Ibn Batuta

V : Lets goto Ibn Batuta.
Me: Duh...whats that ? A restaurant ?
V: No, its a mall.
Me: Oh. What a strange name !

It turned out that the mall was named after a person called 'Ibn Batuta'. Ibn Batuta was a famous Arab traveller from the 14th century. He was born in Morocco in 1304 ( thank you google). He set out to go on the Hajj and toured many countries for more than 25 years before returning home. He wrote a travelogue called 'Rihla' with all his encounters. I was totally fascinated by his travels.

Batuta had visited China, Andalucia ( part of Spain occupied by Muslims), Constantinople, Baghdad, Persia, Tunisia, Mali , Ethiopia, Egypt, India, Sri Lanka and many other places.








India was ruled by Mohammed bin Tughlaq - Sultanate of Delhi ( remember those history chapters? ) when Batuta visited India. Tughlaq was an eccentric King ( he was the one who moved the capital from Delhi to a place in the Deccan and forced the entire population of Delhi to move as well). Batuta was employed by Tughlaq after which they had a misunderstanding and Batuta had to flee the country.





How did I know so much about Ibn Batuta ? Why, the mall ofcourse !
This mall has been designed to reflect Batuta's travels.

It has 6 theme zones inspired by the places visited by Batuta - China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia and Andalusia. So, V and I went about taking pictures and reading about his travels. The mall is beautiful ! There were tons of stores but for a change, I did not visit any and kept myself occupied with the beauty of the mall.


Each court was done very well. I simply loved the ceilings in each court.

They were very creative !











The China court had a huge ship and lots of other decoration. India court had some people riding the elephant, an ancient clock and a band. The Persia court had a stunning dome ! It was the most beautiful among the other courts ! It looked so grand ! The Egypt court had many paintings on the ceiling, walls and pillars. The Tunisia court had blue ceiling which looked awesome and finally the Andalusia court had a big lion fountain. The mall was not only beautiful but also very educational.

If you are visiting Dubai - this place is a must see !!


Ibn Batuta Mall - The world under one roof !

Day 4 - The Reception in the evening

I was back in the Mandap to get ready for the evening. I was to be ready promptly by 7pm. I was so exhausted that I feel asleep for a few minutes while getting ready. I asked for food before going to the reception. Turns out, nothing was ready for evening and nothing was left-over from morning ! Crap ! All that was there was curd-rice; which I happily ate !

I had made a big fuss about the *reception chair*. Normally you would a see hideous red color chair with golden color arm rest. I abhor that chair. I refused to come for the reception if that chair was present. Finally they found one more that was atleast bearable.

I wore a maroon color gagra for the reception while Vikram wore a Sherwani. I was ready on time. But I was so exhausted that I did not have the energy to smile. So, I smiled in the first few pictures; slowly that progressed to no smile; then stare blankly; then scowl and finally closing the eyes and sleep ! Needless to say The pictures are awful ! LOL when I think back now. To top it off, the photographer took awful pictures. I got so depressed when I saw how terrible I looked in the reception pictures ! Everyone convinced me that I looked different in person. Hmmm.

I was suggesting to everyone that from next time, the couple getting married should just make a cut-out of themselves for the pictures. That way, they would look good, have a nice smile and not get tired ! Those who are getting married in future - please consider my idea and save yourself a lot of trouble!

Our reception started promptly at 7pm. Archana and Prasanna were the first to come and pose with us. Then P went back to Chennai and A went to her friend's house after dinner. I had to stand and pose for eternity. No respite. I wore high heels and so my feet were killing me too ! After standing close to three hours, we were finally let go !

Dinner was good. Its strange that the couple getting married eat in the end. The chaat was over. We had different varieties of food that night; south indian starters like dosa, north indian chaat, chinease food, north indian and south indian food. Desserts ofcourse. I got a sample of most of it; but I was so tired that I din't care what I was eating !

4 days of the 5 day wedding were successfully over !

Day 4 - Jan 20 - The Wedding - Morning

My earlier posts on my wedding description were Day 1, Day 2 morning, Day 2 evening-mehandi, Day 3 early morning , Day 3 morning-engagement and Day 3 evening - sangeet. Wow, looks like I've written a lot already !

It was finally D-day. I woke up early and then left to the Mandap by 6am. I had decided to get ready in the Mandap. We hired a lady to do the the bridal make-up. I was very worried that she would put too much make-up and make me look like a ghost. My deadline to get ready was 8am. I had refused to wear pure gold and instead chose to wear fashion jewellery with stones. I was almost ready and looked at myself in the mirror and the reaction was - ' OMG who is this girl' . I could not recognize myself !!!
I looked like a bride indeed !! I hoped Vikram would recognize me !!

By then my friends, Archana, Prasanna and my cousins, Anu and others came to see me. They could not recognize me either. By then the clock was ticking and I was a nervous wreak. I don't know why. I was so nervous, I even forgot how hungry I was ( you guessed it - no breakfast for the bride Grrrr). I hoped I would not faint with hunger in front of everyone.


Vikram and I come from different backgrounds and so choosing the style of marriage was not an easy task. My mother suggested a 'Arya Samaj' style after she attended one such marriage. The popular notion is that Hindu couples who elope have this style of marriage. I guess there are many variants of its style too. When I heard about its style, I knew it was the wedding that I wanted. I was NOT keen in having a wedding where the 'Pandits' just chant Sanskrit slokas that make no sense to the couple getting married. I feel it is a trauma to sit in the smoke for hours and not understand what is going on.

Our marriage was conducted in Hindu Vedic Style by Mrs. Sharma ( yes a lady ) and a Pandit. We had all the elements of the usual weddings. We had mantras too. The only difference was that Mrs. Sharma explained the meaning and significance of all the Sanskrit mantras in English as we chanted them. She has conducted more than 1000 marriages all over India and was a very learned person. Before she started the wedding, she asked everyone in the mandap to maintain silence to give respect to the ceremony. She also said that for the mantras to have their effect, it was vital to have silence and not disturbances from other people chatting. Believe it or not, people maintained silence for the complete wedding !

The wedding lasted for slightly more than an hour. It was perfect ! I finally understood the meaning of the rituals and all the promises made while chanting the mantras. I was overwhelmed with an urge to cry ! I had told Vikram that I would not make a scene and so controlled myself. When, I looked at my friends and family, almost everyone was so touched by the wedding that they all seemed to be crying !


And finally, Vikram and I got married. We were blessed by all . We went to the Guruvayoor temple attached to the Mandap and took blessings.


After that, everyone came to wish us. I was tired of standing and smiling. My head and back was aching thanks to the hairstyle. I was hungry. By the time I ate lunch, it was past 1 in the afternoon ! Then, we went to Vikram's house for my 'grehapravesh'. After that, we went to take blessings from our Swamiji at Dayanand Ashram. It was past 3 pm when I came back to my house. I was so exhausted that all I wanted to do was chop my hair and goto sleep. I took more than 3 people to help me get rid of the 'jadai' ( the long traditional plait). By the time I was out of the bridal clothes, it was time to go back to the Mandap and get ready for the reception !!!

Recent Flight Journeys

When it comes to flying, I have a certain luck. You can find my previous posts here.

I flew Lufthansa from TX to Bangalore this June. This was my quickest flight to Blore till date. I had heard that the food was not so-great and so carried a few snack bars in case I need them. The flight was full. The service was good. But the food was as I feared. I don't remember what they gave - but it was the same thing meal after meal ! Still, some food is better than no food and I was happy. For the first time, I had no great adventures either ! With my luck, I usually almost miss connecting flights, or baggage would be lost or I would be lost. Anyway I reached home.

The Dubai flight was a different story. I flew Air-India as it was the only flight going directly from Blore to Dubai. My flight was at around 8:30am. I checked-in my bags and waited for immigration. Compared to my Canadian immigration, this was a cake-walk ! I then waited in the lounge. And waited and waited. It was past 8:30am and no sign of the plane or any announcements ! I began to panic. I worried that maybe I was in the wrong terminal ( quite silly as there is only ONE terminal). After what seemed an eternity ( around 9 am), there was some activity indicating that the plane was ready to be boarding. What was the indication ? Well, everyone seemed to run and stand in the queue near the gate. Then there was an announcement for passengers with children. Chaos ruled for a while. Then everyone else were asked to board.

The plane was huge ! And empty ! The seat next to me was empty. I waited for take-off. I dozed off for a few minutes and when I woke up - the plane was still in Blore. Looks like there was some delay. Damn ! A movie was playing and it looked interesting. The only glitch, no ear-phones. I wondered how people were watching a movie without audio ! I guess they were really bored. The seats were really old, the volume and other controls were ancient ! The socket for the ear-phones were priceless ! I was LOL when I saw 2 holes grilled into the seats. I wondered what sort of ear-phones would fit into these. Then, the air-hostess gave us some PVC cables. Oh o. Turns out, those weird cables were the head-phones ! They were the weirdest and the most uncomfortable ear-phones I had ever used in my life ! It was so bad, that I decided to forego the movie than torturing myself.

By now, the plane had taken off and I was looking forward to the food. Did I mention that the air-hostess was really old ? I have nothing against senior citizens working in planes. But this lady was really mean and lazy. She had a bored expression all the time. And was so snooty ! No one came to even offer water/beverage for a long time. Then this lady made her grand appearance with the food trolley. Pushing it was quite difficult for her as even the trolley was old ( paint had come off and it looked very dirty). She was basically throwing the food trays on the people without even a smile. She gave me a food tray and I asked her if it was veggie. Imagine ! She did not even ask the choice of meal. She then started rummaging her trolley for veg food and finally found one. The food was average. I was disappointed. The old lady made her appearance again with tea/coffee and then she took away the trays.

We finally reached Dubai safely. The airport was huge. I had a marhaba lady help me with the immigration formalities and then I finally saw Vikram.

How hot is too hot ?

Well that depends on which side of the building you are !

I was blog hopping and realised many people are complaining about the Summer. It was really hot in Texas when I was there in June. I thought, coming to Dubai would not be such a big deal as the temperature here was only slightly higher. How wrong I was.

My first day in Dubai was really hot. I came out of the air-conditioned airport to get a cab and felt as though I was standing in an oven. Within seconds, I was feeling so sticky thanks to the humidity. I was thankful to get into the cab. That evening, I ventured out and it was bearable.

Then V took me to his work place in the weekend. As I am a shutter-bug, I wanted to take pictures near an artificial lake in that area. I was trying to focus the scene when everything looked really foggy. I din't understand. I

panicked thinking my camera had some problem because it was a really clear day with no sight of fog anywhere. Then I saw that the lens was fogged. What the hell !! I wiped it and took another picture, which was a little better. But within a few seconds, the lens was fogged again ! It was so hot and humid there that it was not possible to even take pictures ! Here are the two pictures with fogging effect and slightly less fogging effect.


Cameras are not the only thing affected - even sunglasses have the same problem ! I wore my glasses for a few minutes after which I could not see anything clearly ! It reminded me of the glasses fogging up during winters...I did not know that it can happen in Summer too !

Its more than 42 C here with very high humidity. Its so hot that even though the house has air-conditioning, the walls radiate heat ! Yesterday night, we went to the nearby store and I thought that my flip-flops would melt !! Well, if you are in a concrete jungle inside a desert, this is something expected i suppose. The locals tell me that it would only get hotter here and peaks in August. I seem to have come at the perfect time !

Blogging from Dubai

Well folks, after having lived without internet for well over a month now, I finally got the internet connection today morning !

Some sites like orkut is banned here ! Google comes in Arabic and I am trying to change the settings...but since everything comes in arabic...I can't even make out what the options are !

So, from now on, I will be blogging regularly. Life here is awesome ( esp since its with V).
My bday was fun. V bought me a very cute looking cake from Baskin and Robins. He took the day off. In the evening, we went out for dinner to an awesome Indian restaurant called 'Ashas' . It is owned by Asha Bhosle. The place was superb. The ambience was great. Food and service was excellent. Location and music was great too. The restaurant is in a mall which is built like the pyramids. I was simply bowled over. My digi-cam takes awful night time pics, so I'm planning to go there in
the day and take more pics sometime.

Bangalore Times

My flight to Bangalore was uneventful. No adventures for a change. The weather was perfect. My cousins visited me for a few days, so it was party time everyday. I ate awesome food, visited all the new shops on Commercial Street. Watched ' Krrish' in the theatre near my house. I liked the movie; it was total masala. Before I could realise how time was flying, I got my Dubai visa. Yipee. The long wait was finally over.

The visa confused me. My name was really long - it read Mrs. Shilpa S-- P--- N--- S-- . Turns out they 'append' Fathers name to the applicant's name ! So this name of mine had more than 50 characters !! LOL.

One more strange thing about the visa, there was a category called occupation and it was entered 'housewife' by default !!! It got me hopping mad for sometime. Till I realised that is what I was here for another month.

Flew to Dubai on July 1st.