The Twisted World - Buying Petrol in Nigeria

And if youre wondering why there are so many Nigerian Princes around asking you to etransfer $50 to help him fight a legal battle to get back his riches ( which he will share with you of course!!), then here some cues.





Nigeria is the 6th Largest exporter of Crude Oil in the world, exporting 2.3 Million Barrels per day ( Kuwait exports 2.2 Million!!) The US remains the single largest customer accounting for 40% of the exports and Nigeria is US 5th largest source of Crude!



But for the average Nigerian man who drives that beat up old imported 1982 Toyota, filling up the fuel tank is as good as fighting the damn iraq war!

Its not unusual for you to hear about queues at Lagos Petrol stations that last a few hours, taxi drivers waiting the whole day without work to fill a litre of petrol or the family man who cant afford to pay the black market rates spending the whole night in his car at the petrol station. (Find a picture of a que in lagos). Search the net to hear more of these horror stories.

And to think that the President of that country, Mr. Obasanjo, has already run 3 Terms in the country and he cant run the 4th time because the constitution does not allow it - a fabulous electoral process iam sure!

My Top 10 Most Desirable things to do / own

- Les Paul Gibson Guitar, preferably signed by Slash
- A fibre glass Kayak and a place to go paddle.
- A through bred German Sheppard
- I Phone
- Jaguar XJ, 4.8 Ltr V8
- A concert in Maddison Square featuring any of these bands - Red Hot Chilli Peppers, AC DC, Deep Purple, Mettalica, Dire Straits, U2 or all of them.
- A 7 Day Road Trip into the Masai Mara, Kenya with Suji. (No Eesha, My Daughter here)
- A Disney Land Trip with Suji and Eesha
- Another Catamaran Fishing trip into the ocean off the Bay of Bengal, this time with my new Nikon D40 DSLR.

Top Rock Albums of All time

Here is my personal listing of the greatest music written ! Thats might be a bit overdone, at least, my most heard.

Top 25 Albums of All Time
1) Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
2) Eagles - Hotel California
3) Deep Purple - Machine Head
4) Dire Straits- Brothers in Arms
5) Lynard Skynard - Lynard Skynard
6) AC DC - Back in Black
7) Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
8) Def Leppard - Hysteria
10)Pearl Jam - Ten
11)Led Zeppelin - 4
12)Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
13)Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of A Seventh Son
14)Rainbow - Rising
15)Dio - Holy Diver
16)U2 - Josua Tree
17)Guns N Roses - Use Ur Illusion
18)Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication
19)Mettalica - And Justice for All
10)Jethro Tull - Aqualung
21)Van Halen - Van Halen
21)Niel Young - Harvest
22)Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
23)Faith No More - Angel Dust
24)Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
25)Bad Company - Bad Company

Princess Hotel

the qusais neighbourhood, dubai ..right below the place we live.

Lunch at the Mushrif Park

Tony's and my folks went out to barbeque at Mushriff park in Dubai last friday afternoon. Here's a pic of the park's terrain. I have ofcourse treated it a bit.

A house in Goa

Goa is that really beautiful place in India, by the sea, with a lot of good food, wine et al.

We were shooting for an Ad film in Goa at this house that was over 400 years old. Built over 5000 square feet, its sole occupant - a 68 year old woman!! Some parts of the house were untouched for the last 150 years.

And yes, the house was fully loaded - in house ball room, in house chappel and a in house cemetery with chairs built around - to enjoy morning coffee with long lost loved ones!!!

Queer!

Travel to Africa

Professionally, ive been in brand management for the last 10 years, all of them with consumer product companies...you know soaps, toothpaste and stuff. My work takes me around a bit and then there was my first visit to Africa - Nigeria and Kenya.

The stark differences in society there astonished me. Ya...iam from India and i know what poverty and underdeveloped means! But at one end you see newspaper advertising for Mercedes Limos ( you dont see that even in Fancy Dubai) and at the other end the common man struggling to keep alive( this picture shot near our nigeria office - its a brown freight container- its a family's home...the inhabitant enjoying his morning by the window ! At least he's go a rock solid home. )

Obviously crime rates are no surprise. And how! Take a look at this picture of a signpost in Kenya to know what im talking about.

Somebody get those politicians outa there!

Iron Maiden Live!

I had bought the Powerslave in 1989 - a cheap 45cent pirated version. I would have heard the rhyme of the ancient mariner a million times since then. Back in those days, id have given my right arm to watch Iron Maiden do the Trooper, you know Bruce with his leg on the feedback speaker and Steve Harris playing back the lyrics and bobbing his head and bass at the corner, and eddie eddie trooping around the stage!

And i finally got to see IronMaiden in March 2007, in Dubai when they headlined Desert Rock Festival. Personally, the show was no great deal - ya- the guys played well and i saw bruce dickinson with his leg on the feedback speaker!! But then i dint get half the kicks that i got when i had watched David Pascal, Timothy and Gang ( a bunch of ex college kids , mostly from MCC who had a band called Moksha) back in Chennai do a cover of the Trooper way back in 1995 at IIT OAT!!

But then there was this strange good feeling that i had at the end of the show. A sense of "been there, done that" a kinda feeling a happily dying man who had seen it all might have!!

Here's are some pics from the show of the band at Dubai Rock Festival - borrowed it off the net.

Apple of My Eye

Life has changed for Suji and Me ever since we had Eesha in our lives. She's now 2 years - suji likes to call that terrible two!

Here she is in that chinese thingy suji picked up at Global Village.

Snapshots of Life

Rock bands dint seem to sound as well as they did a few years back. So i needed something else to do....started playing around with shooting pictures. Some of them turned out to my satisfaction!