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...