Life in a Suitcase

I can't blame US president elect Obama for wanting to see the "Slumdog Millionaire" after the movie made a lot of noise and took home 8 Oscar's!

On mid-january 2009, I have reported to our headoffice in Paris and had an opportunity to spend a weekend there with my colleagues from the middle east. We made a great plan for the weekend, this time to visit churches like Sacre Cour and Notre Dame. After a week of working long hours, I was too excited for the weekend to relax. I had to sleep early on Friday night just to make sure I have enough energy for the next long day of definitely loads of walking. Then came Saturday morning. At 9am, it was still dark, and raining, and at 2 degrees. I had a really slow and relaxing breakfast while sending messages to my colleagues suggesting that we instead meet at 12noon, wishing that some sun will show up, but it never did. We then had to cancel our church visits but had to do something else until somebody suggested that we meet in Chatelet Les Halles, a metro and a train station and a mall in one, quite a huge place but indoors so we were not worried that we will get sick and will not be able to work on the next working week (imagine the company's disappointment of spending money for your flight and hotel and you will be...what?...sick???).

So what do we do. Most of the shops are on sale, but because it's a weekend and it's the last day of the week for the Parisians to shop (Most shops are close on Sundays), it was too crowded for the very word of it. You will just get disappointed seeing the long queue on the cashier, epecially when you just want to pick up a t-shirt (like me)...While sitiing on Starbucks (after searching for this special coffee shop for like 30 minutes), somebody suggested to see a movie and I raised my hand in agreement.

The main objective is to see a movie in English so after browsing the lists, and mini-mini-mini-moe...we had chosen "Slumdog Millionaire". The synopsis is in French so even if I put together all the few words that I understood, it still didn't make sense to me. Anyway, there's nothing else to do so I shelled out 12 Euros (waaaah!) just to pass the time.

It was mostly in English, but sometimes especially when Jamal and Salim were still small kids, they speak Hindi..and I didn't understand, but because of the French subtitles, I didn't understand more..haha...

In the end it was a good movie. It is one good movie I can recommend president Obama and anyone to see. It's not only about the story but how it was made. I am not going to explain it in detail but what can I just say is go and try to see this movie. If it's not being shown yet in the cinemas (and for my friends in Saudi who don't have cinema at all) I'm sure there are already pirated copies around (ooopps, did I just promote movie piracy???), and make sure to get the one with an English subtitle.

At the back of my mind, I was happier thinking that our project in India is still delayed so I don't go there soon. When you see the movie, you'll know what I am talking about.

Reading the newspaper the other day, I just found out that it took home 8 Oscar's and many more from other award giving bodies. Well, the movie and the makers of it deserve all the recognitions. Even if it's not really an Indian movie, but rather a movie about an Indian kid, I am happy for my Indian friends here in the middle east for the success of this movie entirely shot in their country and starred by their people...Mabrook!!!

By the way, I managed to see Sacre Cour the next day. It was a little bit sunny at 4 degrees. And the next weekend, I was in Vienna...a WOW and a completely different story.

I happened to read this article from the RoyalWings, the inflight magazine of Royal Jordanian, while on a flight from Amman to Beirut. It is about how our lives are being affected by today’s technology that we work wherever we go, regardless of the time of the day, the day of the week, who we are with, etc.

Jen Miller, the author of the article, said that technology allows us to be connected and contactable all the time. I’ll be honest to say that I’m one of those people who will make sure I reply to work emails wherever I am. Before going to bed, no matter if it is 10pm 0r 2am, I make sure that I check my inbox so that I don’t miss an important information, and reply when possible.

Earlier in our lives when these cell phones, blackberry and internet are not yet around, the wall between work life and personal life is very clear. The moment you punched out your time card on that bundy clock for example at 18:00, even before it gets 18:01, then you are disconnected until the time you punch in again.

Now, that everyone has a cell phone, even the not so busy employees might be distracted by their managers or supervisors in the middle of their sleep, or in a bar, or in a moviehouse, or on a weekend out of town with their families, etc, to be asked job related questions, or to be informed that the schedule has been changed, or to be disappointed that the day-off has been canceled because something came up…well something like that, I bet you all dig this.

In my case, the secret is for me to find ways and time when to disconnect myself from work. But how about our business partners working in different time zones? What about my boss who’s time is 3 hours behind me. She must be in her office at 9pm my time, and if I get lucky that she stays later, it will be until 10pm. What if I don’t reply? What if I put it off for the next day? Will they think I am not working? Will they think I am lazy? Will I be out of the loop or something? Well I supposed it doesn’t really matter whether I reply now at 10pm, now that I am already tired, or tomorrow at 9am when I’m fresher and can think of a better answer. I should advice myself that.

So there it goes, technology makes many of us difficult to manage the balance between work life and personal life. But then again, according to Jen, technology is here to stay – we’re the ones who need to switch off…

So, I got to end this now. I have to check my mails…

in Taipe


In London




In Berlin



In Sydney


In UAE, a candle-lit vigil for Gaza victims





Shaik Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Makhtoum, Vice-Preident and Ruler of the UAE cancelled all celebrations in UAE in solidarity with the painful events in the Palestinian territory and the massacres in Gaza...




Similarly, Egypt, Jordan and Syria also cancelled their festivities.

It's a pity that when we have all the chance to "celebrate to the max" as we say, some of our brother' and sisters' opportunity to even smile is being taken away from them...sigh!!!




Source of images here.