The main drawback to this is that there’s now a ton of work in the office waiting for me to attend to!
Haven’t downloaded any of the photos that we took during our recent trip, so I’m gonna post my annual tribute to the people in our lives. Here goes, to the people in our lives last year (2025), without which our lives would be so dull. Thank you all, for your time, for your friendship, and for enriching our lives! May you all have happy, successful, and fulfilling lives, full of joy, hope and good health!
Diwali with the Agarwals (Umesh, Bhavna and Dyuti), at their place in Oia Residence, the same apartment block that we share, Oct 2025. Justin wasn’t with us this time, as Diwali was a little early last year, and Justin was still in Singapore
And here’s our immediate neighbour Milind, with wife Rajeshri and umm… niece (right), I think, (nope, I don’t remember her name) who was here doing a temporary job as part of her academic practical training, at our home on Diwali, Oct 2025
And here’re Milind’s kids! Mihir (second left) and Aru (first left), close friends (and ‘partners in crime’) of Jayden, at their home, on Ganesh Chathurti (yes, another Indian festival – dedicated to Ganesh, the Hindu elephant-headed god), a major festival in Maharashtra where Milind’s family hails from, Sep 2025. (I don’t know who the other boy is, maybe Jayden knows!)
Here’s KP Singh (centre, standing, in black) and Abha (second left), our former fellow Oia Residence mates who’ve ‘upgraded’ and moved into a villa of their own! In Victoria Heights, Dubai Sports City. Way to go mates! The others in the photo, are the Singhs’ friends. Diwali 2025
And here’re KP’s and Abha’s kids, Advika (left) and Shreya (centre), at their new home, Victoria Heights, Sports City, Oct 2025
We don’t only celebrate Indian festivals. Here’s a little Chinese for you. Jayden, with one of the teachers in the Chinese Institute he attends, at the institute’s Chinese New Year function at their DragonMart2 branch, Dubai, Feb 2025
And this is his Chinese teacher, Liu Laoshi (i.e. Teacher Liu – ‘laoshi’ means teacher in Chinese) at the Great Wall Institute, Motor City, Feb 2025
More Chinese coming up… Jayden and fellow Chinese language students (I only know one, Rachel (third right), Jayden’s Chinese Class classmate, who’s Indian, but better at Chinese than Jayden!) performing a Chinese poem at the UAE Chinese Poem Gala and Great Wall Institute Anniversary, organized by his Chinese Institute (who else, when it featured their name!), at the GEMS Modern Academy (which, ironically, is an Indian school), Dubai, Jun 2025
Moving from Chinese to music, this is Jayden’s piano teacher, Marc, who is from the Philippines, at a piano recital, where Jayden played Hedwig’s Theme. Not bad, Jayden. Keep it up! Dec 2025
Justin’s back! And here’re his friends, Yiro and Angelina (I forgot her Korean name, which she prefers to use nowadays), both from South Korea, at our home, Dec 2025
Moving to my colleagues, here’s another Indian festival, Onam, the biggest festival of the Indian state of Kerala. At The Island Project site office, where I was stationed for 6 months last year. Here’s Mahesh, Safety Officer for the M&E works of the massive hotel complex project (4 luxury hotels on an island!) (We shared a work cubicle – don’t ask why I was sitting with the Safety people, it’s a loooong story), Sep 2025
And here’s what you do for Onam, a feast! Featuring over 20 multi-coloured dishes served on a banana leaf… but they’re ALL vegetarian! Sorry meat-lovers, it ain’t your day! In the photo are: Sujatha, Senior QS (left, from Tamil Nadu), Noufal, HSE Manager (centre) and Aryan, QAQC Manager (right) (Noufal and Aryan are both from Kerala). The hand that you see on the right, belongs to the Project Director, Mr Konudula Rao
Another feast, but I think this was a farewell feast, compliments of the colleague who was leaving, which I think in this case, was Arslan, the Electrical Engineer (5th from left) (I hope I remembered correctly). The others in the photo are (from left): - For the love of God, I forgot who that first one is; Fayaz Ahmad (Electrical Engineer); Asif (Admin Officer); Sajid Mahmood (Time Keeper); Arslan; Hazir (Land Surveyor); yours truly (ahem); Afsal (Electrical Engineer); Ashik (Sr Stakeholder Coordinator); Sohail (Project Engineer); and Munnir (Storekeeper). At the now defunct Closeout Office, in Warsan 3, Jan 2025
Here’s a party at our company’s Civil & Infrastructure Branch Head Office in Dubai South Business Park celebrating our company getting the award for the Dubai Island Bridge Project. There’s a load of company old-timers in this photo! From left: Han Guang (Assistant GM, in charge of the General Management Office of the Branch – I’ve known him since I first joined the Company in 2008, he was then our site office’s Admin Officer); Xue Bingbing (drinking from a bottle, Timekeeper? Don’t really know); Anilkumar Madhusoodhanan (QAQC Director – knew him, when I rejoined the Company in 2013, I think he joined in 2012 - he retired earlier this year); Prashant Mestha (Tender Director, joined in 2014); Cheng Qianli (General Manager, our Civil & Infrastructure Branch’s top boss); ummm… an HR Manager (I think) whom I know not, he didn’t stay very long in the Company; Khaled Adel (Contracts Director, another colleague from the 2008 times, he was the Contracts Manager of a Project when I joined in 2008, he left the Company late last year, after 18 years of service!); and Ren Bofei (Project Manager, he was a Chief Surveyor in 2008!)
Finally, some complete strangers. Good Samaritans who tried to help Anu to ice-skate, 2 kids from Eritrea! Anu’s a kid magnet! Children just seem to gravitate towards her, like she’s one of their own! And this is not the first-time things like this happen! At the Galleria Ice Rink, Hyatt Regency Dubai, Mar 2025
That’s all for now. God bless us all! (Except those who’re still fueling this stupid Iran War…)
