DUBAI - Tourist Guide

After fighting recession in the placement season, its time for the much awaited study tour at National Insurance Academy School of Management. As a part of their curriculum, the students visit an Asian country and try to understand the insurance practices in those markets. Last year, my batch visited Bangkok to know more about the Thai insurance market, and this year my junior batch is going to Dubai to learn about Middle-East markets.


Out of my curiosity, I happened to check various Dubai tourism sites and here are some of the tourist suggestions had I came across :

* Respect local cultures and traditions of UAE and never try to make a mockery of local traditions. Avoid commenting on dress of the local people.

* UAE is an Islamic country and so avoid tight and exposing clothing. Women should particularly wear modest clothes. It is not appropriate for men to walk along the street bare-chested. It is very advisable that females avoid wearing very short skirts or revealing top. It is advisable not to wear thongs as it may cause distress to the locals.

* Don’t eat in public places during Ramadan. During Ramadan all Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, and eating, drinking and smoking in public areas during daylight hours should be avoided.

* Don’t carry any drugs in the UAE; with the slightest amount of any substance you could face the death penalty.

* Always drink bottled water that is easily available everywhere in UAE. Tap water is desalined and safe for drinking, but drinking bottled mineral water is advisable.

* When taking a photograph in Dubai, please bear in mind local people wearing national dress may take exception if photographed without their permission. Please avoid taking pictures of women.

* Don’t swear- as you can get fined and sent to jail !

* Homosexual practices are prohibited.

* Don’t touch anyone’s head as it is considered offensive in UAE

* It is against the law to walk in the street drinking alcohol or to be drunk in a public place.

* Indulge in some haggling while buying goods without price tags whenever you go shopping in UAE.

* Don’t be too passionate in public with your partner. Kissing and other public displays of affection – may get you in trouble with the police.

* Don’t make rude hand gestures if you're driving. Venting your frustrations either physically or verbally can result in your arrest.

* Don’t use your left hand while greeting or handing over things to people.

* Use sunglasses and sun cream, as sunburn is common in UAE and the heat sometimes can be unbearable.

* Don’t expect taxi drivers to carry change. Many struggle to provide change for any note greater than AED 50.

* Don't overstay your visa period, as you will be charged per day.

There are some of the Do's and Dont's specific to UAE, apart from the usual tourist guidelines with respect to their passports, visas, medical insurance, safety etc.

AWAKENED FOR THE 6th TIME...

Today marked the opening of movie club at NIA, and it started with one of my personal favourites, Rang De Basanti. When announced couple of days back, my first impression was “O! Not again...”, because I had watched it over 5 times and didn’t want to spend Rs 20 on it. But then on second thoughts I and all my friends decide to go for it.
The show was at our college auditorium 6:15 with a mixed crowd of students and executives at our campus. Everyone was on top of their spirits and we started cheering for everything, the opening words, entry of the actors and all the humorous lines and songs. We compared the character with people amongst us and had a parallel humour track running. Some of the hilarious ones are like comparing the act of Laxman stopping the party with our warden disturbing the late night birthday celebrations in hostels and so on.
But then there are certain things that made me feel as if I am watching it for the first time. I did get goose flesh during some scenes just as earlier. I was surprised to note this impact and wasn’t expecting them to happen for the sixth time.
The moments in the movie which touched me the most were:

* Laxman coming to Sue, offering to play the character of Ram Prasad Bismil. The poem “Sarfaroshi ke tamanna ab humare dil mein hain…” put silencer on all our mouths and I started feeling very patriotic.
* Then came in the scene depicting Jalanwala Bagh; I needn’t describe it. We all know how bad it was; indeed one of the most shameful incidents in the history of mankind.
* The engagement between Ajay and Sonia was again very emotional.

Then it was the time for interval; but most girls walked back to hostel as they were back after watching Harry Potter – Order of the Phoenix and didn’t wish to spoil their mood by watching the second half of RDB. They complained that the characters die in the second half, and they don’t like to see film without happy endings. Rating Harry Potter over Rang De Basanti.. can’t believe it..
Anyways, I never understand girls, so no point in discussing their choices.

* The movie continued with another tragic scene, Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan were tortured and hung, and the background score was the merger of prayers of three different religions.
* Bhagat Singh and his peers going on a fast for 114 days, facing all the atrocities but not giving up.
* Then the song “Lukha chuppe”, along with all the scenes like the handling over the national flag in which Ajay’s body was rolled for his last journey. It did fill my eyes with tears, but then I safely rolled them back.
* My blood started becoming less viscous and flowed at greater pace while watching the protests against the corrupt Defence Minister. Especially the “Kyoon chala” song and the laathi charge..
* And finally, the last 15 minutes; their confession on radio and people’s reactions were really very lively and did awaken everyone and brought in the josh to do something good for the society and the country at large.
But not sure how many seconds it took to fizz out and get everyone back to their normal routine..

Tree plantation@ NIA

Here goes another personal experience. This happened yesterday at my college – National Insurance Academy, Pune. Our Director tries to implement innovative ideas to get maximum returns of very small deeds. One such practice is what the above picture depicts. Each and every student is made to plant a new plant in the campus and is considered its foster parent and thus has to take care of it till his stay at campus. Also this activity has lot of hidden advantages added to it.
Firstly it makes the campus greener and makes the place more peaceful and cooler. We all know how quickly we are moving into an environmental catastrophe. So everyone on this planet should share some responsibility to avoid this and planting more trees and maintaining the greenery is the basic step that we should undertake.
Then this activity will remain as a remembrance for all students in the campus. All the plants carry the names of its foster parent and the college ensure its maintenance after the student leaves the campus.
This also increases the responsibilities of the students. He has to check and make sure that his plant is growing well, water it regularly and take care of all its needs.
Thus to conclude I loved this activity and feel it as a good initiative taken by my college. Hope more and more people get involved in similar activities and improve the health of our mother Earth which is down with fever (global warming)..

Defining SUCCESS

Today was my first working day at National Insurance Academy, Pune. So we had an inaugural session this morning with the CEO of AON Global Insurance Services Pvt Ltd as the Chief Guest. The proceedings started with a very interesting presentation by our director, Dr. K.C. Mishra. He spoke and presented a video of top CEO speaking on success.
Well I remember discussing the topic quite a number of times with my friends and we found it tough to coin a definition for the word “success”.
So, this video was courtesy Wharton, where the same question was toasted in front of few CEO for their views.
Many CEO came in with their definitions and each tried to justify their point.
Most of them tried to relate it to the economic status and monetary gains that one makes in his lifetime. Some called it achieving something desired, planned, or attempted. Some said it is meeting all the goals that you set for yourself or fulfilment of all your dreams and desires. But all had one thing in common to say, success is a relative quality.
But then the best definition among all the 10 corporates who answered was from the youngest one. He said success is directly comparable to happiness in life, if a person is happy it implies he is successful. Now it upto the person; what sort of happiness he looks forward to! For example if he is able to satisfy his wife and children at home, it implies he is a successful family man.
Isn’t it well said?? It is for a person to realise whether he is happy with what he has done, no matter how much effort he has put in to achieve it compared to others, he is successful.
While I was about to conclude it as the definition of the day, our director put forward his! He simply said, Success is not a goal, it’s a journey.
It just sums it all.. All other definitions were case sensitive (so, they even contradict the word definition) but the one liner from our director tends to be the complete definition.
If you are happy or achieved success, it just pushes you to crave for more success. The journey is just endless. People need to realise this and climb the ladder of their life. For a 3 year old though learning all the alphabets will be a tough ask, but then he learns things and greater things, so he just keeps raising the bar for himself(though more often by force) and progresses on the path of academic success. And then so in all other fields.. till the end of his life.
This definition is so universal that it can even be used in the case of companies and organisations. Many companies are called (and more often call themselves) successful, but there again it’s a dynamic process. If you are the current leader in a particular industry, you have to ensure that you continue to remain to same. There is always has a potential threat from of other players in the same industry or the new payers coming in. The growth of the company should always be going up, adding on more products and more consumers.
And even the term relativity is explained better here. There isn’t anything like absolute successful with which one has to compare himself. It’s just relative to your past successes, the circumstances and some other factors. Now, it is for a person to make the best out of a situation; his decision makes him the man he would be in future. So, once he is successful in achieving it, he looks for greater task and pushes for more success.
So, people every one on this planet is successful and should be happy for it, and keep looking for opportunities for taking up bigger tasks and doing them successfully.