An Article I Liked..

What will happen to Dubai's concrete jungle?

By Simon Jenkins, The Guardian

Hovering over Dubai is a cloud called nemesis. The first time I saw the place two years ago through a plane window, its towers were hovering in the heat over the desert, gulping up water and energy and fussed round by reputedly a quarter of the world’s construction cranes. Even then the vision was unmistakable, of Ozymandias and his “vast and trunkless legs of stone”.When prices go up, buildings go up. When prices come down, buildings tend to stay up. Until recently visitors to Dubai returned gasping. This was truly a city designed from start to finish by autocrats and architects. It was the last word in iconic overkill, a festival of egotism with humanity denied. It was an architectural chorus line of towers, each shouting louder and kicking higher. People were ants.Even as the property market turned sour last autumn, the vast Atlantis hotel, built for $1.5bn with a whale shark in its swimming pool, was spending $20m on its launch party. Yet still the newspaper supplements and television contra-deals spluttered their superlatives. Every time the builder of the tallest tower in the world, the monster of Burj Dubai, sees the local ruler, Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum, he is told to add more storeys for fear someone else may build an even taller one.

The stockmarket is down 70 per cent 2005’s level, and construction has ceased on half the unfinished towers that stretch out into the desert. Eighty per cent of the population of Dubai are passing migrants who are there, like gold-diggers of old, only for the cash. The cash is going and so are they, leaving expensive cars in the street and at the airport, many fleeing possible imprisonment for debt. Consider, meanwhile, the city of Detroit. Here was another that rose on the shore of an inland sea, fuelled by the cult of hypermobility. With the implosion of the motor industry it has gone to seed. Houses are pictured boarded-up or selling for a dollar. Dogs roam empty streets.Vacant shopsWind howls through vacant shops. The unbelievable has come to pass. The love child of America’s greatest postwar passion is preparing to die.Detroit is part of a great country that has shown itself capable of rescuing even its rustbelt municipalities. But this depends on finding people who will live in a place from which most have fled. Luckily, much of Detroit is of low-rise plot housing that could be transformed at least into Bohemian neighbourhoods, like ruined New Orleans. No such option is available to Dubai.

It is the ultimate Corbusian city, rigid in format and old-fashioned in conception, based on the grids and set squares of super-planners, and on grand symbolic buildings rather than intimate streets. It cannot respond to demand and supply for land and property; let alone to the wishes of free citizens. Human scale is confined to the Las-Vegas style replicas of Florence and Venice adopted by hotels that realise guests will not come if slapped constantly in the face by modern architecture.

One business that cannot afford inhumanity is a hotel.Such cities are like the planned science settlements of Soviet Russia or the instant downtowns of American ‘metroplexes’, in which people do as planners ordain. There are no visual surprises, no corners of privacy away from big brother or at least big car. Buildings are exclusive and architecturally defensive, like London’s Barbican.This off-the-shelf city state has been built on laundering the profits of oil, drugs, arms and western aid. Its sheikh was not a complete fool, like comparable African and Latin American autocrats. He realised that city states cannot live on one product alone, unless it is money. Since he had no oil, he would drill for money. Mohammed al-Maktoum’s failing has been his belief that megalomania is best when done big. He built a giant port and a giant airport, a giant stock exchange, giant finance sector and giant shopping mall. Dubai is a monument to big-must-be-beautiful. During the gold rush the prospectors came. But as the rush wanes, Dubai is believed to be nursing the world’s biggest per-capita debt. It may have to be bailed out by its neighbouring Gulf states, whose more prudent attractions Dubai tried to outshine; indeed, the process has already begun. Nothing can bail out a tower if there is nobody to live in it. It cannot be pulled down and quaint English country villages replicated on the spot. The same goes for thousands of villas and apartment blocks along the Gulf shore and on the artificial islands in the world’s most boring sea. They will stand empty in the heat. The decay starts. Most were bought as investments. The value of those investments has fallen an estimated 60 per cent in just six months. If their emptiness reaches a tipping point where there are no neighbours, no shops, no services and no social life, they will decay, like downtown Detroit.Smart money says Dubai could survive as the playground of India, even if the oil money of West Asia moves back to more salubrious Europe. This depends on India failing to supply its own playground and, critically, on Dubai surviving what could be a Muslim backlash against its hesitantly hedonistic western lifestyle.Dubai will become casualties not of human greed but of architectun folly. Their lifts and services, expensive to maintain, will collapse. Their colossal facades will shed glass. Sand will drift round their trunkless legs. Animals will inhabit their basements.Thousands of residential properties, if occupied at all, will be squatted by a migratory poor, like the hotel towers of the Spanish littoral or Corbusier’s block-houses of Chandigarh in India. Refugees will colonise the camps where Indian workers have lived as they built Dubai. Gangs will seize the gated estates and random anarchy will rule the soulless boulevards.If it is lucky Dubai will at least be a refuge from the political cataclysms that could engulf countries such as Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. But mostly the dunes will reclaim the place.

A series of trips- Munnar

Munnar - breathtakingly beautiful - a haven of peace and tranquility - the idyllic tourist destination in God's own country. Set at an altitude of 6000 ft in Idukki district, Kerala, Munnar was the favored summer resort of the erstwhile British rulers in the colonial days. Unending expanse of tea plantations - pristine valleys and mountains- exotic species of flora and fauna in its wild sanctuaries and forests - aroma of spice scented cool air - yes! The word beautiful is an understatement..

We left Bangalore on friday night and took pit stops along the way to complete our 500-odd km journey one way. We stopped for breakfast in Tamil Nadu. Pongal and coffee was good. We were given a government guest house by the local tourist offices. The view from the cottage which was set on top of the hill over-looking Munnar city was simply fabulous. We checked in at 2 after lunch which consisted of Kerala style Mutton biryani. After picking up cold sodas and snacks we headed to the cottage. There was no Air Con or fan in any of the rooms but the breeze was terrific. The sun was shining and the winds were cold. All I wanted to do was sit, relax and inhale nature. We all felt so high on nature. Intoxicated by the beauty of the place. It was so simple. Just sit and take in the calm, the peace. The evening was even more brilliant. A bonfire was burning in the clearing and we were sipping cold Red Bull and munching homemade chocolates. Lying down under the warm blanket looking up at the full moon it was probably one of the best moments I had wit myself in a long time. It was so romantic to the core. I was high on life. Slow tracks playing from our laptops set up the whole thing for a riot of the peaceful kinds. The last time I probably got this feeling was at Niagara Falls, Buffalo, NY couple of years back. That night I had a very peaceful sleep in ages. My bedroom wall was complete glass overlooking the valley. It was breathtaking especially in the night..

Sunrise was beautiful as anything else till now in that enchanting place. The sun creeping up from the moor lands all orange and hot. But the cold breeze was on as ever. We in the highlands around in pursuit of elephants and snakes. We wanted to see the former more than the latter ones. We eventually saw the big animal on one of the rides up the valley. Sunday, we reached a dam where the water was crease less. Horse-riding and boating ruled the place. Everyone around was honeymooning or trying to escape heat from their respective places. My agenda was none. I was in pursuit of happiness, peace and some serenity..

We entered Top Station which is 41 kms away from Munnar city and offers the best panoramic view of the whole area. The whole hilly region lies between the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It was like standing and watching the Swiss Alps.. Only the snow-caps were missing. A few deep ravines and trenches across the hillside gave a spectacular view. We negotiated hundreds of steps to the lookout point and the climb back was too much of an exercise. But the landscape was amazing to say the least. I felt I attained Nirvana! Lunch was local fish and Appam. Makes you want to go back again. And again.

We ran in to a few monkeys at the check post. One small one in particular stole one of the bags of food and run off. So much for animal hospitality. We drove on wiser now. Many wildlife parks exist in the area. The whole region is heavily monitored to prevent any mishaps or forest fires. Littering is a strict no and smoking is banned as well. But then this is India end of the day and as long as you don't get caught it's okay. Everyone bends the rules. Birds are very diverse. From Sparrows, Hummingbirds etc to Crows they all exist. I'm bad at birds so can't name many. After Top Station we descended back towards Munnar where we picked up more pics and some snacks for our last leg of the journey to Bangalore. It was a sleepy ride back with dreams proclaiming, Life is Beautiful.. Until we go tripping again, Cheers!

A series of trips- Mysore

Last week starting of this month, me and my friends went to Mysore by car. The road trip was amazing as usual. I was behind the wheel for the whole day driving around 400 kms in a single day. It sounds less but then when it comes to Indian highways, that is a lot! I love driving, one of the few things in life left to give me adrenaline anytime I want it. We planned to leave in the wee hours of the morning to beat the traffic. At least that was the plan.