A nice cozy Saturday in Dubai, except for my allergy that played up today as a consequence of me missing my daily allergy medicine. Wonder how long I have to continue with this – have to search a way out of this allergy thingy and fast.
A scrumptious lunch at Babumoshai (in Bur Dubai) compensated for the discomfort that I was beginning to experience. Felt the Kolkata vibes after long, the best bit being the epic Gondhoraj lemon that I love so much. The good thing is that even Keshav took a liking to to piece of citrus, savoring it and sharing it with his Stegosaurus that had gracefully accompanied us to the venue. He finally ate it, skin et al, leaving a tiny speck for future reference.
A must visit if you like Bengali food, and a definitely must visit if you want to be introduced to Bengali cuisine.
Also started ‘Nexus’ by Yuval Noah Harari, where he discusses the nuances involved in the rapid expansion of AI through the lens of information networks that currently (and have always) dominated our lives. Just started the book, and so it’s a bit away from a recco, but given past experience with the author, I have a gut feeling that this will also result in a positive endorsement.
As I type this, we started watching ‘Buy Now, the shopping conspiracy’, playing on Netflix. Seems interesting, and as usual, we will watch this, wince and feel disgusted at how we are being played, and once the two hours of repentance are done, the next stop will be our phone and the Amazon web app to order the two bananas that we forgot to get earlier today.
Here is what I wrote about Yuval’s last book – do have a read. And do try Babumoshai. And do see Buy Now. And try not to order so much everyday…(note to self really).
So here I am, in sunny Fujairah, a two hours drive from Dubai.
A slightly different world than what I have come to be used to…with a few farms on the way and many isolated houses that made me wonder on how some want to be in the thick of the action, while others want to get away from it all.
We did too, albeit on a temporary basis, and in a more touristy kind of way. By the way, what’s it with hotels and pools? Everyone and his uncle is at the pool, floating away one calorie at a time….
When growing up, I hardly, if ever, got a chance to visit a pool. The only ones present were in 5-star hotels, not far away distance-wise, but a whole world apart class-wise. Today, my 6-month old son made his first foray into the pool, in a yellow float and a blue mood. Too sleepy to appreciate the fine things in life, I presume.
Speaking of life, I was reading 21 Lessons for the 21st century, by Yuval Harari. He speaks of a near future when, for many, staying relevant will be a challenge. Technology has given us many conveniences, but many will be adversely affected due to the loss of jobs taken away by advances in technology. Like the kings of yore, power will be concentrated in the hands of a few elite, and big data will give them a leverage that will be unthinkable.
And due to the ‘often referred to but seldom thought of’ maxim of the future self, we don’t care about it as much since we are in the present, and us in the future are thought of as different and unrelatable beings, ones that we can defer the bad news to without ourselves being affected.
That is our attitude towards climate change and everything adverse that is happening today. For now, we lie content in Fujairah, in a pool of warm water, living the good life. Tomorrow can wait…
Or so we think…