Assad in Tbilisi - Day 2

Warning - The below are random thoughts & observations, thus a reader genuinely interested in knowing about Georgia may be tad disappointed.

Got up on time today with the alarm, what a surprise..! Else unless Arshi threatens me, I don’t.. Also haven’t lost my specs even once in the last 12 hours (its right here, by my bedside) how people can mature with the responsibility of being on ones own, its truly amazing & noteworthy (that’s why I have noted it down) He he..Now if I can get ready soon, I can have a short morning walk, that should be nice..

Yest eve, sunset was something like 8 in the night, don’t know when the sun came back again in the morn.. Would you believe the max temperature here goes upto 42d during summers, but again not too far away from the city are snow capped mountains.. Interesting.. Ok now gotta get out of bed, Arshi could be calling any minute now (to wake me up), want to proudly tell her that I am already up & about.. He he..

1-2-3.. YES.. The most difficult task of the day completed (viz. Getting out of bed)

The sinhasans here are not even equipped with a water hose, in contrast in Oman 50% of them are Indian/desi style.. Ok next topic now.. If you haven’t understood, its ok.. Like I said, next topic..

Arshi didn’t call (her alarm must not be working) now she will be tense when she gets up, she would imagine me snoring till mid- morning & frantically call me.. He he.. But I have become so responsible (as explained earlier)

..I want to measure how much water flows through a shower nozzle in 10 minutes of continuos running, will measure once back in dubai.. You know like run it for 30 seconds, measure the water collected in the bucket & extrapolate..

Maybe its the effect of this book (life of pi) I am reading, the boy is stranded on Pacific ocean for months and he has to conserve water & stuff.. Maybe the thought will pass by the time the book is over & I reach dubai (hope not).. Anyways had a good hot shower now.. Now to get ready.. Also no morning walk 4 me, spent too much time (& water) in the shower..

Heyy... I can hear a bird tweeting (tweeting? must be another word for it) & a dog barking (& sound of vehicles passing by, but am ignoring that) in the background, cool na..? Again India like.. Hmmm..

I put on hairgel almost everyday these days, think started since we moved to dubai.. Maybe because the hair-cutting charges are so high here (250 Indian rupees for a hair cut, oh god!) maybe my tresses were becoming long & unmanageable regularly & then it (hairgel) became a habit.. Many people say, hairgel leads to hair whitening, guess they did not get anything else to blame for making them look Buddha (not the god, I mean an oldie)

I will blame it myself, if my strands of grey become prominent.. For now I think I have 7-8 strands of grey hair, don’t think anyone other than Arshi would have really noticed it.. Who cares, even if they do, I can always blame Brylcreem & we can both say "I swear" and nod our heads.. Hmm.. Everyone needs someone/ smthg to blame, its a basic human necessity as per my understanding of human beings.. That reminds me, you should read a poem “leave me alone my blamer” by khalil gibran.. since my Brylcreem dabba is unlikely to blurt out these words, I can continue using it, without fear of retribution.. :-)

Arshi please note you are supposed to smile when I put a :-) okie.. thanks.. And if this one also gets posted to arshis blog (i shld start calling it our blog now), then its applicable to the reader as well..

Oh yes....!!!! Its chirping.. Birds chirp not tweet.. Why did I ever think of tweeting, cld be because of i remembered tweety the yellow bird..

Unisex toilets, interesting.. I don’t mean just as a concept, I mean actually interesting to visit them.. Accha it does not have the usual standee urinals for men, so don’t get any smart ideas..
Lunch, such a struggle.. No one understands any English & don’t have much time in hand between d meetings. More difficult since not having non-veg, as it may not be halal meat..

Have been thinking how so many languages in the world have so many common words, urdu & Arabic have following common words (a couple of them on the top of my mind): baida & kitab..

The babe at the restaurant said batata for a boatshaped pizza/sandwhich (for convinience let’s call the dish ‘batata whatever’).. Basically I was pointing my index finger towards whatever looked remotely vegetarian & she said batata for one of those boats.. 'Batata whatever' was good.. twas mashed potato with pepper and baked in bread.. Chalo Georgian food try ho gaya.. Maybe she wanted to say say potato, and mispronounced as patata or smthg, nonetheless...

What a day.. Completely drained, imagine being continously in 6 (or was it 7, lost count) back to back meetings right from 10 am to 8 pm, and that too heavy meetings.. 9:30 pm still here, had planned for shopping today.. chalo maybe at Istanbul airport thu eve!

A very cute 5 year old boy begging inside McDonalds.. Temo tells me they make more money than him ~30 $ a day.. He swears by it too.. Did I intro Temo, he is our escort from the bank.. He told me "mei" means me in Hindi as well as Georgian, also "Khwal" is for tomorrow in Georgian.. interesting..

Hey Arshi found another peanut in my jacket.. Its one of those I lost last winter, needless to say, did not waste it.. (it was safe in its natural case)

The roads don’t have dividers, very weird.. Only lines, even the bigger roads in the city have no dividers..

Assad in Tbilisi - Day 1 - Evening

Very sweet kids, some young boys playing on the street, and 2 of them greeted me with a hello when they saw me.. What a relief from the usual nuisance of Arabic kids..

Lot of dogs on the road, like Bombay.. Actually, not that many, got excited to see dogs on the street, saw just a couple of them in last 10 min..

Many shiny big aluminium dustbins around the city.. Yes, though poor, the city is not as dirty..
Smell of diesel and pollution when a big vehicle passes by.. Hey am I in Bombay..? (Why am i comparing everything to Bombay..?)

No, I am not. Cause there are pine trees (I assume its pine, my botany knowledge is negative) everywhere. Beautiful. The women too. But can’t go flash happy after them.. :-)

City in the midst of mountains (snow capped at times I am told, though not now)
10d centigrade seems fine at first, then it bites a bit, should have got the hood of my leather jacket, wearing a monkey cap would look quite foolish I guess, don’t see anyone with their heads covered..

See lot of Mercedes on the road here, but most of them old models, maybe it was a prosperous country.. maybe.. or maybe its just that used cars make way to the country via road from Europe, that's a more plausible explanation..

Lot of open air fruit and vegetable shops here, like in India, again this is not exactly a tourist spot, so I am being too flash happy about it..

Ok those were my musings for my first independent walk in the city.

Oil heaters everywhere in the hotel. Actually no battery in camera, that’s why I am back to my room. It seems the camera battery needs to be replaced, good I wrote it down, won't have to remember to tell Arshi, am sure would have forgotten to tell her..

Hey on TV there’s a channel called India TV, they have the movie mast (urmila & aftab) on, stupid movie.. heyy its dubbed in Georgian (I think, maybe its Russian also, don't know) guess that’s how raj kapoor got famous in Russia. He he..

Out again.. So many many casinos, a slot house (as they call it) every 25th shop..
Shops closing by 8:30, now that’s not cool..

Btw the 25th shop thing is for real, atleast for the area, I am in. Peking street its called, near my hotel, I am at tbilotel hotel.. Me thinks it would be Tbilisi hotel, just written short form as Tbilotel, cause they don't write Tbilotel Hotel anywhere, only Tbilotel..

Saw a handheld lady purse mirror. Was good, but not sure.. Arshi, whatever I get for you, I wont write down, it wld be a surprise as you like it, but can't bear it.. :-)

Wearing a seatbelt didn't seem necessary, speeds within city limits are minimal (like Bombay again, if need to add).. But I religiously put them on like a good boy, my cabbie looks at me, smiles and says something, I smile back too, thinking the same thing were we..? Think so. Smiles don’t need a language. Ok, one more no language smile.. :-) Thanks for smiling with me... again :-) he he.. I am good at it..

Ok by the way why am in this notepadding mood..? May put it in Arshi’s blog, or maybe my own, naah am way too lazy for that.. Will atleast mail the notes out to Arshi, that's for sure.. Feel I am talking to her all the while I am roaming in the city.. Maybe I am writing mood, coz I am reading life of pi, which is a narrative.. Could be.. Am I an aspiring writer, why not a travel writer.. Would be infinitely more interesting than any banking/consulting assignment for sure.. Maybe I am inspired by Arshi's writings.. again could be.. Hmm.. Some food for thought now, bit hungry its 9 now..

See lot of big TVs showing ads by the roadside, and the national flag fluttering in between the ads, is it a country struggling for identity.. Maybe after effects of a war, could be, right..? yeah, guess so..

Babe, who knows only German and Russian taking orders for Indian food.. He he, so funny..
And that Indian channel, (now that I think of it) was actually more like voice over rather than a translation or dubbing, hindi dialogues were audible in a low pitch though.. hmmm.. waiting for food..

Food was decent, chana masala and dal with roti and mango lassi. Hopefully not tooo many calories..

Arshi's googling had revealed that all the local dishes have cheese as the predominant ingredient, but people here, don’t seem to be fat, maybe its not the food, that makes one gain weight, then what would it be, must be the genes, yeah that’s what I would like to blame.. He he.. :-) smile again.. Thanks..

Ok, done with bit of editing, Arshi & Celmi have had a field day out today.. Good.. Hope they enjoyed, but want to speak to Arshi, before I sleep.. Arshi.. Jaaaaaanuu kidhar ho aap...??? Chal lets watch some TV till Arshi comes online... Enough writing for today.. Chiao..