Dubai: It is quite striking as to what extent a reader’s devotion can reach. Speaking to Ramesh Menon, 46, we get to know that there is no limit. He has followed Gulf News since his first day of arriving in the UAE 24 years ago.
Gulf News
Watch them flower – Reader Picture of the day – Gulf News Dt. 17 March 2014
Watch them flower – Reader Picture of the day – Gulf News Dt. 17 March 2014
Have you ever watched the Date Palms flowering process. If not, watch them from now on. The trees have started flowering.
Normally, the process happen after the second quarter of every year. But the last year, weather and nature was not kind enough and as a result, the palm trees did not flower during that time. These two important factors – Weather and Nature, always influence my photography.
This year the UAE has been blessed with perfect weather and thus the trees have achieved their natural vegetation state.
It is time for you to take out your camera, identify a palm tree of your choice and photograph it every week, as the flowers grow and become a full fledged date fruit, which is harvested when it becomes ripe.
Enjoy your experiences as winter gives way to summer and all the related events occur.
It will be a good observation-cum-photography experience if you track it and also a great team activity with your friends and family.
It will be a good experience for children to observe Nature and the seasonal changes and to observe and realise how nature announces the arrival of the seasons in its own way.
Since it is spread out over a period of four months, it will be also a test to find out how patient you are towards your short term and long term objectives.
For more on this activity, please visit and join:https://www.facebook.com/events/599177313457758/?source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular
Motorists endanger lives of others – Gulf News Community Report – Dt. 10 March 2014
Motorists endanger lives of others
Reader raises concern over motorists stopping in the middle of the road and causing blocks.
By Ramesh Menon, Gulf News reader
Published: 16:52 March 9, 2014
There are several ways one can invite accidents. I witness one such situation very often.
It occurs just in front of a mall in the Tourist Club Area of Abu Dhabi. Many a times, cars stop to pick or drop passengers, delivery vans stop to off-load items, or even tourist buses stop to drop people.
The extreme right line is the place where all this is happening. This is a road where traffic exists at all times during the day and these violations create blocks and near misses.
The concerned authorities should come out with a mechanism or safety system to alert and avoid the recurrence of this practice.
To read it in original, please visit GULF NEWS online.
Be a community reporter. Tell us what is happening in your community. Send us your videos and pictures at readers@gulfnews.com
Letter on: ‘Only a miracle’ can save Michael Schumacher’ – Gulf News Dated 08 March 2014
It is indeed a shocking news. I have been following him all these years. Although not supporting his team, I am a fan of his driving style and fighting spirit. Especially the sport which he was participating requires tremendous physical and mental strength and focus. He remained and conquered all his tracks but left his focus on safety at another place. His accident is a reminder to all of us. Safety is not an item to be ignored at any single moment of our life. I sincerely pray he come back to his normal self and gradually take part in day to day activities and then at least do some role in the Formula 1 race, for all those who followed him, loved watching him race on all the available tracks in the world. God bless.
Ramesh Menon, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
To read the related news in original, please visit GULF NEWS online.
Letter on: Pupils allowed to smoke in school – Gulf News Dt. 08 March 2014
Thank God!, It is in UK and not in UAE. I wish it is not followed here. Having said that, I can say, even now I do get to see regularly children of a reputed school, smoking hiding behind buildings in front of their school and before they enter their school gate daily. Talking to the groceries nearby and reprimanding them to not give any cigarettes to students, I feel, these are easily available at sources who do not care. Parents have a big role as well as teachers at schools too to check whether children are indulging in this. If parents or teachers are in the smoking category, no luck for who speak against smoking. According to me, smoking and specially, smoking in public is strictly injurious to others health and mind, not if to those who do it.
Ramesh Menon, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
To read the related article and this letter in original, please visit GULF NEWS online.
Letter on: I don’t blame my son, it is not his fault, grieving father says – Gulf News Dt 05th March 2014
The comment by a student here make a deeper insight to several things happening among the children including their thinking pattern. It also bring to our attention several questions. Why we see an increased suicidal tendency happening in children in the UAE. Is it due to parental negligence, lack of time or any other financial issues related to parents which are indirectly affecting children. Or is it due to some kind of unwarranted treatment or bullying happening at the school either by teachers or other students? Or rather is it due to an increased influence of tv or cinema showing suicides. Children are much knowledgeable these days as they have easy access to electronic media and are aware of everything happening in this world. Parents and schools have equally important role in grooming them to be a socially involved person, who does not get affected easily by minor or major situations affecting them in their day to day life. In the past, we grew up in an school system where a child from a very small age get proper attention from his teacher, who in all probability see him grow till he finishes his higher classes. The teacher also by his experience and close interactions with the parents, know what kind of upbringing the child gets from home. The frequent changes of teaching staff that may be happening within schools and shortage of experienced hands to impart value added education apart from the prescribed curriculum is a bigger threat to the future of our young generation. Since both the recent case of suicides involved Indian students and related to some unknown reasons connected with examinations, I humbly suggest the Community Affairs and Cultural Wing of Embassy of India to initiate necessary guidance programmes, talk shows to children at schools and at various community centres by eminent counsellors available within UAE and from India.
To read it in original, please visit Gulf News online.
Letter on: Special needs employees add life to work place
It is indeed a great humanitarian gesture to promote employment of those with special challenges in life. Having associated with such children and adults for many years, I know their feelings when someone appreciates their little efforts to be one among us in the normal daily activities. Opportunities should be considered for them in the field of ticketing at bus stations, registration desks, etc. Look forward to more support to this special group from all individuals and organisations. It should be included as one of their Social Responsibility objective. God Bless.
Ramesh Menon, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
To read the related article and this reply, please visit GULF NEWS online.
Letter on : Children rescued after Fujairah school bus blaze – Gulf News Dt. 03 March 2014
I sincerely congratulate the bus staff and teachers who managed the situation well to avoid any danger to the children present at the time of the incident. It is not an easy task to evacuate 30 plus kids with one exit door. As regards to the comment supporting villa schools, our children are already deprived of many sports and recreational activities if they continue to remain in the cramped villa facilities. More space to move around, play and breath fresh air is the need of the hour for our children. Indeed, traffic safety is a matter of concern when the schools does not follow proper regulation to transport children to and from school to home. However, it is not an impediment to their education. Think of our days, where we had to walk, change buses and study, and the new age kids, who get into the bus from the door step to the school door. I am sure, any child who is in a villa school will display the difference in overall attitude and educational progress, when he or she gets a move to a school with better space and infrastructure than the age old villas. Toilet facilities, danger of fire (there are several examples, which do not get reported) and other medical and psychological hazards of being in a tiny environment add more damage to the child’s growth. Safety does not remain alone, and it is a combined element along with Health and Environment, and definitely need greater awareness for it.
Ramesh Menon, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
To read the related article and this letter in original, please visit GULF NEWS online.
Learn a lesson – Gulf News Dt. 13 February 2014 – Letters to the editor
Learn a lesson
During my recent visit to Bangalore, I happened to watch a group of monkeys drinking water from taps set up in a small village temple near Bangalore. They were very clever and cautious as they operated the taps and drank water. They very sensibly closed the taps as they left. I was amazed by the way they solved their thirst without wasting even single drop of water. I think we all have a lesson here to learn.
From Mr Ramesh Menon
Abu Dhabi
To read it in original, please visit GULF NEWS online
There has to be a way to report rash driving – Community Report – Gulf News – Dt 27th January 2014
No way to report bad driving
Reader says that all buses should have contact details to report bad driving practices.
By Ramesh Menon Gulf News reader
Published: 18:07 January 26, 2014
The effort by the UAE transport authorities to streamline road safety is getting side tracked by some inadvertent measures taken by transport carriers. Or are they intentional?
I am referring to the regulation to display a contact number on the mini and heavy buses carrying passengers. These days, many of them do not have a signboard and some of them display email addresses or switchboard numbers. Both are not effective, in case of an emergency situation, or in order to report road rage noticed on the road.
What was surprising to me was the fact that even school buses did not carry these signboards. In addition, these signs are to be written in lumniscent letters in a sufficiently large size so that they can be read easily during the day or night.
These boards should also be placed on all the government-owned transport vehicles, as they are also seen driving on the hard shoulder at times.
A few days ago, I struggled to find out the details of a speeding bus driver who was continuously flashing the headlights at me and driving at a speed higher than the regulatory speed. On another occasion, I was too shocked to see a big trailer speeding within the city of Abu Dhabi, but there was really no way to find out the company details or contacts for those responsible for it.
We need more awareness on the dangers of heavy vehicles speeding. I humbly request the concerned authorities to ensure these traffic regulations are strictly followed.
The reader is based in Abu Dhabi.
To read it in original, visit GULF NEWS online
Gulf News reader for 24 years says, ‘I absolutely love the newspaper’
Gulf News reader for 24 years says, ‘I absolutely love the newspaper’
Ramesh Menon talks about his journey with Gulf News and what has made him a devoted reader
- By Donia Jenabzadeh, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 21:00 September 28, 2013
When asked about his journey with the paper, the Indian national said: “At the time when I first arrived in the UAE in 1989, there were limited sources for quality news, and that is when I developed my keen interest in Gulf News, as it was the only paper at the time that would deliver quality and reliable news.”
Upon his arrival, Menon first stayed in Abu Dhabi, then moved to Dubai and later Sharjah, before moving back to Abu Dhabi in 2000, and that is where he has been based for the past 13 years.
Over all these changes, one of the factors that have been consistent in his life isGulf News. And he charted the changes in the paper keenly.
He said: “The breakthrough came when each section [of the newspaper] got separated, which added consistency to the paper as it made it easier for readers to pull out that particular section, which he or she is interested in. Although I always read the whole paper, I find this very convenient as I can choose the news I want to read first.”
He is a determined reader with great enthusiasm for news, and he does not settle for anything less than perfection, which is evident in his constant interactivity with the newspaper’s Readers Desk. He said: “Most of the staff know me by now, as I am constantly interacting with their work by giving them my suggestions.”
Menon got married in 1991 and became a father in 1992. His second child was born in 1995. His two sons are now pursuing undergraduate studies in engineering and management. While he is based in Abu Dhabi, where he works as a technical officer for an oil company, his wife and elder son are currently living in India, while his younger son is studying in the UK.
Marking the 35th anniversary of Gulf News, Menon said that the key reason for the newspaper’s success is that “it is a reader interactive newspaper. This is evident in the community reports, which is the voice of the reader on certain issues that need to be highlighted. Facebook and Twitter are constantly being updated and this is a great opportunity for the reader to follow up and get instant news as well as to interact with the paper.”
His daily routine includes reading the printed edition of paper in the morning and then moving on to online updates on gulfnews.com during the day. He finds the online version very helpful, especially when travelling but also for being prepared as to what will be in the news the coming day.
The very reason he started reading the newspaper in the first place, as a 22-year-old, when he initially came to the UAE in 1989. He said: “Gulf News is a beautiful paper, I absolutely love the newspaper, and it will always be my number one source of news.”
To read it in original, please visit Gulf News online
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