You are being watched, whether you are willing to accept it or not.

It was gone and forgotten, but it came back again into my mind when I saw a trailer of the movie a couple of weeks ago. I knew I had to watch Snowden.

I reviewed a couple of documentaries in youtube before heading out to watch the movie last noon.

A few years back I got into a an argument with a couple of friends who were totally against sharing each and every minute of their lives on social media. They felt people pretended on social media, highlighting only the good times, making other people jealous, projecting only a particular facet of their lives.

Others felt when you are too busy having fun, there is no time to waste spending on gadgets. But it is important to understand technology has taken massive strides in the 21st century. Connectivity has erased distance in this huge world. Using any form of communication devices means you are being tracked. The extent to which is what Snowden revealed three years ago.  

The movie takes a lot of heart in it, based on the real life of a young vibrant individual who took a moral stand, one that would disrupt his entire life. For someone so young to even do something as bold as that, against the most powerful system in the world is crazy. But it exposed the harsh realities of the world we live in.

We as health workers are freaked out if we don’t take at least a consent, and in many cases informed consent. It is cause every human being on this earth has a basic right, which no one should be allowed to violate. Violation of such privacy for political reasons is simply unacceptable. A must watch movie.

The movie reminded me of this quote.

To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals – this alone is worth the struggle. – William Osler.

Never lose your identity. Live up to your ideals and do not move with the flow.

Watford 3 – 1 Manchester United

Two defeats in a row. After an exciting derby match that broke a 3 point gap between the city rivals, the Dutch Europa league game was as tepid and directionless we had seen United all season. So the bounce backability of Mourinho team was due.

After a scintillating thrashing of Bournemouth by Man City previous night, the pressure was on. But the performance was far from what was expected.

The team reverted back to a more solid premier league line up with pace on the wings with Martial and Rashford and solidity in the full backs through Shaw and Valencia. Smalling replaced Blind clearly to obviate the aerial and physical challenge of a double center forward system of Watford.

Despite their two defeats so far, Watford has had a solid start to the season, and it was evident with the confidence on the ball. As the media likes to highlight everytime that Manchester United is a huge outfit with the team average height more than most in the league, it was ironic that they were being hurried and harried on and off the ball.

Most of the players got frustrated with the physicality. And thanks to Michael Oliver opting for a pro home side stand throughout the match, there was not much protection for the players.

They never really got going and there was not sufficient impact of the bench.

De Gea while having a relatively quiet game apart from a misunderstanding in the first half with Smalling, was clearly beaten in both the open play goals by quality strikes by Capoue and Zuniga.

Shaw was hesitant to stride forward, Smalling grappling players all the while and having poorer distribution compared to Blind.

Bailly’s performance seems always below par compared to his outstanding start to the season. He was clearly unable to bully Deeney and Ighalo up front.

Young brought more solidity and versatility when he came on and is likely to stake a much higher claim to the starting XI than the rest. Mata probably needs to start as Rashford was fairly nullified starting for the first time this season.

Zlatan’s finishing has been below par today and many quality chances we expected him to take were missed. Rooney having been rested looked totally off radar with his long range passing and short on speed as usual.

Tactically Mourinho never really got a grip even in the second half even though things did improve. But it means 3 defeats in a row, 6 points behind the top of the table and more worries than joy into the next week. #GGMU

A short visit to the Museums of Kuwait

Made a short but quick visit to two museums last night – the Kuwait National Museum and Tareq Ragab Museum of Calligraphy.

I had been to the former once before (yes, once despite having lived here for 20 years!) but just read about the latter yesterday. While the ethnic heritage of Kuwait was exotically demonstrated in the National Museum, what really struck me was the visit to the Calligraphy Museum. I had read online that there were scriptures collected from as early as the 7th century in there.

#Kuwait #museum #heritage

A video posted by Varun (@varugram) on Sep 17, 2016 at 8:04am PDT

As a student, during my school days I had been taught the basics of the Arabic language. Calligraphic depiction of different timelines, from different parts of the Arab world as well as South East Asia left me awestruck. Numerous old scriptures, the paper having turned brown with jagged edges, fine architectural designs around the holy verses of the Quran was brilliant to absorb. My ignorance of the Holy Ka’aba was evident, but got a completely different perspective of it after last night. To be an arm’s distance away from the gold embroidered carpets that adorned the Ka’aba in the 19th century was totally worth it.

I was not shocked that the whole Museum was at the service of just me and my friend. People prefer to flock to the Malls here on a Saturday evening!

Some traveler tips:

Tareq Ragab Museum: http://www.trmkt.com/ Visit the official website for the history, location and timings if you want to pay a visit. Being a Hindu myself, I was in awe at what I saw. A must visit for Muslims visiting the country. It is exactly opposite the New English School in Block 12, Jabriya. Evening timings: 4pm – 7pm. Entry fee: 2K.D per person.

Tareq Ragab Calligraphy Museum

A video posted by Varun (@varugram) on Sep 17, 2016 at 6:57am PDT

Kuwait National Museum: I would recommend visiting it later on when the renovation work is done. I visited this place 18 months ago, whilst there is progress it is still a construction site from the outside and is not very appealing to visit right now. It is located on the Arabian Gulf Street beside the Seif Palace and the National Library of Kuwait.

Wound up the evening with a nice veggie dinner at Saravana Bhavan. (coffee in pic). 

 

 

 

 

Youtube Travelogue debut

Yes, it is not gonna be that fancy, but whilst on vacation and rummaging through my hard disks, I realized I have quite a bit of content captured over a period of time that deserves to be sorted up and put in the public domain. While I do have time right now, it is probably wise to finish off the back log and henceforth  do post processing of audiovisuals immediately after a trip.

I am beginning with this year and rolling back and as a start am getting all the videos put up in Youtube, whilst the photographs need to go up most likely in Flickr and Facebook Page.

Soon I will put up blog entries of trips to different places that I make.

6 years into blogging, I have not been able to do justice to my write ups thanks to immersing myself in sharpening my skills to provide optimal patient care. #Excited   

Feyenoord 1 – 0 Manchester United

Snoozefest – an ode to LvG

Not like Thursday night football was ever gonna get exciting, but this was an opportunity for the non first team players to get a chance to shine, to have a look into the starting line up.

After watching 90 minutes of disjointed individual games, it was obvious nobody has done anything to impress the new boss.

The most paltry and awful performance came from the full backs. Smalling’s return to the central defense seemed calm and he merged in well with Bailly. Smalling of course did not offer the range of passing Blind does, but was top on all the one on ones with the forwards.

Marcus Rojo looked clueless, bit off the pace and reluctant to make any relevant forward strides. He was caught out of position many a times and the likes of Pogba and Herrera ended up covering up. He is not likely to find a first team place unless Shaw gets injured.

Darmian was calm with the ball, yet again hesitant to bomb forward. The contrast with Valencia was so evident with his lack of pace and desire. But he was the more solid one of both the full backs.

Schneiderlin did not have the aerial prowess and aggression of Fellaini but he sat back and did his job in front of the defence. Pogba and Herrera were one paced and struggling to find sufficient forward movement in and around them to string a positive spell of attack.

Mata, Rashford and Martial had their own bit of individual forward forays constantly being chopped up by niggly fouls by the Feynoord midfielders who had a good game. Their frustration summed up united’s performance which was akin to the LvG era.

Mourinho was also fairly sedate in the touchline with the most action he delivered being the triple substitution at the hour mark. Young, Memphis and Ibrahimovic created scant chances thanks to excellent last ditch defending by a team that has had a brilliant unbeaten start to their domestic season.

Watford beckons. #GGMU

 

Volley ball in Kuwait

Window into a year of fun – and survival in this mundane life routine in Kuwait. A good bunch of friends, good workout and of course the kebabs the evening culminates in.

and the edited movie is here.

Sadhya, travel, fun

Onam 2016 Sadhya at home

Sharq Sea Side

Souq Sharq

Enjoying a rare dusk breeze

Monochrome dusk

Monochrome – my Jeep Renegade Sport

Kuwait City scrapers

Onam Sadhya 2016