Island Chic’s Babble

We have all heard of the guy who left his girlfriend just because the new chic is hotter. We have also heard of the girl who dumped her boyfriend because the new guy is richer… It is almost accurate to say that human beings have a natural tendency to move towards something ‘better’ when the opportunity is available.

Can you really blame anyone for seeking an ‘improvement’ to the existing situation? Wanting something better looking, more popular, more fun etc.? Isn’t that what life is all about anyway? Although, if this is accepted as a natural tendency, how can/does relationships work? Where does that leave ‘love’?

When a man and a woman fall in love, make a ‘vow’ to be together forever through good and bad, does that exclude situations where ‘better’ opportunities are available to you? Does a man stay faithful to his woman only when he grows a huge belly, go bald and do not stand a chance at luring a younger and more beautiful woman? Does a woman stay with their man only because she can’t afford to live a better life without him because she depends on him for support? If this is right how does one believe in ‘love’?

People say that most women spend their entire life waiting for their dream guy. Once we find the right guy, we stick to the man and are willing to spend the rest of our lives with the one man. However, men generally have a harder time resisting the ‘ego boost’. When a younger, better looking woman is interested in a man, regardless of whether he already loves someone or not, he finds it more difficult to let the opportunity pass by.

In my opinion, real love only comes when you are able to overcome the urge to go for the ‘improvement’ whenever you have the opportunity. Love isn’t necessarily about being with the best. You may not be with the best looking, most wealthy, most famous, smartest and most fun person but if you are with a person that you are in love with, you have to be able to resist the urge to go for something newer and better looking. Because there will always be something better than what you have. Simply no one has the best.

Real happiness lies in being content with what you have and making the best out of the situation you are in. Rather than aiming for what you don’t have and regretting the life you live, look at the present as a ‘gift’. Value the people who are in your life now. What you are give up in search for something better may in fact be worth more than what you realise…

That one man who happy and are willing to spend the rest of our lives married to the man. However, many times we find men unable to resist the temptation of letting go of opportunities available to them out there, especially those who look better & more fun compared to what they already have. Even if they have a hot chic with them, oh it’s just so much better to have a hotter chic. Just wait till everyone sees the new girlfriend who’s way sexier than the old one.

I know it’s biased, none the less it’s an opinion… and I thought I’d share it here.

People and incidents that we often come across in our lives, cause us to think and ponder over the behaviour of human beings in general.

Recently, a friend’s father left his wife for another woman after 30 years of what was seen as a happy marriage. I have known this friend for quite some time and hers was definitely a home full of love. Her parents have been married since they were teenagers and now havethree beautiful and smart kids. So what went wrong? Apparently nothing…

It seems that the father just had a better option, a woman younger and prettier than his wife. He was just willing to break his home merely to have a younger, better looking wife than the one he had. I know that looking at the life of just one man, I can’t generalise the behaviour of men in general.  However, I must admit that whether married or not, this has been a trend more prevalent among men than women.

Most women spend their entire life waiting for their knight in shining armour. That one man who will become the answer to all that they have asked from life…once they find this man, most of us are happy and are willing to spend the rest of our lives married to the man. However, many times we find men unable to resist the temptation of letting go of opportunities available to them out there, especially those who look better & more fun compared to what they already have. Even if they have a hot chic with them, oh it’s just so much better to have a hotter chic. Just wait till everyone sees the new girlfriend who’s way sexier than the old one.

I am just wondering, are men faithful and happy with women, only till they find another one better? Regardless of what their girlfriends/wives means to them and what they have shared together, are they willing to give it all up merely to feed their ego or impress others? Are men only happy with their girlfriends/wives only when they grow a huge belly and go bald and are no longer able to lure better looking women? Do you disagree? If so, will you not indulge yourself if you had the opportunity to go out with the best looking girl in town, even though you already have a girlfriend whom you love?

I don’t necessarily agree that the case is always this bleak. If it was, there cannot be any happy endings in the world because there will always be something else out there that is better than what you have. Real happiness lies in being content with what you have and making the best out of the situation you are in. Rather than aiming for what you don’t have and regretting the life you live, look at the present as a ‘gift’. Value your women. What you are giving up maybe worth much more than the reason you are giving it up for…

Maldives in the past few decades have made considerable achievements in social, economic and political fronts.  We have done well in terms of improving our GDP per capita ($2912 in 2008 at 1995 constant price), building a world class tourism industry, eliminating extreme poverty, achieving a high literacy rate (over 90% of the population) and provision of telecommunication & electricity to its citizens (100% penetration) etc.

On the political front, we have now moved to a real democracy with a multi-party political system. Considerable efforts have been put on separating the three powers of the legislature, executive and the judiciary (to what extend we have managed to achieve is left for a different debate). There have also been achievements in areas of freedom of expression, building independent institutions, creating political awareness throughout the population.

Having mentioned all of that, Maldives does have its fair share of less obvious social, economic and political issues which hinders the development process of the country.  I will mention a few in this post which I feel are some of the major issues that needs urgent attention by all concerned parties including the government, independent institutions, civil society, private sector and the Maldivian people.  I would love to hear your views and opinions on what you think is the most serious out of these.

1. The bi-polar nature of party politics which is detrimental to the society as a whole as the society is now divided into two which are working against each other, regardless of what is best for the country as a whole
2. The overwhelming issue of lack of proper housing on the capital of Maldives (where more than 30% of the population live), which has lead to the birth of many social evils.
3. The ever increasing consumption of drugs in the country, especially by the youth.
4. Over-centralisation of the economy whereby all resources/facilities/economic activities etc. are all concentrated on the capital
5. Lack of proper transport system to connect the dispersed island populations in order to stimulate more economic interaction
6. An over-sized public service (mostly top-heavy).
7. Lack of proper health care facilities or accessibility to existing facilities (especially within the island populations).
8. Corruption at all levels of government and private sector
9. A judicial system which needs to be strengthened
10. The extremely high number of foreign labourers in the country, while a huge section of the Maldivian population is economically inactive.
11. Wealth accumulation being limited to only a small percentage on the top while rest of the population derives little or no benefit from those who reap the benefit of our industries.
12. Brain drain whereby the affluent and the educated in the country are slowly leaving the country, seeking better lives elsewhere.
13. Increasing levels of domestic violence, petty theft, and abuse which is giving way to an unstable and unsafe environment.

Feel free to post your comments. Thank you!

Statistical reference: http://planning.gov.mv

I don’t mean to be over excited but i think it’s quite cool that i can finally find my tiny teeny home in the virtual world, which has never happened before even with Google Map. Thanks to National Geographic’s  interactive map of Maldives!

I grew up on a tiny island in the Northern most atoll of the Maldives. The red mark on the screen shot is where my house still is. Now if i could zoom in a little bit more, i could perhaps see my little sister on the beach!

For a job related event, recently I have had to provide a detailed description of the Maldivian traditional wear for women. To my dismay, there were almost no descriptions available online & i decided to attempt a description of my own. Perhaps, it might be helpful to someone else who’s looking for it!

The photo shows one of the traditional dresses of Maldivian women.

Top – The dress known as ‘Libaas’ is made mostly of plain colours with intricate hand woven embroidery made of colourful & glittery threads. This kind of hand woven embroidery has become very rare in the Maldives now as well as the dress itself. Except the use for cultural events and performances, few old women in some islands still wear them. Libaas without the embroidery is seen slightly more.

Bottom – The skirt known as ‘Feyli’ is always in plain black with two white lines running across on the bottom and a slit along the side/back. The everyday version of feyli known as ‘kandiki’ is plain black without the white lines. The old women who still wear the plain libaas accompany it with ‘kandiki’ rather than ‘feyli’.

Head Piece – When a woman wears libaas & feyli, she normally wears her hair in a bun (known as ‘hulhi’) on the side of her head. This bun is covered with a head piece called ‘Rumaa Falhi’ which literally means ‘Half a handkerchief’. This piece sometimes comes with elaborate designs and intricate embroidery as well.

Jewellery – The gold or gold plated chain is called ‘Karu Fattaru Bai’ and is never used for every-day purposes in the present day. However, the traditional Maldivian women’s attire will be incomplete without it!

I know I have done a terrible job updating my blog. However, I am proud to announce that I now have a new hobby!

Photography has always been something that has interested me. The sheer lack of talent & having a point-and-shoot cybershot for the last so many years have kept me from pursuing it even as a hobby. Although the lack of talent bit is still the same, the camera bit has changed! I am now the proud owner of a Canon 500D and my ploy to put that into good use is to start ‘A photo a day for 365 days’ project on my flickr.

Hence islandchic will mission on & bring to you personal stories of my little adventures in China & where ever it takes me in the year 2010, through these photos. Do check it out. Your comments are most welcome & highly appreciated.

I know it’s a bit late but I guess it’s better late than never!

It has snowed in Beijing for 2 days this week and the city looks beautiful! Inspite of -20 degree weather I can’t help but feel festive!

Here’s wishing everyone a beautiful new year 2010 full of blessings, love and happiness.

I have switched to a WordPress custom domain from Blogger quite recently. Since I have moved I’ve been meaning to import my old blog posts from Blogger onto the new blog (not because my posts were all that cool, just because they were mine and I wouldn’t want to leave them to rot in BlogSpot since BlogSpot is now blocked in the People’s Republic).

Anyhow, after reading many blog posts on the topic, through trial and error I discovered the easiest way to be the following (as described on Morningstar Multimedia LLC).

1. Make sure you upgrade to WordPress 2.2. This won’t work in WordPress 2.1 or less.
2. Make sure the blog you want to transfer is hosted on Blogspot.com. If yours isn’t, log onto Blogger.com. Select Settings > Publishing. Then click on publish at blogspot.com.
3. Give your blog a BlogSpot name.
4. Log onto your WordPress admin section. Click on Manage > Import > Blogger
5. Click Authorize to log into your Google account.
6. Click Grant Access to allow WordPress to access your Blogger Account.
7. If all goes well, you should now see a list of your Blogger.com blogs in your WordPress admin.
8. On the next screen, you’ll have to match up your Blogger author with your WordPress author settings. When you finish that, click “Save Changes”.
9. Your posts should now be imported. You will probably have to go through each of them and add tags/categories and clean them up a bit, but the hard part is done.

It was relatively painless, although I will now have to spend quite a bit of time sorting out the meta-data. The sad thing is almost none of the comments on my posts were imported to wordpress. Disappointing but I don’t think I’m willing to repeat this process unless someone can help me on how to import the comments separately?

Read the original post here for more details/screen shots etc.

Wherever I have lived I have had my ‘most’ favourite food joint (among the dozens of favourites). Naturally those would be the few special places where I’d have eaten the most number of times in that particular city but not necessarily the most elegant, well-known or unique. However these places are usually relatively small, cozy (not the food court) with a personal touch and they served great food.

Here’s the list of my some of my personal favourites. If ever you are in these cities I recommend you give them a try.

Ohri’s Food Court (Hyderabad, India)

Prasad’s IMAX

Neckles Road, Hyderabad

Tel: +91 98 6677 8043 / 44

Email: sales@ohris.com

(My favourite was threaded chicken & an awesome chocolate cake dessert with ice-cream called a bullseye!)

The Big Chill Café (New Delhi, India)

HS-5 Kailash Colony Market

New Delhi 110065

Tel : +91 11 4655 6828

Email : kk@thebigchillcafe.com

(Everything on the menu is great. The blueberry cheese cake is superb!)

Rangoli Indian Restaurant (Singapore)

226 Pasir Panjang Road
Tel: +65 6777 6413

(My favourites were Chicken tikka masala, butter naan & mango lassi)

Istanbul Turkish Restaurant (Beijing, China)

B7 Xiushui Nanjie, Jianguomenwai,

Jianguomen (Behind the Friendship Store)

建国门外秀水南街B7号

友谊商店后边

Tel: +86 6503 2700

Wonder if everyone develop their favourites in different cities?

Ever since I have heard of Google Wave, I’ve been quite amazed by it. I am not a tech junky and I probably don’t realise some important technical aspects of what Google Wave is about. However from an average dummy’s perspective, I can still see where it’s headed and the sheer potential of it in revolutionalising the way we use the www.

I have been on Google Wave for quite some time now. At first it was like being stranded on an island alone. However as more friends started using Google Wave, it’s becoming more fun & intriguing at the same time.

Anywho, I finally got a 8 invites to give-away today. I thought the best way to share it is to give it to people who’d really use it. If you would like an invite, follow me on Twitter (@islandchic) to send me a DM or comment on this post with a valid GMail address. The invitations will be sent on a first come first serve basis.

If you are already on Google Wave and would like to make more friends, leave your Google Wave ID and I will add you.

Enjoy Waving!

When I read the news that Maldives has slipped a few places in the Corruption Index (on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the least corrupt and 0 being the most) it was definitely a surprise!

Since embracing a fully democratic mode of governance with the election of President Nasheed through multi-party elections in 2008, one would assume Maldives to be less prone to corruption than the previous regime where, government was perceived to be hardly accountable for its actions. However, with the current president in power for already a year, how could Maldives become more corrupt rather then less?

Perhaps you already guessed the answer to that question, if you read the comment from Transparency Maldives, referring to the slip.

“It’s a perception of corruption levels so what would have happened is that in 2008 there was a lot of corruption cases that have been unearthed so that means the corruption perception would have increased. There was not necessarily more corruption.”

Indeed relieving to think that it is not the actual level of corruption which is on the increase, but rather the amount of corruption which is documented or out in the open. It is quite plausible to stick to that argument as well.

In the Maldives, we now enjoy freedom of expression like it has never been enjoyed before, government reports on earnings, expenditures, audits and others are more open and available for public scrutiny. Cabinet ministers and responsible heads of institutions are held accountable and are answerable to matters which fall under their portfolios. Bidding and issuing of government projects and government procurement is a lot more transparent than it used to be. Media and the public are allowed to freely criticize (abuse if necessary) and point fingers at any government establishment.

However, can we really attribute more (perceived) corruption only to the fact that Maldivian government is more transparent today? Can we blindly ignore the seemingly unaccountable political appointments and various high paying public posts while simultaneously cutting down the salaries of average civil servants? Are the funds of the public being spent on what is best for the public at this time of economic peril? Do we really have the institutions watching over the decision makers to ensure that public interest is protected in the process? Are there checks and balances in the day to day running of our government so that corruption is decreasing rather than increasing?

I do not have the answers to these question, they are merely personal musings… perhaps you could shed some light on to this? Would be interesting to see the answer to this question, from readers of this post.

Do you think corruption levels in the Maldives is increasing? Yes/No?