Blood Donation Camp Poster

Follow the Facebook page for more info!! –> http://www.facebook.com/events/282872931777762/

Updates from CBSNews say,

LOS ANGELES – Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music’s queen until her majestic voice was ravaged by drug use and her regal image was tarnished by erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died on the eve of the Grammy Awards she once reigned. She was 48.

Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen said Houston was pronounced dead Saturday afternoon in her room on the fourth floor of the Beverly Hilton. “There were no obvious signs of any criminal intent,” Rosen said.

A Los Angeles County coroner’s official said early Sunday that her body had been taken to a morgue.

Houston’s publicist, Kristen Foster, said the cause of death was unknown.

Rosen said police received a 911 call from hotel security about Houston. Paramedics who were already at the hotel because of a Grammy party were not able to resuscitate her, he said.

The Eagles

If you thought it was a rumor, well, you’re obviously wrong! The Eagles! YES! THE EAGLES are gonna wow Dubai‘s 25,000 fans at the ’7he Sevens Stadium’ on Dubai-Al Ain Road. Featuring as one of the biggest concerts the city has ever seen, they are set to hit stage live on 12th April 2012.

Very little information was given out by Dubai Eye 103.8, however there was an article posted by Tabloid! regarding the same. (Click here to follow the article)

Tickets are set to officially go out on 1st February, however, I suggest registering on the website, EaglesDubai.com, for pre-sale tickets!

Imagine hearing…Hotel California…Live!

Awaiting more information…and it will be posted soon!

I’d like to welcome you back to a new image of “Le tReZ Blog”. Been a long time since anything’s posted, and (if you’ve read) the stats monkeys at WP.com only gave me a wake up call to get the rust out from here! Well, I’d like to keep this short & simple, so I’ve numbered my “announcements”. It’s not a lot! Don’t worry! 

1. With the new theme installed onto the site, I’d like to tell you guys, that yes…it’s more simplistic & a lot easy to get around with (doesn’t the text seem bigger too!)
2. With the previous phase dead & gone, tReZ Photography has now moved to a new location. I’ve categorized my work into 4 different ones (the 5th is still pending for approval & uploads…as per the wedding couple’s discretion!). I’ve removed sharing buttons on all the category pages, except the main page (ie, Facebook, Google+,etc.). If anyone would like sharing icons on the categories as well, please do let me know! (Your feedback is always welcome guys!Would also like to add, If anyone does like my work, and would like a full size image of it (to be used as a wallpaper, say), please use the Contact Me Form (link given below)Also, ALL IMAGES ARE STRICTLY COPYRIGHTED AS tReZ Photography ©
   Click the link to follow it - http://letrezblog.wordpress.com/photography
3. I’ve moved all my posts to a simple straightforward link found at –  http://letrezblog.wordpress.com/
4. And…finally (as for now) Read on…and enjoy!

Feel free to use the Contact Me page for any questions (and/or chats!)

Cheers!

Reblogged from WordPress.com News:

If you feel like it’s a chore to keep up with all your favorite blogs, you can now read posts from all the blogs you follow (even the ones that aren’t on WordPress.com!) in one convenient place on the WordPress.com home page: Your reader displays all the posts across all the blogs you follow in the order they were published, with the most recent content appearing at the top. You’ll see an excerpt of the introduction to each post, the first image in the post, and thumbnails of any other images that the post …

Helpful much!

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 28 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

But not all of us have the ability to possess a Government badge which we can flash around or pin it to our chests and walk with our heads held high in…pride?!

So if we all were given a chance to create a law…a rule…anything to make this world a more “fun” place…what would it be? (Anything apart from buildings made of edible dark chocolate!)

Well, if I was given that opportunity, I’d have to say “Legalize Racing!!!”

Or basically, just create a new lane on the highway for us drivers who wish to push the gas at over 200 kmph and dodge traffic like we were being chased by the cops! (Or we will burn your  radars!

Inspire me…tell me what you would like to be creates as YOUR law?…

Romantic food in Abu Dhabi.

All hands up saying Pearls & Caviar and La Mamma are the best, I’d still beg to differ that Jones the Grocer Has more to offer!!

Marine Drive (Image Credits to Original Author)

Took a flight from Abu Dhabi one day, been staying here for three weeks so far, started pretty boring! Cause its the usual routine of waking up to the traffic alarm at 10 in the morning, and the lazy walk over to the balcony, where atleast a hot cup of coffee would greet me “Good Morning” everyday! Dragging a cold cup right till lunch, and a sweet treat of 2 mangoes to put me in some good mood! Or atleast gear me up for the entire day!

And for all the days I’ve been staying here, I’ve just been wandering about why Mumbai is such an awesome place to stay in!! Well…let’s have a look,shall we!

10. Cheapest Pizza to Order when you’re Bored

Domino's Pizza

It so happened that one day, I was all alone at home and watching TV wasn’t really the best thing I could do. I needed some…”spice”! Scumming through the paper, I came across an advertisement for Domino’s Pizzas just for Rs. 39!! Vegetarian of course! So I rang up the call center and asked them to send me a Chicken BBQ pizza with a Cheese-Jalapeno Dip and, as usual, extra chili flakes and oregano (which I find rather salty!). In the meantime, I was dancing like a lunatic to the below advertisement, made famous by Domino’s themselves!

A wait for say 20 minutes only, and the door bell goes “Ting tong”! Astounded that they ‘interrupted’ my party-time, I opened the door, and well to my dis-belief was the Pizza guy, with a big smile across his face! Although I couldn’t say he was grinning because he made it withing 30 minutes or the pizza box was just extremely hot! Cause he kept shuffling his hands under the box! And hey, the Mobile Coke offer does work indeed! (Coke always tastes better in Bombay for some reason, probably because of the quality of pesticides put into it!)

And thus commenced my home-alone party, to which I ended up paying only under 150 rupees (less than 15 AED), and a small pizza to myself, I enjoyed it to my heart’s content! But more importantly cause I was alone at home!

9. Party!! PARty!! PARTY!!

All of us who love partying in the house, put your hands up! \w/ More like a trend, its also a way of life in Mumbai! Which is why its one of those reasons why Mumbai’s The Best! There’s never a moment when you complain that your “bored” or “sick” of life, especially when you’re on holidays over there! (I pity the working crowd though!) Everyday has some event or the other popping into your schedule! Either a Church Event (Wedding/Holy Communion/Baptism), or a Society event like a neighbor’s birthday party, or head out to the club if you’re friends have called for a crazy night-out, or perhaps the boring neighbor just wanted to call you over for dinner (for courtesy sake!)…or perhaps he/she/they were just bored at home eating all alone! Hehe

But sadly, this is the big difference between India and the UAE! In simple terms…when you’re in India and you step out of the house, you see a big crowd of your friends with glasses in their hands and just dancing endlessly to your favorite music! However, when you’re in the UAE, and you step out of the house, you see either of these two things:

1) Either boring old men scratching their asses and gossiping like women over their phones, or worse, with each other.

or 2) A big entry ticket to a club that requires you to dig into your wallet for that last big note you didn’t ever want to break, so that they make sure you don’t have money left to pay for the booze, so you don’t get drunk (which is supposed to happen,right?) (Never mind enjoying yourself!)

So you pretty much get the scene, of why partying…or simply ‘socializing’ is best in Bombay, rather than “The Boredom Network”

8. Drive-by!

Who over here has taken their dad’s/cousin’s car/bike/scooter and driven it on the roads WITHOUT the fear of being caught? I mean, for those who don’t have their license yet! Especially hinting to the Goans out here! Well maybe not on the main highways, but inner-city roads, cruising down paradise lane on a bike? Trees of glory “blooming” on either side, and the scenery like a story painted by God himself! Ain’t that just the life! Renting bikes are pretty cheap too, could get an FZ for 400 bucks!

For some its a thrill, for others its “exhilarating”!! Of course, you can’t really cruise down a straight road at 140 kmph listening to reggae music on the Pioneer sound system, cause well, let’s face it, you don’t get “straight” roads in India…Mumbai at least! But to even go pick a friend or go to someone’s place for a beer, hopping on a bike, kicking it, and swerving through the choking traffic is,for some folks, an adrenaline-pumping experience.

Not really something you could even dream of doing in the UAE! Cause if your caught…well its…one way ticket “Bye Bye Birdy!”

7.Street-Drama vs. TV-Drama

Whenever something, like an accident or a fight, happens on the road we’re walking on, we usually see a big gathering huddled around the scene, or a bigger gathering of people laying down their seats with a bucket of pop-corn or smokes! (well, not literally!)

It so happened that one day in Bombay, I was out with my friends on the jagged rocks of a shore (something like Nariman Point), and the space before the entry gate towards this area, was a no parking zone. But where in India does anyone follow traffic rules? As usual, you’d find loads of cars and bikes parked right under the signboard, some of them sitting in/on their vehicle munching on roasted corn on the cob! While others have left their “run-on-wheels” in the “No-Parking” zone, and put their trust in the call of some old men playing cards, just in case the traffic police come to tow away their vehicles!

So there we were on the rocks minding our own business, when suddenly the old men give a big scream, that made me jump! The tow truck had arrived! Like a bomb being blow off, everyone rushed back to their vehicles, be it a bike or a car, and just sat on them, marking their territory! The beachfront was pretty much empty for those 5 minutes!

During this whole scene though, it so happened that a woman was rushing to her scooty, and one of the “towing-men”  stood in her way, throwing her to the ground! Seeing the advantage they had, they quickly rushed towards the bike to pull it up to the truck. While the woman was helped up by an onlooker, she kept abusing these men and “struggled” to pull her bike away from them! And when I say abusing, I mean real “Ma ki c***t”, “Bhein ki *****” sort of abusing! Not that you don’t hear it anyways, but one thing I admire about Mumbaikars is the way they help women! Seeing her plight, a gang of around 10-15 men walked up to the “towing-guy” and kept questioning him and well, the abusing never stopped of course! Cornered like a tiny rat surrounded by a ‘pack’ of Persian Cats, he eventually gave up and let the bike go!

As much as it was entertaining to watch such a scene play out live in front of your eyes, it is one of those few things that you get to witness in a city like Mumbai! Not the traffic police in paticular, but the street-abuse and fights generally!

6. Enjoy Nature for Free!

If there’s one thing I like most about Mumbai apart from its bustling traffic and pollution, is the entry to beaches and gardens and parks without paying a dime! Just like Gandhiji said, salt is a basic human necessity and must be provided to everyone, and not ‘taxed’, so I say, everyone is a part of Nature, and her beauty lies for all to witness, and not ‘to be paid for’!

So we’re sitting at home one lazy evening, and we decide to pull out the bikes for a ride. Three bikes roaring towards Airoli, we’re screaming and laughing all along the journey. Getting off the highway, we come across this small picture perfect frame, I like to call…Passage to Peace 

Got off the bikes, stood at the edge of the drive, and the first thing that struck my mind was…”Get Kathy Out!! Now!!”

Took her out…clicked this picture and we just stood there in admiration for a whole 20 minutes. Watching the lush greens of life. The vivid sky above us. The flowing water below us. The sounds of the crashing water on the rocks. And for a cherry on top of the cake, that beautiful wet mud scent of earth that refreshed us like a splash of water thrown on our faces.

Wishing we were here much earlier, we had to get back home, cause it was getting pretty dark, and even a beautiful place like this can look creepy when the sun’s out!

Places like this I’d never see in the UAE (except Al Ain perhaps), but even if these do exist, there’d always be a gate with a AED 5 entry fee per head printed on a big white board, in red bold letters, but something like the picture above…is free  to dive into, in a city like Mumbai!

5. Festivals with a Cry of Enjoyment

Mumbai, being such a multi-cultural city, houses the best venues when it comes to festivals being celebrated. Be it Christmas, Diwali, New Year or Holi, this is one city where music can never stop playing! All day long, all day night, there’s a sense of celebration and an enthusiasm of togetherness when it comes to celebrating a festival!

Diwali (The Festival of Lights) & Christmas are two fests I’d hate to miss! Mainly cause of the sense of belonging to one big family that exists in any society! Also at home, there’s always a mad atmosphere, cause everyone’s either baking something or making sweets for the neighbors to be distributed! And apart from food being sent around, there’s always a constant entry of guests like as if home were a nightclub! Gossip and Merry laughter are one fo the few admirable things that haunts the air of a society during such a time! Everyone is happy! Everyone is smiling! Everyone is…in the festive spirit of celebration!

New year’s is a whole different scenario! While some people sit at home to calculate finances of the previous year, and start out with a fresh new calendar, other’s (the youth) take it to the streets or clubs and dance out like never before, till they enter the final countdown and lip-lock with their lover or just a random drunk date! (Cause its TRADITION!)

4.Hanging Out Like a Dog

What’s the best thing we like to do when we sit in a bus or a train…stand actually! The majority are gonna say, hang out of the the doors with the wind in their face! While the geeks might say, listen to Beethoven, while studying for the Physics exam 5 months away! (I pity them!)

Ofcourse, it is a VERY dangerous thing to do, but when you live in a city like Mumbai, you become a pro at almost everything! (Yes, even crossing tracks between trains)

Nothing beats the killer experience of travelling in Mumbai. Apart from the fact that its exhausting, its actually…fun! Hop in, Hop out anytime you want! Compared to the boring transport buses and the metro in UAE, where, your jailed in like monkey until the next bus stop, or unless until there’s a fire in the bus by which you can smash the windows. What about the metro? Your fined to even chew gum! And in Mumbai, you find you self spitting all over the place (well maybe not literally!) I’m sure the RTA even fine people for farting! (Inside Joke!) But basically, anything you touch (especially those emergency buttons) have a big price tag with them! So I thought of asking them, what if I board a crowded train, and it suddenly jerks, knocking everyone to the floor, and to hold onto something I push a button by mistake… :O

3. Wanna Earn a Buck? No Problem!

Don’t we all need that little pocket money to enjoy our college days? And as we grow up, so do our demands! Mumbai, being a big enough city for numerous opportunities, is a struggle to survive in, but where does life become a challenge then? Want a boring old lazy life, don’t go there!

The pay not be shimmering, neither the ‘quality’ of your employer! But the experience and the ‘training’ one goes through is indispensable! Working in Mumbai…makes you tough! The exposure you get from surroundings and your bosses!

On the other hand, UAE doesn’t really have opportunities when it comes to part-time jobs! Or is the law that everyone is scared about? A VERY strict country like this place never gives students the chance to experience something in the industry! Even if there are offers available, they are either very limited or…not really easy to search for!

2. Food = Cheap + Variety

Who goes to Mumbai and doesn’t try “Roadside Food” or dhabbas as we like calling them! Be it Chinese, Indian or even a humble refreshing glass of Nimbu Panni (Lime Juice), its all better when its eaten outside! And the best part is…its freaking cheap!!!

Mumbai (as compared to any place in the UAE) has at least 5 food stalls at every corner of every road!

One thing I did during my stay in Mumbai this time was, everyday, every evening at least, I’d go down to the nearby juice stall and order me a 35 rupee Mango Milkshake, and it was the best freakin milkshake I’d ever tasted in my life!

Chinese dhabbas are even better! Pay them 50-100 bucks (depending from dhabba to dhabba) and you get fried rice of your choice with ‘time pass’. ‘Time pass’ is basically street slang for crispy fried noodles with schezuan sauce

Apart from eating out, the market (roadside, obviously!) is a haven for food-lovers! Varieties of fruits and vegetables and herbs and spices! All vendors shouting out their rates while people rush to get the best deal!

And if this is still not enough, search for something called Cutting Chai. Its basically regular boiled tea (with milk), scraped ginger and other spice perhaps, and a lot of sugar! Poured in shot glasses (NOT to be taken as a shot)…but the best beverage to drink on a rainy day in a beautiful city like Mumbai!

1.Cheapest Telecom Services

So we’ve eventually stepped down to the first best thing in Mumbai…their Telecom Services! Competitive networks like Vodafone, Airtel, Docomo, Reliance, etc. (there are so many!) offer the best calling and messaging rates in the world! (or at least when compared to UAE!) Spending 1 rupee a minute, puts worldwide networks to shame! And when their offers come out, its even better! I remember Airtel once offered me 3 rupees for 3 hours at night!

To better it all, SMS packs are available, which when you pay a small amount of money (say 35 rupees), you are entitled to send across 500 messages for free! (Vodafone!)

This is the best deal anyone could get while compared to our gorgeous networks here in UAE, where you pay 30 fils a minute (almot equivalent to 3 rupees!)

This concludes our list of why Mumbai is the best…perhaps not for settling, but a good month’s vacation…yeah!