traditional dance

a group of Emirati Man, performing traditional, dance & music.

This was the first time for me to watch live this dance in 6.5 years. I always saw that on TV. The music has very nice rhythm.

what would you wish for?

If you had three wishes from a Genie, what would you wish for?

:)
Yes, it might not be much clear at first look, but there is famous Aladdin's magical lamp in this detail.

a detail from Rehlatna, world's longest graffiti scroll.

posted for Monday Murals,.

Crazy Smile

another detail from World's longest graffiti scroll Rehlatna.

Posted for Monday Mural

Emirati Burqa - Rehlatna

Another details from World's longest graffiti scroll.

Here we see local lady with traditional face mask. It is called Emirati Burqa. Not to be confused with the head to toe blue cover used in Afghanistan. The Emirati Burga is a traditional metallic coloured cloth used to cover only some part of the face. I found one interview with Burqa Maker in UAE explaining different styles from different cities and how to do it,, ect.

You can not see the whole mask here in this detail. This mask doesn't cover all the face, it goes down only to the upper lips.

Before read about Burqa, I was sure that it is not related with the religion but comes from the culture. Which is true, I had good guess.  I was also thinking it may coming from the desert climate conditions. I was wrong on this part. :)

According to one blog that I found, it comes from falcon.

It was designed to imitate the falcon's feature, as the falcon has always been a symbol of elegance, pride and power in the Gulf countries.

In public, you see elderly women only wear this burqa. The mask is not much popular among young generation nowadays.

Posted for Monday Mural.

Pearl Diving

Today is Monday and it the day for the Monday Mural theme.

Thank's to the World longest graffiti scroll (Rehlatna) I have many details to share on every Monday for next couple of months :)
This week, we have a detail which is showing another cultural value of UAE.

Pearl Diving...

It was economically very important in the 1800s in the region. it was done by locals. The pearls were used to trade for goods. Even though it is very dangerous, Today cultured pearl is dominant in the market in these days. Today very few people still dive in traditional way.

If you want to learn more about pearl diving and experience it by yourself, there are some Pearl Diving Tours. During the tour, there are experienced divers who can pass all the information and their stories about pearl diving. At the end you can dive in a traditional way. If you are lucky enough you may find your own pearl. They say, you can keep it as souvenir. :)

Here is one short interview with Emirati Pearl Divers,

More than 80 nationalities

Around 80 different nationalities are living in UAE.
Here is the brief list.

Nearby Sky

Dubai International Film Festival has started officially on Wednesday. Starting from Thursday I am trying to attend all movies which are suit my timing.

Today,  I want to share this picture from the Q&A section of local documentary called Nearby Sky. directed by Nujoom Al Ghanem, You can see her as second left on the picture. I couldn't take better one, I didn't want to interrupt anyone during Q&A, wanted to wait till end but I couldn't wait that much :)

The movie is about Fatima Ali Al Hameli. She is UAE's first Emirati women camel owner to enter her camel in the country's camel beauty competition and participate camel auctions. in the picture she is standing in the middle, next to her son.

She has really strong personality. She knows what she wants to do, and working hard for that.
If you watch the trailer from here, You will have an idea about her character and the documentary itself.

"a daughter of men, challenges men, I am a wolf, and they are wolves, by God's will, I'll eat them" these are her words about man who rejects her participations to auctions, competitions ect. In the documentary also we could see what man thinks about her ambition.

Some of them rejects totally, Some of them accept but with conditions "OK. She can participate but it is not nice to stand here by herself among all other man, She can appoint someone on behalf of her,"

Some of them are just surprised and don't know how to response, The answer from them is like "it has never been done by women, this is the first time, of course she can do it, but why?"

Even her sons learnt that she was in one of auction from TV, after the first shock they support her and wish all the best for her. She has support from local media, she has a lot of fan from everywhere. I checked her account right now, she has around 1.2K followers on Instagram. I guess, after this documentary number of her fans will be increased.

She married on the age 15, She never went to school, can not read right now. Her assistant read for her. What she says, "we didn't have a right to go to school earlier, thanks to Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan we have rights now.. " Now, she wants to use all her rights and challenges the traditional mindset.

Rehlatna

This year UAE has decided to break another world record to celebrate 43rd National Day.

Rehlana is world longest graffiti scroll with UAE map shape.
The length is 2.5454 km. 150 artists work on this scroll. First they submitted their proposed designs. The committee choose the most appropriate ones with UAE culture and its achievements. There were some details about future plans as well.

I choose this one for the first post to show the general view of the scroll. It can give an idea about how they built it. I will post details later.

posted for Monday Mural.

Are you ready for National Day?

2nd of December is National Day of UAE. This year it will be 43rd anniversary. Nearly mid of November you will see all decorations everywhere and different activities for the celebration of the National Day.

Many flags will be seen everywhere, many cars are getting special stickers on them.

I will try to share some decorations and celebration activities before and after national day as much as I can.

Normally I do not carry my DSLR everyday but my small compact camera always with me.
Last couple of days my compact camera has strange problem. I missed couple of nice moments I hope I can fix it not to miss more moments.

Doors from Jumeirah

This weekend,  I was planning to run with my friends but everyone has another program or just tired and didn't show up.
When I understood that I will be alone this time I took this as an opportunity for "photo walk" instead of regular sport.
Even I took pictures with my mobile they are quite Ok to share here. There were some things always grab my attention while jogging but never had a chance to take a picture. Here we have the first one. Very unique door from Jumeirah area belong to one of villa. It looks like they are not using this door anymore.  This villa rent out as furniture store in these days.I think this door was used in the past when the villa was home for some people.

Date Palm

In this season you can start to see the fruits on top of some Palms.

This photo is from archive but taken at the same season.  : )

the history of the date palms goes very long time back. Fossils records says the tree has existed for at least 50 million years and there are evidence of cultivation around 6000 BCE in the region.

It has also mentioned more than 50 times in Bible and around 20 times in Qur'an.

I believe it is real gem for this region. The tree is strong in this climate and the fruit is very rich about nutritions. you can consume as fresh fruit or in dried version, or in syrup or paste.

If you have only date and no food, still you will be OK .

for more information about date, the Wikipedia is our best friend :)

Protection against Evil Eye

At the end of last week, I noticed these peppers and lemon in front of the car which is parking next to my parking lot at home.

First I thought someone is celebrating something. : )) I took a quick picture with my mobile and start to search the origin and meaning at the office.

In Dubai, we are lucky because we are working really international team. We had 10 different nationalities in a team of 11 people :)

Anyhow, I started to ask one by one, Do they familiar with that? What is this? Do they know the meaning? ect... I finally found the answer from one of my Indian colleagues.

once he saw the picture he started to laugh and explained that it is a protection against evil eye.

"People generally do this when they purchase something new. They want to protect from bad Eye and bad luck. "

I am not sure if the car is new or not.  I wish the owner have a safe drive with this car.

Monday Mural: Falcon & Emirati Boy

I was thinking that I had finished all pictures that I had. Today I just realized I haven't show all the details from this wall. I really don't know how I missed these details.

here we have falcon and the little emirati boy. Falcon is also traditional bird here in this region. The relationship with falcons and Emirates is strong and coming from centuries in this region. Having falcon was very important to survive at desert in those times since falcons were used for hunting.

falcons are keeping their importance here. You can understand the importance if I mention the World's largest Falcon Hospital is located in Abu Dhabi / UAE. There is one also in Dubai. I am not sure if there is any other hospitals dedicated only falcons in another place.

graffiti

I posted some details from this wall here in DDPB. This wall was decorated for EXPO 2020 with different icons from UAE and unique figures.

One was a detail of a quote, and the another one was general view of the decorated wall 

This one is representing local Emirati people.  for more information for Emirati people, you may check it from wikipedia via this link.