Island Chic’s Babble

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?

Here are some movies on my ‘Recommended watch list’ of random movies I have recently seen. These are not of any specific genre. These just happen to be some favourites among the lot I’ve watched in the last few weeks. Thought it might be worth a mention.

1. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas (2008) – As the tagline of the movie says it is “A timeless story of innocence lost and humanity found.” An absolutely heart breaking story shown at the backdrop of World War II, depicted the cruel and inhuman life, imposed on a little Jewish boy in a concentration Camp. The story is told as seen through the eyes of his friend, Bruno who is the 8-year-old son of a Nazi Officer and his on the other side of the barbed wire fence. This unusual and innocent friendship between the two boys leads to unexpected and tragic circumstances in the end. I cried buckets and went through a half a box of Kleenex! One of the most heart-wrenching movies I have ever watched.

2.I Love You, Man (2009) – Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) who has no friends had to get out there and look for a Best Man for his wedding. This involved a series of interesting man-dates and the whole thing has its consequences. It’s definitely a light hearted story and I enjoyed it much.

3. Julie & Julia (2009) – This movie tells the true stories of two women, writer Julia Child (Meryl Streep) and blogger Julie Powell (Amy A dams), who are from different generations and whose lives are separated by time & space. However, both women shared an incredible passion for cooking through which their lives were connected in a ‘buttery’ bond. They discovered themselves and found solace and comfort through this passion.

By the way, it’s a must watch for foodies. Trough out the entire movie, I sat salivating and craving for all sorts of buttery, cheesy, creamy yum stuff! (P.S. Meryl Streep did an incredible job of playing Julia Child)

4. The Ugly Truth (2009) – “Sex is the only glue in a relationship, men can’t change, and they only respond to women’s looks”… Believe it or not, this is the ugly truth & that’s what this movie is all about. Television show producer, Abby Richter believes in the perfect guy and has a list of criteria she is looking for in a man. Rude and bigoted correspondent Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler) is the exact opposite who only believes in the ugly truth. When they are both forced to work together on a show what happens next is quite interesting & entertaining at the same time…

5.The Duchess (2008) – In this 18th century movie, Georgiana Spencer (Keira Knightly) becomes the Duchess of Devonshire with her marriage to the Duke, when she was 17. She soon finds herself in a loveless marriage with a husband who only cared for a male heir. The husband not only ignores her but also betrays her by starting an affair with her closest friend which devastates the duchess who ends up falling passionately in love with another man.

This is one of those era movies (like The Other Boleyn’s Girl) where the men of power and position are uncaring, unloving philanderers who mistreats their women. I quite enjoyed Keira’s acting although the story was a bit frustrating at times.

I have always been uphappy with the speed my Chinese is going. I guess i should fear no more. I’ve just found my short-cut. All I need to do is read these out loud!

1. That’s not right ……… Sum Ting Wong
2. Are you harboring a fugitive?….. Hu Yu Hai Ding
3. See me ASAP……….Kum Hia Nao
4. Stupid Man …………..Dum Gai
5. Small Horse ………..Tai Ni Po Ni
6. Did you go to the beach? ……..Wai Yu So Tan
7. I bumped into a coffee table …….Ai Bang Mai Ni
8. I think you need a face lift …….Chin Tu Fat
9. It’s very dark in here …..Wao So Dim
10. I thought you were on a diet ……Wai Yu Mun Ching?
11. This is a tow away zone …….No Pah King
12. Our meeting is scheduled for next week ……….Wai Yu Kum Nao?
13. Staying out of sight ………Lei Ying Lo
14. He’s cleaning his automobile ….. Wa Shing Ka
15. Your body odor is offensive …….Yu Stin Ki Pu