TRIBUTE TO LEELA NAIDU - ANURADHA

TRIBUTE TO MAHARANI GAYATRI DEVI - JAIPUR'S PRIDE

Kuwait - Life of an indian Expatriate

Hello,

Life in Kuwait comes to life on Fridays and Saturdays.
In fact I can say Thursday evening as all arrangement to start

Cricket on Friday at Sharq United
early next morning 5.45AM for the game of cricket at Sharq United has to be completed. We are almost 30 players at the club and on an average end up having two full teams of 11,12 or 13 players.
We play 30 over matches and the plan involves giving batting and bowling to all players.
During summer we have reduced the number of overs to 24.
The game starts at 6AM and ends at 10-10.15 AM. We generally have cliff hangers as the teams are formed to be evenly balanced.
The Batting, Scoring and Cheering team

This is the time of the week I look forward to. I am amongst the oldest (age wise) member and it is fun to feel young for the four hours of the week. I am generally so tired when back from the game that I have to take a nap to get back the energy to get into other activities.


The other major activity on Fridays and Saturdays (sometimes on Thursday evenings) is getting together.

Bachelors party at residence of Kamlesh- Saturday

The get togethers are generally family events but during the summers when families are in India the men get together for forced bachelor parties. Bawdy jokes and serious discussions generally on the Indian political scene, the movies, the TV shows, the stock market are the staple food at such get togethers.


The passageway in front of the Sultan Centre Marina




The Kuwait Towers at Night.








There are several other activities you can indulge in when in Kuwait. Like visiting the beach, the marina, the shopping complexes, the restaurants, sights like the kuwait tower, etc.

I hope to cover these in my coming posts.

Regards,
Manoj

The Manchester Fiction Prize 2009

Hello,

The Manchester Fiction Prize 2009 which has a First prize: £10,000 and Deadline for entries: 7th August 2009 is on my target,
The details of the competition that has an entry fee of £15 is as under:

The Manchester Fiction Prize is a new literary competition celebrating excellence in creative writing. The Manchester Fiction Prize is open internationally and will award a cash prize of £10,000* to the writer of the best short story submitted. The competition is open to entrants aged 16 or over; there is no upper age limit.

A bursary for study at MMU will also be awarded to an entrant aged 18-25 as part of the Jeffrey Wainwright Manchester Young Writer of the Year Award*. Eligible entrants are asked to indicate on the entry form if they would like to be considered for the Manchester Young Writer of the Year Award in addition to the main prize.

All entrants are asked to submit a complete short story of up to 5,000 words in length. The story can be on any subject, and written in any style, but must be new work, not published or submitted for consideration elsewhere.

The competition will be judged by distinguished novelists and short story writers Sarah Hall, M. John Harrison and Nicholas Royle.

The Manchester Fiction Prize celebrates the substantial cultural and literary achievements of Manchester, building on the work of MMU’s Writing School and enhancing the city's reputation as one of Europe's most adventurous and creative spaces.

The prizes will be awarded at a gala ceremony, held as part of the 2009 Manchester Literature Festival.

To enter the competition, click "online entry" in the column on the left of your screen. If you would like a printed entry pack for postal submission, or if you have any queries, please contact:
James Draper Project Manager: Writing School Department of English Manchester Metropolitan UniversityTelephone: +44 (0) 161 247 1787 E-mail: j.draper@mmu.ac.uk


The prize is good and the competition is anonymous so that everybody has a fair chance of winning.
May the best person win.

Best wishes to all participants,

Manoj

THE SHRINKING WOMAN AND OTHER STORIES

Hello,

Ever since the publication of my short story 'Victim of the Stock Market' in the wonderful book called 'The Shrinking Woman and other stories' I have been trying to convince myself that it is nothing out of ordinary.

But every now and then an event comes up to show that I am wrong and I have to say that it makes me really proud of my achievement.

This was my first jab at publication of short stories written by me and I have to thank Annie Mathews and Meenakshi, the wonderful editors of the book and Unisun Publication for having considered my story to be good enough to share space with such wonderfully gifted authors.

There are several award winning writers in the 36 that appear in my book and most recently Jahnavi Barua made it to the longlist of the Frank O Connor Award. The euphoria of being associated with this talented writer had hardly died down when Maraim Karim and K Srilata have made it to the Man Asian Award.

It would be wrong to name just a few others who share 'The Shrinking Woman and Other Stories' with me as I now believe that all of them are exceptionally talented and winners. There is no need for me to be reminded of their talent by listing their awards.

I feel blessed and honoured.

When I started searching for an avenue for publication of my short stories my only aim was to get someone to publish one of my short stories anywhere in their book.
I was over the moon when Meenakshi wrote to me that my story would be published in the book. It was like a life ambition achieved but my fellow writers have made me greedy.

It now much more that I dream of.

While it is easy to bask in the company of the illustrious names who share the index with me in the book I need to mention important names that do not appear in the index.

Sanjoy, my friend, who has been a force that has propelled me forward and Radhika, my wife and friend, who has kept me grounded.

Ruchira and Mayank, my daughter and son have been willing guinea pigs in the laboratory I now operate and when they complain of wax in their ears I know it is time to stop the experiments.

They are the proof readers, editors, sounding boards and magnanimous listeners. Thank you very much.

I could not have done anything without them.

Best regards,
Manoj

TRIP TO SINGAPORE

Scenes at the Singapore River.
Mayank under the twin bridge at Esplande
Family with the Merlion
The tree at the bridge roots extended as they seek the water
A beautiful gateway on the river





Hello,

We do not have issue with food on the trip as most of times the arrangement is at restaurants that are serving typically Indian food.

The next day starts with the city tour and we first go to the Singapore river waterfront. The Merlion is the symbol Singapore has been associated with. We have two Merlion statues on the waterfront. KR, our local guide in Singapore say that they are the Baby Merlion and the Mother Merlion. Before we get any ideas about broken families he adds that Daddy Merlion looks over the city from his post at Sentosa Island. Interesting fact about the Merlion is that the skin is made from porcelain plates and eyes from small red teacups.

The river front has a wonderful bridge old bridge over it with gates in the form of arches that gives it a very British look. The tree at the edge of the bridge makes a pretty picture as roots fall into the river as if reaching out for life.

There is also a modern bridge that allows fast moving traffic to speed over the quay and allow the relaxed feel to remain untouched.

Besides the merlion, the quay allows you to look towards the city and the dome of the theatre which is shaped like the head of a microphone.

The Singapore eye which rises 65metres and gives you a bird's eye view of the city is also visible.

There are boats available for a cruise down the river and a better view of the merlion. Unfortunately, we do not have time for this cruise.

TO be continued....

Trip to Singapore

Sea dividing Malaysia & Singapore







Hotel Grand Central from a nearby flyover









The family on the train taking us on the Night Safari Trip.





Hello,

11 June and we were at the Grand Central Hotel in Singapore. As usual we were sent into the rooms and asked to assemble for dinner after a short rest.

Although the journey had been comfortable we needed to stretch our legs a bit and therefore we rested in the rooms having tea and coffee. Once again drinking water was an issue and therefore the Seven Eleven store near by was visited and a couple of bottles of water purchased.

The Grand Central is located on Orchard road which houses some of the important shopping malls of Singapore.

We start for the Night Safari - It is one of the most famous to do things when in Singapore. This place is located near the checkpost from where we had entered into Singapore so we take a return journey of about 45 minutes.

The Night Safari is popular and the crowd was unbelievable. We were first herded into the 'Creatures of the night show'. This show is hosted by an Indian lady who is too good. Her sense of humor and timing is amazing and she had the crowd literally eating out of her hand. The show has various animals making an appearance on stage (this is built like an amphitheater which has the stage in a hollow surrounded by seating on about three sides). We have the wolf, the Hyena and other animals pose for us and the smaller animals like the sloth play tricks. somewhere in between this lady gets into the seating space of the audience and pulls out a ten feet long python from under one of the seats.

We then rush out to get seats on the train that takes us around the zoo. The zoo is divided into continents. Asia is prominent and many animals are from India. The most astonishing sight is that of a group of rats that look like dwarfed pigs. They are huge and ugly.


Best wishes,
Manoj

To be continued...

Trip to Singapore - From Malaysia

Tamil Dhaba in Malaysia - Serve food on Banana leaf.
The place is just minutes away from the Singapore immigration checkpost.




Hello,

After completing the A Famosa resort visit at Malaka in Malaysia we took a bus ride to Singapore. On the way (a longish journey of over 3 hours) we stopped at a Tamil restaurant. Our dear friend Mr. Homi had informed us that we would be stopping over at a authentic Malaysian restaurant for our lunch and we will be served food on banana leaf. All of us were a little apprehensive as we did not have a very good experience with Malaysian food at the A Famosa resort and therefore it was a pleasnt surprise when we landed at a dhaba type croded restaurant serving typical Tamil food. Radhika was pleased and had her best meal of the tour. The food was really very tasty as it was typically Indian. I believe that till before this meal we were having food cooked in palm oil and maybe it was the first time we had food in a medium we were familiar to (I am not sure of this though).

The lady managing the show at the restaurant was speaking very good tamil (according to Radhika it was different from the tamil being spoken by the tamil Malaysians- she talked to her and it transpired that this still had links to chennai).

This restaurant is located almost at the border and soon we were at the checkpost. The immigration and checking was extremely efficient. One lady had a bad experience though: She was said that she has to do what told if she wants to enter the country of the woman who was handling the immigration counter.

The other Cox &Kings group was also there at the same time and in contrast with our group they were having a lot of tiffs amongst themselves and with their Tour Manager. Dr. Singh of our group had travelled from A Famosa till the check post in their bus and they were happy when they could be accommodated again in our bus after the checkpost.

The Singhs were simple people and their kids were well behaved.

The cleanliness is noticeable. Although Malaysia is equally green and efforts are made to keep it clean, the cleanliness of Singapore is sparkling.

I need to add though that this cleanliness also means that you do not even see a bird, leave aside an animal in the streets of Singapore.

The Singapore Hotel is the Grand Central. We meet KR our local guide for Singapore.

Best wishes,
Manoj

To be continued...

Trip To Malaysia - A Famosa Resort

A Famosa is a resort located in the historical city of Melaka - A UNESCO Heritage.

But I believe the British callously destroyed the entire fort built by the Portuguese in 1511. Only the gate “Porta de Santiago” is left. Melaka was a trading post of the Potuguese connecting the other ports of Goa and Macao. Sir Stamford Raffles, the creator of modern Singapore is credited with saving of the Porta de Santiago.

But did we visit the historical city of Melaka. No we did not. The modern tourist has little time to spare for historical ruins and small hutments and areattracted only to the bright lights and entertainment.

A Famosa resort has a wonderful golf course and club house. The club house was where we disembarked from the bus that brought us to the place from KL. A did a bit of putting at the greens. Got 20 balls for about Ringet 2/= only. They had a driving range as well. Radhika said I was showing off.

We had a very early lunch as the rooms were to be allotted to us only after 3 PM, our tour operators had thoughtfully advanced the lunch timings so we had lunch just about three hours after breakfast.

We were then bundled into the banana bus (the transport system at the resort called so because of its yellow color and shape) and taken to the water park. The water park has just a few slides and a wave pool. Nothing great.

We came back to the resort and got into our rooms. The rooms are good. They are not small and cramped as in Genting and also bigger- much bigger than what we had in KL. However th furniture doesnot appear to have been dusted for some time.

We take an early dinner as well but this is Ok as the break between lunch and dinner and the trip to the water park has us hungry. The late night entertainment see us get into a carnival mood with Malasian Red Indians, Malaysian Cowboys and Malayasian birds and animals putting up a show that was entertaining as it was well conducted.

The carnival site also has a four D theatre and we watch a movie in it. This was a good experience. We had water being sprayed, chair getting rocked and cool winds hitting our face as we explore a haunted office building.

Mayank and I then spend some time at the bowling alley. We have a couple of strikes and spares and in general a good father and son bonding.

By now the other members in the tour are quite familiar and friendly. We have two doctor families from Patna. Both the couples are doctors and are quite friendly. We have the Jains and the Tanwars who have links with Rajasthan and we have another couple from Mumbai - the gentleman is from HDFC. With common issues we are now talking to each other and as a result there is a lot of friendly banter and leg pulling especially of Mr. Homi.

The A Famosa trip ends with breakfast next morning and as we wait for the bus to arrive we take rides on a three rider cycle.

Needless to add, the vegetarian stuff at A Famosa is pedestrian.

Best wishes,

Manoj

To be continued...