I spent the past few days at Kuredu resort. I have not been to a resort for years now and this was certainly a good relaxation getaway. The resort promotes "no shoes, no mobiles" and had only one little (expensive) cybercafe for internet. Thank god for the presence of Dhiraagu GPRS, otherwise I'd have been left dead in the water with no internet access. That can be very scary, indeed. The island the resort was on was quite big in comparison to most Maldivian islands I'd say. It took me a good hour to walk much of it. The resort seemed to have a large number of Maldivian employees and they were all (surprisingly) a very helpful and smily bunch.

The lagoon surrounding the resort was rich with manta rays and baby sharks. In fact, one of the most memorable moments at the resort was seeing the emergence of four large black manta rays swimming together in unison under the well lit lagoon surrounding the jetty protruding into the sea. The elegance of their movements and the ease with they seemed to glide in the water was just amazing. Additionally, the side of the island facing the famous Maldivian sea known as "baraveli kandu" sure seemed to be abundunt with "baraveli". It was quite amazing to watch baby baraveli tag along with the mama/papa baraveli along the beach line. "Baraveli" is called "hermit crab" in English and are a very interesting animal. My brother brought home three big hermit crabs late 2004 and they've lived in our house since then, subsisting by themselves in the "kashi veli" sand that texturizes mom's home garden/veranda!

Here are a few photos of the resort...

I arrived in Maldives this morning. I've had a tiring two days of packing up my stuff and moving out of my room. The sleepless, restless working had left me shattered and tired - so much so that I kept falling asleep in and out in broad day light, even in mid conversation/thought! The lack of proper food intake probably contributed to this near delusional state of mind. (I dispense the extra details in case someone wants to replicate the effect :p).

Male' looks changed on the superficial level - just like the superficial lives that the superficial people here live and love to live. Really feels like the same 'ol home sweet home really... sigh.

The temporal variable defined for marking time spent by a human, more commonly called "age", is something people place a breakpoint on and hold celebrations upon a change occuring. My "age" variable incremented today - another year gone by, closer to death and so many things that I want to do remain undone. So many things staying at an elusive distance - tempting me to live another day to explore the possibilities. Hope the coming years bring me better, umm... luck! Oh yes, on a more optimistic note, I am "thankful" for all that I am "blessed" with.

Happy birthday to me

There is an increasing number of people going into the IT field in the Maldives. A lot of them are self-taught, quite a few of them sought help from local training centers and a number of others acquired academic training overseas. The problem however arises that there is only a limited number of jobs available. Additionally, for most of the jobs that are available, the applicant pool for that given job position tends to be quite large. This translates to low salaries and low overall income from the work.

Anyway, the issues aside, I would like to point to a resource for (additional) income earning in the Maldives - RentACoder. RentACoder is a US-based auction site for IT work. There are a variety of projects that pass through the site and they vary in complexity, the type of work, the expertise required and the time frame of the project. The projects are competed for by individuals and teams from around the world. The procedure basically involves signing up for the RentACoder service (which is free) and then bidding on the various projects that get posted there. The projects are always flowing in so one has to keep an eye constantly. Once you bid, the buyer selects the most suitable bid from the coders. The project thus begins and RentACoder does its job of acting as mediator and escrows the money from the seller to their account to make sure the coder can get paid for the work. Once the coder completes the work, the buyer reviews the final work and signs off completion. Sometimes, the coder maybe required to lodge progress reports and send updates of the work. RentACoder then makes available the funds to the coder. The coder has the options of being paid via PayPal or via Bank Checks. The bank check option is quite ideal for Maldivians as the checks get mailed to the coder. Best of all, the checks are in US dollars.

This was something I got into soon after my O'levels and started earning right after. I placed bids, competed, won some and soon had checks coming in! It is a good way to earn income and detach oneself from needing to have a job that requires physical presence. Take in a few projects a month and one would probably have more than a government or private salary would pay. Moreover, you would be doing the country a favour - by earning foreign cash! There seems to be many Indians in this overseas project grabbing business, isn't it time we get into it too?

"Faalu Belun" ( ފާލުބެލުން ) literally translates to "investigating the things in the realm of the unknown". Faalu belun is done in several different ways. Some require the person to throw a special dice, some involve scribbling a symbol, some draw on blurting out random numbers etc. However, one of the more popular faalu belun types seem to involve "Quranic faalu belun" i.e. faalu belun using the Holy Quran. There are people who swear by it and defend it as an "authentic" means of accessing the much that lie within the bounds of the paranormal. They explain how/why it works by invoking the holiness of the book and then asserting that this said holiness is inherently inherited when utilized in the manner used in Quranic faalu belun. Then, of course, there are those who deem it invalid. They regard this practice as a human invention - a "bidua" as it is called in Arabic. They are adamant that those who seek it, practice it and believe it are in err and in sin.

Being very interested in the supposed supernatural/paranormal, I recently gave Quranic faalu belun a go. I was merely interested in experiencing such a session and observing the procedure involved in carrying it out. Here goes my experience?

The questioning
Upon my arrival the teller had me go off and do an ablution (wuloo) first. Soon as I was back, I was given the task of thinking up three questions/concerns to be queried/answered and I was asked to keep them to myself. I came up with three different questions and had them structured elegantly and any ambiguities removed - for my own sake really. Following that, we moved to a table with the Holy Quran on it and I waited as the teller quieted down and "prepared" for the session. I was then given the book, which was closed, and asked to recite the Surahs al-Fathiha, al-Ikhlas, al-Falaq and an-Nas. Then I was asked to think of my first question and say "Bismillaah - Allah Akbar" (meaning: "In the name of God, Allah is the Greatest") followed by opening of the Holy Quran at a random location by holding the cover and just letting it settle on where and how to open itself. I was to do this three times with letting it stay open the last time and passing on the book to the teller.

The analysis
The teller then "analysed" the page that had opened up. This is done by selecting the page on the right, locating the seventh verse from the start of that page. The seventh verse is supposed to shed light on a basic answer to the question. Next, the teller counts seven pages from the selected page and again locates the seventh verse on the seventh page. This verse provides extended clarification of the matter being queried. Then, the teller counts yet another seven pages from that seventh page and continues to locate the seventh verse on that final page which caps the fortune reading process.

The answer
The fortune teller spent a few minutes reading the verses and the translation of those verses before, finally, dispensing the answer that was "found" for the question. I was told that this first answer is the generic interpretation derived from the session specific to my question. The "answer" happened to be ambiguous in nature with a broad applicability. However, it could also be considered as a direct answer with limited context. The specificity of the revelation is, as with any prediction science, highly subjective. Anyhow, I was then given the option of relating my question to the teller to have the generic answer expounded and detailed on in relation to my question. The teller then spent a few minutes "explaining" the outcome of the session in relation to my specific question and fitting the answer into context.

The teller and I repeated the process for the remaining two questions. It was a fun session and all my questions returned answers that left me feeling as if I am ready to storm the multiverse. The generic answer does seem to relate to the question I had in mind - but then that could be chalked up to a creative extrapolations.

I intend on following this up with further probe sometime soon. I want to prepare some slick questions - one absurd, one valid and one inapplicable to see what answers the "true forces" that power Quranic faalu belun will leave me with. I have no expectations of proving it works or not, however, I *am* interested in seeing how the process works and see how deep the process can be dissected into the downright mechanical, human-psychological, manipulative constructs that these things usually work by. Anyway, that is to come with a different teller at a different place in a time in the future...