Speaking through Pics

The kind of liquid that not just runs automobiles but even the economy

Hard rocks surround the capital city of Muscat

Away from Literature

I completed my Master's in Language and Literature from Loyola in the year 2000. It’s been 8 years and when I look back the former part of the degree seems to have helped me rather than the latter one. I became aware of this academic dichotomy the moment I started wearing the teacher’s garb. Language is for livelihood and literature is for your intellectual curiosity. I was swimming around the vast ocean literariness till my M.phil days; my thesis was related to the structuralist (psychoanalysis) French critic Jacques Lacan. I dabbled with the toughest theories of Lacan and the outcome was I realised that my research was nothing compared to the vast amount of studies that is been already done in psychoanalysis.
My teaching made me come in touch with the real problems of students. They were not interested in Lacan or Shakespeare. They were more focussed that I was, they wanted to speak and write faultless English to earn a livelihood. So my classrooms made me more practical and took me away from the fictional world of literature. Letters, words, sentences and paragraphs became my world. These days it has become more hardcore with different types of ESP’s – English for Specific purposes. If I remember correctly till date I have familiarised with more that five types of ESP’s

English for Media
English for Management
English for Fashion Designing
English through the Internet
English for Business
English through Literature,

After my arrival here in Oman, I have entered the world of Technical English.
It is not that I am totally cut off from the world of make believe. Movies fill this fictional gap and it is quite interactive and richer than literature.

An Elegy on Music...

Death note of the Lebanese singer Sussaine Thameem who was ‘murdered’ recently in Dubai.
(Translated from Malayalam)
Marriage or Murder
(In the name of the most compassionate and merciful God. We come from Him and we return to Him)
My real estate property, ornaments, and other valuable items should go to my mother and brother. Nobody else should get a share of the same. The orphans and homeless ones should be protected and should be fed. Virtuous acts should be carried out and care should be taken to tread on the path of righteousness.

I sincerely apologize to those who had suffered because of me. You should pray for me so that I receive mercy from Almighty. Forgive me for all those mistakes that I have committed.

Please show some respect towards me after my death. My mother should be given extra love and care. Special time should be found to take care of her.

You should never do things that will bring upon the wrath of God.

My Libyan episode made me fell in love with singers from the world of Arab music. One of the first things I did after my arrival here is to sync my iPod to the latest in Arabic Pop music. My all time favourite is Nancy Agram – Lebanese by birth but settled in Dubai. When I read the above quoted news item in the Dubai edition of Malayala Manorama, at least for sometime I got a glimpse of the rotten underbelly of the Arab music industry. One of the USP’s of these singers is the deadly combination of beauty and voice. Both these accelerate them to instant stardom status. Their popularity is limited to the Gulf but it is deep rooted and filled with glitz. The lucky ones gets settled in Dubai and this the place where they go around doing their musical harvesting. They sing at parties (private) and clubs, sometimes they are flown into distant places like Libya and Morocco. Money is never a constraint and compared to their male counterparts they have a better ‘salability’.

The Old Face of Oman

Again it is been a long time since I penned a few lines in this space. I am kind of busy these days knowing a new culture and going back to the basic philosophy of this blog, I write only for my pleasure. I do have some readers and I thank them for their occasional tidbit of wisdom and suggestions.
Earlier, writing had been a much easier exercise. As soon as I got into my work place i.e. language lab I had the time and space to scribble my thoughts. Those days are gone I think. Life is harder when it comes to blogging. I have to come to an internet café and key in these words. Language lab was the beginning – easy and cool and it gave me enough space to get started. I would have written more than 100 blogs seated inside language lab. So, the honeymoon is over and now is the time to actually get into the act of real blogging. There are challenges everywhere and I am stirred by the actual need to write something. This time I am investing a small amount to write my blogs (surfing charges).
Being in a land away from home is a definitely new experience and the little writer in me is constantly haunted by scenes and sights which translate itself into words and sentences. Since I go out for evening walks everyday (sometimes alone, sometimes with some company) I feel the writer in me coming to life.
One of the things which really grabbed my attention is about the plight of the older or elderly generation of this country. I see them in street corners, in expensive cars staring outside with a enigmatic expression on their face, and sometimes in the company of other oldies. I feel that this elderly group, the so called senior citizens of this country will have a story to tell. About the changes in all walks of life. From the mode of transportation to the change in food habits, they have witnessed it all. They are silent, and they move like shadows in the streets. I feel that the changes have made them muted forever. When I look into their faces I feel that they have stories to tell but who is there to listen to them.
(The inspiration to write this blog came from the sight of an old man seated in the front seat of an expensive car who was looking at me in an earnest way. I found him to be aloof towards what was happening around him. He was just drifting in the heavy flow of life and i am sure that one day he will disappear, unnoticed)

Welcoming a New Culture

Once again life has taken me to a new place, away from home and it is quite surprising that it took such a long time for me to write something about the new culture. I arrived in Muscat on the 1st of September. The airport was pretty deserted because I was one of the early birds to land. After getting the visa stamped in my passport I had to wait for some time for the vehicle which was supposed to take me to work place. In one way the waiting proved to be a blessing in disguise. I got enough time to observe and learn from the people as the life around me was slowly 'waking up'. It also gave me enough time to get for currency exchange and buying the mobile card. In Oman we have two service providers once is Oman mobile and the other one is Nawras. The former managed by the government and the other is a private one.

Once the vehicle arrived, it was time to see the outside world. The first thing which struck me and my body was the heat. It was bad and I was eager to get into the waiting car. It was like stepping from a desert into a hill station. The roads are smooth as silk here and the vehicle just glides on it as the speedometer steadily climbs into a 130-140 figure. The sights and sounds are almost similar to the ones that I had experienced in Libya. I stayed at the guest house for 3-4 days to complete my formalities which included Resident Card (I dare not compare this with the my experience in Libya which was an excruciating one)
I hope to write more about my life in the coming days and I hope once I get back to India or when I change my place once again I will be able to at least munch the memories through this virtual space.

My classroom or my new learning space - Time will tell

One strange shaped car - captured from the streets of Muscat.