Foamy fun

Thousands of citizens thronged the Arabian Gulf Road yesterday to mark the 47th National Day and 17th Liberation Day. Children dressed in colors of the national flag and young men and women in cars waving Kuwaiti flags and portraits of HH Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and other Kuwaiti heroes filled the seaside avenue to celebrate the country's most important national events.

After the state's liberation from Saddam Hussein's troops after seven months of occupation on February 26, 1991, the Gulf Road celebrations have become an annual national event where crowds turn up in large numbers in an exhibition of unity and solidarity. All roads leading to the street, except the main entrances, were blocked by police in an attempt to reduce traffic bottlenecks as vehicles jammed the 25-km road.

The celebrations began soon after the liberation when Kuwaitis flooded the Gulf road to express relief and happiness that the dark days of the Iraqi occupation were over. A US-led international coalition of more than 600,000 troops drove the Iraqi forces out of Kuwait after launching the Operation Desert Storm on January 17, 1991. They completed their mission on the morning of February 26, one day after the National Day. Iraqi forced invaded the country on August 2, 1990 and drove many Kuwaitis out of thecountry. Hundreds were killed during the seven-month occupation.

Kuwait took its independence from British mandate on June 19, 1960 but late Amir Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah decided to mark the event on February 25 ech year because the weather in June is too hot. The country remained under British mandate for more than 60 years, although it enjoyed a considerable degree of independence during those years.

Kuwait National day and Liberation day

My wishes to all the Kuwaitis on their National day and Liberation day which was on 25th and 26th of Feb....

Indian Railways posts record $6.3bn surplus

Giant state run Indian railways which was once on the track to bankruptcy posted a record cash surplus of 250 billion rupees or $6.3 billion this year. wow.......

When the railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav took over the railway, one of the world's largest which carries 18.5 million people daily, it was burdened with huge losses. But he transformed its finances by expanding freight capacity and building new lines, leasing out ad spaces, introducing competitive bidding and other innovations. It is now one of the best cash generators in the public sector.

All in all the new budget seems to be good as its been presented with steps to boost freight operations, cut freight and passenger fares and improve services such as reservations and toilet both often an ordeal on Indian trains.

Yadav is now being invited by business schools to pass on his management tricks.

Howz the New Indian Railway Budget?

Phew!!!! howz the new Indian railway budget? I dont know what to say......Well who knew that Lallu of all people could make such a whooping profit out of the Indian Railway???? Any comments??

I'm back

Well i'm almost back..hehe after a few days of sandstorm and bad cold and fever, i'm almost back to blogging..Well looks like i have to do lots of blog trotting :) ... Hope to catch up soon. That is as soon as i get my energy back!!!

The conference was a huge success...

I am just glad that the PR conference was a huge success and that all the hard work finally paid off... Only problem was that I was almost dead for a couple of days after and needed rest. Now Kuwait seems to be under the seize of a sandstorm which is in its second day which is irritating everyone so much and also making people sick including me.

Given below r some of the conference photos:

Pathetic...

I really don't fell like a proud Indian or rather a proud Keralite today. This is mainly because I saw a certain news segment in the Malayalam news channels today morning. Well every news article does not bring me to tears, but this one did and for a change, I felt sympathetic, furious, helpless and what not.

Now to come to the issue - Kochi (In Kerala) the metropolitan city is undergoing a lot of changes and lots of development projects are coming up. Specially worth mentioning is the Vallarpadam project and Land has to be acquired for the proposed highway connectivity to the Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal To do this they will be taking up land and evicting a lot of people from their homes. (Well ya I do know that to do such kind of good projects lots of modernizations are needed but this is too much...)

Today's news segment showed the police evicting a lot of people from their homes. The news showed the police rudely hitting anyone who protested and it also showed them pushing all the ladies who were protesting and crying and also the men who protested. They were then locked up into a house by force and the houses were being demolished at full speed. It was a heartbreaking site to see all the old and young women, children and even men crying openly and calling out to them to stop. Well how can you expect these people to stand and watch when their home and everything they ever had are being demolished right before their eyes?

All those who agreed to sign an agreement about moving were given one week time and many men signed this only because they couldn’t watch their mother's, daughters, little children, wives etc being thrown out into the streets. I saw many men signing documents while they were openly crying and trying to come to terms with what was going on.

Many of the houses were demolished and for those ones that were given time, the electricity connection was cut. I do agree that land acquisition and all that kind of stuff is needed when projects like this come up (after all my parents also did lose land when the government decided they wanted the land for smart city and things like that). But the people who are being evicted (especially since they are very poor) has to be given alternative lands and facilities before they are openly thrown out onto the roads. Where will they go with their ailing parents and young daughters? Where will they live till they can find other means to support themselves? After all they are being thrown out from the land that they have been living in all their lives, which they were born into and that were passed on from their ancestors.

The government can't justify this activity as they are paying the people only the value of the land that was there 5 years back. That is such a pitiful amount as 5 years back these places didn't have much value in terms of money. I felt so furious watching all this, especially because the present government is caught up in one scandal after other relating to shady land deals and so on. They can justify a land worth 500 crores being sold for 90 crores, but they can't pay the money that these poor people deserve nor can they provide alternative means.

I wonder what these people will do. Where will they spend the coming nights? Where and how will they provide any safety to their family? I feel so helpless. What can we do to help these poor people? What can we make the government do?

Vallarpadam Container Transhipment Terminal:
Vallarpadam is a part of the existing Cochin port. The Cochin port became a major port under the Major Port Trust Act 1963 and now has crude handling facilities, containerization of cargo and electronic data interchange facilities, which have put Cochin in the front as far as port development in the country is concerned. The Cochin port has unique geographical advantages as it is near to international sea trade routes which connect Europe and the Gulf to South East Asia and the Far East.

Vallarpadam Container Terminal Project (VCTP) will be a unique project in infrastructure, especially to boost containerization in India. VCTP was inaugurated by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on February 16, 2005. While inaugurating VCTP, Dr. Manmohan Singh said, "The project would be a role model for private-public partnership, blending efficiently private sector managerial efficiency and marketing acumen with public sector capital and infrastructure planning."
VCTP will be India's first ever International Container Trans-shipment Terminal (ICTT). According to a CNBC report, this project will enable India to move into the top 20 maritime nations. A detailed study of VCTP was done by Frederic R Harris, the Dutch Consultants and the total establishment cost of VCTP has been estimated at Rs. 2,118 cr. Dubai Ports International (DPI) has emerged as the successful bidder for developing and operating the project on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis for 30 years by quoting the highest revenue share of 33.30% to the Port Trust and the project is expected to be completed by 2009. It is expected to be one of the largest single-operator trans-shipment terminals in India. More details are available at this link about Vallarpadam Project: http://www.projectsmonitor.com/detailnews.asp?newsid=15219


About Kochi(from Wikipedia):
Kochi formerly known as Cochin is a city in the Indian state of Kerala. The city is one of the principal seaports of the country and is located in the district of Ernakulam, about 220 kilometres (137 mi) north of the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram. It has an estimated population of 600,000, with an extended metropolitan population of about 1.5 million, making it the largest urban agglomeration and the second largest city in Kerala after the capital.

Since 1102 CE, Kochi was the seat of the Kingdom of Cochin, a princely state which traces its lineage to the Kulasekhara empire. Heralded as the Queen of the Arabian Sea, Kochi was an important spice trading centre on the Arabian Sea coast from the 14th century onwards. Ancient travellers and tradesmen referred to Kochi in their writings, variously alluding to it as Cocym, Cochym, Cochin, and Cochi. Occupied by the Portuguese in 1503, Kochi was the site of the first European colonial settlement in India. It remained the capital of Portuguese India until 1530, when Goa became the capital. The city was later occupied by the Dutch, the Mysore and the British. Kochi was the first princely state to willingly join the Indian Union, when India gained independence in 1947.

Kochi experienced decades of economic stagnation from independence until 2003, when it entered a period of economic growth, leading to a spurt in the city's development. A growing centre of information technology, tourism and international trade, Kochi is the commercial hub of Kerala, and one of the fastest growing second-tier metros in India. Like other large cities in the developing world, Kochi continues to struggle with urbanisation problems such as traffic congestion and environmental degradation.

Successive waves of migration over the course of several millennia have made Kochi a cultural melting pot. Despite the risk of overdevelopment, the city retains its distinct colonial heritage and a blend of tradition and modernity.

Kuwait Conference on Public Relations 2008 - Towards a new era in communications in Kuwait

Kuwait Conference on Public Relations 2008

Multaqa Media Group along with the cooperation of The International Public Relations Association (IPRA) – Gulf Chapter – is organizing "Kuwait Conference on Public Relations 2008". This will be held on 12 & 13 February 2008 in JW Marriott Hotel, Kuwait; along with the participation of a group of 10 Arab and International experts specialized in the field of public relations, media and marketing.

I am proud to say that this is being organized after the huge success of our first conference back in 2006.

For more deatils please visit

our website: http://www.multaqagroup.com/

or the link : http://www.multaqagroup.com/prc2008/

Towards a new era in communications

The time and technology seems to be traveling so fast and everyday new technology is evolving at an unbelievable speed. Ya its true and I seem to be dumb about such things as I can't understand half the things that are going on. All I can say is that its really shocking to know that public realtions has evolved so much and that its using all the modern technologies like YouTube, Facebook, Blogging etc to keep up with the changing times.

I hope to learn more through this conference and sure have learnt a lot by researching for this event. Hope that it provides a treasure of information for all the people who are going to attend too.