Religion

The Right Essence

The main act of performing Namaz on the day of Eid
Photo credit: www.xcitefun.net

As the night is lighted by the appearance of the half moon and Eid takbirah are chanted in the mosques, the minds and hearts of the Muslims around the world are filled with happiness and excitement of celebrating Eid ul Fitr (A religious festival)

While Eid is celebrated by the people in a worldly fashion, like buying new clothes, decorating their homes and arranging get together for friends and family. The entire essence of Eid lies in its importance, the roots of which lie in the Religion.

As knowledge is power and forever becomes a person’s asset, it can’t be lost nor snatched away. It stays till the end. Therefore, a teacher is always respected and the gaining of knowledge is celebrated.

Religious festivals are celebrated as they are moments that have passed, teaching people about something. In the same way, Eid ul Fitar is celebrated by the Muslim as it taught people the importance of sacrificing and to develop the art of giving and sharing with our family, friends and the less fortunate.

“More than celebrating a festival, it is important for me to teach my kids about the true essence of the festival and tell them about the teachings. It is not restricted to only Eid or Muslim religions, but I believe in teaching my children everything that would benefit them in the future.” says Tasneem Hannan, a Teacher and a Mother of two.

When we make rounds on the streets of Dubai, wherein Islam is the main religion, we can’t miss the smiles, cheers, hugs and the greetings that are given to each other. But even though there is too much chaos, the Azan would never get missed by any. The first word of Azan would mark the Muslims walking towards the mosque leaving everything else in the world.

“The call towards Allah is important than all the others, if I hear the Azan even if it’s Eid or any other function, I can’t miss it. It’s a sign of respect to answer at once when an elder calls upon us. So is it with the Azan.” says Mustafa Ali, a business man.

The best part of religious celebrations is that they are a perfect mix of both the religion and the worldly pursuits. Even if we spend a majority of our time shopping, decorating, preparations and parties, but when the time arrives, everyone is at their foot to come together to pray.

A prayer is a simple thanks to God who has made the world and slowly gives us signs showing how to lead it rightly. While the moral values are ingrained in our hearts and minds we need someone to remind them to us which happens every year in form of festivals and celebrations rekindling the story behind them.

LOCAL

The Nationalistic Feeling

The spirirt of patriotism
Picture credit: Nafisa Zaki

Thirty eight years ago, a man with an amazing foresight, united seven emirates into one big nation called the United Arab Emirates. Though it looked like the only opportunity to curb the misuse of itself by the other world nations, no one could have imagined what this unification actually meant.

It just took 3 decades for this nation to become one of the most desirable places to live in and for tourists to explore. The typical Bedouin life of the citizens of the desert has now completely changed to the high standard of living and enjoying the luxuries of modern world.

Though climatically, UAE is not very fertile as the desert sand, the hot weather, the uncertain storms are not very suitable for the vegetation. But still today, there is not a corner which is not green. Not having any natural resource big enough to attract the tourist nor having a very flattering climatic condition. UAE itself made a charm of its own which is capable of attracting tourist from all over.

Three decades is not a very long time to change the entire way of living of the people, of changing the city, or having plantations in deserts. But the trust of Sheikh Zayed on his country and its citizens both locals and the expats has now bloomed to become a beautiful nation in the desert.

“It has been more than 20 yrs since I am living in Dubai. In the course of which though I felt like an outsider at instances. But still the conditions have never been so bad that I leave UAE. I feel safest here and this is my country. The National Day every year reminds me of the state of this nation when I first came here and how quickly it has developed now when I see it. I mark all the milestones of UAE that happens every year. The same way we would count for our baby.” says Mr. Mansoor, A business man.

Mr Marvin celebrating National day.
Photoi credit: Nafisa Zaki

“I can’t believe it’s been 38 yrs and we already have the largest fountain, the largest book store, the biggest metro station, the longest tower, the enormous man made islands, the big candy shop etc. we have everything I would not have imagined being here when I first came in. the National Day always brings in a feeling of pride in me, I always decorate my home before the onset of 2nd December” says Mr. Marvin, a waiter.

This year the National Day had brought in sad news of the big recession that hit Dubai which gives out the message that development at a very fast rate is not good, there needs to be a time where we need to wait and think. It’s expected that a lot of people might want to go away in search for greener pastures in different countries.

“The news has brought in a very sad feeling amongst many but the idea of leaving and going is still not very bright for me. We came to UAE when we were in need. It became our home and fulfilled dreams that we were scared to see. The National day brings out a feeling of patriotism in me making me show my gratitude towards it.” says Rajat Sharma, an accountant.

“I always miss my own country, I miss my family and relatives there, my childhood palces but still if I go back from here I will miss UAE much more, I have made new friends in here, we have stayed so united with each other that we all have become much more than family. I feel very happy as people have only one country to call it theirs but I have two countries which are my own and two days to celebrate their development.” says Ms. Fatima Husain, an Indian Student.

The decoration for national day at the Abra
Photo credit: Nafisa Zaki

After my quest for finding out the expatriates feeling for the National day, what I myself found out that even though this is the most selfish generation ever, but humanity can never cease and so everybody has a connection towards what they benefit from and realize the importance of things in their lives. Though people don’t show it often but they do care.

TRENDS

The changing trends

Mr Afzal Pasha at his workshop
Photo credit: Nafisa Zaki

"As the days pass people get richer, the dresses get smaller and tighter" says Mr. Afzal Pasha, a designer and tailor of his own accord. The shop he works in is full of colors and designs of different clothing items which are waiting for their wearers to collect them.

Talking about the change in fashion from the past till now Mr. Afzal's views on it are that at past the normal public would prefer loose and much exaggerated styles but now the trend has become tighter and much more decent styles.

"Today, everybody is a stylist and everything is fashion" says Mr. Afzal who is from Bangalore and started his career in Bombay wherein he would serve tea in all the tailoring shops around the tea stall. The smiles and the look of contentment on the tailor's face motivated him to learn their skill.

Mr. Afzal Pasha showcasing his design
Photo credit: Nafisa Zaki

The idea of having to design dresses that people wear and that the people showcase their creativity with so much of pride is something that makes him happy and smile for the first time during the course of the interview.

When asked about his specialty and his idea of styling he says that he loved the suits that Mr. Prabhudeva, a Tamilian Actor wore in his first film. He copied many of those dresses for his customers which started gaining him more customers and made him popular in his area.

Fashion according to him can not be termed; it's always changing and ever evolving. But it gets better every day, world doesn’t stop and so doesn’t fashion. There has not been a time in life where I could have stopped and said this is it.

A few meters apart from where Mr. Afzal works, I came across Sheikh Kamruddin Jahir Ali who was standing very confidently in his shop called Vanity Fashions. As the most expensive resource is time, his generosity made him give me some of his.

Sheikh Kamrudding at his shop
Photo credit: Nafisa Zaki

Sheikh Kamruddin, the winner of various awards and certificates that recognizes his styles and designs, Proudly stands in the counter but stays busy enough to answer others who work under him. According to him the trends in fashion has changed from before in a very elaborate way. People wear what they are comfortable in.

"True fashion is what the people are comfortable in, as when they comfortable in it they carry it well and that becomes their style and fashion that suits them" says Shk. Kamruddin.

Sheikh Kamruddin showcasing his designs
Photo credit: Nafisa Zaki

He is from Bombay and is working in the same shop for 25 years and has full freedom to design what he wants. His designs are all over the market but they are all exclusive and made only once.

Apart from everything, one thing I noticed is that recession never hits creativity. According to Shk. Kamruddin. His orders are booked over the year. A dress that comes to him is only ready the next year. He says "When your work is good and you do it with all your heart however poor or helpless you might be. But no body can stop you from being successful."

Going through the work for this assignment one thing I learned is the secret to success and how to avoid situations that people are scared of the most.

SOCIETY

UNITY IN DIVERSITY!

In today's world, internet friends though being miles away are closer than colleagues who we see everyday. This fact is true in almost every case but not in the new Kuwaiti building where neighbors form stronger bonds than their own relatives.

The new Kuwaiti building stands in the buzzing street of Naif Road. It is a perfect location for the shoppers and for those who would like to see a very vibrant side of Dubai. A few minutes walk towards the right from the building, we could see the largest market of furniture, curtains, carpets and apart from these the very famous Naif Souq, which is known to be the oldest market of Dubai.

"My reason of renting a flat in this building was because I loved the location. If you want anything in the world the only thing you have to do is go down and you get an entire range of beauty parlors, super markets, shops, furniture, clothes etc. and, the area is so lively that you can never feel lonely at my house." says Mrs. Najma Khatib, a house maker.

Apart from the facilities provided at every nook and corner of the area like the recycling bins, phone booths, Dubai map, bus stops and also metro station. The best part of the building is the beautiful view that you could enjoy on the other side of the road.

"The Futtaim Villa that is just opposite the building has a beautiful and long garden, it is a home to various species of birds who we can hear chirping every morning and big trees. This view is seen from our balcony itself." says Dr. Kurien a dentist.

When we first set our foot in this house we were in love with its locality and the fact that the building was new. But as we started living the reason to be attached to the house were the neighbors that we got.

Eid, Diwali, Christmas, New Year, Independence day, be it any we all have celebrated it together. Everyday the kids from different nationalities, the Filipinos, Sri Lankan, Ethopian and Indian all come together to play and have a time of their life.

"During Eid's its like a havoc in here, right after the morning prayers all the kids visit the houses in a large group to collect their eidies and the grand lunch is done at our neighbors house. Till the third day of the Eid all the neighbors plan out to go for an outing. It is a lot of fun and we can not think of any of our Eid being lonely." says Mrs. Rashida Akolawala, a House Maker

The children of the building all come together and organize small parties and outing at cinemas during certain functions. Like the Independence Day of both Pakistan and India is celebrated together. This keeps alive the nationalistic feeling in them and also unites them and gives a message that we all need to live in peace.

Apart from the functions, the message the entire neighborhood shares is be it thick or thin, happy or sad we all have to live together and support each other.

"We have seen marriages, birthdays, death, and accidents. We all families go through something or the other but the entire neighborhood remains untied in whatever they do." says Mrs. Rehana Zaki, a House Maker.

DECORATING YOUR HOME!!

Dubai is considered to be one of the few cities where people would prefer to reside in. leaving their own home country and shifting to a country miles away from your own, a country that has an entirely different culture is quiet a hard decision to make.

The small emirate that stands as an island, is uncovering itself from the dust to show case a beautiful city which develops with each coming year. This year the onset of metro has given the citizens of Dubai all the more reason to be proud of. It has attracted tourist and immigrants.

Shifting could be a tedious as well as a bad experience, if people do not have proper information on what they want to do and how would they do it. Shifting does not only mean having a great job or a house given by the company. The job and the house is not enough, a person also needs to have an idea of where to find the proper resources to make the house a home.

Sure enough, Dubai being a metropolitan city has multi national companies which would do the needful like IKEA, Home Centre or Pan Emirates. But for those who like to be extra creative with their houses and decorate it on their own, needs to find out the places where they could find what they want.

Ready made furnished bedroom.
picture credit: Nafisa Zaki

The beauty of the house majorly comes with the choice of paint and the colour. The bare walls are never attractive to any. As they say colour enhances mood, the choice of the colours and its quality is very important to some.

"We get many orders for paints. The newly wedded couples, who shift to their new houses mainly, experiment with colours. walls are decorated in many ways just using colours, there are three shaded walls, two shaded walls or colours according to themes for example chocolate." Says Rahman, sales man in Abdulla Al Merwi Trdg. That deals with Jotun paints.

Sitting room designed with a pink theme

picture credit: Nafisa Zaki

Houses that are made with themes require furniture and the interiors accordingly which may not be readily available and has to be made especially for the purpose. The interior designers are quiet a big help for setting up the interiors of the homes. They take care of everything right from the chandeliers and ceilings to the accessories like candles, stands, tissue covers etc. this is done according to the themes suggested by the customers.

Some of the interior design companies in Dubai are Avenue Interiors, Interior Heights LLC, United Precast Concrete Dubai LLC, Modern Living Dubai etc.

Apart from these, if the budget of the customers are not so high they can also go for freelance interior designing who can design the house according to the budget provided by the customers themselves.

Mr. Adham Mohammed

picture credit: Nafisa Zaki

"The designing of the house depends on the size of the houses and the amount that the customer is willing to pay, we bring in the respective items accordingly like the furniture, curtains, pillow covers, carpets etc. it all depends on the quality and the styles that the customer would prefer. The average it takes in designing a house is 10,000-12,000 Dhs." says Adham Mohammed the manager of 'My design' which deals which designing and also furnishing.

If a person does not like the idea of having some body else design their houses they can always do it on their own. If they have made a choice of the colour for the rooms, they can then proceed to the carpets and curtains.

"A customer just has to choose their colour and fabric then the entire duty of making the sets that contains carpets, curtains, pillow covers and sofa covers is our duty. They can tell us their choices and we could get the fabric or else they can buy it on their own and we sew everything for them." says Girish, the owner of Al Sadaf Furnishing.

Different materials for curtain

picture credit: Nafisa Zaki

This gives the people the benefit of having choices and the satisfaction of having designed their perfect homes by themselves. Naïf road that is in Deira forms the biggest market of furnishings, carpets, curtains, wallpapers and designing outlets. If anybody wants to furnish their apartments on their own, it is advisable for them to make a visit in this area as it gives plenty of choices and showcases the different trends that come up.

In fact, many of the major designing outlets deal with the shops here for the furniture and curtains. A personal visit to these shops might be cheaper than having an intermediary.

As its said a house just remains a house with walls, but it becomes a home when you make it your own personal corner that suits your style.

HUMAN INTEREST

Lovely Akhtar, walking to her home

(picture credit: Nafisa Zaki)

A small little dream

Short, thin with attractive features perfectly describe a Bangladeshi maid named Lovely Akhtar. With her shining eyes which hold lots of dreams she welcomed me with a perfect smile on her face to peek into her reality.

Being a Muslim and belonging to a conservative background. At first, she was a bit hesitant about talking about her life but as we began talking she felt at ease to let her heart out. Lovely Akhtar had come to Dubai about 2 years ago, with a desire to fulfil all the dreams that she and her family shared.

I saw tears trickling down her face when she said "I had come to Dubai as I have a very large and poor family to support back home. We are five sisters with no brother and our father is too old to support us."

Lovely tells me that they do not own a house in their country. Her entire family stays in a small cottage which is not very comfortable for all of them. She had saved money with lots of difficulty just to come to Dubai. Now her aim is to build a comfortable house for her family and save enough money to go back home and get her younger sister married.

picture credit: Nafisa Zaki

"I have to build a house and organize two weddings, but both of these are a very costly deal and I don’t even have a proper work."

Lovely just works for 2 hours as a house maid for which she earns AED 400. But the entire amount is spent in the house rent and food. A very little of about AED 50 is save per month to send home which is not enough according to her.

Talking about her living conditions she said "I share my room with 5 more girls. Our room is very small and has three beds; two of us share a bed each. This gives us a very little space to move around. It’s a very old house and looks like it would break any minute. But there is no better option than this because most of the house rents are sky rocketing."

picture credit: Nafisa Zaki

Even while she was talking about her cruel present that she was living. She had a biog smile on her face when she talked about her desire to get married. "I have to marry soon now, when I collect enough money I will go back home and meet the guy my mother has seen and get married to him. My sister says he looks very good. That is why I want to go home as soon as I can."

Looking at her smile I could sense the excitement building up inside her that told me how much she wants to see the guy. But the worst part is that she cannot go until she has enough money to build up a home especially when she doesn't have a proper job.

"It hurts when I realize I cannot go home soon and I cannot afford to go even for a month, I miss everything about home, the sweets and the special dishes that my mother cooks, my sisters, my nephews and all the fun we used to have, I would like to go home as soon as I can." She says.

At the end of the day she is always left alone dreaming about the unknown guy and her family but she shares all her miseries with her best friend Ayesha. While talking to me she lets out a very important point. "I cannot call home often because I have no money and no job but my mother does not understand this. She thinks everyone in Dubai has a job. She asks me whether I have a boyfriend and am roaming around with him because I do not send her enough money too."

Apart from everything that she has to go through. It is her mother's suspicion on her which irritates her. But apart from everything she has good views about her experience in Dubai "In Dubai I have a good time with my friend, we go out to the market together and talk a lot about things. She makes my stay in here worthwhile and not all that lonely."

As I part from her she has the same smile on her face but deep inside only I know what she is facing in reality.

Lovely Akhtar walking away.

picture credit: Nafisa Zaki

HABITS

Being swept by the media!!

Walking pass any electronic shop, ever noticed what grabs our attention? It’s the television sets kept for display. Television, which has now become a traditional media making way for the new media comprising of the internet and the mobile generation is still the most influential amongst the people.

Even though, the internet has qualified to become the most widely used media and has swept the world with its ability to let its audiences perform tasks that were once considered to be impossible. Still television and cinema has not lost its charms and continue to be one of the popular medium for the teenagers.

"I spend at least 4-5 hours using the internet. But in those four hours at least two hours I use to download and watch television shows and movies." says Amrita a college student.

Cinemas and televisions bring to life various desirable characters and stories on one platform. It has also diverged into various genres that would suit the mood of its audiences like the romantic, comedies, dramas, thriller etc.

Therefore, they are very popular amongst the teenage group as it gives them a chance to experience a feeling which in reality they couldn’t and give them a situation to relate to. It combines sounds and lights and hence become the most influential medium of all times. This influence could be positive or negative, big or small, short term or long term. But no body can claim to have not been influenced by this medium.

Devang brhambhatt, a college student.

picture credit: Nafisa Zaki

"I used to wear my wrist watch in the left hand. But since when I have seen both Shahid Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan, the popular movie stars of bollywood, wearing it in the right hand, I too have changed my placement." Says Devang Brahmbhatt, a 17 year old student.

Kiran Suresh, a collge student

picture credit: Nafisa Zaki

Many claim to have changes their hairstyles and their dressing styles to prove their loyalty towards their favourite stars. "I had copied Madhuri Dixit's, the bollywood actress dressing style after the bollywood movie Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and was so proud to do It." says Kiran Suresh, an 18 year old college student.

"After Dostana I have changed my hair style and made it just like John Abraham, the bollywood actor did in the movie." says Surendra Kumar.

Surendra Kumar, college student

picture credit: Nafisa Zaki

Apart from these small acts of craziness that the teenagers do, the television has serious impacts on them too. It makes them compare themselves to the stars and realize they can not be the same making it a very unhealthy situation for the parents and also for the teenagers themselves.

"When my child realized his physique was far from being socially acceptable and he was very different from what is shown on television these days. He started a harsh diet regime which was very hard for him and us too. Though, he has to take the pain of it. I was the one who felt the worst. But In the end I think it was all worth It." anonymous.

There are many such instances where the teenagers fall prey to the specific something that is portrayed on the television and cinemas, which claim to be very trendy and attractive but actually is not all that great.

It is only later on in life that people realize their mistakes and wish they would not do what they started doing when they were in their youth.

Though, there is nothing wrong in being appalled by any of the media but being so dependent on it that we start thinking 'this is what life comprises of' is wrong and the teenagers should learn to make a clear distinction between the reel and the real so that they restrict doing things that would haunt them in their future.