Posted in Muscat – My "home town"

Circle of Life – What comes, goes away too! (But do I really understand that?)

Don’t know why I am writing this post. Don’t know why such stuff is there in my head. But today I feel a sense of loneliness, a sense of feeling that I am gonna lose something, a sense of something going to go wrong sometime somewhere in the near future. This isn’t the first time, I am feeling this way. Actually I can say I am used to it in a certain way. You must be wondering what I am talking about right?

Life plays many games with you. Some you like, some you don’t while many others you have take with a pinch of salt. One meets new people everytime in life be it school, college, work etc. Some stick for life so much that you can’t afford to let go off them and feel scared at just the thought of seeing them off or losing them (because that’s what you think when they leave somewhere right?). While many others don’t even bother whether you die or are alive.

But in the case of love, things are different most of the time. And that’s why the popular slogan or saying is that “Where love comes, friendship goes for a toss”. As in many of my earlier posts I have spoken about how love can change your life in such a way that in love, you end up doing this which you wouldn’t normally do. When one parts with his / her loved one, there is a feeling which creeps up which one cant describe at all. It feels as if one is moving away from something of his / her own, its as if one has lost a part of his / her own self.

Ok so why am I talking about this and blabbering and boring you all? It’s just something which I guess all experience in life and I have too. But there are some like me who keep thinking about such things more than many others. And today was one day I was back to my old self of contemplating about my future, thinking about relations – friends, loved ones and all that.

And that’s one year since I started blogging and tweeting!


6th July 2009 was when I made my first post on this blog. I give the sole credit to Himanshu Bhagat (2008-10) batch of SIBM Pune MBA Marketing for “indirectly” bringing out the social media guy in me. A team called the Internet Communications and Blogging team was established a year back to maintain the Official SIBM Blog and the entire online communications of SIBM Pune. I applied, got selected and the rest is history.

As my first post says, I used to write earlier in bits and pieces like some articles in Times of Oman and had been a part of editorial teams at college. But my real writing began when I started blogging. Be it my love life, friends, political issues, social issues, economic issues, I began writing about anything and everything. While writing, I realised that there was so much I wanted to speak about but probably wasnt able to. So if one isnt able to communicate very well in terms of physical communication, writing is the best medium to reach out to the world out there.

As I went on writing, I also realised that if I was interested in something, I could write a post about it in just 20 mins. Many people have always asked me as to how I choose the topics for my blog posts. I would like to say that whatever I write, I strongly feel about each of those things. I never make a conscious attempt to think much before on a topic and then write. Whenever I get an idea to write on something, I just pen down my thoughts.

Interestingly on the same day I joined Twitter too. This was also too for the team work. But I did create my account because I was told to do so. Truthfully speaking I didnt know anything about Twitter before and had the usual question as to what should I tweet about. Till November I had just about 150-200 tweets. But then all of a sudden I started tweeting like crazy. As I started getting the hang of it, I realised the importance of networking. This is the reason I improved my Linkedin account to what it has become today.

And so today, I am connected to 280 odd people on Linkedin, have 12,600+ visits on my blog with more than 7000+ new visitors with a rank of 72/100 by Indiblogger and 550 odd followers on Twitter. The statistics apart, I have realised the importance of having a very good social media presence in these times.

There are a couple of things I know I still have to improve on my blog like the design, making it interactive etc. Its all a work in progress and I am sure with time I would able to improve a hell lot.

Lately I have began my biggest ever project ever – Writing a novel. I have miles and miles to go before I sleep and I really want to be in this field for a long run.

10 reasons why I still call Muscat home despite so many changes in the past few years!!!

Muscat has changed a lot in the past couple of years. Rents have shot up sharply, the cost of living has become crazzzzyyyyyy, salaries are not increasing proportionately, there is plethora of construction (read CONCRETISATION) going on, my residence visa will get over next year and I wont be able to renew it to a residence one unless I work or study there – Muscat is literally changing by the minute like most of the countries in the Middle East. Its been 5 years since I left Muscat to do my undergrad and postgrad education. With just a year left for me to finish, as I look back even today I can find reasons and more reasons to call the place I left 5 yrs back my home despite tremendous changes!

Following are 10 of the reasons why I still call Muscat home..There will surely be more of them but these are the ones I can remember at the moment

1. I was born at Khoula Hospital, Muscat on 1st Feb 1988 which indirectly made me an Omani 😛 and since then its been an amazing journey of falling in luv with this place. My parents have lived in this place for the past 34-35 yrs.

2. Indian School Muscat was where I spent the 15 yrs of my school life and it was an experience which I can surely never forget.

3. Looking at the barren hilly geography from the top through the airline window makes me feel as if I am back home.

4. The spik and span roads, man made greenery and picture perfect buildings and cleanliness bring old memories back.

5. The Rose Garden, Naseem Garden, Riyam Park, Kalbooh and other such places makes me remember the good old days at ISM when we used to go for picnics to these places and just enjoy like hell

6. The various supermarkets like Lulu, Carrefour and blah blah with all those amazing juices and other products from the Gulf remind you of such amazing stuff available here.

7. The food I get here in my house in particular be it the simple sabzis like cauliflower, brinjal etc seems so different and delicious than anywhere I get in India. Even the food outside with is cleanliness is no much for India at all.

8. Its the only city in the Gulf to have not one but two temples – that of Shiva and Krishna and maaaan the temples are soooo amazingly built with ACs…..:) 🙂 🙂

9. Despite the starting of the Southern Highway and couple of other roads to ease the traffic, the main highway from airport through Qurum and Ruwi to the Bustan Palace Hotel remains the heart of the city’s road network.

10. All in all each and every place from Corniche to the Airport just makes me feel that this country is my home land and here is where I feel a strong peace of mind and relaxation.

Tomorrow I may not end up working here as one never knows whats in store with life. But one thing is for sure, Muscat was, is and will be the closest to my heart always despite its many million changes and shortcomings…

Is Oman becoming a victim of global warming without being the one who caused it?


I would like to give some background on Oman before moving forward. Oman is a hilly land no doubt. It isnt exactly a desert as is thought of across the world. Yes, it is hot and humid. But having lived in this country for the past 22 yrs, I can safely say that it is the most beautiful place in terms of natural beauty in the GCC or for that matter the entire Middle East region with man made greenery and beautiful landscaped mountains, rocks and gorges. Recently even the Sultan has given an order to plant thousands of palm trees.

The weather here differs in different places. Up north in Muscat, Sohar, Nizwa (other cities in Oman) the climate is hot and humid in summers while cool in winters. While down south in Salalah, it is affected by the monsoon in the months from June to September. So its really interesting to see different kinds of vegetation across the length and breadth of this country. When it does rain here (which was uncommon in the past), the wadis overflow onto the roads and there are great chances of accidents. The water flow in the wadis sometimes gets very fast and dangerous. But even these occurences were rare in the past.

But over the past couple of years, things are changing thick and fast. Cyclone Gonu which tore through Muscat in 2007 killing hundreds in its path was the strongest cyclone packing winds of over 150 kmph in the Arabian Sea in over sixty years. It led to a damage of approximately 4 bn US$. At that time it was called a once in a 50 years event. But 3 yrs down the line, as Cyclone Phet approaches the shores of Muscat, can we still call it a once in a lifetime event?

Cyclone Phet was initially a category 5 storm packing winds of upto 250 kmph. But as it entered Oman through Sur and Masirah it dropped to Category 3 (180kmph) and then Category 1 (110kmph). Whether it still causes widespread damage or not is still to be seen. But the biggest question is whats going on around the shores of Oman to create 2 cyclones in 3 years?

The simple answer is GLOBAL WARMING! I know a lot of people would surely think that nowadays scientists do think this is an answer for every problem but seriously speaking in this case, this is a possibility. This year the Asian subcontinent is facing a severe heatwave which resulted in increasing the sea temperature by 2 degree celsius. This resulted in a high temperature difference between the Earth’s surface and the tropopause.

As someone gave an answer on answers.yahoo.com –

A storm is powered by a layer of warm air underneath a layer of cold air. The cold air is denser, so it wants to sink, while the warm air wants to rise. This manifests itself as a vortex, with warm air rising up the center, and cold air sinking on the outer parts of the vortex.

Like any other heat engine, the power output is increased when the temperature difference is increased.

This is what must have happened with Cyclone Phet. I am sure a lot people would disagree saying this is a conspiracy theory and all that. But this is true and its happening.

Oman needs to prepare adequate infrastructure to protect itself in the coming years from such events. It is fast becoming an example of global warming caused due to the fault of other nations. (For your information Oman is one of the most cleanest countries in terms of environmental damage per capita in the world). In the next couple of years we can see more events of cyclones and storms occuring in the Arabian Sea.

That’s when the Omanis wont call it an unusual weather event, but a more than usual one!