Companions in the COVID Year

Three’s not a crowd… Anu, Jashna and Madhavi at the Desi Village Restaurant, Dubai – Dec 2020

This is my annual post on the people we met or were in our lives for the past year. I usually post it sometime around June (that’s when I usually finish sorting out the friggin photos of the past year, hehe. Yep, I’m that slow). But what the heck, it's only a month late. So, here’s a lookback at whatever gatherings we could have in a year ravaged by the global COVID-19 pandemic. I’ll let the pictures speak.

We were in a lockdown for a significant part of the year, let’s see mmm March to about July 2020. Then the government relaxed it a bit, praise God… And we’ve been like this since then. Masks and social distancing are still here (luckily) or we’d be seeing numbers soar like the rest of the world, praise God again…


Anu’s eldest sis Manju and son Kunal stayed with us in Dubai during most of the lockdown as they were stranded from returning to India due to the cancellation of flights. They were here to visit Karishma and was supposed to leave in mid March. The first time Manju and Kunal stayed with us was in 2007 in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India when Kunal was a wee toddler. That was before we had any kids of our own. Check out this old post on Agra to see how they look like then 


Whew, a relaxation – Fancy some chicken mandi? At Mandi Time Restaurant, International City, Dubai – Jul 2020


Finally, time to go back – At Sharjah International Airport to board a repatriation flight to India – Aug 2020. Come back soon!


Meeting our International City neighbour after a year – with a new kid on the block, Adam, son of the neighbour across our International City Apartment. We went back to our rented out apartment to kick out the bloody non-paying tenants of our flat – Jul 2020


This is life before the pandemic – At a function in Feb 2020 organized by Parsons, the consultants of the ITS2020 Projects, of which yours truly is one of the packages’ Project Manager – An Arabic lunch where the contractors' representatives of all the packages and the Client, the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai were also invited. At the front are senior officers of RTA's Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS) Department, Sofiene Jegham, Salahaldeen Al Marzooqi (ITS Director) and Mohammed Al Ali – at Bin Laden’s site office, contractor of the new Traffic Management Centre at Al Barsha


Parsons ITS Project Director, Ammar Kanaan


And this is the ITS2020 Package 1B Project Site Office during the pandemic – a photo shoot to commemorate the completion of the erection of the last (and 112th) Dynamic Message Sign (DMS) in Jul 2020. The photo’s not very clear as it’s a Whatsapp photo compliments of Mubashir Wani (who’s not in the photo, what a pity. He’s the photographer, OK?) But these are the names of the people I recognize: - Squatting, left to right: - X, Aliasgar Numberdar (Planner), Mukadas (Office Assistant), X, X, Gul Saeed (Foreman), Shahid Alam (Surveyor), Abhishek Radhakrishnan (ITS Engineer), Sarvesh Nayak (ITS Engineer), Mohammad Saleem (Document Controller). Standing, left to right: - Trinu Rajan (Technical Engineer), Jaicin Joy (QS), Evika (QS), Syed Saadi (Procurement Officer), X (Safety Officer), X, X, Harsha Jayaramaiah (ITS Systems Engineer), Sathyajith (Draftsman), X (Draftsman), X, Baber Javed (Admin Officer), Safi Ullah Khan (Deputy Project Manager Package 1A), Rathinavel (QC Manager), X, Muhammad Waqas (Construction Manager), Devansh Raj Kanchan (Assistant Project Manager), Qamar Abbas (Assistant Project Manager Package 1C), Ayush Agarwal (Technical Manager), Danish Ahmed (ITS Engineer), Yours Truly, Abdul Saleem (Systems Project Manager), Laith Rababa (QAQC Engineer), Nizar Makdissi (Site Engineer), Antoine Atallah (Construction Manager), Bernar Makdisi (HSE Manager), Eldho John (Electrical Engineer)


Diwali – Nov 2020 at one of our neighbours in Oia Residence – KP Singh and wife Abha’s house


A return visit at our apartment


This is our other neighbour in Oia Residence – Milind Pandhare in a Bhai Dooj festival during Diwali 2020 at our house – This was supposed to be ritual between sister and brother but because we have no one here in Dubai, Anu decided to just adopt a brother. There you are, haha


Milind Pandhare et moi


Meeting our old friends, Madhavi, Roby and Jashna for dinner at Desi Village Restaurant, Dubai – Dec 2020


And here’re the kids – Mashel, Aria and Viva with our kids

That’s all for now folks! Ciao!

Our Northern Neighbour

Eid Al Adha Mubarak!




Sharjah Mosque at night and at daytime

Never imagined I’d have time to post a short post before Eid Al-Adha, but here’s my opportunity. Was gonna fix the aircon (AC) of the car today before the long 5 day break for Eid. Last night, I noticed that the AC froze up after driving about 30 mins on it. We had to switch it off, let it thaw, and then there’d be air again, but then it’d freeze up again after a short while. I couldn’t bring it to a workshop in the morning as I’d arrange a site visit to our Sweihan Military Road Project in Abu Dhabi Emirate with the Construction Manager who used to be in charge of the Project. So I brought it to a workshop the minute I got back from the site visit, (but of course, after lunch. For yours truly, lunch is still the priority, ahem).

The workshop I asked (and all the others I enquired on the phone or online) told me that it couldn’t be done with the remaining time I had today. So, WTF, I let it be, and came to the office to finish off some of the banking work before the week closes for the long holidays, and at the same time squeeze this little post in, hehe.

That’s all. Here’re a few pictures of mosques and stuff from the emirate immediately north of Dubai – Sharjah.


More Sharjah Mosque - like an Ottoman mosque straight out of Turkey, isn't it?


Google Maps names this as the Ahmed ibn Hanbal Mosque, Sharjah Cultural Square (which is literally a circle) – We bought our piano earlier this year from one of the houses near the mosque. That house is a workshop / storage for pianos and keyboards…






Sharjah University City


OK, that’s all the time I have – Say bye boys – The boys with eyes barely opened at a monument near the Sharjah International Airport – We call it the toothpaste monument – doesn’t it look like a dollop of toothpaste being squeezed out?

Have a blessed Eid, Selamat Hari Raya, may peace be with you. Ilaa liqa, maa salama!

On the Georgian Military Road

An apiary (honey bee farm) on the Georgian Military Highway, south of Sioni village, near Stepantsminda. So sez Google Maps. (All the location names in this post are picked from Google Maps. If not for Google Maps, you think I’d know the names???)

It’s the summer break. School has ended, and UAE residents are heading out, in droves, to wherever they’re allowed to go, COVID or none. Georgia, Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Russia, you name it. As for us, we (or more appropriately, the missus) have decided to be conscientious (to our suffering fellow humans in other parts of the world) and do our part to stop the spread of pesky COVID. Meaning we’d be taking a break from taking a break, sob, sob…

So, with our holiday plans down the drain, for another summer, here’s the next best thing… daydreaming about our past adventures… Here’s a continuation of our Georgia trip of 2018.

Continuing from where I stopped, from Shiomghvime we headed for the Georgian Military Road, going back past Mtskhetha. Our destination for the night was Stepantsminda (or Kazbegi as most people call it) at the northern end of the Military Road before it crosses into Russia. Here’s our trip in pictures.


Ananuri Fort – this was our first stop on the Military Road after we left Shiomghvime – Pictures in the internet shows the fort at a point where two rivers meet, like a wedge jutting out between two rivers. But when we visited, one side of the river was bone dry… What a let down


There, the bone dry side of Ananuri Fort – Heck, there’s a car, some cattle and even a shed there… Must have been dry for some time now…


Anu in carnival mood – on the banks of the Aragvi River, north of Buchaani village – there’s something like a watch tower on the hill across the river if you look closely, and some people picnicking


At a grocery shop at Kvesheti – to stock up on supplies (…and more importantly, to empty our bladders. Whew, what a relief. Thanks for the toilet, mate. Madloba)




The Aragvi River at Kvesheti village

Finally, Kazbegi – we reached at dusk. Amidst the increasing darkness, we could see the faint outline of a majestic snow-capped mountain to the left, Mount Kazbek (aka Mt Kazbegi). I figured we’d see it clearer the next morning. (Yeah, my foot, the next morning, the entire mountain was shrouded in clouds… We left without ever seeing Mount Kazbek in its actual glory)


A Georgian dinner at Stepantsminda / Kazbegi


The next day – Stepantsminda with the Gergeti Trinity Church on top of the hill. Behind the hillocks would be Mount Kazbegi, if it wasn’t for the clouds… Did we go up to the Gergeti Church? Of course we did, but that’s another adventure altogether which I’ll post another time, hehe


Bye-bye Kazbegi! – View of Stepantsminda from the south on the Military Road


On the Georgian Military Road – Looking north, just south of Sioni village. The little church on top of the hill on the right is the Sioni Basilica according to Google Maps


What a gorgeous valley! The Terek River valley, south of Sioni


A village on the other side of the Terek River. Google Maps labels it as Kaboni


And this is a photo of the famous Georgian ski resort, Gudauri – this is the Peace Monument, taken from the car. We passed Gudauri to and from Stepantsminda but did not stop both times

From here, we headed south back to Ananuri, and then took a left turn going east towards Tianeti, Akhmeta and finally Telavi. And that exciting story I’ve covered earlier – check out this old post. Ciao!

Shiomgh…. What?

Monastery of Shiomghvime or the Cave of Shio in the impossible to pronounce Georgian language

As mentioned in my earlier introductory post on Georgia, Georgian (Kartvelian language family) is a language which is unrelated to any other languages in the world, making it a primary language family. One of the main features of Kartvelian is the crazy groupings of consonants, MGHVime, MTKVari, TSKHoveli… How do you even pronounce them? Why not something simple for cave like ‘gua’ (Malay), or ‘dong’ (Chinese), or ‘puk’ (Mizo)???

By the way, the Caucasus is a treasure trove of impossible consonant-loving languages. It has two other primary language groups (totally unrelated language families) in the world: 1) Northwest Caucasian (languages of the Circassian regions of Russia and the breakaway Georgian state of Abkhazia) and 2) Northeast Caucasian (languages of Chechnya, Ingushetia & Dagestan regions of Russia). There're no other languages like them and they are unrelated to each other, but they all have one thing in common, crazy consonant groups!

Anyway, back to the topic, Shiomghvime is medieval monastery built around a cave where St Shio, a Christian monk and missionary from Assyria (present day Iraq and Syria) spent his last days as a hermit. This was in the 6th century! Pictures coming up.


Shio-Mghvime Monastery, Georgia – it’s a 20-30 mins drive from Mtskheta


The hills surrounding Shiomghvime, Mtskheta, Georgia


Is that the entrance to the cave?? We (the kids and I) went down there and there was something like a tomb. Got out as fast as we could! And we were the only ones in there at that time. Didn’t tell the missus. She’d freak out. (Once she took some photos of a temple in Thailand at night without realising that it was surrounded by graves. She deleted every single photo when she realized what she did)


The interior of the church at Shio-Mghvime


Another church - the plaque names it as the Church of St John the Baptist


Pilgrims at Shiomghvime


Now that’s too colourful for a pilgrim… Oh, it’s you honey!

There. One quick photo post done! Till we meet again, see ya!

The Pillar of Life

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, Mtskheta, Georgia – Aug 2018. If you look closely, you’d see a wedding procession under way. Far behind, on top of the hill on the left of the photo, is the Jvari Monastery

Summer is here, officially. Every year in the UAE, from 15-June to 15-September, no worker is allowed to work out in the open between noon and 3pm. It’s the mandatory midday break rule. Any company caught flouting this rule, would be subjected to hefty fines, the size of King Kong (or Godzilla depending on whose side you’re on). Previously, workers used to die from heat stroke every friggin year.

Summer also marks the end of the school term and the start of the 2-month long summer vacation, that’ll drive the residents here to make a beeline for the airport, immediately on the day that school ends. Don’t believe me, just camp out in the airport on the last day of school, and you’ll see what I mean.

But this year? Hmmmm… I have no idea. Countries are starting to open up. All the ads on radio, YouTube, Google and what-have-you are about airlines and holiday destinations. Everyone’s surfing the web hunting for places to go, holiday packages… (including yours truly, ahem). But will it materialize? There’re still SO many restrictions in place, procedures to follow, COVID-19 tests to take, visas to obtain, etc, etc, etc, might have to give this summer break another break! That’s 2 years in a friggin row. WTF.

Anyway, here’s something from 2 years, no, 3 years back! A continuation of our summer vacation in the Caucasus. Continuing from where I left off – Tbilisi. After a couple of days in Tbilisi, we started our customary road trip (what’s a holiday without a road trip?!) A road trip on a Chinese 4WD car – a Great Wall 4WD automatic transmission SUV (don’t ask me the model, OK?) Let’s hope it doesn’t conk out… Fingers crossed – Don’t want another broken car adventure like the one we had in Armenia earlier in the trip!

First stop, Mtskheta, the former capital of Georgia in the olden days. Mtskheta has been around for centuries, err.. actually longer than that. It was there at the time of Alexander the Great, 4 centuries before Christ!


This bird’s eye view of Mtskheta is taken from the Jvari Monastery. Svetitskhoveli Cathedral can be seen clearly in the middle of town

Anyway, the story goes that a Jewish native from Mtskheta, who was in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’s crucifixion, bought Jesus Christ’s robe from the roman soldier who had it. He brought it back to his hometown Mtskheta and was met by his sister. When his sister touched the robe, she was so overwhelmed with emotions that she died clutching the robe. They could not remove the robe from her clutches, and buried her together with the sacred robe. Years went by and a cedar tree grew from the place where she was buried.

About 300 years later (4th century), St Nino (a nun who converted Georgia to Christianity) chose this sacred place for the building of a church. The enormous cedar tree was cut down and made into pillars for the church. When the builders started erecting the pillars, the last (seventh) pillar rose into the air by itself. It only came down after St Nino prayed for a whole night. The pillar also exuded a liquid that cured people of all diseases. Now, it only I knew which pillar this is… Hmmmm…


Svetitskhoveli means life-giving (tskhoveli) pillar (sveti) in the impossible to pronounce Georgian language


An artwork portraying the living pillar legend, from the hilltop Jvari Monastery, photo compliments of camera-trigger-happy wife (I love you honey, you capture the most amazing things on camera, mmmuahhhh!) A similar artwork is supposed to be in Svetitskhoveli, but I just didn’t pay attention, there were so many religious artworks around, duh. I only ‘discovered’ this photo while picking out the photos for the post!


This is the ciborium marking the place where the robe of Jesus Christ was supposedly buried… (if only I’d knew about it during the visit… I only found out while reading about it for this post!)


The original church built by St Nino had been damaged many times in the course of history by earthquakes, wars and lastly by religious subjugation during the Soviet era. The present church dates back from the 11th century. Behind Anu, you can see a grapevine cross with drooping arms. That’s the cross of St Nino which has since become a symbol of the Georgian Orthodox Church


“Wow, this place is like a castle!” “Hey kids, this is not a playground, OK?” (As if they'd care...)


A fresco of Jesus Christ can be seen behind the chandelier, Svetitskhoveli Cathedral




More scenes from the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, Mtskheta


The monastery on top of the hill, Jvari Monastery, Mtskheta


Jvari Monastery, Mtskheta, Georgia


The Jvari Monastery also has its story. St Nino erected a large wooden cross (or was it a grapevine cross…) on the site of a pagan temple. This cross could work miracles and this attracted pilgrims from all over the land. Eventually, someone erected a church at the spot and it grew to become the Jvari Monastery of today. Is this the miraculous cross? I don't know. I don’t think it’ll survive that many hundred years… What, with the wars and invasions throughout history!

By the way, St Nino also featured in the story of neighbouring Armenia’s conversion to Christianity, which made Armenia the first Christian nation in history. St Nino was the only survivor of a group of virgin nuns from Rome who sought the protection of the king of Armenia, only to be slaughtered by the king when one of the nuns, Rhipsime refused to marry him. St Nino eventually came to Georgia and converted the king of Georgia (then known as the Kingdom of Iberia) to Christianity. Georgia therefore became the second nation in history to adopt Christianity as its state religion. The end.