A Slice of Art and Design

  09.09.09 has been a Red Letter day in the history of UAE and particularly for the people of Dubai, the day when Dubai metro was officially inaugurated and it was formally opened to the public the next day. The media and the citizens of Dubai gave a double thumps up by flocking to have a ride on the brand new mode of transport. This also provided an apt opportunity for the authorities to prove ... if we promise we deliver! After all actions speaks louder than words! The date was well in advance and while the residents debated and argued about the feasibility of this milestone, RTA saw to it that no stone remained unturned to achieve this feat. The commitment has been honored, at least to a good great extent and we shall wait for 10.10.10 to see the metro fully operational in all directions and stopping at all stations. When the Dubai metro was conceptualized, the economic situation on ground was much different than what we see now. The current economic downturn, rightly ter...

A few days back I took the metro to go to the bank and once inside the NRI (Non Resident Indian) section I was quite astonished to see a brand new advertisement on display. It has used a metro station as the symbol of Dubai while the Taj Mahal remained the emblem of India. This actually opens up an interesting topic of finding a permanent symbol for a city which is changing so fast and so much. I have observed quite a few symbols that signified Dubai over the past few years. The two most popular of all has been the Dubai Creek Golf Club and the Burj Al Arab. While the golf club found its place in the twenty (20) Dirham currency bill, the Burj Al Arab could be noticed in the car license plates. But soon new contenders to take the pride of symbolizing Dubai started to appear in the fast changing horizons of the Dubai sky while the earlier ones struggled to retain their positions with their share of diehard admirers. There are plenty of iconic structures, but the most famous ones which m...

If I was to name one “not be missed place” on a visit to Madrid, I would have no hesitation in selecting the “Prado National Museum”. The Prado Museum is renowned as being the largest art gallery in the world housing more than 8,600 paintings. But for space limitation they exhibits less than 2,000 paintings but for me I was very lucky as there were a collection of Picasso on display as part of an exchange program. In addition to painting s, it also exhibits sculptures, drawings, coins and other works of arts. The rich life story of El Prado started during the reign of Charles III, when he had the vision to create a single art collection. But it was on 19th November 1819, during the reign of Fernando VII, the Royal Museum of Painting and Sculpture was created. With the abolition of monarchy in Spain the museum became a national property and came to be known as the Prado National Museum. The works of art have survived several challenges since the inception and were transferred...