DISCOVERY CENTRE SHARJAH, A discovery indeed!!

The summer vacation is getting over for the little one and the busy schedule of school is going to be up soon.. We are enjoying the last bit of every weekend..

There are many places all over UAE specially catering to kids. All the malls have an amusement area. Plenty of beaches and parks were the kids can have endless hours of fun. But with the summer in full swing all the outdoors are out of bounds till 8 pm at least. The amusement area in most of the malls are more or less the same with video games and other consoles.

Finally we discovered a quiet little place on the outskirts of Sharjah. For a change there is no passive recreation here.:)

THE SHARJAH DISCOVERY CENTRE

The little one and her cousin had a great time..

Very educational, with activities for all age group of kids. There is a great driving track with everything including roundabouts and signals, a recording studio where the children watch themselves after the recordings, a mini airport including baggage claim, a cycling skeleton, many workshops on art and much more. Oh and don't forget to build your own fort! Lots of fun and lots to learn.

The place is a very good value for money , and keeps up the interest of the adults too.

Its run by the Sharjah tourism.  Here s the official website http://www.sharjahtourism.ae/en/heritage/museums/sharjah-discovery-centre

A must visit place if you are in UAE and have kids . But expect a tough time to get them out of there at the end of the day :)

Get geared up for some great colorful photos.

The construction area 

Kids driving area

Driving zone with petrol bunk

Cycling skeleton

Huge working robot

Tight rope walk

Climbing wall

Model airport

Check in

Baggage claim

Landmarks from around the world

INDEPENDENCE DAY ABROAD

The 68th independence day for our great nation was up yesterday.

As small kids we remember the history lessons we learnt with patriotism, and the names like Mahatma gandhi, Bhagat singh, Subash chandra bose , Jawahar lal nehru and many more. Every year we have a function at school , with flag hoisting and a speech and of course a beautiful round laddoo as a mark of celebration.. The TV channels played movies like Roja, Mother India, Dil se year after year whetting up the national fervor. The cricket matches too used to whip up the patriotic feeling.

Then life moved on... cricketers playing for clubs, and lesser matches for India. We flew to foreign shores. No more history lessons to remind us of the struggle taken up for this day. Slowly it became just a holiday with an off from work....

Our little girl who started her school this year , recently learnt the national anthem. She was bringing up her class almanac to teach us JANA GANA MANA. She was surprised to know that we also knew of it and it was our national anthem. She knows we are Indian and we look around for Indians, Indian restaurants, Indian supermarkets here in UAE .

But what is India in her mind. So this year we took her to the SHARJAH INDIAN ASSOCIATION for the Independence day celebrations.. With a gathering of a lot of Indians, she got to see the hoisting of the Indian flag, albeit in foreign shores. As we sang our national anthem, we were proud to see our little one standing in attention and singing the full anthem. The national pride was being shared with a new generation. The past was being engraved in their tiny minds. We hope these are the images and feeling of being Indian that she carries forward.

We missed the laddoos, and were sad that our daughter didn't get to associate that simple sweet with our independence day.

JAI HIND.
We miss INDIA.

To our 68 years of independence, for Indians all over the world.

ZAIN & FARZ

A DINOSAUR IN DUBAI

How much more amazing can Dubai get??!!

All the Jurassic park movies we watched as teens got us excited to see this new resident in Dubai!! 

Right in the Grand Atrium of the Dubai mall, you have a 155 million year old dinosaur skeleton of the late Jurassic era. Could'nt have a more deserving location for the unique remains of a dinosaur, than the world's largest mall - the Dubai mall. The DubaiDino is definitely going to increase the visitor count to the mall, which also houses the Dubai Aquarium, Dubai ice rink, the Dubai mall waterfall and many other attractions.

It has been named as DubaiDino (after a winning entry from an open competition for naming the dinosaur). 

The dinosaur was excavated in Dana Quarry, Wyoming, USA in 2008. Its has been air-freighted to Dubai by the EMAAR Group. 

This particular dinosaur is from the family Diplodocus Longus and is long-necked, whip-tailed and vegetarian. About 80 feet in length and 25 feet in height, it was discovered with all its bones intact, except for a few tail bones damaged by trauma either during a fight or bitten off. This particular exhibit with all bones intact is one of a kind in the world.

As tall as around five adult humans and as heavy as five elephants, we can only wonder as how the earth was during a time when these huge dinosaurs roamed. Simply Amazing!

Here the official link to the Dubai mall for more info 
http://www.thedubaimall.com/en/Entertain/Dubai-Dino.aspx 

One more brownie point for Dubai... 
                                                                                                                                                       ZAIN and FARZ