Eid Mubarak.

We'd run up the wooden stairs hand in hand until the last floor of the 3 storeyed building, and slowly peek inside the ajarred door. He would be sitting there as always- on the red and green mosaic carpet spread across the floor,a grim face but with a prayer always on his lips.

"Salaam Alaikum Dadajaan"

"As-salaam alaikum" would be the prompt grunt back

"Eid mubarak" while kissing his hand in respect.

We looked for dadijaan's warm smiling face, her head poked into the room almost when she heared our greetings. "Eid Mubarak!" with kisses on both her cheeks, she'd lead the way to the kitchen where she had been preparing the food since 3 days even during her rozas.

Some people like sheer korma hot, some like it cold-I cant decide which one I prefer, so I simply would have two bowls. First the hot one and then I'd make my way to the fridge and take a huge helping of cold sheer korma. Like every grandmother who likes to see children relish their cooking, I was dadijaan's pet; her eyes would light up watching me clean sweep the bowl.

Dadajaan would enter the room, a few times I almost thought (though not sure) I saw a gleam in his eyes watching us all huddled on the floor with a large bowl of sheer korma in the centre. He would give us Eidiya (Eid money) and say 'the greatest joy one can derive from money-is by giving it away'. The golawala seemed the perfect person to give it away to at that age.

Looking back, it is the one of the wisest thing someone has said to me. On this Eid day, I will do just as you told me as a child and I know if youre watching me from above-your eyes will light up.

Eid Mubarak.

I *heart* Dxb

I just dont know how to start this post, this thought evokes too many emotions and I just havent been able to structure it since days,so this is how the post is going to be-ad hoc.

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I fear my blog is beginning to look like a travelogue, but then this trip was more than travel. I got teary eyed the minute I saw the sandy dunes from the airplane, "not now!" was all the comment my companion had to offer.

We landed, holy month of Ramadan, no food, no water, scorching sun, waiting for my friend to meet us-it was perfect. Im not being sarcastic, it was all wrong, but it had never been so right. Euphoric wouldnt describe it, it was an odd sense of freedom...to be where I want to be, no 'things-to-do' running in my head. I think i felt for the first time in my life-Im living just for me.

I simply turned my night into day-was up till 4 am, out on the streets, at all my fav places-irish village, 360, dubai marina,starbucks,haagen dazs,odyessy.The 2 new things I did was try out Buddha Bar and went to the Dubai Museum-I enjoyed both tremendously.

At the museum there was an Indian and a local salesman at the souvenir shop, I was asking them where I could get a certain kind of souvenir from, to which he replied when you go for the desert safari you can get it there; to which the local simply replied 'shes not a tourist, it seems as if she lives here'. I dont know how he made out, but I was beaming.

Ofcourse Dubai means malls,and I covered most of them, but more important for me was all my friends which I got to meet-all the catching up, the long chats, the gossip!It was good to see everyone settled all talking about their jobs, HNI clients and their new cars(what a change from ppl who tried to save every 10 bucks mere 3 months back)!

The afternoon I was to return to Bbay, I woke up at 5 am to the sound of the morning prayers, I have been hearing them ever since I was a child and find the greatest peace in melodious prayer.That morning from the balcony I saw one of the most beautiful sunrises over the city of Dubai.

I flew Etihad btw, for the gyaan it is the national airline of UAE not Emirates like most people believe. Its also a damn good airline-plush seats, large private screen which had an option of over 73 flicks, tv serials and video games! The only hitch is that it lands at Abu Dhabi ofcourse.

The day we were to return, we had to catch a bus which takes us from Dxb to Dhabi,the traffic on Sheikh Zayed was so bad,the taxi crawled on a road we usually drive at 140.

Managed to miss the bus, left my cellphone in the cab, got it back after much effort, the cabbie we called to take us to abu dhabi didnt show up, anyhow we made the flight.

Eitherways, it was perfect-and Im not being sarcastic.