Sunday, July 31, 2011

Ramadan Mubarak



Ramadan officially begins on August 1 and is expected to last until August 29, at which time begins the 3 day Eid holiday. For the entire month of Ramadan, working hours are reduced from 9 AM to 3 PM, Sunday through Thursday.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic Lunar calendar and the holiest of the holy months. It begins with the sighting of the crescent of the new moon after which all physically mature and healthy Muslims are obliged to abstain from all food, drink, sex and any kind of tobacco use between dawn and sunset. Non Muslims are asked to refrain from eating, drinking, etc during the day in the presence of Muslims.

The month of Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, prayer, doing good deeds and spending time with family and friends. The fasting is intended to help teach Muslims self-discipline, self restraint and generosity. It also reminds them of the suffering of the poor, who may rarely get to eat well. It is common to have one meal (known as the Suhoor), just before sunrise and another (known as the Iftar), directly after sunset. This meal will commonly consist of dates, following the example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him).

When the next crescent of the new moon has been officially sighted by a reliable source, the month of Ramadan is declared over and the month of Shawwal begins. The end of Ramadan is marked by a three-day period known as Eid al-Fitr, the "Festival of Fast-breaking." It is a joyous time beginning with a special prayer and accompanied by celebration, socializing and festive meals.

At the beginning of Ramadan, it is appropriate to wish Muslims "Ramadan Mubarak" which means "Blessed Ramadan." At its conclusion, you may say "Eid Mubarak’.

Wishing all our Muslim friends Ramadan Mubarak!
Brian and Jessica


Friday, July 29, 2011

Arranged Marriages

Overheard a conversation at work yesterday between a Western Expat and an Arab man that was interesting and telling of arranged marriages, which are still quite common in many cultures.

Western Expat: So did you have a good holiday back home visiting your family?

Arab: Yes, a very good time.

Western Expat: How long were you away?

Arab: Just 2 weeks, but I’ll be going back in a month.

Western Expat: So did you find a wife?

Arab: Yes and we got married.

Western Expat: Congratulations! Did you find your wife or did your family find her for you?

Arab: My family found her.

Western Expat: When is the wedding ceremony?

Arab: In September.

Western Expat: Will she move to Abu Dhabi after the ceremony?

Arab: I don’t know.

Western Expat: That’s exciting. What’s her name?

Arab: Ummm (with hesitation and uncertainty)…Shariyah.

Arranged marriages are largely practiced in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka), Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia and East Asia to some extent. Many single men are finding it difficult to get married because of the large dowries that women’s families are asking and because of a class system that may separate the two families in the same country. And even after getting married, it’s not uncommon for the men to take vacations without their wives and to live in separate cities.

Monday, July 4, 2011

The Cove Rotanna - Ras Al Khaima

We spent the weekend at The Cove in the UAE's northern emirate of Ras Al Khaima with our friends Jules and Susan. It's a hillside resort on the Gulf with chilled swimming pools, an amazing beach, and great restuarants. 

There was an incident at the bar on Thursday night and, yada yada yada, we got upgraded on Friday morning to a villa with a private pool (champagne service included).





Saturday, July 2, 2011

Al Qarveen Tailoring and Textiles

Brian's tailor makes the best suits and shirts. He's had 3 suits made and just had his first shirt made. Such a nice guy and so talented. There was a great article about him in The National last year.




Taking the measure of a tailor's life

Dellus Asirvatham manages the Al Qarveen Tailoring and Textiles in Abu DhabiSammy Dallal / The National As the city streets swell during the Ramadan nights, glinting scissors and unfurling tape measures can be seen through the windows of Al Qarveen Tailoring and Textiles.

This humble storebehind the Madinat Zayed Gold Souq in Abu Dhabi is in the vanguard of a contingent of about 15 tailoring shops in the neighbourhood. Dellus Asirvatham, 30, is the manager of the small store - one of two outlets in the area that bear the name Al Qarveen. He quickly assesses his customers needs, speaking in Hindi, or smatterings of Arabic, English and Urdu. "Three piece or two piece?," he says. "Two buttons or three? Pleated? I'll give you a good deal."

Al Qarveen, which caters to men only, makes 100 tailored suits a month, more than three suits a day. At about 20 measurements a suit, that adds up to some 24,000 measurements in a year. In quick motions, Mr Asirvatham takes the tape measure from around his shoulders, applies it to his customer and reads off the numbers. He does not miss a measurement, including those that your average buyer of off-the-rack suits does not even know are relevant.

"It must fit perfectly," says Mr Asirvatham. When possible, he makes small talk and sends one of the team out to buy orange soda or tea to make the process seamless. The store's second in command, Lyttus Asirvatham, 34, is a trouser specialist. He jots down the measurements in a kind of tailor's code that includes measurements and small illustrations. These suits are not just tailored to a customer's shape, but also to his minuscule preferences about pockets and cuts.

Indeed, the style choices tell a story about the working men of the city. As the economy overheated in 2008 and money was sloshing around the Emirates, tuxedoes were in higher demand. Sales of suits in general plummeted early last year, when companies laid off staff and pared back their growth plans. Meanwhile, in a sign of a shift towards public-sector employment, demand for business uniforms increased.

During Ramadan, there is usually a dip in sales, but Al Qarveen says business is up compared with a year ago. "Now things are picking up after a long time," says Mr Asirvatham, the manager. "More suits." Getting a suit just right is more of an art than a science, says Mr Asirvatham, who figures he can assess a man's size down to a centimetre or two, but for safety he takes all measurements. And no challenge seems beyond his scope. A semi-serious question about a finely tailored fedora was met with a serious nod.

"Neck ties, hats, jackets, vests," he says. "We can make them." The confidence comes in part from dealing with a range of nationalities and their respective styles. Requests vary widely, even including princely Jodhpuri suits with gold embroidery for weddings. The cost of a suit can range from a few hundred dirhams for a uniform to thousands for a three-piece suitfashioned from expensive imported material.

The store is a textbook example of specialisation. Each of the 25 workers hailing from India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan has a particular skill that is developed over years. One man focuses on shirts, another on trousers and a bespectacled Indian with a moustache standing at the window is an expert at cutting cloth with a giant pair of scissors. "You have to be very careful," he says. "Very steady."

A trainee may start off running errands before graduating to ironing and basic sewing on trousers. Then he would move up to shirts and eventually to jackets. A veteran can construct a full suit in less than a day, but an amateur would be doomed to a week of failures before producing a slipshod set of threads. Al Qarveen has 18 Juki sewing machines, some in plain view and others tucked into corners of a small workshop above the sales room or a larger space at the second store.

Some of the workers are responsible for buying the material, sourcing their best product from Dubai's fabric district in Deira. There, traders bargain over cloth shipped mostly from India and Europe for the finer garments. Mr Asirvatham the manager and Mr Asirvatham his deputy, who are not related, hail from the Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu state in south-eastern India. The district, formerly known as Cape Comorin, has two major cities, Nagercoil and the denser Thiruvananthapuram, which has a vibrant textile trade.

For these two, tailoring is a vocation inherited from their forefathers. Both men arrived in Abu Dhabi about six years ago after a recruiter interviewed them in India. They say they could stay as long as 25 years, enough to support their families back home at a salary higher than they could get in the textile trade there. So, do Al Qarveen's tailors all have tailored suits? They tailor their own collared shirts but tend to make suits for themselves only when they are about to get married.

An alteration specialist who gives his name only as Manoharan looks up from his sewing machine. "Hopefully, soon I'll need a suit," he says with a smile. Life in the tailoring shop is fast-paced, and there is little room for mistakes. Customers do not respond well to ill-fitting suits, and one wrong measurement often means a time-consuming alteration. For Mr Asirvatham, the manager, this job, with its demands for care and precision, is well worth doing.

And someday, he might even have saved enough to return home and open his own store. "But that's just dreams," he says.

The National Newspaper - Taking a Measure of a Tailor's Life

Sand Storm

RIP Gizmo

On May 27 we lost our little buddy, Gizmo. He was there for Jessica's mom, he was there for Jessica, and he was there for us. He grew up as a porch kitty in Bucklin, KS, moved to downtown Kansas City, and last year moved to Abu Dhabi. He loved sitting outside next to the pool and soaking up the sun. Most people will remember him as our "bi-polar" cat that was a bit tempermental at times, but he was definetely a momma's boy and would sleep next to Jessica every night. His sisters Bella, Bailey, Henri, and Zoe miss him terribly, as do we. He will never be forgotten.