In Bangladesh

Since last week I’m in Bangladesh on a project. Since the stay was going to be more than a month; Maliha and Rohail have accompanied me.

The roads here are extremely crowded and generally there’s a lot of poverty. On the flip side; Dhaka is very green and it sure is a nice change from all the sand I’m used to seeing in Kuwait. The weather is also pretty decent and we’ve been going around meeting people and friends. They kept us at a hotel for a week and yesterday, finally moved us to a nicely furnished 3-bedroom apartment, since it was very difficult for Maliha to manage things in a single small hotel room.

Rohail has been enjoying the rides on the cycle-rickshaw here and constantly blabbers and waves around his hands in excitement. It is a commonly used means of transportation and consists of a carriage that is connected to a bicycle. I’ll be putting up pics when I get the chance as things are extremely busy at work currently.

I’m looking forward to catching a weekend when I can go and visit Chittagong, which is a very beautiful and scenic city.

Back from Dubai

I got back from Dubai last week. It was extremely hectic there and worse thing is I couldn’t even attend GITEX. Me and my manager reached the Ramada hotel at 4 am and then we were at the meeting the very next day at 9 am. That day was meetings and normal work and then I was back at the hotel by 6.3o pm.

It became a nightmare to find a taxi to take me to GITEX as apparently all were busy. I was disappointed and thought Dubai could have made better arrangements for transportation as many people were facing this problem. After a while I found a cab and the driver was ready to take me to Mall of Emirates but not GITEX. So, MoE it was and I will be putting up some pics of there soon. The next day was meetings again with a flight back to Kuwait at around midnight.

Bottom line is that I was extremely busy at Dubai and I didn’t get a lot of time to myself there.

Dubai, here I come

Tomorrow I’m going to Dubai to attend a couple of work related meetings. I’ll be there for a few days before I head back and I’m thinking it will be a good opportunity to attend the GITEX festival. Visiting Mall of Emirates is also something on my agenda so I can see what all the fuss is about.

Movie seller at work

 

Once a week this guy comes in carrying his bag and discreetly walks into the ‘take a break’ room on my floor. Soon after you notice people randomly drifting in and then walking out with plastic bags. Turns out this guy is the DVD seller. I too have now become part of his growing clientele and purchase 2-3 DVDs from him every now and then. It sure beats running to Hawally (local computer and movies have-it-all place in Kuwait) every now and then for my stuff.

Going to Lebanon

I’m off to Beirut next week. My manager recommended me for a critical training related to our core product and it may be a 2-3 weeks long session.

Since this is going to be a bit of a duration, I decided that both Maliha and Rohail should also come along. Even though I’ll be busy during the day with the training and perhaps some parts later on as well, since I’m also expected to follow-up on my regular day-to-day tasks; I still intend to take some time out for us to go sight-seeing around the city.

If anyone has any suggestions on where to go and what to see, do let me know.

Alhumdulillah, I’m really enjoying the fun, challenges and prosperity (technical and financial) that my current job offers. I can’t remember the last time I searched a job site, which was something I did at-least once a day previously.

Update: It has been delayed for a week or so… or more.

Emirates is cool

I got back from my work trip to Dubai on Thursday night. It was pretty hectic as we reached the hotel by Wednesday midnight and then spent most of Thursday in the meeting and then me and a colleague went to the City Centre for an hour or so before heading off to the airport. I was hoping to go to the Mall of Emirates but we just didn’t have the time.

The interesting part was actually in the plane itself. We were aboard an Emirates flight and as you can see above, they’ve set up this soothing and cool starry effect on the ceiling. Something even better is their new menu which looks awesome and has a hell of a lot more movies where you also get individual control over the media you watch (pause, play, rewind, etc.). Their movie collection was extremely impressive and they had all the latest flicks as well as the classics.

More photos here.

I forgot to mention – the standard of their food has gone down drastically and I’ve been noticing how they don’t even bother to ask you what you want anymore and just serve you with whatever.

Going to Dubai

You have got to be doing something right if you can put both work and fun as categories for the same post!

I’ll be going to our Dubai office on a short trip for a meeting this Wednesday. I’ll be back by night the very next day. That hardly leaves any time for fun, but I just enjoy the energy and festive nature of Dubai.

Since I’ll only have the evening of Wednesday to chill, I’m wondering what I should do other than the stuff I’ve already covered there. Visiting the Mall of Emirates is one option as someone told me that the indoor skiing facility is inside it as well.

Unfortunately, traffic conditions are turning worse there but I hear they’re working on some new mass transit facilities.

Trainings wrapped up

Yesterday I finally concluded the second of the two trainings that I was part of for the past 2-3 weeks. It was a very good experience and we learnt a lot. The only issue now is to make sure that we can also implement what we have learnt, as that involves convincing both the customer and our management to understand the changes that need to be brought about in how we do things currently. That was a mouthful.

Everyone receives an attendance certificate, however, we also had the option in each course to give an exam at the end (which most people availed). These exams can lead to formal certification and degrees from Learning Tree through their various university affiliations in the UK. I got the result of the first course and I scored a neat 88%! Hope I can pull off something similar in the last one, though that was much more difficult.

Trainings at work

Last week I was part of a 4-day long training organized by my company on User and System Requirements conducted by Learning Tree. It was a very interactive team-based exercise and we were given a scenario and had to work together to achieve the target.

Other than the technical knowledge I gained; the best part for me was getting a better understanding of team dynamics. Everyone has different ideas and thinks they are right. The trick is how to ensure that you keep on moving ahead and everyone feels good. I also had the opportunity to present one aspect of our work to the whole class and the instructor, and that served as a confidence booster.

Next week my manager has lined me up for another one of their trainings: Object-Oriented Design and Analysis Using UML and I’m really looking forward to it.

Back from Lahore

I last posted before going to Lahore. Finally got back early morning on last Friday and what a trip it was! It had been three years since I’d last visited by homeland. The minute I stepped out of the airport (at around 4am), I just stood still, inhaled the air, the sights and the sounds. It sure felt good being back home.

Apart from my work, which went very well, I made sure that I would eat all the local food I could get my mouth on.

A colleague from Kuwait who was also there at our Lahore office made sure I made it to all the right places and you can bet Food Street was high on the list. So it was a lot of local ice-creams, chicken karahi, chicken sajji, achari chicken, nihari, lassis, milkshakes, etc. (I can’t be bothered to think up the English names). More pictures here.