge to eat, that’s really something! Anyways, in the end, along came sun-down, and it was Iftaar, or breaking of fast. It is a different thing that I didnt end up going for the company event (there was a small India-Pakistan T20 World Cup final that kept me home glued to the TV!), but the purpose of the exercise was met.

What you would realise is the value of self-control, and some perspective on how life is if you are less fortunate. Not surprisingly, charity drives like Dubai Cares collect millions of dirhams (in fact, already reaching the Billion Dirham mark, I think!) of honest contributions. That’s much more than you can ever imagine from ‘holier-than-thou’ nations of the west, or India/Singapore that I have experienced.

Now that the month is over, it actually feels a bit weird being able to eat and drink in public!

So I came across an old panoramic photo of Sentosa that I stitched together years and years ago. It was interesting to see how much it has changed in the past few years. The greenery you see here has gone down by probably 30%, and a whole lot of construction going on around it. We can only hope that once the construction finishes, the beauty of the place is restored at least close to what you see in the picture.

View of Sentosa from the so called “southernmost point of Continental Asia”.

Only recently did I read that the word Sentosa comes from the Malay word for “tranquility”, which should have its origin from the Sanskrit word Santosha.

In any case, the charm of the island has worn down considerably in my mind, with the umpteen trips you end up making to it (being one of the few quick getaways you have from Singapore, and with this being a must-go destination for anyone who comes visiting you in Singapore), but the fresh greenery that the name brings to my mind is in stark contrast to what I see around where I currently live, Dubai.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7023644.stm

Though this article may appear uninteresting to some, but it has a thought-provoking statement:

“Specialisation is short term-success but it is long-term risk; because as soon as the ecosystem becomes destabilised, you’re the first candidate to go extinct. It’s the generalists that get through“.